Happy Holiday

Interior of one of my orange poppies, 2009

It's the long weekend, and I am busy in my garden, canning, making applesauce, apple juice, and cleaning up the yard! Hope you have a great holiday, doing stuff outside in the warmth of the fading days of summer. Already our nights are quite cool, and I feel that frost is just a couple of weeks away.

Although I find it difficult to say goodbye to summer, I know that when the cold hits, I'll be comfortably warm while painting in my studio! So... something to look forward to. :-)

Mute Swans on Salt Spring Island

click on picture for enlarged image

We are back from our brief vacation on Salt Spring Island, which is one of the Gulf Islands in Canada. Even though it was cloudy and rainy the whole time we were there, it was still a great get-away! The grass is green, there are still plants with color on them, and it is mild enough that we could be out and walking each day as long as we were dressed for wet weather.

I took my new beautiful camera along to test it out (Canon EOS 50D). What fun to set up along the only public-access beach of any size, and shoot picture after picture of these beautiful Mute Swans. They are really huge birds, with a wing span of between 8 and 9 feet. The bright orange beak with the black bulb at the top is the distinguishing feature of these creatures, as well as the fact that they are eerily silent as they float past, feeding close to the shore. You can bet that I have plans to paint these graceful birds from some of the photos I caught. They are just so beautiful!

As I was on the beach with my camera and tripod, my husband stayed up on the road. After a while, I looked back over my shoulder, and he was talking to a man who had a GIGANTIC lens on his camera, also photographing these swans. I continued with my photography until Syd came down onto the shore to talk to me. The person he had talked to was the art agent for Robert Bateman! He had just come across on the ferry, and stopped to take some pictures of the swans as he is also a photographer. He was there to pick up a new Bateman original, and so was in a bit of a hurry... That is as close as I came to this very famous artist. :-)

Another of my favorite watercolor artists, Carol Evans, lives on Salt Spring Island. Later, in Sidney (on Vancouver Island), I was able to see some of her work up close in a beautiful art gallery we visited, Peninsula Gallery. I also purchased a singed edition of her book, Releasing the Light. The gallery had originals of Bateman, Carol Evans, and another artist I admire, Pino.

 Pino is an Italian oil painter who sells out of big galleries world wide. His originals are very expensive, but his embellished giclee prints are under $5000.00 for those of you not on a budget.  Pino is going to be at Peninsula Gallery in May. How I would love to meet him and have some of his genius rub off on me!

All in all, our trip was very relaxing and we had time to just talk, dream, and plan for our future. My goals for 2009 are fairly simple, divided into 3 categories: artistic goals, personal goals and spiritual goals. Under artistic goals, I have 4 things I will attempt to achieve:

1. Paint 50 paintings.

2. Find 2 galleries to represent my work.

3. Enter a painting  into a juried show.

4. Enter a photograph into a juried competition.

There are so many other things I want to do this year with my art, but these are the MAIN things that I have determined to achieve. Goals are points to work toward. I am not bound by these, but rather guided by them. If I paint more than 50 paintings - great! If I paint fewer, that is okay too... I will probably paint more paintings with this goal than if I had not set a specific number. It's just the way my mind works! 

Speaking of which - I have some watercolor sunflowers on the easel. I may post some work-in-progress pictures this weekend, so please visit again. For those of you who were disappointed that you missed out on my last sunflower painting - this one is looking awesome already, even if I do say so myself.

Have a great weekend.

the long road

I was so optimistic earlier in the year that Spring was just around the corner, but not any more. Do you see the little bit of green which is in the bottom of this picture? That is all the encouragement we have that spring will eventually come! For the last 2 weeks or more, we have had cold temperatures, more snow than the rest of the winter, treacherous roads, and discouraging weather forecasts. For 3 days now, it has been warm enough that the snow is mostly gone, and now I hear there is cold and even perhaps snow in the forecast again this week! It has been a long road into spring this year. Fortunately I have hope of warmth and sunshine in the near future - but only because we will be headed south on a couple of weeks of holidays soon. I am now counting the days - 12 - until we enter the belly of the great bird which will fly us away to the beauty of greenness, color in flowers and trees, and the laughter of children and family members. I can't wait!!!!

In Flight

Kim Shields, an artist whose work I recommend checking out, asked me if I have a background in photography. The answer is no - not even one class!  For me, part of the thrill of photography is in the spontaneous discovery of what "that" button on my camera does, or how "that kind of day" produces that kind of light...and so on. It equates to those happy accidents in painting which end up defining an artist's style or chosen medium. 

As well, I see things that others don't tend to. When I am driving along the back country roads around my home, I see color where it normally is not, or a dark shadow against the bushes that seems odd, and when I look closer, I find it to be a deer, or moose, a pheasant, or something unusual. When I visit another artist's blog, many times I also find the unusual - a brushstroke of yellow in one spot that creates a unique or emotional response in the viewer, color in a shadow that is not obvious but that adds an extra dimension to the painting. It is an innate thing with me, and enables me to understand the potential for that photograph that others may pass by - not every time, but often. So - long answer to a short question!  

In the summer, we have many hawks in the valley over which our house looks. The cry of a hawk or eagle is like no other sound. I absolutely love the piercing loneliness of their voice! This hawk became very uncomfortable with how close I was (safely in my Jeep, with window open), and decided to take off. I have had hawks dive at me, so I have learned to be very careful when shooting these creatures with a camera. They are gorgeous in their markings, but they are very shy and defensive as well.

I am still painting. Because I work full time, getting to the easel often takes backstage to sleep. Today is my day off, and I will spend a really good chunk of time happily working on my passion! Hope to have some painting to post later in the week.

If you would like to purchase a giclee print of this photo, please contact me: jogiesbrecht@gmail.com

Winter Barns

I thought I would do another posting this week as I am working on a large commission and may not be able to post much over the next couple of weeks. I am thinking about compiling my winter photos into a small collection of some sort so that when I move to a MUCH WARMER climate, I will remember the beauty of winter without experiencing the cold! (lol) 

I love the feeling and the depth of this photo. At first glance, you might think it is black and white, but then you notice the blue-gray of the barns, and the color of the hay bales. Then there is the dark of the evergreens against the snow-covered bushes and tress, and voila! you are in the picture. I also love the gentle curve of the trees and hay bales that draw you right into the buildings. Perfectly set up and just waiting for me to discover the picture waiting to be shot!

If you would like to purchase a print of this photo, please contact me: jogiesbrecht@gmail.com

Backyard Bluejay

One of the joys of winter is the number of different birds we get at our feeders in the backyard. This little jay announces his arrival as he is coming in for a landing. If you have ever heard a jay, you know that their voice is piercing and carries a long distance. All the other small birds scatter as the jay takes over the space and eats. If you look closely, you can see the piece of sunflower seed that he has in his beak.

If you would like to purchase a print of this photo, please contact me: jogiesbrecht@gmail.com