Green Therapy
I have a new appreciation for green.
There is so much green here... And it feels especially brilliant in the northern light. Even walking in the woods on a cloudy day, the soft, mossy green everywhere seems to light up the forest from within...
I have a new appreciation for green.
There is so much green here... And it feels especially brilliant in the northern light. Even walking in the woods on a cloudy day, the soft, mossy green everywhere seems to light up the forest from within.
I think it truly is a healing colour.
So I made a little green therapy video... en-Joy!
I use a lot of greens and blues in my flower and nature paintings, although the painting is not usually about the blue or the green (they're not the "star" colours). I use greens and blues as background colours that support and enhance the others (they're the "supporting characters"). For me they're more neutral and relaxing so you can see more of them (can you imagine a green flower in a field of red grass?!).
Below is a painting I created from a peak into a tiny garden world... It's like a tropical jungle of colour and the painting is anything but tiny! It is my largest painting to date... (scroll down for description)
Three Graces, 48" x 72", oil on canvas
The vibrant and lush paradise of a tiny garden world of dancing flowers and hidden creatures swimming in greens and blues… Each flower becomes a figure and character of its own. These irises make me think of sisters dancing. It reminds me of dancing with my two sisters as young women growing up… expressing… in joyful, playful fun… And so I called this painting Three Graces.
This week I'm featuring 10% off all Three Graces items in the Boutique (for subscribers only).
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If I were a painting, what would I be?
I love the colour red and I’ve always loved roses, so one day, when I asked myself...
“If I were a painting, what would I be? What is the essence of Me?... ” Here is what I wrote:
I love the colour red and I’ve always loved roses, so one day, when I asked myself...
“If I were a painting, what would I be? What is the essence of Me?... ” Here is what I wrote:
My essence is a beautiful, blissful love energy that radiates out from my heart, warming me like a pink blanket.
My essence is a deep red, velvety rose...
It is sky blue and dreamy... a feather floating in the wind.
It is an emerald green forest... full of magic and fairy tales... adventurous, courageous, fun and playful.
My essence is like a wild garden... rich with ideas, creativity and colour.
If I were a painting, what would I be?
I would be a wild garden of red roses...
The painting Roses was created to symbolise the essence of Love and Beauty.
Once I'd finished the painting I decided I wanted to wear my art and so I created a dress from my painting. The Essence Art Boutique was born!
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Dream Catcher
Dream Catcher is the first in a series of paintings that explore the forest as a place of fairy-tales, myth and magic. In stories and legends trees are symbols of wisdom, strength, endurance, protection, secret knowledge, life and fertility...
A few years ago I lived in a little cottage in the woods. The cottage was surrounded by trees… Great, big grandfather trees... On winter evenings, it was very dark as I made my way home through the woods, (with the help of the light shining from my cell phone). Inside the cottage I felt safe though, nestled amongst the trees and listening to the rushing stream that ran past the cottage, and the occasional owl or chattering raccoons.
It was during this time that I began my forest series of paintings. My painting Dream Catcher is from the forest near my cottage in West Vancouver. While painting Dream Catcher, a little story began to form… and so I wrote it down. It’s called Dream Catcher, a Fairy Tale.
You can read along in my blog here, or flip through the shortened version I created on Steller.
Dream Catcher, 60" x 48", oil on canvas
Dream Catcher is the first in a series of paintings that explore the forest as a place of fairy-tales, myth and magic. In stories and legends trees are symbols of wisdom, strength, endurance, protection, secret knowledge, life and fertility. In fairy tales the forest symbolizes the unconscious and is a place of initiation. Entering the dark forest and the unknown, one confronts hidden aspects of the self in order to experience a re-birth and gain a new understanding and knowledge of life.
Now available ~ Fine Art Prints
These museum quality fine art prints are available in standard sizes and ready to frame with a one & a half inch border, or in larger print sizes with a smaller border and ready for to custom framing.
Midsummer Forest
One summer I spent a few weeks on a small island on the west coast of Norway. Every day I walked through the sunlit forests, along the same paths my ancestors walked on for generations. And in the evenings I’d watch as the sun slowly dipped into the sea… mesmerized by the beautiful, long, long sunsets...
One summer I spent a few weeks on a small island on the west coast of Norway. Every day I walked through the sunlit forests, along the same paths my ancestors walked on for generations. And in the evenings I’d watch as the sun slowly dipped into the sea… mesmerized by the beautiful, long, long sunsets.
There’s something special about the northern light on a midsummer’s evening. The vivid colours make everything come alive. It made me feel more alive… Connected to nature, my history, to my soul. I wanted to drink it all in…
Midsummer Forest is a painting of light, colour and fairy-tale magic. The forest comes alive with a vibrant palette of colours and explores the beautiful northern light in summer. In Midsummer Forest the painting itself becomes a story to enter, taking the viewer on a fairy tale journey into the forest...
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”
Now available ~ Fine Art Prints!
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Secret View
One evening, while driving home, I looked up and saw the most amazing sky. I was transfixed. I kept driving west towards it until I could turn off and head down to the ocean. The sky was changing quickly and I wanted to capture it before the sun went down…
With each painting I create there is something that sparks my imagination...
Beauty, nature, colours, shapes... elements of design...
And something in that initial spark inspires my imagination to explore it more fully and to make it magical and visually stunning. I'm often asked what inspires me to create something, and so I decided to write a little about each painting... What inspired me and what the painting symbolizes.
Each week I'm featuring one painting, from its beginning inception, to everything its become. This week's feature is Secret View...
Secret View, oil on canvas, 60" x 48"
One evening, while driving home, I looked up and saw the most amazing sky. I was transfixed. I kept driving west towards it until I could turn off and head down to the ocean. The sky was changing quickly and I wanted to capture it before the sun went down… I pulled over, and walking down a little path to the sea, I came to a beach. The tide was so high that the water level was all the way up to the logs. I lay down and just watched the beautiful sky with shape-shifting clouds and the colours of the sunset reflecting on the water...
Secret View captures the magic of this dramatic evening sky and ocean. Although this painting represents British Columbia’s West Coast, it also reminds me of the northern summer sky in Norway where the sun sets at midnight and one can watch for hours the changing sky moment by moment; each moment more brilliant and breath-taking than the next, the reflecting colours dancing on the waves...
Secret View - Original Oil Painting - Available
Secret View Draped Kimono - This week's featured product. Subscribe and receive 10% off weekly featured products. - Available in the Boutique
Coming soon... Prints!
Venturing into the abstract...
I'm working on a new painting. It's a little abstract...
It's fun. It's playful.
It's an adventure into the imagination.
With each shape is the hint or suggestion of a figure, a face, a story...
I'm working on a new painting. It's a little abstract...
It's fun. It's playful.
It's an adventure into the imagination.
With each shape is the hint or suggestion of a figure, a face, a story...
And so, I was thinking about the importance of imagination.
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
It's through the imagination that we create anything new. It's where ideas and dreams are born...
(excerpt from Part One in the Little Book of Big Dreams)
Life isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always fun, exciting or even comfortable...
So thank goodness for the imagination!
Using your imagination is like playing in a sandbox; you can make whatever you want…
Sand is malleable.
In your imagination you can be wherever you want to be and you can do whatever you want to do…
“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.”
Your imagination is real.
Whatever you imagine in your mind’s eye has the potential to become real in your life. Everything is imagined into existence.
Once you have a dream or vision of what you want to create, begin imagining the details.
You don’t have to figure it all out. You need only play with it in your imagination…
Read more: 7 Steps from Ethereal to Real: Part One from the Little Book of Big Dreams
Essence into Art
It's hard to see things about ourselves… they can remain deeply hidden. We might sense they are there… But how can we “see” them?
I'm a very visual person, in how I experience the external world, but also in my internal world; my imagination or “mind’s eye”. So for me to understand something I need to “see” it...
It's hard to see things about ourselves… they can remain deeply hidden. We might sense they are there… But how can we “see” them?
I'm a very visual person, in how I experience the external world, but also in my internal world; my imagination or “mind’s eye”. So for me to understand something I need to “see” it.
“Art acts like a bridge that connects the unseen with the visible world, bringing new visions to life.”
And it shows us who we are.
My art comes from my essence… So to be clear on what I want to create as an artist, I must know myself.
For me, this is the first step; to become clear on who I am and to nurture that truth. When I'm clear on who I am, then I can be clear on what I want to create in the world.
I made the Essence Art Vision Guide as a tool to help you get clear on your vision or dream. Knowing why you want something helps you become clear. When you resonate with the essence of your desires, you're in alignment with the truth and purpose for your life.
You can download the Essence Art Vision Guide free printable HERE and watch the VIDEO.
Once upon a time... Painting Enchanted
I’ve been tidying, organizing and planning for my next project(s)… I like my mind to be clear before I begin something new.
Inspiration and creativity need space.
I've been tidying, organizing and planning for my next project(s)… I like my mind to be clear before I begin something new.
Inspiration and creativity need space.
So while I file away the old, to make room for the new, I created a little video-story with some photos and videos I took while painting Enchanted…
“Our self-expression is meant to be a manifestation of the silence of our hearts. ”
Enchanted
My latest painting 'Enchanted' will be on display during the North Shore Art Crawl, March 5th and 6th, before moving on to its new home (overlooking the forest) in West Vancouver...
My latest painting 'Enchanted' will be on display during the North Shore Art Crawl, March 5th and 6th, before moving on to its new home (overlooking the forest) in West Vancouver.
As always with a large painting that takes time to create... there is a story behind the picture. Or rather, from within it. And the story is revealed to me as I paint...
It's called 'The Seven Witches and the Keys to the Kingdom', but you'll have to stay tuned for episode one...
Enchanted 36" x 60" oil on canvas
New Design ~ Forest Hat in Black & White
Creating a life and work I love takes time. Like growing a garden takes time...
It's a journey. And along the way I've discovered there's a cycle to this creative process...
Creating a life and work I love takes time. Like growing a garden takes time...
It's a journey.
And along the way I've discovered there's a cycle to this creative process... A never-ending cycle of becoming, blossoming, creating and transforming. Everything that's created in this world moves through these seasons, cycling continuously through life, death and re-birth.
It's November and where I live, nature is preparing herself for a long winter sleep...
Where are you in Life's Cycle of Creativity?
You can take the quiz here.
New Design ~ Forest Hat in Black and White
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