an upcoming retrospective and 4th season opening day

Grace Hall in Sydenham, just north of where I live, has become a bit of a gathering spot for local artists.  They have talks every so often, and display art too.  Bonnie Brooks asked me if I'd be interested in showing work with her there May 16 to July 30th...so of course, I agreed!  I love Bonnie's work, she's a kindred art spirit. And I think our work will show well together.  The show is going to be a retrospective  variety, in that we are showing work from different era's of our art development. For Bonnie and I, that includes some watercolours from the 90's as well as other works from mid career to recent. We also said yes to doing a talk on May 31st, which will discuss the process's and evolution of our art. 
This week has been full of prep for opening my Gallery at the Porch Door for it's 4th summer season...Thurs May 1st is opening day.  I have a studio tour group booked to come visit on that day too, so it should be fun. There's cupcakes and iced tea for gallery visitors that day:)  You can see the groovy new shade of blue I painted the gallery door...I was aiming for duck egg blue, but its a little brighter than I had anticipated. no worries finding the door, that's for sure! 

In the studio I'm finding my way with several paintings, the one on the easel used to have a kite and islands in it, but I painted over that because it wasn't working for me, too much confusion at the focal point...so here's where I am now...it will slowly come to fruition.  I'm also working my way through a commission, which is getting near to completion.   

Easter weekend

Easter weekend at the Chupick's is family time.  Everyone that can get here does, and we celebrate ach year on the Saturday with the Easter Classic. That's a bolo competition in the backyard. In the evening we sit around the campfire and sing, play guitar/harmonica, and this year we were blessed with the presence of Jimin, who brought her violin to the campfire and we were blown away...you can tell in the video by the silence of the group how gobsmacked we are by her talents!

This year, we celebrated not only Easter weekend, but we also held a co-ed baby shower for Rachel and Matt as they are expecting their first baby this year, my very first grandchild!  Rachel and Matt arrived from Halifax on Friday, and had no idea that we were planning a surprise baby shower with family and friends on Saturday afternoon. Here's a piccy of the dessert goodies, Lori made the sweet watermelon baby carriage, the pink chocolate dipped strawberries, and the cute babyface cupcakes were Holly's creation.

Small panels

3 oil on panels - each, 6x8"

I've been working on these small panels while I've been travelling.  The perfect size in this environment as they're low commitment, smooth and slick for quick colour studies.  This helps me to work out ideas and design, HAVE FUN(key words) and when I post them it kind of works like 'standing back and viewing' them.  Allows me to see in a nutshell what works and what isn't. Right now I feel the one on the right will get some more attention when next i get out the brushes.

Breakers bar and grill

Dawn Break at Breakers - oil on panel - 8 x 6 inch

 Breakers is the name of this groovy little pink pub on the beach in New Smyrna Beach.  It's a 5 minute walk from the condo.  All the buildings on the beach face east; which means that the best light for painting any of them is early morning light.  

I don't know why, but for some reason yesterday morning I was awake at 4:45 am, and I couldn't get back to sleep.  At 6:30 am, I decided to tiptoe out of the apartment with my iPad and get some photos of Breakers at dawn.  It wasn't exactly dark; I got there before the sun came up.  As I watched it rose slowly, a big fluorescent orangey pink ball on the sea's horizon.  In about 10 minutes it began to infuse colour into the muted mauve morning.

While painting this one, I was conscious of wanting to keep the life in the sky, giving life to the virtually empty beach, save for the joggers and early beachcombers.

Breakers is our food stop of choice when we arrived...it will probably be our last breakfast stop before we head home. All along the full length of the windows that face the surf inside there is a bar with about 30 barstools, offering customers a great view for watching the waves and folks on the beach,while dining.

Atlantic avenue beach trail

Holiday Vibe - oil on panel - 8 x 6"

There's a lot of Atlantic avenues here in Florida!  Every town has one. Monday we had overcast skies, so Dave and i decided to head along the beach coastal drive from Daytona to St. Augustine.


On the way are lovely beachside cottages (...er, yes a few mansions too!), windswept melaleuka trees that create natural sculpture among the architecture, and palms.  The colour of the water changes depending on what the skies are doing.  It was a steely green gray while we drove along.

Spanish conquistadors came to St. Augustine in the 1580's.  It's old, and also charming, especially the teeny weeny old town streets with their tiny shop fronts and pubs. We enjoyed a cold draft in one of the outdoor pubs, and listened to some great live music.  We also rode 'the red train' which whirled us around notable sites to the yarns of a delightful tour guide.  

Me n Bob Ross

I brought my travel painting gear to Florida with me, which got through customs just fine in my checked baggage.  I usually use Gamblin OMS when oil painting in the studio, but I had an old Pabeo odourless min spirit jar that seemed the right size for travelling so brought that instead...big mistake!  It was so smelly I couldn't bear to work with it!  So, yesterday afternoon I set out in the car to look for an art supply store to purchase a new small jar of OMS.  turned out the only place I could find was Bob Ross's Art Workshop Studio. so I went in. Heh heh.  there was about 30 students all busy at their stations....all painting oval shaped canvas's in the Bob Ross tradition. Wow. who'd have thought?!  From the back of the studio I caught the attention of the instructor, and asked him if they had any OMS for sale as I had just arrived and needed some to get painting.  He said they only had Bob Ross Odourless Paint Thinner.  good enough I said and purchased their smallest bottle which turned out to be half a gallon!  It's  fine to work with. Think I'll take the leftover back to their studio when I leave in case they can make use of it, seems a shame to waste it.

The sun streaming in the window on the wicker chair got me excited to get painting.  It's a welcome sight after the long and chilly winter we had this year in Ontario.

Bob Ross paint thinner