Tutt Art Galleries, Kelowna, BC

Pink Pail 

12 x 16

Every year I go to Kelowna, BC to visit family and get some blasting sunshine.  And every year I pay a visit to Tutt Art Galleries to check out the latest works by H.E. Kuchein, Min Ma, Brent Lynch and other excellent artists.  So it is with great pleasure that I can now say that my paintings are hanging in Tutt alongside these painters' works.

The gallery is carrying a new series that I've been working on this summer and one that I'm pleased with.  I spent the summer teaching myself how to paint water in a way that showed its sparkle, depth and variety.  It was a long and often frustrating process and I wiped off much more than I kept.  Then, something clicked and I felt like I was achieving what I was after.  The secret was simple: lots of paint and lots of colour.  I also make sure to use both warm and cool colours in the water; this makes a believable effect in a way that just using different blues and greens can't.

Then I incorporated figures - my favorite subject - into the water and felt that I was onto something that made me happy.  My debt is to Sorolla and Potthast in these scenes of children, sunshine and water, and the series is a natural for a part of the country that is famous for its beach culture.

If you're passing through the Okanagan Valley, I hope you'll stop in and check it out for yourself!