THE PASSIONATE PAINTERS ART SHOW DATES 2023
Spring Show & Sale: Saturday May 13th, 2023 10am-4pm
Fall Show & Sale: Saturday October 28th, 2023 10am-4pm
Location: St. Peter's Anglican Church, 903 75th Avenue SW
That is located just off Elbow Drive at 75th Ave SW
All is Welcome and we hope to see you there!
Pushing Paint Around
I spend my time pushing paint around or watching paint dry! I spend a fair amount of time hiking and cross-country skiing in the mountains and that provides the inspiration and subject matter for most of my paintings. Sometimes it is just a momentary fleeting change of light that makes an interesting subject such as this one called “Prairie Fire” that happened when returning home from Big Hill Springs Park one fall afternoon, the light hit the hillside and lit it up with all sorts of colours. I admit to exaggerating things a bit but those colours were there!
Other times it is a struggle to capture the essence of a scene and to make it interesting. I painted this scene of the Saskatchewan Glacier for my Glaciers of Canada Series at least 3 times! Finally someone posted an early morning photo of the Glacier to one of the hiking Facebook groups, I contacted the photographer, Christopher Candela, and asked for permission to use his photo. This was the resulting painting.
Other times the painting comes easily, I did this one in a single sitting of a few hours. Of course the subject is ideal, the view from the Leighton Centre south of Calgary.
Have you ever thought about how an artist sees?
If you have ever watched an artist paint…at an art demonstration or outdoors or in their studio, you’ve probably noticed something a little odd. We squint…a lot! Doing this actually helps us to see. When you look at a painting you may get the impression that every hair on the head, branch on a tree or blade of grass has been carefully included to create the beautiful image you see before you but in reality that rarely ever happens because we squint.
Reference photo vs painting
The squint is our secret weapon. It allows us to reduce the subject to its bare essentials…the darks - or shadows, the lights and the highlights. Try it now…almost close your eves and look through the veil of your eyelashes. Do you see how the world is reduced to those elements that allow a painting to ‘sing’? Some things in the shadows practically disappear and the artist can decide whether to include them, just suggest them or ignore them altogether. The thing we never ignore is the highlight.
As I look across my kitchen to a canister of standing utensils I know that if I vaguely amass those near the rear painting with the right shapes in subdued shadow colours and then paint in a few of the pieces in front with more detail and brighter colour that my image is almost ready. Finally I add the highlights and the viewer’s eye will fill in the rest of the details to ‘see’ what I do.
Suggestion is a very large part of the viewing experience. Look at a distant forest, it’s really just a dark mass, paint in 3 or 4 suggestions of trees and the viewer knows what kind of trees they are and…of course…that that’s a forest. So the next time you look at a painting, take the time to squint…and be amazed!
Photo compared to finished painting!
I’m Jeanne Urban, a Canadian artist living in Calgary, one of the Passionate Painters Art Group.
Please visit our website passionatepainters.ca to see our work, and don’t forget to squint!!
Jeanne Urban
This time has shortened my activities and slowed me down to think about the direction I am going with my art.
Recently, I have been producing sensual paintings that provoke deep meaning.
What moves me?
The skies - a cloud formation, the colours of the glorious sunrise or sunset, the ever changing shapes that hover like a blanket.
Water - it’s reflection and movement, providing thirst, sustaining growth, a place to play.
Trees- how they can be comic, heroic, tragic to sensitive, mysterious, their place in producing fruit, nuts, shelter and shade.
The human connection - to living creatures and the earth.
Plein Air - getting outside to immerse myself in nature and paint in the great outdoors.
Will the viewer see the joy my painting can bring as much as I do?
Will it evoke emotion in a place in time?
Painting is an never ending journey that keeps me challenged and satisfied. I feel grateful that I can take this gift and produce something meaningful.
Check out my collection on my website. emilylittlefineart.myportfolio.com
If you wish for me to produce a painting meaningful to you, please contact me at
emilylittlefineart@ shaw.ca. 403-660-2830
Inspiration can have an influence on all kinds of art forms. Artists are generally inspired by what they see around them. Whether it can be taken from nature, objects, past emotions or from other artists, the desire to find what drives you to paint can be a daunting or an easy experience.
Inspiration comes primarily in the form of close observation of what is around me. I tend to notice things that perhaps some may not immediately see and that comes with having the “artist eye”. There are several ways in which I can develop my creative ideas. One is my ability to take reference photos with my camera as it can open different possibilities of working from life. I like the process of figuring out on my computer what to leave in, crop out, focus on, darken to see values and what is less important from the photo in order to use it for my paintings. This is especially helpful if you are mostly an in-studio artist like I am. When not using reference photos, I enjoy finding unique objects for painting purposes. I love going to thrift stores, antique shops and the like to find objects that are both interesting and colourful. I often include the use of flowers for my Still Life paintings. I currently have a fair number of objects in my studio which I can use.
I’m known as the RV painter. I love travelling in my travel trailer with my partner Bob who enjoys photography as his main hobby. Together we look for inspirational subjects to which I can use in my paintings. Subjects of interest to both of us are often found on location in various places we visit. I also enjoy sketching and art journaling, which helps keep the creative thoughts flowing. I’m constantly writing down ideas in my notebook to quickly record what I’m thinking. I used to have subscriptions to several art magazines until many of them ceased publication. However, I still browse through them for inspiration.
I can’t stress enough the importance of one particular place in order to help drive those creative juices and that is the Public Library. This is one of the first places that I have found with the most information needed to help with getting inspired in any medium. If you are self taught as I am, this is a great resource. And lastly, who doesn’t keep various inspirational art books in their own studio library. To see more of my paintings and those for sale, visit my gallery here and at mypassion4art.com.
Reference photo of Lake Newell
Birch Trees at Lake Newell, 20x26 Acrylic on canvas $800
Reference photo of Peony flower
Enormous Peony, 30x30 acrylic on canvas $600
Bold and Bright
Donna Carter
I was the kind of kid who lived in their imagination more than in the real world. My favourite solitary activity was drawing. I spent hours at it right up until the time I went to Mount Royal University to study Interior Design. Do you know how much drawing that involves? A lot, but it’s mostly technical drawing with a bit of water colour architectural rendering thrown in.
Somehow in that process, drawing stopped being fun for me. The only drawing I did was for my design clients for more than 20 years. In a strange twist, I ended up publishing a non-fiction book that was successful enough that I was suddenly in demand as a speaker and found I had no time for my design practise.
A few months after my abrupt career change I began to really miss creating, so I joined a painting collective. My first day exploring acrylic painting I didn’t even know how to hold a paintbrush, let alone use it, but only a few months later I was selling paintings.
These days I enjoy painting abstracted florals and gentle looking animals. I use vibrant colour and lots of texture. I’ve been told I am a bold person. I think my paintings reflect this.
“Painting has become my therapy and my passion. I can’t imagine my life without it. Some people are just born to create!” ~ Donna Carter
Tangled" By Donna Carter Acrylic - 30" x 48" $780
"Spring in the Air" by Donna Carter Acrylic - Mixed Media 24" x 36" $600