This variety of heliconia … the “sexy pink” is very exotic looking. I only recently came across it in St. Lucia. We do have a wide range of heliconias … my other favorite is the yellow and red “lobster claw”.
Originally, this was a realistic painting, but I decided it was too busy and I wanted to experiment with carving out the negative space. From there I decided to contrast the realism of the flower with colour blocks. The turquoise is from Paris … Sennelier acrylic … my kind of souvenir.
Here is the third canvas in the Torch Ginger Trio. As I mentioned before, the paintings can be hung/purchased individually or as a group.
They are inspired by my recent trip to the Caribbean, where exotic flowers & foliage abound!
I enjoyed painting these in a very loose, flowing style, I’m looking forward to doing it on a larger scale, where I stand & use my whole body – painting from the shoulder, instead of the wrist.
Meanwhile, with the painting I will post tomorrow, I went in the opposite direction.
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This was the first painting I did in this set of 3, but all are inspired by the same photograph that I took of some torch ginger lilies on my recent trip to the Caribbean. They can be purchased and/or hung individually, or as a grouping.
My collection of reference photos has probably grown too large … it takes a long time to choose something to paint!
I’m thinking of heliconia next though … what do you think?
Yes. I am that crazy. They say if you need something done, give it to a busy person to do … and I know that to be true. So, at a time when I am completely overwhelmed by how much I have on my plate, I’ve signed up to do Leslie Saeta’s 30 paintings in 30 days challenge again this year – along with over 800 other artists from all over the world.
Admittedly, it is a form of escapism. Self-medicating with art therapy, meditation, however you think of it, there is something about the act of painting that centers a person. It forces you to be in the moment, and the more you give in to your instincts, trust your intuition, the easier the work flows out of you. And you are changed by the process. Art is my mood-altering drug of choice.
After a fantastic 5 week working vacation to the Caribbean, my return home has not been an easy transition. It felt as if a giant baby picked up my house, shook it like a rattle & then put it back down. It seemed everything was in the wrong place, and it’s taken me almost 2 weeks to get a handle on it.
Some of this is our own doing – a make-over for my son’s bedroom – and some of it is due to a freak flood that happened in our area (2 months worth of rain in 3hrs), which seeped into our basement. We have to replace the flooring, and I’ve had to empty my office/storage room and slowly but surely I’m purging through paperwork etc. that has accumulated over the years. Two of the items I unearthed were a calender from 1993 – the year I started University – and a vinyl sign (Aquavisions by Donna Gomez) from my first solo exhibition in 1996.
It will take time to go through, there is a large portfolio of older drawings that got partially wet & has some mildew. I’d like to photograph the drawings before getting rid of them, and each one is charged with nostalgia. I am considering turning this into a little art project.
As I look forward to other things coming up this month, I realize it would be easy for the weeks & months to zip by before I get back to a more consistent painting routine. So, instead of waiting till the chaos is over, I’m going to accept this as the new normal. And I’m going to balance the chaos with creativity.
This painting of torch ginger lilies is one of a trio of small paintings I just completed. They may be purchased individually or as a group. I will post one a day, I just wanted to get a couple days ahead of the challenge so that there isn’t too much pressure to produce. And this may be the longest blog post for some time, most days I will probably just post the image & details.
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Greetings from St. Lucia! I am here for a month with my sons, visiting family & gathering inspiration for my paintings. I will also be teaching a few art classes at the St. Lucia Yacht Club while I’m here – scroll to the end of this post for the *link.
It truly was a spectacular first day back home. A beautiful sunny day at the beach. The dry season has been a particularly rough one here & is lingering, so we have to be careful not to waste water, and when it rains … we’re all happy! There was no rain while we were at the beach though, the scenery was breathtaking, a true tropical paradise.
I brought some Golden Open acrylics to try out on this trip, I thought it might be useful when painting in such a sunny climate. So far I like them … just when you think the paint has dried on the palette, you wet your brush and mix the colour you want and the paint is reconstituted.
The down side is that it’s easy to get really messy, because the paint is wet for longer than I’m used to … if I get paint on my hands, I have to wipe it off immediately before I then get it on everything else. With my regular acrylics, the paint dries so fast I only realize when I’m washing up later – it peels off my skin very easily.
I also tried out a 6″x9″ Grey Matters Paper Palette by Jack Richeson & Co. for the first time. In theory, the neutral colour should be helpful in mixing colour, instead of a white palette which will reflect the light even more when painting outside in the sun. The slippery surface was nice with the Open acrylics, I’m not sure if they would work very well with my staywet palette, but I will give that a try at some point. The down side was when the wind blew the page off of the pad & it flew away with wet paint.
I will have to tape the page down next time. I am generally a studio painter, although I often pack my gear & paint in various locations (eg. a friend’s studio), I usually paint indoors. So, I have to make some adjustments to my set-up so that I can paint on location this summer.
I was caught up in the last stages of my painting – realizing that I committed the rookie mistake of trying to get too much detail in too early & then running out of time before the light changed – when I heard my son’s voice. “Mom, you might want to paint this instead”… and I looked up & saw the beautiful sunset!
If you would like to see more photos of my trip, I will probably post at least one a day on Instagram, I don’t want to spend my whole vacation (even if it’s a working vacation) on my computer!
*Art Classes in St.Lucia Flyer
If you would like to take art classes with me, e-mail donna@bluerootsartstudio.com and let me know what you are looking for. I might be able to open up another time/day/location etc.
Tomorrow, I turn 40 years old. To celebrate that milestone, I have been taking a look back at some of my early work and posting them as the cover image on my Facebook page. Most of the paintings in the collage above are from 1998, and were inspired by a trip to St. Lucia where my husband & I had our second wedding in as many years.
I painted most of them sitting cross-legged on the couch in our one-bedroom apartment. Others I painted in my friend’s apartment in Toronto when I went to hang out sometimes during the week. The smaller size of the paintings (compared to the 36″x48″ paintings in the Caribbean Imagery series) made it easy to work anywhere, even when I had to lug it all on the Go train.
I first showed these in a solo exhibition at the Atrium Gallery in the Henderson Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. It was a successful series in every way.
The Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens in St. Lucia was a big inspiration here, I love exploring that place with a camera. There are trees hundreds of years old, tall & covered in vines, creating a canopy. A huge assortment of exotic plants, flowers & leaves … my favourite things. I wanted to share the exhileration I feel in this type of environment.
If I didn’t have young kids, I would love to do a residency there, every day I would set my easel up in front of another plant or view to paint.
Actually, that reminds me of my big news – I am going to be in St. Lucia this summer, and I plan on doing some small paintings on location!
I will post them here first and then share the link on Facebook. So, if you’d like to see them first, don’t forget to subscribe to blog updates via e-mail!
There’s a pineapple in my studio, starting to smell yummy. In an attempt to start shedding the winter pounds, I bought a high-end blender that will break leafy greens down so well you won’t see a single chunk. Actually, I don’t have a problem with chunky green smoothies, but if I’d like to improve my kids’ vegetable intake as well, then consistency is second only to taste.
It has been fun trying new things in the blender, and when I brought this pineapple home, I decided to let it ripen in my studio so that I would have something beautiful to look at, and eventually smell. A low-cost version of a bouquet of flowers I guess.
I’ve never painted a pineapple before, but like anything else that occurs in nature, it has some wonderful patterns. I painted this one from life, but I also took some photos – the great thing about photos is that you can blow up a section to paint from, and you will see all sorts of details that you never noticed before. You also have more time to study and play with those details, you don’t have to worry about rotting fruit or changing light. There is so much to be learned from each approach.
The other element of this painting is the background pattern. I have always liked playing up the naturally-occurring patterns when painting foliage, visual rhythm adds to the illusion of movement and life in a work of art. However, my interest has grown, and like a woman who has just found out she is pregnant, and now find she sees pregnant women everywhere – I find myself drawn to examples of pattern in art.
Art Nouveau has always been a favourite and I was so lucky to see first hand examples in Paris, Brussels and Barcelona. I mean, talk about cultural tourism, I’m sure I’m not the only person who went to Barcelona just to see Gaudi’s buildings. When I was an art student I gravitated towards Impressionism and Post-impressionism, and I thought that the gold in Klimt’s paintings was just too gaudy (see what I did there?). Now though, I have a deeper appreciation for his work and the way he blended whimsical pattern with sensitive figure drawing and painting, to create art that has both visual appeal and emotional depth.
Now that I am on the lookout for it, pattern is everywhere … my next commissioned painting includes a textile pattern that I’ve used before, and in a recent post I mentioned Zentangle. Also, my prized possession from the trip to Paris in December was a Desigual handbag. Click the link, you’re going to thank me.
Anyway, this little painting is just one more step to finding a fun way not just to highlight pattern inherent in my subject, but to actively introduce it into my work.
If you have any favourite artists/art featuring pattern, please share in the comments below, I’m always open to new inspiration!
On the calender at least, it is Spring … outside, not so much (piles of snow & leaf-less trees). Still, I realize now I have been preparing for the change, when we shake off the snow & salt and make a fresh start, unencumbered by heavy winter coats and boots.
Truly, I have been going full steam ahead for so long that no sooner do I get through one deadline, do I set another because the feeling of racing even an impossible deadline is so much more comfortable than the overwhelm that envelopes me when there isn’t something taking obvious precedence over everything else.
In our digitally connected world, and with the “supermom” expectations of our culture – not to mention my own perfectionist tendencies – I am often driven by the need to always be doing something productive. Do not get me wrong … I am not above occasionally spending the entire Saturday watching Netflicks in my PJ’s and only getting up to feed our family of plugged in Zombies every couple of hours. However, this is usually the day after a big event, when I’m completely wiped out.
When the guilt has built up to a breaking point – usually it’s my youngest jumping into our bed to ask for food AGAIN, or showing us some great craft or experiment he did (often inspired by a youtube video) – I finally drag myself out. Typically I make a meal for all of us, clean the kitchen, throw some laundry in, delegate a few chores, and try to tame the growing pile of paperwork that has hitched a ride in by way of the kids’ schoolbags. After this whirlwind of domestic bliss, we sometimes fall back into our beds, and plug ourselves into the grid again.
The next morning though, I wake up with resolve, I make plans, pull focus, go out to do errands, get stuff done, maybe start a painting. It’s business as usual.
And that’s what Spring is like.
March break was perfect this year. I needed it desperately, I was burning the candle at both ends. So I announced on Facebook that I was taking a week-long hiatus from social media, and for the most part I pulled it off. I did not stop working, but I took off entire days to go on day trips with my family. I lived in the moment. And I found out that “quality time” 24-7 is exhausting for kids too, so while they did their own thing, I got some work in. Of course I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to do that week, but I did gain some valuable insight.
In fact, none of it is completely new, but I had lost sight of some of these truths – like how much we can learn looking through the eyes of a child, or how much positive energy can come from having a great conversation, spending the day with a friend, or an outing in a new environment. Trying something new.
I had forgotten that BUZZ of inspiration, which is not always there even when you engaged in creative work. And I had not realized how that feeling, that high of happiness and possibility can open you up to a flood of creative ideas. AND it translates into all parts of your life. Wow.
I have already been having a great year, since I shook off an old mindset and accompanying beliefs that were holding me back. But now, I feel energized – not every minute of the day – but in general, my optimism has returned.
So as I look forward, I see a handful of paths I can take, and instead of worrying that I might take the wrong one, I realize I have the desire and the energy to do them all.
I will try not to give you whiplash, but this is fair warning, as we move forward into a new season – I am going to be a busy bee. My path may seem a little erratic – but hopefully it will result in a great big pot of honey!
Then again, first I have to do my taxes …!!!
Oh, and I don’t know how long this link will be active, but Thanks to the St. Lucia Consulate in Toronto for re-posting my last blog post!
Love is in the air this month. I’m stretching it out from one day to one month. Last year my son wanted to know why he had school on Valentine’s day, because what is more important than love?
This is not exactly what I had in mind when I started the painting… initially I was going to use the red hibiscus for the colour and then a black & white Zentangle heart behind. However, while I have decades of acrylic painting behind me, I have zero experience doing Zentangles. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a sort of doodle, take a look here. You just might fall in love.
If you have been following along, you may have noticed that last week I incorporated some doodling into my “Flights of fancy” painting. I am still at the stage where I can visualize something cool – using this new technique – but not quite manifest it. Right now I’m preoccupied with a couple of upcoming exhibitions (the St. Lucia Toronto Association Arts Showcase is in 2 days) and applications that are due soon, but hopefully by next week I’ll have some further progress to report.
There is also an idea for a more serious body of work brewing, or maybe stewing, in the back of my mind. It revolves around my experience as a Third Culture Kid, so it is very personal to me, however each year our numbers increase and I like the idea of using my art to connect with others. I’ve been in flux for some time now, and I’m curious to see the effect of taking my creative process public. I enjoy painting foliage, and I have no intention of abandoning it, but this onion has many more layers.
It is time to embrace the internet and push back at the old-fashioned “the butcher, the baker OR the candle-stick maker” mentality. It’s like I tell my kids, now you can be the butcher, the baker AND the candle-stick maker! In fact, we’re probably a generation behind the times, at this point it feels like you HAVE to be butcher, baker & candlestick maker (have you read or written a bio lately?). Artists have long had to wear several caps, but these days with the rise of Entrepreneurs, it is becoming the new “norm”.
Ok, back to the painting, I actually painted my way through several variations which were equally interesting. I might go back & do a few more later. Or it might just be a stepping stone to the next plateau. Time will tell.
Update: Someone bought this painting as a wedding gift, which I think is just perfect!
So, I’m feeling kind of rebellious lately. It might be the February blues – I don’t know how much more of this d$#% snow and bitterly cold wind I can stand. I’ve already started an informal petition on Facebook to move Canada to somewhere warmer …. but the winter sports enthusiasts & kids are jamming up the works!
Or it could be because this week I had to turn down an opportunity for my art to be included in a book of 50 Canadian painters who paint flowers, because it would cost as much as a non-discounted flight to St. Lucia! A little less than I made in art sales while painting my heart out last month during the 30 in 30 challenge.
It probably does have something to do with hitting a milestone birthday in a few months.
Anyway, the painting I was working on earlier this week turned out to be a very dark landscape, a gloomy reflection of my mood. Technically it has potential, but it just doesn’t feel like me. So last night I took it off the easel. Then at 11pm, when the last kid was asleep, I pulled out a fresh canvas.
While I was reading to my kids, several old themes had mingled with influences from the week, coming together as an image in my mind. Then the image permutated into a possible series. I felt more excitement than I’d felt in weeks, so instead of heading to bed, I returned to the easel. The last time I glanced at the clock it was 3am, and I woke up this morning in my clothes from yesterday – not for the first time this year.
From my bed, I could hear the reaction to the painting … “it’s a fish”, “Mom let her mind go wild last night”. Harrumph! Not what I was going for. Though, when I took another look, there was no denying it looked like a fish, underwater. I was about to make a slight change that would have made it less fish-like, when I realized I liked that added dimension to the painting – the multiplicity of meaning. In fact, for now at least, I’m not even going to go into my own interpretation. I think as I do a few more of these, it’ll become obvious.
Traditionally, an artist goes through the process of developing a series in the safety of their studio, occasionally seeking feedback from those whose opinions they trust. Then when the work is done, they edit out the dead-ends or out-right failures, select the best work to document and then promote through exhibitions or portfolio websites. A blog is a whole other beast.
There is a beauty, and a danger, to making this creative process visible to anyone who chances on to your blog. Ultimately though, I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
