Flirtation with orange (Thing-a-Week)

A family friend once told the story of his younger cousin, who went to art school in New York City in her 20s. One semester, she called him and exuberantly declared that she'd "discovered" the colour yellow.


I can't recall the finer points of his story, but at the time it made me giggle until my sides hurt. This young artist's "yellow period" was hilariously pretentious. It was the kind of story that makes me hope and pray I don't turn into a flaky artiste.


That said, I've had plenty of love affairs with colours. At the risk of coming across as a complete and utter flake, I think I'm a little enamoured with orange, this month. This piece, acrylic paint and acrylic ink on 10 x 12" birch panel, is all about colour and texture. It began as a painting of the night sky - complete with cartoonish planets and space craft - and evolved into a bright abstraction.

Wood: The new canvas

I've always loved wood. When I was a teen, I'd steal scraps of wood from my dad's workshop to paint on. I loved the feeling of the wood beneath my brush.

Recently, I went to de Serres again (my second home) and picked up a couple of small wood panels - 12 x 10" - to do a little experimenting with.

Here's my first experiment!

I used silver paint to outline the lotus flowers and to add texture and light to the background. I left the edges unpainted, too, since I love the look of wood grain. I'm debating staining it for a more finished look, but still hemming and hawing on that one.