"THIS IS MY COUNTRY. WHAT I WANT TO EXPRESS IS HERE AND I LOVE IT. AMEN" - EMILY CARR (MAY 1934)

Saturday, 31 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #92

"Back country - Magundy"
5"x7", Acrylic
sold
I can remember standing here as if it was yesterday.  It was 30 degrees Celsius - we had hiked early in the morning and finally we came to this spot around lunchtime.  It was scorching hot. We could see right down to Little Salmon Lake far in the distance.  
 I am posting early today because I am going out to the New Year's Dance with my husband.
Happy New Year everyone!

Friday, 30 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #91

"Yukon Alpine Meadow"
5"x7", Acrylic
sold
The orange that is in this painting is brighter than the actual painting.  I do not have a flash on but it still comes out much brighter.  I am no photographer!

"What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit."
 ~John Updike

Thursday, 29 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #90

 Rose Creek, Anvil Range, Faro Yukon
6"x8", Acrylic
Photo Credit: Nina Toeller
Sold
"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures"
Henry Ward Beecher

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #89

Evening Pond on the Mitchell Road
5"x5", Acrylic
SOLD

"Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is."
Amy Carmichael

Tuesday, 27 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #88

"Keno Hill, Yukon"
6"x8", Acrylic
Time for a summer scene.  Lots of green and arctic cotton.
Photo Credit:  Nina Toeller

“You become most powerful in whatever you do if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance, or conform to your role identity.”

 “Don't let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.” 

Monday, 26 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #87

"Winter-Pond at Magundy"
6"x6", Acrylic

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."
~ Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)


Sunday, 25 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #86

"Impression:  Winter Sunset"
5"x5", Acrylic
SOLD
I felt like painting from my imagination just letting the image and colour 
take shape on the  canvas - this makes it easy for me.  
My family and I had a big Christmas dinner and I went for a walk with my husband afterwards to clear my head.  It is a beautiful winter evening here in the Yukon.
The walk did me good as I ate so much today - so grateful for the good life!

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
~Henry David Thoreau


Saturday, 24 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #85

Sunset on the Pelly River
6"x6", Acrylic
SOLD

"The world in solemn stillness lay"
Edmund Sears
Wishing you all a peaceful and joyful  Christmas 

Friday, 23 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #84

"Lapie Lakes , the South Canol"
6"x8", Acrylic
Sold

"If my heart can become pure and simple,
like that of a child, I think there probably
can be no greater happiness than this."
- Kitaro Nishida

Thursday, 22 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #83

"My Front Yard at Magundy"
6"x8", Mixed Media
(Gouache)
sold
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them.
John Ruskin 1819-1900


Note:  for those of you who don't know where I live.  We have an acreage on the Magundy River which runs out of the Pelly Mountains off the South Canol and meanders along for many miles  and makes its way to Little Salmon Lake.  Our house is built 60 metres from the Magundy River on 8 acres of land in the forest. Our lane is about a km long and is off the Robert Campbell Highway about 30 Km from Faro. I have often said that I could spend rest of my life painting around where I live and never run out of inspiration 



Post & Beam, Piece on Piece (Squared Log Home)
My husband built 

The Country behind our Place 
We were on a two day hike when this photo was taken

The Magundy River out our front door

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #82

"Dancing with the Moon"
5"x5", Acrylic
SOLD

 It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is well done.
From The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to his Brother, 
1872-1886 

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #81

" Cliffs and Pond Near Magundy"
5"x7", Mixed Media
sold
I spent from 12:30 to 8:30 tonight ( with a break for dinner) at the Local Recreation Centre with the youth of Faro making watercolour Christmas Cards.  I love watching children paint.  They are very spontaneous and don't think about making mistakes. It was amazing all the different cards they made.  We used transparent yellow, rose, and pthalo blue and had angels and reindeer and  Spruce trees.   We sprinkled salt on the wet paint to make snow and stars
I loved working with the watercolour again.  I was exclusively a watercolourist for years.
There is watercolour in the above painting and it didn't take very long.  Needless to say it has been a very long day!

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a
sphere of activity in which we are
permitted to remain children
all our lives."
- Albert Einstein
~


Monday, 19 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #80

"Pond Reflections at Magundy"
5"x7", Acrylic

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing."
Marc Chagall

Sunday, 18 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #79

"Lower Blind Creek Road, Faro Yukon"
6"x8", Acrylic
SOLD

If you drive down the Blind Creek Road you come to a steep section where it drops off on the one side and the sandstone cliffs are on your other side.  I think this is a really lovely spot.  The moose like it too!

"Nature is the art of God eternal
"
Dante 1265-1321

Saturday, 17 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #78

"Sunset at Blink Creek"
6"x8", Acrylic
Sold
I have done this scene in watercolour - this is a first in acrylic.
I have been very busy with the Christmas season upon us - I never thought of Christmas when I planned this project.  If I start one next fall I will start in September!!

Friday, 16 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #77

"Pond at Magundy from the lane"
6"x8", Acrylic
Sold
"Winter is on my mind
 but eternal spring is in my heart.
"
Victor Hugo 1802-1885



Thursday, 15 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #76

"Magundy Valley looking to Atherton"
4"x4", acrylic
"The forces of nature are huge, and we are tiny, and in the mountains it's easier to remember this.... I live in, or rather below, the mountains for two basic reasons: because I think the mountains are one of the last huge and wild and magnificent things we have left in this country, one of the last few things we have not yet, in places, grasped and squeezed and sculpted into some unrecognizable, and diminished, shape - a landscape, therefore, in which possibility still exists."
- Rick Bass, Why I Came West




Wednesday, 14 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #75

"Evening Approaches on the Magundy"
4"x4", Acrylic
SOLD

Ice and water, again.  I really like the play of these two elements in a painting.  
It is hard to be objective with your own work but I think my brush work has loosened up since I started this 100 paintings in 100 days.  My work is not as controlled.
I am three quarters of the way done.  Wow!  I don't know what it  will feel like when I am finished.  I know that I will start another project but not sure what yet.  I have a show in March at Yukon Artists at Work so I will begin preparing for this.

"What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."
~Gerard Hopkins

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #74

"Sunset At Fox Lake"
6"x6", Acrylic
SOLD
"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them."
John Muir
\

Monday, 12 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #73

"Pelly Mountains from Blind Creek Trail "
6"x6", Acrylic
sold
Last fall, my friend Yasmine and I went for a hike along a beautiful ridge not far from their Farm.  I love the way the aspens grow stunted and twisted along the side of cliffs.  We could see the valley all along the trail this was in late September.

"Nature has given to every time, place and season, splendours of its own."
Unknown

Sunday, 11 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #72

"Pond on Mitchell Road #3"
6"x8", Oil Pastel
sold

This is my second day in Whitehorse and I have brought some supplies with me from Faro so I could complete my painting today.  I Christmas shopped all day and went out to dinner and came back to the hotel and launched in.  I am really tired. I asked my son what he thought - he's seen better.  I have to agree, I guess they all can't be masterpieces.
Good Night!



Saturday, 10 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #71

"Ketza River Valley #2"
6"x6", Acrylic
Sold
Some of you may recognize this place from a few days ago.  I did an oil pastel of the same place.  I wanted to try the same scene in acrylic.  I am not sure which one I like. I find the pastel was much softer.

"Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance."
                    
                   Samuel Johnson

Friday, 9 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #70

"Far End of Fisheye Lake"
6"x6", Acrylic
sold
I am experimenting with painting the mist on the water.  I like the effect.  I was reading a painter's newsletter that I subscribe to the Painters Keys by Robert Genn.  It talked about how artists that use a lot of photo reference end up with paintings that look stiff and like a photograpsh.  I have been using a lot of photo reference due to the fact that it is, on average, -20 Celsius and time constraints.  I love using a good photo as a reference.  I take a lot of them myself and get permission to use others.  I think it is a good tool as long as the painter does not get too caught up in copying exactly. 

Thursday, 8 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #69

"Moonlit Pelly Valley"
6"x6", Acrylic
*Sold*
"All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name." 
Andre Breton

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #68

"September - Pond on the Mitchell Road"
6"x8", Acrylic
sold
For those of you who have been following - a few days ago I did this same pond ( with the ice and water) but looking the other way.  This is looking up towards the Campbell Highway.  It was a really beautiful morning when I was at the pond and I love it when the mist forms on those cool September mornings and yes it is a sunrise. 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller


Tuesday, 6 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #67

"Fall on the Magundy"
6"x8", Oil Stick

I received my new set of Oil sticks made by Paul deMarrais of Tennessee.
  The colours are fantastic but I think I am going to have to practice a bit as they are quite soft. I really enjoyed workiing with them tonight.  Paul even made a new colour for me  called "Jackie's Yukon Gold"
I hope I can become as skilled as him in the use of these oil sticks.

I am once again in Faro, I started this painting after unpacking the car and putting everything away and having a little bite to eat.  The roads were pretty good.  A bit icy in spots but the Klondike and Campbell highways were all plowed - it is full-blown winter again.  When the temps go above zero and everything starts melting in December - us Yukoners get a little nervous because we know it spells trouble when everything inevitably ices over again.



"A day's work is a day's work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a day's sustenance, a night's repose and due leisure, whether he be painter or ploughman.



George Bernard Shaw


Monday, 5 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #66

"Early Fall at Ketza  River Valley"
6"x8", Oil Pastel
sold
I am amazed that I actually was able to do my daily painting today.  I was ready to leave Whitehorse today but when my son and I left the hotel it was raining at 8:30 am and it was plus 4.   By 11am it was -8 and we were in a full-blown blizzard.  I went to Yukon Artists at Work and visited for a few hours and after listening to a number of highway closures  and seeing the blowing snow - I decided to stay another day.  I do not have my paints with me so I had to buy a small canvas and a small box of oil pastels and the following piece resulted.  For some reason I could not crop the picture because I borrowed my friend's camera to take the picture but hey!  I am happy I was able to complete and post painting number 66. Hopefully the roads are plowed and 
it is decent enough to travel tomorrow.


Sunday, 4 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #65

"Pond on Winter Evening"
6"X6", Acrylic
sold
 Photographer, Robert Postma has a winter scene with these colours in it.  Some of you may recognize it.  I did not copy the picture but the colours - my tribute to Robert's  gifted ability to capture the most beautiful and vibrant colours.  I wouldn't think to actually use this for a winter sunset but as soon as I saw this combination I instantly loved it. 

"Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you...."
Sheng-yen
  

Saturday, 3 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #64

"A Yukon Pond"
6"x8", Acrylic
*sold*
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." 
On Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau

I am not sure why the orange tones in the background show up so strongly when you look at the photo of this painting because it is not this bright in real life.  This pond is across the highway from our place on the Robert Campbell Highway. It is very beautiful when you have the snow but the pond isn't frozen over yet.

Friday, 2 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #63

"Snowy Alders"
6"x6", Acrylic

Another piece with lots of  texture and molding paste.  I know this is not as colourful as a lot of my paintings but I had an idea in mind.  I underpainted the whole canvas with brown and then added the white mixed with molding paste  and scratched out the trees. It looks three dimensional in real life.  I love the impressionists' works and this echoes their style somewhat. 

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” ― Eckhart Tolle

Thursday, 1 December 2011

100 PAINTINGS IN 100 DAYS #62

"Fiery Red & Gold Autumn"
6"x6", Acrylic
sold
Yukoners will know that this is the Dempster fall colours.  I have never been yet and I have lived in the Yukon for 13 years.  I flew to Inuvik in 2009 for the Great Northern Arts Festival but would love to drive the Tombstone area and the Dempster some day- it's like another world.
"So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land."
Peter Pan
James M. Barrie