Category Archives: friends

Chet’s Pup

Well, here’s the portrait I did last week, before my portrait class.  What can be cuter than a child with a pup (and a cuter kid would be hard to find!…which which doesn’t hurt either). 
There were several elements that made this  a real challenge to paint, and when I see it here I feel it’s not finished yet.  However, for today, this is it!  



14 x 10″ on 300lb Fabriano

Horses of the High Country

Good friends operate the trailriding in summer and sleigh rides in winter, at beautiful Lake Louise in Banff National Park. Their winter pasture is high up on the front range of the rockies just east of the park. I was lucky enough to visit there for the spring gather a few years ago; an unforgettable experience.  

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Chain Lakes

This weekend was a celebration with my classmates of our graduation from nursing school many years ago (not saying how many!) We met in Banff and had 3 days of catching up and enjoying the last days of September in one of the most beautiful towns anywhere in the world.  I always like to check out the back roads, so today I took “The Cowboy Trail” from Turner Valley to Chain Lakes and then cut across country to home, gathering fabulous visuals and visits with even more friends. It took all day, so no painting….  Instead, this photo, taken about 25 miles west of Nanton,  of Chain Lakes and the Porcupine Hills stretching up to the Rockies.

Ballet in June

A floral today, as we slide on towards winter.  My cousin gave me these beautiful oriental poppies a few years ago,  and for a short time in June, they’re a riot of fluttering, brilliant, luminous orange. They look like a troupe of ballerinas as they dip and sway with even the tiniest breeze. It was good to see them in my photo files this morning and to try and re-imagine them in paint.  

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Down at the Heel

Well, here I am in Maple Creek, having a great time with old friends and new…SO much fun that there’s scarcely time to paint.  When I finally got around to it & got my drawing banged out, I came to discover that I’d left home with everything I needed except my paint!!!!  So off I go to my friend Mary’s tonight;  we shared her studio, had a visit and I borrowed her palette. Phew. I got my daily done, after already missing 2 days this week.  I think it’s become if not an addiction, a compulsion!

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Matt & Shorty

This painting is of  Matt Robertson  at the Ranch Horse competition here in the Hat in July, while he and his catty little grey gelding were waiting for their turn to compete.
I like Matt’s face, the light as it emerges from the shade of that palm-leaf hat he’s wearing, and I like his relationship with his horse

 Not only is Matt a good horseman, who makes his living as a ranch cowboy, he’s a wonderful singer-songwriter. Check it out at his web-site www.mattrobertson.com. His newest album, “The Voice” is awesome. 

SOLD

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

A Nod to Summer

Big doings in the family this weekend, and I’m enjoying the festivities, so no painting today.  Instead, a photo…A Nod to Summer, because today there’s a change in the wind, and it has the nip of fall. This is one of the photos from pickling day and here’s my wonky little sunflower (the yellow one) from a blog painting a few days ago.  There’s so much difference between a painting and a photograph, and each has it’s charms. 

Happy weekend all!

Shaggy

My favourite sunflowers are the big, heavy-headed ones, and last week my friend Kathy brought me a bouquet of them….we were both sad about the loss of our friend Joyce.  

As the week has gone on those sunflowers have gotten saggier and shaggier….and more fun to paint.  
 So to you Joyce…I hope there are fields full of sunflowers where you are now. 

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Winery In the Hills

 Marty and Marie Bohnet, owners of the Cypress Hills Winery, truly subscribe to the “if you build it, they will come” school of business. They built this oasis of loveliness in the middle of pretty much no-where, and in a few short years it has become a destination for thousands, an award-winning business and a genuine vineyard on the Canadian Prairies.
If you haven’t been there yet….GO.
You won’t be sorry.   

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Stampede News

Well today, there was no time to paint, so all you get is a photo.  It’s the 125th Anniversary of the Medicine Hat Stampede and my house is full of people.  Great and wonderful people.  Family and friends.  We had a great day; the weather is absolutely perfect, and there was never a dull moment. 

Because of the Anniversary, the Stampede is having a reunion of all the past royalty, so this town is absolutely full to the brim with beautiful cowgirls of every vintage.  They took up 2 city blocks in the parade this morning, mostly on horseback, and were truly a sight to behold. One of them is my darling friend Terri Mappin (whose photography blog is attached to this blog of mine) which is why she and her hubby Brad and their 2 little “dudes” are staying here at my house. Many others of those girls are well-known to me as well,  and beloved because I’ve known them all their lives, or they worked for me in my store, or both!  
I sure hope somebody got some photos in the parade; I was too busy gawking and tearing up, so all you get is another of my favourite subjects….bucking horses as they moved into their pens at the grounds.