Blue Canada

Blue Canada

Oil on black canvas, 16x16, $385

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Years ago, Heather MacLeod - a friend and amazing artist - and I drove to the Atlantic Provinces in Canada to explore and paint. I didn't do a separate blog for the trip, but you can read about it and see paintings on this very same blog, starting here, June 9, 2010, and running to July 17, 2010.

I think we both loved the Atlantic Provinces. For me, the Gaspe Peninsula (think southern bank of the St. Lawrence Seaway) and Cape Breton were my favorites, but I loved all of it, and even made a slight push to move there, when I got back home. But winters are brutal. Brutal.

I believe we were in Cape Breton Island when we saw this blue-roofed garage with a blue truck inside, under a blue sky, with a silvery-blue tree in the foreground.

I've been thinking about this painting for nearly six years. I knew it was a painting, a beautiful painting, as soon as I saw it.

On Tuesday, I turned 60, and my birthday present to myself was to make this painting. It took me this long, and this much thinking, to gain the courage and skill and imagination to paint it the way I wanted to see it.

When people ask my how long it took me to make a painting, I sometimes hem and haw, and this is why. The actual painting only took a few hours. But in essence, it took six years and a few hours.

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Potatoes or pavers? 

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Dog of the Day

Koko, Abby and the puppies have made a mess of our yard, digging holes all over the place. The other day, Smokey fell into one and couldn't get out. I made sure he was OK first, then I took the photos, then I got him out. A minute later, he was back in. For all I know, he liked it! 

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A Final Thought

"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, 

will answer you: I am here to live out loud." 

- Emile Zola