Recent Abstracts

Last winter, while doing repairs on my house, I moved to a cottage down the road. It sat in the woods overlooking a narrow strip of the Cove.The view was beautiful but I needed something to do. I decided to take an on-line course that, though not designed for that purpose, would teach me how to paint with acrylics. I was never a fan of the medium and have to admit that I fought hard and made a lot of noise in the beginning.

However, over the months, I began to identify and appreciate some of acrylic paint’s advantages over oil. Firstly, they’re a lot tidier; I don’t get them all over everything. Layering is easier because of the quick drying time which I know is often considered a disadvantage. And there are no worries about fat over lean (thick paint over thin with oil otherwise it risks peeling).

The paintings on this page are the result of that time. It was an intense learning period (I even did colour charts!). There was much scraping, layering, and tracing…