Buttercup the goat

Buttercup ~ 4" x 4" oil on gallery wrap canvas

up for bid on DailyPaintworks

BID HERE

auction will be active on May 15th

I grew up on a farm, and we had goats. Over the years we had many different kinds of goats...Nubians, Alpines, LaManchas, and Saanans. I grew up on goats' milk, and to this day still can't drink milk from the store. I guess I'm processed dairy intolerant. Raw milk doesn't seem to bother me.

I remember that we had a few different goats named Buttercup, and this one reminded me of her. (Yes, nanny goats can have beards and horns) 

True Blue ~ Stellar's Jay and Art Nouveau

True Blue ~ 4" x 4" oil on gallery wrap canvas (1.5" profile)

Edges painted black and ready to hang

For sale at DailyPaintworks...starting price $30.00

BID HERE

(auction becomes live Wednesday morning)

The Stellar's Jay ( I can't help but call them blue jay...my kids are constantly correcting me!)

is B.C.'s provincial bird, and a very common one at our feeder. They're rambunctious, noisy and comical. They squawk at me when they're out of food, and they make such a mess. They only want the sunflower seeds, so they swish their beaks through the seed, scattering it everywhere, just so they can pick out the sunflower sees. I love watching them because they seem to try so hard to communicate. I've had many opportunities to take pictures of them, and I love the brilliance of their feathers.  

I Heard the Owl Call My Name ~ Bird Painting

I Heard The Owl Call My Name ~ 

4" x 4" oil on stretched canvas...ready to hang!

The newest in my daily songbird series...I'm so delighted by the return of bird song, that I can't resist painting these cuties. 

For sale on DailyPaintworks

CLICK HERE to Bid...

Glendalough Gold ~ dreaming of Ireland

Glendalough Gold ~ 5" x 7" oil on panel

My daily offering for you today...trying to brush up on my landscape skills...I call this a faux plein aire...I didn't paint it from life, since, alas, I am not in Ireland at the  moment. But I have been there, and stood there and looked at this scene. It is one of my favourite places on earth, and as I painted I tried to remember the smells and the breeze and imagine my self back there, to try to recreate the experience.  And I have to admit, my own photography skills aren't the greatest, so I used Steve Evans (babasteve) photograph, with permission. I'm going to go through my own picture collection soon, and hopefully share with you more of my adventures.

The auction for this goes live tomorrow (April 18th)  at 10 am

CLICK HERE TO BID

Start price  $35.00

I Heard it From a Little Bird

I Heard it From a Little Bird ~ 

4" x 4" oil on 3/4" profile stretched canvas

Tis the season for little birds...Spring has sprung!!

Up for bid at DailyPaintworks... price starting at $30

SOLD

Link becomes active at 7am PST, April 17th...

The Rogue ~ red fox watercolor painting

The Rogue ~ 

5" x 7" watercolor on smooth, 90 lb mixed media paper

For Sale on Daily Paintworks ~ BID HERE :

bids starting at $30.00

Right now, my 10 year old son has an obsession with red foxes...he's done reports on them, studies them online, reads books about them from the library...needless to say, there is a lot of fox reference around lately, and his enthusiasm is wearing off! Hence, "The Rogue"...I remember growing up on the farm with chickens, foxes were a constant threat. But my dad would never try to shoot them. He just put chicken wire on top of the pen, and framed right down into the ground so they couldn't get in.

"The Visionary"~Contemporary Owl Painting

The Visionary ~ 5" x 7" oil on hardboard

I have always been fascinated with owls. They have this otherworldly silence, this innate wisdom in their being, that is palpable when you see them. 

Native Americans associated the owl with wisdom, foresight and keepers of ancient knowledge with powers of prophecy. In other cultures, they are said to be guardians of the underworld and keepers of the dead. However you choose to see them, they are beautiful and mystical and a wonderful painting subject.

I've been experimenting a lot with colour, texture, and different mediums in my paintings recently, and here is my newest playful piece. Up for bid on DailyPaintworks starting March 27, 7:00 am Pacific Time...

BID HERE

"Starfish Blue" ~ 4" x 6" watercolour, pen and ink

A companion piece to "Treasure from the Sea"... a colourful starfish, caressed by the gentle surf, brilliant colours gleaming.

Up for bid on DailyPaintworks, link becomes active Monday, March 17th, 7 am Pacific tiime

BID HERE

Treasure from the Sea, sand dollar painting

Treasure from the Sea ~ 4" x 6" watercolor, pen and ink

Starting Bid $30.00  BID HERE

at Daily Paintworks...link will become active on March 9, 7am Pacific time

The Pacific Ocean is of great concern right now, in the aftermath of Fukishima, will these beautiful creatures be nothing but myth in the future? I hope to preserve their beauty for future generations who may never get to see them.

Northern Spotted Owl Chicks

Northern Spotted Owl Chicks ~ 5" x 7"

watercolor, pen and acrylic ink on watercolor paper

For Sale in my shop starting March 2, 2014

BID HERE

So, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I've been working a bit differently for the last little while. 

I needed a change. I needed to not take myself and my art so damn seriously. I felt bored and stifled. I never learned to play...I know!! Really, I was so afraid to go out on a limb, splash paint around, use crazy colors, break the rules. I played it safe. I got really good at safe. 

BUT...as a wise man once said...

 “Safety is the most unsafe spiritual path you can take. Safety keeps you numb and dead. People are caught by surprise when it is time to die. They have allowed themselves to live so little.” – Stephen Levine

I'm having fun!!

Two new Raven paintings

What I got up to today...I got some new acrylic inks I thought I'd try out, I was feeling kind of playful, sooo...

Pretty much done!

Ascension ~ 5" x 7" acrylic ink on 300lb watercolor paper

The Rainbow Thief ~ 5" x 7" acrylic ink on 300lb watercolor paper

Grizzly Bear painting in progress shot and finished!!

In progress ~ almost done!

Finito!!

Big Mac ~ 30" x 40" oil on canvas

I took a very long break on this guy... Sometimes, when I have had a bad relationship with a painting, I need to hide it for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. When I'm struggling, all I see is what is wrong, with no idea how to fix it, and if I put it away I can come back to it later, and usually I am able to see exactly where it needs to go. This is what happened here. And he's done! Hurray!

Here is the link to my last post where I documented the progress... http://tahirihsblog.blogspot.ca/2012/10/in-progress-wildlife-grizzly-bear.html.

Fly Away With Me ~ Caherciveen Ireland

Fly Away With Me ~ 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel

Bid Now on DailyPaintworks

Starting at only $39

(the auction becomes active on the morning of January 10, 2013)

Oh…to fly away to Ireland again…I wish I could. Maybe not quite yet, judging from the fantastic storms they're having right now, I might not want to be there. But soon. Please…soon :)

This building looked like a castle from a fairytale to me, but it was called the Barracks, in Caherciveen. 

Caherciveen was a little coastal village that I stayed in, as a departure point for my trip to the Skellig Islands, where the ancient beehive monastery perches on top of a spire of mountain rising out of the sea. The evening before my trip, I spied a castle ruin in the distance and decided to go for a walk. It didn't look very far, but the road meandered in it's typically irish way, and it took me a few hours to reach my destination, Ballycarberry Castle. The ruins were fascinating, and I spent a while exploring inside, where it was dark and spooky…imagining duels in the narrow tower stairwell.

Anyways, on my way back to my hostel the sun was starting to go down, and when I reached the Barracks, it was illuminated by the golden light of the setting sun (it's actually a whitewashed building) As I stopped to snap pictures, the multitude of birds perched along it's spires and rooftops burst into flight…and I ended up with this.

Afternoon Encounter ~ Bella Coola Grizzly

Afternoon Encounter ~

5" x 7" oil on 1/8" hardboard panel

BID NOW on DailyPaintworks

Bidding starts at only $30

A memory of an afternoon swimming with my family at the Atnarko river. The water is this rich green colour, from the algae that on the bottom, but also from the reflections of the lush greenery all around. Bears are abundant in our beautiful valley, and encounters like this are not at all uncommon. Generally the bears are shy and go their own way, but we did have a poor hitchhiker get attacked this summer! He was near a salmon bearing creek, and it is assumed it was a momma with cubs on the other side of the road.