Category Archives: Saskatchewan

A Gift From Jill

One of the really great things about summer is all the company I get.  I’ve had visits from many friends and rellies over the past month, the latest being my niece Jill.  She showed up here with this beautiful vase, stuffed full of a “ditch bouquet” that she’d picked beside the highway somewhere in Saskatchewan!  What a girl.  This porcelain vase is extraordinary; made in Portugal, it has a gorgeous, shiny, iridescent glaze which made it almost impossible to paint.  I tried though, and it’s much prettier than the painting shows. Trust me. 

As you can see, Jilly knows her aunt very well…chickens and sunflowers!

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.

Tompkins Truck

  I came across this old grain truck in a field near Tompkins Saskatchewan 25 years ago, and every time I go through there, I wonder if it’s still there. Saskatchewan has it’s share of rusting old trucks, but they’re slowly being snapped up by collectors. One day I recognised one of my favourites going down the highway on a flatbed!  So who knows where this Tompkins Truck could be by 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.

Saskatchewan Feed Truck

You’ll be wondering which province I’m in! I did this quick little piece in my booth at the trade show today, from my trip to Saskatchewan a couple of weeks ago.  This gnarly old feed truck was sitting in a yard beside the road into my sister’s ranch, and I just liked the look of it; so competent and rugged, just like many of the people there. 

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $120 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Jack

 Meet Jack, the right hand man on my brother-in-law’s ranch in Saskatchewan. The place is situated in a series of beautiful rolly hills, and each hill shelters copses of trees and brush.  Moving cattle there can drive you mad as they break for every bunch of brush and then refuse to budge.  The only sane way to manage is to have really good dogs. And that is Jack; a really good dog.    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.

Pink Church @ Piapot

Having wondered for years what the town of Piapot (Saskatchewan) had to offer, I finally turned off the Trans Canada on my way by, and checked it out.  It’s barely a Hamlet, whose better days are long gone. Actually the place has the eerie feel of a ghost town, would make a great movie set for the “Halloween” movies. There’s not a lick of paint in the entire place, except for this fairly fresh coat of pepto bismol pink on the church! I’m thinking I have a new place to visit when I want to paint on location.

-for more on Piapot including history of the name and the area, go to www.piapotsaloon.com

7 X 5″ on 140lb Lanaquarelle

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $120 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

February Feed Ground

Recently I visited family on their beautiful Saskatchewan ranch, and this is the sight that greeted me on my arrival.  As the sun was going down and the sky was threatening snow the cattle contentedly fed.

I did this quick impression in my sketch book, and it is my offering for today.

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.

March of the Magnificent

Guess I’m on a heavy horse kick these days, after painting aspens for days and heading off on various other tangents.  Clydesdale mares, again. So magnificent.  Hope you had a great Sunday. 

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $120 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Matriarchy

Let me say that all your interest in this project has been heartwarming, and I want to thank every single one of you who visits this blog and makes comments. 
So I think it’s finished, except that I may put a layer of colour on the barrel of the big mare on the left…I think that highlight on her side is a bit too bright. 

These big horses belong to friends of mine who live south of Moose Jaw, and I can only imagine what a pleasure it must be to own and raise such magnificent animals.

Progressing

Well, the horses are all done…barring adjustments.  I left the sky and background till last because this painting feels like a portrait to me, even though there are 6 subjects rather than one. The background will hopefully enhance and not compete with the horses.   I’m a bit apprehensive and hope that by tomorrow night I won’t have screwed it up.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Plunge in With Paint



And here’s another progression, showing the 
development of colour, structure and light.


This is the scariest time of all, when you have to plunge in with lots of paint and try & make black horses out of that flat drawing on a piece of flat white paper (300lb Fabriano by the way).  My heart just pounds when this is happening, and it’s more fun than anything ever! I paint with the 3 primary colours, so like I said, black can be tricky. I layer as little as possible, & as you can see, I’m trying to get enough paint in there on the first attempt.  Stick around!