Is finding artwork for your home stressful or joyful?? I can help!

I know that it can be a scary thing to purchase original artwork for your home, and want you to know that I offer a couple of different services that can help.  I want you to feel comfortable purchasing artwork from me, so I will do my best to make that process smooth and easy. 

Firstly, I can bring a few different pieces to your home, if you live in the Calgary area, for you to try out for up to a week, to see if it brings you the joy you were hoping for. Just let me know which pieces you might be interested in, and we can set up a time for a visit (masked and distanced of course). This lets you try it before you buy it!

Another thing that I can do, is to send you a photo of what a piece might look like in the spot you are wanting to fill in your home. You simply email me a photo of your room and let me know what pieces you might be interested in. With the magic of digital editing, I can superimpose the work on the wall so you can get a good idea of what the work would look like. 

The painting below is called "Magic Kingdom", and it is 24x30" acrylic on gallery (deep) canvas. I wonder what it would look like in your home???

You can see more of my art on my new website at https://www.sharonlynnwilliams.com. Please let me know if there is anything there that interests you!! ❤️

See you soon!

Sharon

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New year, new blog posts!

Hello friends! I know I have been rather sporadic at keeping this blog updated, but I hope to do a better job going forward. All I am promising is that I am going to try to make at least one new post per month, maybe more if the inspiration hits. I think part of the problem is, I don't know who you are, so I really don't know who I am talking to! With this in mind, would you please take a moment to comment below this post and tell me a bit about yourself, if you are an artist and at what level, and what you would be interested in seeing me post here. I really want to talk about the kinds of things that you would find useful and informative, so thanks, in advance!

Last post, I mentioned that I have a brand spanking new website at http://sharonlynnwilliams.com. I hope you have had the chance to check it out, and hopefully subscribed to my newsletter. The newsletter contains new work that my subscribers get first dibs on, as well as news of exhibitions and classes, as well as any interesting art stories that I find on my travels on the net. If you didn't already, please go over there and do that. I will wait here for you!

You did that, right? Good, and thanks again. 

One thing that has been very interesting in my art life is that I have just formed a group for artists called 4C Artist's Network. The 4C relates to my mission statement to provide transformational content in the context of committed community -4 C's, get it? And it is also cool that when you read 4C, you might hear the word 'Foresee', which speaks to the intention of the group which is to help artists reach higher in their work and their business -you do know that artists run businesses, don't you? Especially if they want their work to be seen in the world. So the group is teaching all things art as well as all things business, with a little of the life of an artist thrown in. And don't forget the all important mindset issues. Who hasn't gone through the artist's cycle:

"I think this work is wonderful!", 

which leads to "maybe it isn't as good as I think it is",

which leads to "actually it sucks", 

which leads to "I am an imposter", 

to "maybe this isn't so bad", 

hopefully finally to end with "This work is wonderful!"

At least I hope we all end up in that place!

As a bonus for sticking with me for this long, I am sharing my latest work with you. 

This is called "Baby, It's Cold Outside!" and is 16x36" acrylic on gallery canvas. These little creatures keep my entertained all winter!

And its partner, "Take Out", also 16x36" acrylic on gallery canvas. I have been very fortunate when huge flocks of Bohemian Waxwings descend on my Mountain Ash tree each winter, stripping it bare in minutes.

See you next month!

Sharon

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New Encaustic Paintings by Sharon Lynn Williams

 "A Walk In The Park", 12x24" encaustic
$895 beautifully presented in a hand crafted frame

I have been in the encaustic studio a lot lately and have found a method that really works for me. I saw this scene on one of my daily walks, and came right home and painted it. In this painting, I made an underpainting in complementary colours using gouache on the raw panel. So under the burgundy trees, there is green and under the green trees there is red. Bits of that underpainting shine through in spots and gives a nice sparkle to the painting. Gouache is compatible with putting wax on top, unlike acrylic or oil paint, and isn't affected by the heat used to fuse the wax.

"Montana Gold", 18x24" encaustic
$1225 beautifully presented in a hand crafted frame

I did this painting at a friend's cabin in January. On our drive to Montana, we passed this scene and I knew right away I had to paint it. I began without an underpainting, but put the first layers of colour right on the raw board without putting several clear layers of wax first, as is the 'normal' technique. I find this makes the colours float around less when fused -a definite aid when trying to paint representationally, albeit impressionistically. There is a good amount of texture in this piece. The only problem with encaustic is trying to capture the colour and luminosity with a camera! You really need to see this work in person to appreciate it.

These two paintings will be in the upcoming FCA show this Saturday, as well as the previously posted "First Snow II", which I am thrilled to say, won an honourable mention. I will also have 2 plein air oil paintings at the show. I am doing an oil demo from 1-3pm, so please stop by and say hi if you can.

Enjoy!
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new encasutics First Snow i & ii

"First Snow i", 12 x 24" encaustic on cradled panel
$895 beautifully framed

So now that it is winter and it is too cold to paint outside, I am back in my studio working with the wax. I painted this in my friend, Tracy Proctor's beautiful encaustic studio. When I brought it home my hubby said "I REALLY like this -wish it was bigger!" He immediately went out to the lumber store and bought me a 24x48" piece of baltic birch and made a cradle for it so it wouldn't warp while painting. It took me 16 hours, but I just completed it, the largest encaustic painting I have done to date!

"First Snow ii", 24x48" encaustic on cradled panel
$2895 beautifully framed

It is really different working this large. I found I needed to make small containers of a bunch of colour variations so I had enough of each colour to cover a large space. My usual practice is to have one griddle with large containers of a few key colours that I use to mix other colour variations from, as well as a large pot of clear medium and a container of soy wax to clean my brushes in. I use the other griddle as a mixing palette, where I put out small amounts of colours from manufactured or home made wax pigments and then add small amounts of other colours to get a huge range of colour options. In my work I love to have a range of lights, mids and darks of equal value so that I can get colour variation =life. If you click on the large painting image, you can hopefully see what I mean. For example in the snow shadow area there are 5 different values (light to dark) of blue grey. I bought some small stainless steal condiment cups at a local restaurant supplier, so I could have a container of each of those values. Add to those multiple cups of lights including creamy whites, yellows, greens and blues that appear in the sky behind the trees, as well as multiple mid-value cups containing yellows, oranges, reds, blues, greens and violets. But I think all those colour variations is what brings pop and life to the painting, so it is well worth the work. I was thrilled to find some silicone mini-muffin cups at the store, so now I can put the colours that are left over into those, allow them to cool and add the blocks to my collection of colours, rather than having to throw them away.
My son commented that I need to do a series of these, so I think I will take him up on that idea -stay tuned to see more .

Enjoy!
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Merry Christmas!

"Cold Call", 8x8" encaustic on board

I know I have been gone for a long time, but I hope to return in the New Year with lots of new paintings, artistic insights and tips, and maybe a video or two if I can get that all figured out. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you reading my blog posts and generally being an engaged and generous viewer. You mean the world to me, and I am so fortunate to have you as friends.
I wish you the happiest, healthiest and loving Christmas imaginable.
Blessings my friends!

Enjoy!
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"Creekside Winter" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Colour", 10x14" encaustic on cradled panel

$450.00 framed 

I have been on a real roll with my encaustic painting. I have been working from old paintings, and this one came from a really old watercolour that I loved -so glad that over the years I have always taken the time to document all of my work! I made a large version of this painting because I was so pleased with how the smaller one turned out, and it is posted below. 

"Creekside Winter", 18x24" encaustic on cradled panel, sides stained
$1050.00

I am happy to announce that this painting was one of 5 accepted into the next Federation of Canadian Artists' show coming up (please see invitation below)

Hope to see you there!

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"Winter Reflections", encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Reflections", 24 x 24" encaustic on cradled panel
SOLD

I was so excited by the last encaustic painting I posted, "More Colours of Winter", I felt it deserved a mate, so I made this one to line up exactly with the first one. I found out the other day that "Winter Reflections" was sold by the lovely Janet Armstrong at Just Imajan Gallery in Cochrane, AB.  To top that off,  I just found out that the owners came back today to purchase the other painting, so now they have a matching set! I am over the moon and SO encouraged to continue in the hot wax. Luckily we have a long winter before the plein air season begins, so I have lots of time to explore.
Enjoy!
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"More Colours of Winter" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"More Colours Of Winter", 24x24" encaustic on cradled panel
SOLD

I have not been very good at keeping my blog up to date this year, and I am trying to rectify that situation. I have been trying to balance not sending you too much email (for those who have generously subscribed to my blog) with keeping you up to date on what I have been up to in my art career. I have just cancelled my membership in the two online art galleries that I have been in for the past 3 years, as they just weren't worth the expense -it seems that there are way too many folks out there who want to pay so little for original works of art, and I just can't and don't wish to compete. I work hard in my career, and it deserves to be compensated -if I don't respect my own value, then how can I expect others to?

I have been spending time almost daily in my studio working in encaustic -inside winter work -it is a fascinating medium. Basically I make my own paint (beeswax, damar resin for hardening and powder pigments). The paint is then kept molten on a griddle at about 200 degrees. You apply the paint with natural hair brushes, and the paint cools and hardens as soon as the heat source is removed. Each layer of wax must be fused with the previous ones (I use a heat gun or butane torch) so that the layers will not delaminate -here is where the tricky part lies -if you heat too much the bottom layers become molten and rise up through the new layers (an effect which leaves very cool effect, but control is totally lacking). I love the way the molten wax flows, a lot like watercolour, my first love. The advantage is that you can can continue to work on a piece because the layers cool so quickly, there is no drying time involved, unlike oils. The colours are incredibly vibrant and the luminosity of all those layers is something that is totally unique to the medium. Many people work in abstract fashion in encaustics, I believe because of the limitations of control -also many come to encaustics without a full understanding of art -anyone can do it, but not everyone can make 'art' with it! I have been spending hours and hours learning the ins and outs of the medium, seeing what I can do with what I already know about creating a painting. It is tremendously exciting now that I am getting the results I want to achieve. My goal is to use the medium to create paintings that bridge all of my other interests -my plein air oil landscapes, watercolour 'puddling of colour' effects and my work in collage (encaustic is a wonderful medium for collage as the wax acts like a glue). I have also begun to work larger, which brings its own challenges.

Todays post is based on a watercolour painting that I did a number of years ago that I just loved. At this point, I am recreating some of my most favorite paintings done in other mediums. It is enough for now to concentrate on the medium rather than adding all the other challenges involved in making a good composition with solid colour harmony! Here is the original watercolour FYI:

"The Colours Of Winter", 19x19" watercolour, SOLD

So the artistic journey continues -please stay tuned for more!!
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"Winter Splendour" first painitng of 2015, by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Splendour", 12 x 12" oil on board
$575 framed
click here to purchase

When I was out for a walk the other day the sun was going down, and I must say I was simply blown away by the spectacular sunset. This time of year, it seems every evening presents a show, almost as an appology for the snow and cold. I was trying to capture the transparency of the sky underlying the magnificently coloured clouds. What fun!

Enjoy!
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Catching Up!

"December's Colours", 8x10" plein air oil on board
$395 beautifully framed,
click here to purchase

First off, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all the very best in 2015! I have not posted lately with the birth of our new (and first) grandson plus the business of the holidays. Plus I have been inundated with email trying to sell me things I don't need or want, so thought you wouldn't want more email either (although I do hope you like my paintings!). We have not had much snow here so far this winter, so I thought I would post some earlier unshared paintings that feature snow as their subject.
Last year we had a ton of snow in December, and since the fall folliage was still remaining on some of the trees and bushes, I was happy to get out and capture some of that colour and contrast.

"Elbow River Winter Colour", 9 x 12" plein air oil
$495 beautifully framed
click here to purchase

I painted this in 2012 before the big flood which changed everything! Now the banks are yards and yards of gravel and downed trees.

"K-Country", 12x16" oil on board
SOLD

I did this one from memory when we got home from cross country skiing in Kananaskis country. It is the view from the bridge leading into the Kananaskis Lodge.

"Winter Fields", 8 x 10" plein air oil
$395 beautifully framed
click here to purchase

I find winter trees a real challenge to paint, but felt I got really close with this one.

"Winter Road", 6 x 8" oil on board
$295 beautifully framed
click here to purchase

You have got to love the winter skies here in Alberta!

"Winter's Textures", 8 x 10" plein air oil on board
SOLD

This is an impasto palette knife painting that I did right away after experiencing the scene on a walk. As I have had so much experience plein air painting, I find that I can take a mental snapshot and complete it at home, as long as I do it while it is fresh in my mind.

Enjoy!
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Celebrate With Me! Discount Coupon by Sharon Lynn Williams

"On the Banks Of Fish Creek" 24 x 30" oil on canvas
SOLD

My beautiful daughter Rebecca gave me a wonderful gift this Christmas: a new online presence. I am very proud of the look of the new site, and the only thing I regret is how much time and effort it has cost her to bring all my online dreams to reality (instead of working on her PhD!). This beautiful piece of work is found here. To help me celebrate, I am offering a special discount for all items in the new shop at a 10% discount. Simply navigate to the 'Shop', select what you might like - from a digital download of my book (new), one of 2 watercolour DVD's, or even a painting, and when you go to check out, enter the coupon code celebrateslw in the coupon box. Please note: The coupon expires on March 31st, so don't delay! The discount will be calculated and you will be able to pay with a credit card using the extremely secure 'Stripe' platform. All very professional if I say so myself!  Please let me know what you think of the website, especially if you have any problems viewing or navigating it - it may still be a work in progress...

Enjoy!

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"January's Colours", encaustic by Sharon Lynn Williams

"January's Colours", 12 x 12" encaustic on cradled panel
$475 unframed with wood stained edges

I have been playing around with encaustic painting again, this time trying to work more in the style of my plein air oil paintings, to see where that would go. It is quite a different medium and it always surprises you as you cannot totally control things!

On a personal note, I just had an amazing time at Breakforth in Edmonton with my new friend Margaret. I have heard from the Lord and now will be taking my art in perhaps new directions, certainly with a renewed focus of working for His glory and fame. Risky, I know, after a decade of trying to get where I am in my career, but I am excited to see what He will do! It is all in His hands and I am trusting Him with the results.

My wonderful artist friend Crystal Marie Neubauer posted this on her blog for the new year, and she has nailed my sentiments exactly:

"My word for this year is HOPE. Hope for a future. Hope for my own life's purpose and a plan to help get me there. Hope that I have redeemed value and worth, that I have a voice and can be used by and for a cause much greater then myself. Hope in promises given to me years ago and the desire to instill and pass on this hope to others. Hope that brings freedom, and new life and purpose, that strengthens identities, binds up and heals old wounds, restores, redeems, and brings about long lasting change.

This kind of hope has nothing to do with empty wishing, or white knuckled determination or resolve. It is the kind of hope that knows it is not all up to me, and that there is a God who sees me and is taking my flaws and turning them into one of His treasured works.

No this year I don't want the shaky ground of resolutions, I want to stand on the promises of hope.

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."

Thank you Crystal for your beautifully expressed words!

Enjoy!

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"The Colours Of Winter", watercolour by Sharon Lynn Williams

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"The Colours Of Winter", watercolour 18x18" image

SOLD

I did this watercolour for a demo a couple of months ago, and realized I never posted it. I hadn't painted in watercolour for a long while, and all the time I was doing the demo, I kept asking myself "This is SO cool -look at the way the colours run and puddle -why did I stop doing this???"

Sometimes I just feel the need to work in another medium, and I remain adamant that the way I have grown as an artist has been to try everything -one medium always informs the others. For instance, to learn about design, take time to do abstracts; to learn about pattern, take time to do some collages, etc

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

"Winter's Mirror #2" oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter's Mirror #2", 12 x 16" oil on canvas
$595 beautifully framed, click here to purchase

Happy New Year everyone! I haven't been painting much at all since my darling daughter moved back home at the beginning of October, but I did get this one done. It is the second painting that I did from this reference, as the first one sold right away, and I was really intrigued with the light and shadow patterns/colours and the unusual perspective. It is part of my new show that I am hanging tomorrow at Gallery 109 in High River. The theme is "Winter" -thought I better get this show up before everyone tires of the white stuff : ) The show will be up until March when I hope to hang a mixed media show -my favorite thing to paint during the long winter when it is too cold to paint outside. Hope you can pop by if you are in the neighborhood -or if you live in Calgary, come out for the beautiful drive!

By the way, here is the first painting. Interesting to see the differences! Much more focus on the subtle colour variations in the snow banks, and less on "hit you in the face" colour. What a difference in the energy/mood of the two paintngs. I painted them both from a photo reference I took, and its been a long time since I took a look at the original one. Glad I didn't let it influence the second version. Let me know which one you like better, and why!

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

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"Bragg Creek Shacks", New Plein Air Oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Bragg Creek Shacks", 8 x 10" plein air oil painting
$200 unframed, click here to purchase

This is my latest plein air painting. Ingrid and I went out to Bragg Creek to paint and while our first painting was done in full sun, by the time we got to our second ones, the sky had clouded over and the light became somewhat flat. I was into exploring colourful grays anyway, so this gave me a perfect opportunity. It was actually quite an enjoyable challenge, I hope you enjoy the results!

I also just found out that I was one of the 50 finalists in the FCA Classic Painting Competition! To be selected from 365 other wonderful paintings sure makes me feel great. To see the entries and the finalists, go here.
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January Blues ii -watercolour painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"January Blues ii", watercolour, approx 12 x 16" -double matted without frame or glass
SOLD

I decided to try to do a watercolour from my plein air oil painting posted here. I was keen to try to get the feeling of the late day sun, and thought watercolour would be the perfect medium to show the luminescence of the light. I gained some inspiration from Nita Engle's great watercolor book "How To Make A Watercolor Paint Itself" -but believe me, it doesn't!!!  It was fun to try a watercolour again, it has been a while.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.
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New Plein Air Oil and New Online Gallery!!

"Willows And Aspen", 9 x 12 plein air oil on Raymar panel
$250 unframed plus shipping and handling
SOLD

This is my most recent plein air painting. (I had major surgery last Thusday and have been quite unable to get into the car much less the studio) I REALLY love the way this one turned out -it makes me very happy :) After the last post, I was very conscious of the colour harmonies while I was painting and I think it shows.

GOOD NEWS: I have just been invited to join the original fabulous Daily Painters online gallery! So many of my favorite daily painters are there and the quality is incredible...usually. I have been wanting to get into that wonderful group for ages, and just about fell off my chair when I came home from the hospital to find my invitation. Talk about making lemonade :) Check it out when you get a chance -plus you can subscribe to their daily emails as well.

You might also notice that I have finally gotten around to figuring out how to use a PayPal button. Hope this helps...


Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.
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Playing Around With Colour Harmonies and Shape Changes

"Winter Willows", 8x10 oil on board

I have a shelf in my studio that I put my plein air work up to dry on, and this gives me a chance to live with them as well. I posted about a painting I did en plein air recently, something about it really was bothering me.  For me, if a painting goes sideways then it is likely to be a shape problem or a colour one. So I decided to experiment with this one -after all if it isn't working, what do I have to lose but the opportunity to learn more about the craft of painting. The first thing was to determine what it was about it that was really bothering me. I found the shapes of the two trees to be too similar and too bush-like. Also the colour harmonies weren't working for me. Compare to the original painting below:

I didn't think the violet of the snow shadows worked with the orange of the willow trees, so I changed it to a neutralized complement of blue-green. I also changed the shapes of the trees to make them look less like bushes. I decided that the warm/cool balance needed so help so I made the trees at the right hand edge warmer and warmed up the road some. I decreased the warmth in the fir trees and changed the colour in the sky to a more peach colour to lessen the somewhat strident impact of the orange willows. Not sure if the painting is any better, as in doing the changes, I also lost a lot of the freshness of the original painting. However, for me painting is not as much about product as it is about process and learning to be a better painter. I learnt a lot from this little lesson. It is amazing how much a little change in one area throws the rest of the painting into disorder, tweaking one thing results in having to tweek several other unrelated things. Hopefully in the end, I will be a more aware, better and more creative painter while painting plein air. It needs to get into the unconscious as goodness knows one does not have time to consciously think about these things in the heat (or cold) of the moment!
By the way, a large difference in the two images you see is due to photography! I find it VERY difficult to take good photos in the winter, and while I played in photoshop to get it right, there is only so much one can do.The painting is actually much brighter than it shows in the first image. Maybe I should just bit the bullet and purchase a photo cube...
Let me know what you think of the changes made -what would you have done differently!

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.
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"Traces", new plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Traces", 8 x 10" plein air oil on board
$200 unframed plus shipping and handling -click here to purchase

This painting was destined to be scraped off as I couldn't figure out how to get the effect of bare branches that I wanted. So I figured it was safe to experiment -love that when it works out! So I began to remove the paint from the thin branches with my brush. This allowed some of my red underpainting to show through and gave me the transparent look that I was seeking. I love the subtle colour  harmonies (split complement -not planned, just what turned out) in this painting, and I really think it captured the feel of the day. I am always pleased and consider a painting to be successful if it meets that criteria.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.
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New Plein Air Oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

 "January Blues", 8 x 10" plein air oil on board
$200 unframed plus shipping and handling, click here to purchase

Yesterday I was thrilled to get out to do some car painting. It was 5 C, but the Chinook winds were howling, so the comfort of the car was much appreciated! I just love the colours that the low winter sun brings out on the landscape.
Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.
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