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| Vaseux Lake in January |
It was a surprise to me that paintings do not often begin with a swipe of colour across a page or canvas. Some do but, most don't. Many artists use reference photographs they or a friend have snapped. The photo inspires and can even be combined with another photo or two to evolve into a painting that exists in the artists head and heart. Special colours, light, emotion take shape and a painting is created.
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| Vaseux Lake Reference Photo |
I paint with watercolours and have found, with experience, that my painting usually starts with the reference photo nearby inspiring colours and shapes, but over time as the painting evolves, I refer less and less to the picture and more and more paint from my head, my memory, or even my heart. I believe my best paintings are those that tell a story. Maybe that is because I am a writer. I often describe feelings as colours in my writing; perhaps the colours in my paintings expand on the feelings the painting evokes in my heart: wonder, excitement, tranquillity, serenity - and the list goes on. My painting and my writing connect at some point and truly, I have my laptop on one end of my desk and my paints on the other - long and narrow so I can zip my chair from one media to the next with the spin of the wheels on the office chair.
