Tuesday

Mount Assiniboine Plein Air Painting Trip by Sharon Lynn Williams



"Between Terrapin and Magog", 9x9" plein air oil on board
$295 beautifully framed

In August I had the great adventure of taking a helicopter in to Mount Assiniboine (instead of doing the 24 km hike in with all my gear) to paint with friends for 5 days. Hiking around Lake Magog at Mt. Assiniboine's base takes you to this view -just loved the composition.

"The Towers-Assiniboine NP", 8x10" plein air oil on board
$395 beautifully framed

This is the view of one of the neatest mountain shapes around the area. There was a conveninet creek flowing from the bottom of it that made the neatest entry into the painting. This peak was compelling at many times of the day as the sun moved around it.

"Evening Light -Naiset Huts", 10x8" plein air oil on board
$395 FRAMMED,  click here to purchase

As the light was fading and we were waiting for our friends to cook dinner (we took turns each night) the light was coming through the shadows of the tall evergreens and making a wonderful pattern on the roof of a neighbouring hut. I had about 30 minutes to capture it before it was totally gone. I did it in the "Dreama" style of using a wet transparent underpainting -the best for a quick take on a subject I've found.

"Hillside Wildflowers", 10x8" plein air oil on board
$395 beautifully framed

Along the path on one of our hikes we passed this amazing hillside just covered in all kinds of wildflowers. I returned later to give it a try, and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

"Totally Absorbed", 8x10" plein air oil on board
not for sale

We were once again at the base of Mt Assiniboine to paint, but the mountain was covered with cloud and I didn't feel like painting it again. (I did make 2 tries at it, but am not too pleased with either of them. I did take photos so who knows, maybe I will give it a go this winter) This is my friend Pat who was, as the title suggests, totally absorbed in her painting.

It was a wonderful time exploring the area, but unfortunately the lovely weather we had for the first 2 days didn't hold out. I think I will go back another time as there is so much beauty to be had for very little effort (unlike O'Hara which involves quite a bit of trekking up mountainsides for the payoffs).

Enjoy!
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Monday

Icefields Parkway Plein Air Painting Trip by Sharon Lynn Williams



 "Along The Sunwapta River", 7 x 12" plein air oil on board
$295 beautifully framed

More catching up!! At the end of June I was happy to go on a three day plein air/camping trip with my painting buddy Patti Dyment. We had wonderful weather and quite the adventure. We loved this spot last year, so decided to give it another go. You can see the first one here.

"Receding With Time", 12 x 9" plein air oil on board
$495 beautifully framed, click here to purchase

This is the famous Crowfoot Glacier, which was one of the first sights I went to see when I moved to Alberta in 1978. It was MUCH larger at that time, so I thought I had better immortalize it at it's present size! I loved the J shape and the way the turquoise of the glacier shone through in places.

"Mt. Robertson. 9 x 12" plein air oil on board
$250 unframed, click here to purchase

On our first day out we found an overflow campground that had lots of room in it (It was the Canada Day long weekend, so there were lots of campers around). This mountain was in our view and we just loved the shapes, so we just had to paint it.

"Mt. Athabasca", 9 x 12" plein air oil on board
$495 beautifully framed
After spending a large part of the day trying to capture the magnificence of this wonderful piece of ice sculpture, we decided to camp the night in the parking lot right across the road from it, in order to observe it as the sun went down and came back up. The time for the allen glow was really quick so all we had time for was photos. I think this would look great at 30 x 40", don't you?

"Mt. Andromeda", 9 x 12" plein air oil on board
$495 beautifully framed

This is the peak right next to Mt Athabasca above. You have to understand that these mountains are well over 11,000 feet tall and there isn't anything between the highway and the peaks except for the enormous Athabasca Glacier. This one was really difficult to paint as there were so many facets visible and not as deep a snow field covering them.


"What Lies Beyond", 8 x 8" plein air oil on board
$350 FRAMED, click here to purchase

This is the last painting of the trip. We were winding our way through the mountains and spotted this river which disappeared through a rock canyon. It must go over a falls just beyond our view due to the mist that was soaring up in the distance. It was fun to try to catch the feeling of that hidden power.

Enjoy!

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Tuesday

Plein Air Paintings From Bow Lake by Sharon Lynn Williams



"Bow Lake View", 10 x 8" plein air oil on board
SOLD

This July I had the privilege to be selected to have a show at Numtijah Lodge at Bow Lake along the Icefields Highway, along with my "plein air partner in paint" Patti Dyment. The location is magnificent and painting on location there is just a slice of heaven. This painting faithfully capture the view from the front of the lodge. There is a snow and glacier field at the top of the mountain that extends for miles, and is a primary feature along the amazing Icefields Parkway.

"Bow Glacier", 9 x 12" plein air oil on board
$495 FRAMED,

This time I took a more close up view to try to capture the incredible texture of this huge glacier.

"Bow-Crow Peak", 9 x 12" plein air oil on board
$250 UNFRAMED, click here to purchase

This is the view from the end of the lake. I really loved the shape of this peak with the glacier peacefully nestling on top.

"Wildflower Surprise", 10 x 8" plein air oil on board
$395 FRAMED, click here to purchase

The wind had picked up in the morning, so I painted this from the window of the dining room at the lodge. The sun was sparkling down through the evergreens and lighting up the wildflowers growing in their shelter.

Enjoy!
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Friday

Plein Air Oil Paintings from Lake O'Hara by Sharon Lynn Williams



"Reflections -Opabin Plateau, 8 x 10" plein air oil on board
SOLD

OK, it is definitely time to get all the rest of the paintings from 2013 that I haven't taken the time to post, in order to begin fresh in January. These paintings were from our trip to beautiful Lake O'Hara on September 23-26. We have been on this hiking/painting trip at this time slot three times before, and had wonderful sunny, warm weather. This time, that wasn't the case! It was cold and snowy, the first snow of the winter, which made plein air painting a challenge to say the least. The sun did come out on our second day, and I was able to capture the fresh snow in the sunshine. The larches just glowed in the warm light, but I will tell you, I was jumping around trying to stay warm. We were an hour hike up a mountain, so there was nowhere to go to warm up.

"Snow Lifting -Cathedral Mountain", 10 x 8" plein air oil on board
$395 FRAMED, click here to purchase

I painted this just outside our cabin in spurts -as soon as the sun peaked out, between snow falling, I ran outside and did some more on it. By the way, it is the view just outside the Elizabeth Parker Hut where we were staying.

"After The Snow -Lake O'Hara", 8 x 10" plein air oil on board
$395 FRAMED, click here to purchase

On our last day we were determined that we were not going to stay in the cabin all day, after all we had come to paint! I managed to get this in when the clouds were still thickly threatening the white stuff. There is a nice little coffee shop just behind us here, and we did have to run up to sit by the fire from time to time.

"Wiwaxy -Lake O'Hara", 6 x 8" plein air oil on board
$295 FRAMED, click here to purchase

The clouds began to lift at the end of the afternoon, and I was able to paint this quickly before we had to catch our bus to leave. This is the view directly to the left of where I painted the one above.

I just love to paint at Lake O'Hara, and if you would like to see more of my plein air work from there, just see "Lake O'Hara" on the sidebar of my blog, and it should take you to many more paintings. Hopefully we had the one 'bad' weather experience for the next several years. But I have to say, you can really call yourself a plein air painter when you do it in these kind of conditions!

Enjoy!


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Tuesday

Mixed Media Collage #4 by Sharon Lynn Williams




"Composition #5", 7.5x7.5" mixed media collage
SOLD

FRAMED ARTWORK PRICED FOR EASY CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING!!

Enjoy!

Friday

Mixed Media Collage #3 by Sharon Lynn Williams


"Composition #6", 7.25 x 7.25" mixed media collage
SOLD



FRAMED ARTWORK PRICED FOR EASY CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING!

Enjoy!
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Wednesday

Mixed Media Collage #2 by Sharon Lynn Williams

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"Composition #7", 7.25 x 7.25" mixed media co9llage
$150 FRAMED in solid oak frame with 1" white mat border, click here to purchase

PRICED FOR EASY CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING!!

Enjoy!

Tuesday

Back to Abstraction!


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"Composition #8", 8x8" collage and acrylic paint
SOLD

So we have just had the 4th big snow storm of the season, and it looks like it will be a long winter. I always look forward to this time of year to explore some of my other artistic passions, now that the opportunity for plein air painting has been severely restricted. The winter is a time of "incubation" for me, taking all the input of the landscape from my plein air experiences, and figuring out new ways to reinvent them.

Every once and awhile I return to my love of abstraction, and my favorite medium for that is collage. I have been very inspired by the work of Laura Lein-Svencner over the past year, and that has really sparked my interest. She has some neat methods of painting paper that I have now added to my repertoire. I am also inspired by Jane Davies, Sherrill Kahn and Anne Bagby, as diverse as those artists are. It is good to refresh my personal sense of design, and for that, nothing beats collage.
I have done a series of 8 of these small paintings -4 are at Centre D'Arts Visuels in Edmonton and the other 4 are at Art & Soul Gallery in High River. They are specially priced for Christmas gift giving, so if you are interested, please pop me an email. I will be showing the remaining 7 here over the next week.

Enjoy!

Monday

NEW PLEIN AIR WATERCOLOUR DVD RELEASED!!!


"Marsh Light", 12 x 16" plein air watercolour
SOLD

I am thrilled to announce the release of my new instructional DVD, "Watercolour On Location", produced by Whitepine Productions here in Calgary. It is for sale for the great price of $35 plus shipping and handling. You can see a preview of the DVD here.

I have sold several so far and comments coming back to me include:
"Sharon, actually watched it through twice - I think it's great! - 'plein air' painting has always been a mystery to me. Now I see how you can take a seemingly uninteresting scene and really paint your own interpretation of it. (I guess that's where the term 'artistic licence' comes in.) Really though, I can't imagine painting all those colors for those reeds wet-on-wet without making the dreaded 'mud'. I suppose they could be painted in layers, but much more laborious and not as exciting...! The negative painting was great to watch as well. I do recommend your DVD as it demonstrates how the experience of painting 'at the scene' can be very exciting and uplifting... And especially for anyone needing direction on 'plein air' composition. Also, to use your quote, "just having fun with all those colors" -Outside!"

"Great DVD, makes me want to do a watercolor."

With Christmas coming (sooner than most of us are prepared for!), why not make it easy for those looking to buy you a special gift and forward this post to them :) Or if you are one who likes to buy your own gifts, please email me and I will send you a copy which will arrive before the 25th!

You can pay via PayPal right on my blog -look at the upper right corner of the blog and you will see a Paypal box. Simply enter the Item as "Watercolour On Location", amount is $35 plus $3 for shipping and handling in Canada, $8 for US. In the delivery notes box write your address and phone number and hit Buy Now. This will take you to the Paypal site where you can pay with your Paypal account or with your credit card. PayPal will send me the notice of your purchase and I will get out your dvd right away. Easy-peasy!

Enjoy


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Sunday

"Sunflower Field -Tuscany", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams


"Sunflower Field -Tuscany", 9x12" plein air oil painting
$495 framed, click here to purchase

When I got home from my Italy trip, I went back into this plein air painting (see original post here, which is too blue due to the photography but the values are correct!) and decided to lighten up the middle and background, as well as to put some more colour sparkle in the sunflowers and leaves.

I am happy to announce that I just won second prize for it at the upcoming Federation of Canadian Artists sale to take place on Nov 2 at the Haysboro Community Hall. Here's the invitation -if you are in town, I hope you will come and see the show. I will have 7 paintings in it, and the quality of work this time is amazing!

Enjoy!

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Saturday

New Antique Car Series by Sharon Lynn Williams



 "1951 Ford" ,6 x 8" oil on board
$275 framed, click here to purchase

I know I said that I would share my sketches from Haida Gwaii next, but I can't find them in my computer! So I thought I would share this new series instead. I fell in love painting old cars and trucks (who knew?), which you might remember with my Model A Ford paintings. The Show and Shine was happening at the same time as Alberta Art Days in High River, so I did these before and during the show. I hope you enjoy them!  I am also accepting commissions for you or your loved ones -loved ones :)

 "1956 Belair", 6x8" oil on board
$275 framed, click here to purchase

 "1956 Monarch Richelieu",6x8" oil on board
$275 framed, click here to purchase

 "1958 Ford Fairlane", 6x8" oil on board
$275 framed, click here to purchase

"1948 DeSoto", 6x8" oil on board
$275 framed, click here to purchase

and now for a lovely old truck I saw in a field..

"Abandoned", 6 x 6" oil on board
$250 framed, click here to purchase

Enjoy!
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Friday

"Poise" encaustic and ENCAUSTIC WORKSHOP by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Poise", 12 x 7" encaustic painting on panel
$395 framed, click here to purchase

I know I said I would post Haida Gwaii paintings today, but I have just finalized arrangements for an encaustic workshop to be held here in Calgary Oct 17 & 18th. I just had to post a recent encaustic painting to advertise it!(please see the sidebar on my blog for the details)

The above painting was done by using a pastel pencil for the figure and a stencil was used to develop the lower pattern. I think she looks like she is sitting on grass in front of a flower garden.

Enjoy!
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Sunday

Dreama Tolle Perry Workshop Review



"Dreama's France", 12 x 12" oil on board
SOLD

I am so far behind in posting this blog that I am totally embarrassed! I realize that the last paintings I posted were from June, with the exception of my Tuscany trip. So I will make the effort to get you caught up to speed on what I have been doing, and maybe even the 'why' of it : )

From May 13-15 I had the great privilege to finally take a workshop with my painting hero, Dreama Tolle Perry. She was as lovely to learn from as she appears on her blog. LOVE her work, and she really made each person feel special and uniquely gifted, no matter the level of ability. I hope I learned as much about being a great art teacher as I did her painting techniques!

For the first 2 days we did paint alongs, so I will share both of those here. The one pictured above was from our second day, but I liked it best, so it got posted first. The second painting is below. I am not that much of a flower painter, but I do love them and have painted them often, just way less often than plein air landscapes -flowers are uniquely difficult to paint from life, and that is the way I prefer to paint.

"Dreama's Flowers", 12 x 12" oil on board
SOLD

The third painting I did, "Italian Colour" was posted on Aug 30th - if you want to have a look click here. That one I did totally on my own, using her method. Had to make sure I had it to use on my own photos before I left the workshop!

I have done several more using her technique of a wet colourful under-painting with opaque oils on top. You can see them here and here. I have done a couple of others as well that I will be posting in the near future. I have tried to adapt her style to my own plein air subjects in order to make the technique my own, and I must say I am encouraged by the results. However, more likely than not, I prefer to work on my signature red-orange ground.

Next post I will take you to Haida Gwaii, so stay tuned.

Enjoy!
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Friday

Encaustic painting "Iris" and demo this Saturday!

"Iris", 12x12" mixed media encaustic
$495 -click here to purchase

I have been playing around with encaustic since Christmas, and am really enjoying the ride. In this painting I collaged an original watercolour painting onto the cradled board and then made a textured encaustic border for it. It is an interesting combination of implied texture (in the atercolour) with actual texture.

I will be doing an encaustic demonstration tomorrow (Saturday) at Atlantis Fine Framing (4515 Manhattan Rd SE) from 10am to 3:30pm, along with demos by Ken Bourassa and Tracy Proctor. I am honored to be included with such talented encaustic artists, and to take part in the Calgary Artwalk event!

Enjoy!
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Monday

Tuscany Workshop -wrap up

"Bagno Sunshine", 6x16" plein air watercolor

This was my last demo of the workshop. It was done on my new block of Cartiera Magnani 'Portofino' hot pressed paper. This paper is absolutely wonderful for the pen and watercolour paintings, but also works great for regular painting. Look who came to check things out during the demo -could it be Dreama's cat Eddie??? I heard he was spying on her while she is in Italy...


Then I did this pen & ink & watercolour on our last day in Bagno Vignoni ( I posted a photo of the scene on day 10)


So that wraps up our trip. It was a wonderful workshop filled with sunshine and wonderful artists. Here is a photo of our small but happy group:



So I will leave you with our last sunset, this one taken from the plane on the way home.


Enjoy!







Saturday

Tuscany Workshop -last day!


"Montigiovi Remembrance", 12x16" oil and collage

I was "playing painting" with great friend and fellow traveller,Lori, the other day after being out painting in the morning. We had made some collage surfaces using old posters that Lori had torn off walls on our journey. Then we went into them with oils, what a blast! I have done this a lot using acrylics, but the oils were so much more fun -easily blended and great opaque through transparent coverage. I will definitely be doing more of this : )

I can't believe it, but the last day of our wonderful workshop has come and gone. We are to be up at 5:45am and will be home at 9pm Calgary time (8 hr time difference)-LONG day!

Here is a watercolour card that I made to thank our wonderful driver, Joe.


Thanks for coming on this journey with me- it has been so fun and rewarding.

Enjoy!

Friday

Tuscany Workshop -day 12

"Montepulciano", 6x16", pen & ink & watercolor

Guess where we went today? (Hint -see title!) what a great day we had -we have been so blessed by the weather during our trip. It did sprinkle a touch today, so we HAD to duck into a shop that sold lovely Italian leather handbags, what's a girl to do? - just sayin!

Here are some photos if the amazing medieval city:
(Please note: the photos are for your viewing pleasure only, copyright belongs to me)




Me just in case you haven't had enough of the incredible sunsets here, here is tonight's spectacular:


Enjoy!




Thursday

Tuscany Workshop -day 11

"Le Casacce", 8x10" plein air oil on arches oil paper
SOLD

Today was a 'home' day, so I painted this for our wonderful host Enrico - I hope he likes it! Here is a photo of the scene before me, FYI:



I will leave you with another fabulous Tuscan sunsets:


Enjoy!