This was an intuitive painting inspired by local forest walks but definitely not literal. We do have cascading water falls at this time of year but the foliage is more monochrome green. I livened it up with pinks and reds as if there could be rhododendrons blooming already. A good way to play and warm up at the beginning of a new year.
(C) 2023 Hilary Farmer
Wishing all the very best of the holiday season and a wonderful 2023!
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
I have been working on this larger piece for a while. The colours are more muted than I often use but fit with my mood and the season – late autumn with its short and gloomy days. Ever-present ravens still flap overhead though animating the sky. To my thinking, this painting just shows three or four ravens as they move through time and across space. Details below.
Layering oil paint then scraping to reveal colours below results in a sky that glows like an opal.
Ravens do like to perch on the very top of the tree!
I love how this glows and the sketchiness of it.
I took photos of an apple tree in bloom by the ocean a while ago and finally decided it needed to be a painting. It seemed so fragile there in a way and yet obviously had been surviving in that location for a long time.
I live on one of the Gulf Islands off Canada’s West coast. After a recent winter storm, we were out of power for about a day. No big deal. We’re used to that. But then, our main (actually only) communications line hit the main power line (both crossing from one island to another) in the wind and ended up in the ocean. No phone land lines, no wifi and very little cell phone service with sporadic access to data …and most importantly – no 911 service. Five days later we got a temporary fix. Anyway, all that to say “Blooming at the Edge” is sometimes a more active struggle than you might think!
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
The best known tourist attraction on our small Gulf Island is called Malaspina Galleries. This natural sandstone formation dramatically creates an arched room open on the ocean side. You can see there are trees growing on the “roof” above. Some late season fine weather meant I was able to go out painting one afternoon in November with a friend. She had painted here many times before but it was a first for me. It was quite challenging to catch this quirky spot in a painting but I was quite pleased in the end.
It was too nice to just head home after that first painting so we went to another spot nearby. Here, I really wanted to capture the sparkles in the water even though it was pretty blinding! I had to take a peek and then paint for a while then peek again. I was delighted when a family of three paddled into view and stayed around for long enough that I was able to add them to the piece. The canoe and people give a sense of scale and add movement to the scene.
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
I like to paint (with oils) on paper sometimes. With an inexpensive substrate, it feels like there is less pressure to produce something saleable. Here, I was just feeling an autumn mood with dried grasses under foot and birds overhead heading off to somewhere warmer. The sun peers through hazy clouds since we did have some late in the season forest fires in the area. The brushwork is quite loose and you can see that I have also scratched into the paint – often just with the end of the brush.
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
My latest mini. I do love painting these wee ones! Small creatures on small paintings are just the thing to try out new ideas and techniques. Here as well as regular oil paints, I used some R&F pigment sticks of pure oil colour. I also did some scraping and scratching to get the look I wanted.
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
A new piece inspired by the cliffs and rock formations around where I live. In this case, I have included the cormorants that form seasonal colonies here. From below, it looks like they make their homes on the narrowest ledges. The stone wall also has strange round pockets that seem to make more congenial nesting locations.
A couple of details below.
You can see the shadow of the cormorant in flight on the cliff.
Some fun with splashing surf.
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
This is an imagined landscape but very much inspired by my experiences of exploring the west coast of Canada. Sometimes there are lots of people around, lots of boats but at other times the stillness and feelings of peace and solitude and deep and pervasive. Some details below to give a better idea of the textures and colours.
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
This is an enormous large leaf maple tree with just a matter of time before the limbs that are left fall. In the meantime however, it’s a wonderful subject to paint en plein air. The stark pale grey of the dead tree contrast with autumn colours even on this rather dull day. I also enjoyed the interplay between the shapes of the branches and the movement of the clouds. The hydro poles remind us that there are people around even if the setting looks remote.
(C) 2022 Hilary Farmer
Green Tea Doodles 