Crossed Wires

Crossed Wires 5 x 7 oil on board

to purchase for $100 click here

 

This is a pretty typical site in Malta.  It

explains alot about why we tend to loose power

every time it rains, which fortunately isn't very often.

I find the scene intriguing.

Whew, it's been a fabulous week!

I've been so busy painting that I haven't had time

to post, which I guess is a good thing.

I still trying to wrap my head around all the great

things I picked up from Ovanes.

It's in my head but I'm still having trouble transferring

the info onto the canvas. It will all become more

clear after I've logged in enough canvas miles.

I'll keep you posted:)

 

New Friends

This is our group from the workshop in France with Ovanes.  It was wonderful to meet everyone and be in such a small group to learn from a master painter.  On the left is Tania, from Brazil,who learned alot of English and had a good time painting too:)  

 

The short fellow is Keene and you can check out his beautiful paintings at http://keenewilson.com/. He's got some great notes on his website about the workshop for artists that are interested.  

 

Next to Keene is Pat and you can see her beautiful florals and other paintings at http://patfiorello.com/.  Check out her blog too for lots of handy info.  

 

Last one on the right- c'est moi!  

I need to also include Cashew, le chat, named for a black and white type of liquorish, and Socrat, le chien, named after Socrates because she's always thinking while gazing off into space.

And last but not least the Master himself putting us all to shame and showing us how it's really done!

 

 

Nice!

Old Friends

One day was sooo cold and rainy we took the day and went to the Fine Art Museum in Lyon.  It's a beautiful little museum that I have visited before with a nice Egyptian and Impressionist Collection. It's only about an hour from Cluny, without traffic that is:)  It was a special treat to hear Ovanes' critique.  Gaugain is one of his favorites, mine too!

Sunny and Stormy

The weather forecast in France has been sunny and stormy.  The sunny part means times when it's not actually sunny, but it's not storming or raining.  We have a big tent set up that we can work under that is great. Ovanes and his assistant Susan had to tie it down for us yesterday because of the wind gusts.  Now I don't have to worry about it falling on my head:) Whew, I only have to worry about how to paint.

Since I'm doing mostly studies to try to incorporate what I'm learning I don't really have any finished paintings to post.  But I want to share a landscape that I did with a little help from my friend;)  I did the underpainting and the fence and most of the middle ground and I was very pleased that he actually left my mark making.  There's nothing like a more experienced artist touching up a painting to help me SEE how it should be done:) It's great to have this for future reference.

 

My landscape study:

A little bit of happy

This is a close up of one of the paintings I'm working on in the workshop. One of the things I'm trying to do is get more paint on the canvas. Some areas are more successful than others!   

Ovanes is a wonderful teacher and I feel like I could work on what he tells me in five minutes for a life time, and I probably will!  On Friday night he treated up to the BEST DEMO EVER.  He started about nine p.m. and painted until two in the morning.  Then he excused us and took about an hour or so of quiet time to put on a few well thought out touches.  He did an amazing job on a 48 x 60 inch canvas.  A true pleasure to watch.  Sorry I can't post a photo but he doesn't post work on line for copyright reasons.  He will have a DVD available so if you're interested please email me @ brucebingham@gmail.com and I'll give you more information.

YUM!

Is it strange this makes my mouth water?????

Purr-fait

Petit dejuener at the Chateau d'Angion!  Purr-fait!

Cozy!

My French house is so cozy! Overstuffed chair by a window, big cup of English Breakfast tea with a delicious mouth watering Madaline, wrapped up in a quilt handmade with love, feels like a little slice of heaven.  Forget the to do list, it's all about now:) Tomorrow I leave to drive to the workshop a couple of hours to the south.  Fingers crossed for a wireless connection!

France!

France!

I'm leaving for France early in a.m. for a petit sejour

followed by a ten day workshop with

Ovanes Berberian!

Not complaining at all:)))))))) Silly grin.

I hope to post if WiFi is available, but in the

countryside of Burgundy, anything can happen.

If I run into technical difficulties,

I  promise to share when I return at the end of May.

Thanks for staying tuned....

Yes!  Off to France, tra la la, tra la la!

Joy!

Joy

Joy 5 x 7 oil on museum board

sold

I loved this photos of my friends' dogs (Sophie and Jordie) running on the

beach in the outerbanks. So I asked

if I could paint it:)

It just had such a feeling of freedom and joy!

My painting pal Jo MacKenzie does beautiful

watercolors and lots of pets.

She is always looking for pet photos, so if

you've snapped a good one recently send it along to her.

You can check out her work here:

http://jomackenzie.blogspot.com/

Relax

Relax

You are purr-fect just the way you are.

This is a photo of my friend Louise's cat, sleeping, really sleeping.

No stress there!

I decided to follow the example and take a day and do

only what I want to do and not anything I 'should' do.

 

On a score card with 10 being the highest, a ME day

looks something like this:

creativity pursuits=10

chores=0

 

I include cooking in the chore category so it's pizza for the

hubby tonight and out to my pal Jeni Caruana's

art opening of Maltese landscapes.

Purr-fect!

 

 For arts sake I'd like to share one of my favorite paintings

I've done recently:

Pecan Pie  6x6 oil on museum board

for purchasing info click here

 This painting just seemed to sing it's way onto the canvas:)

Thanks so much for viewing my art!

A-pear-atif

 

A-pear-atif  6x6 oil on museum board

to purchase for $100 click here

 

I found these precious miniature pears in the

grocery and couldn't resist buying them

to paint.

They went really well with a glass of

white wine,  visually that is:)

 

Thanks so much for viewing my artwork

and taking the time to comment.

You complete me:)

 

 

Rose Tea Pot

Rose Tea Pot  8x8 oil on board

to purchase for $250 click here

I was trying to push my warm/cool color 

relationships a little further with this painting.

For me painting is a process with 

lots of small steps along an

endless journey of creative self discovery.

Deep, I know:)))