Ironman Week

Village Gateway

12 x 16

oil on canvas board

This lovely little village main street was one of many that we road our bikes through last summer in the Pyrenees. I often wondered where the cars and people were till someone told me that many villagers have moved to the big cities. It's so sad to see such beautiful places abandoned but I guess we have that problem here too. Well the summer is almost over, we've felt the shift in temperature with the evenings cooling off. I've had a great time with lots of family and friends to play with, sold a few paintings, didn't paint enough but will soon and this weekend will finish it off with the Penticton Ironman Canada Triathlon. I've spent much of the summer swimming, biking and running in preparation for it and though I've enjoyed it immensely I'm ready for a break. I'll have one more event to do, a ride from Vancouver to Whistler and then I plan to take advantage of the last warm days to do some plein air painting. I've spent the last week building a pochade box and can't wait to try it out!

Something different

Looking out to Sea NFS
8 x 8
oil on doorskin

My first portrait magically evolved yesterday over top of piece of board that I had been using as a practice area for testing colors. It felt very much like when one finally decides to commit and plunge into a freezing sea, very scary and yet exhilarating at the same time! Done quickly and loosely it was a lot of fun, many of the test colors left to show through. Haven't been painting much lately as I've been spending far too much time floating away the hot summer days on the lake. Today we are suffering from the smoke of over 400 hundred forest fires burning in this province and we can't even see the sun so I'm back to the easel for a while.