It had to happen sooner or later!  Now that we have explored the west over several seasons adding mountains to the background of my treescapes was inevitable.  These are the beginnings of my "Ode to The West" series.

There's still snow on the ground outside my studio window but I've been busy painting these flowers while waiting for spring to arrive. The photos were taken from my garden last summer, looking forward to seeing them come up once again. 
These paintings are headed to the Oceanside Gallery on Vancouver Island in time for their special flower themed show in May.
Think I'll try making some more but much larger next time, here are some pics showing the  progress how these paintings evolved:

"Treescape 01925", 36 inches by 60 inches.  This is one of my favorite paintings from my new 2025 series of fall paintings.  Husband James is busy building shipping packages over the next few days to send out to introduce them to the world now that they are signed.  Below are a few more in this series.  Have a great day!

Great news!  Honored to have my work accepted into this year's Invictus Games art show thru the Veteran Artist Collective.  I am especially happy to have one of my paintings featured as the show poster for this special art show featuring veteran artists from across Canada.
I offered 9 pieces and they accepted all of them woohoo!  Four of them in my usual style plus the 5 poppy paintings dedicated to our Afghan veterans.  Couldn't think of a better venue to showcase them.  Great way to start the new year off!

While it's snowing outside I am working on a new series of fall Treescapes.  At this stage a lot of the splashing of paint is done.  Moving on to palette knife now......

My shipment of small paintings have arrived at Koyman Galleries in Ottawa just in time to be included in their Holiday Exhibition of Smalls Show.  Koyman's is hosting an Open House today from 12pm to 4pm, details here.  Each year we are asked to submit small works to the gallery for this event to help celebrate the holidays showcasing each artists individual styles. The show runs from Nov 23rd to Jan 6th and the sizes requested this year are 12 " x 12" and 18" x 18".  These are my paintings at the show, I see one has sold already woohoo:

Here are a few of the paintings in this shipment, a few treescapes and seascapes to share with you, have a great day!

This painting "Poppies 11824" is the last one in this series.  Here are photos of the progression from basic Canadian flag overlaid with the poppies.  I used parts from several photos of poppies growing in my garden.  I mixed enough of the camouflage colors to paint all five paintings in this series.  I was pretty happy with the composition by this point so time for colors woohoo!

I used overly bright colors for the base colors then went back over certain parts with titanium white then primary yellow followed by Naphthol red and Quinacridone Red  on the poppies allowing each color to dry in between.  The same steps taken on the foliage to further develop where I wanted the final parts to look backlit by the morning sun.  The last pic is one of the photos that inspired me to paint this series. Thanks so much for letting me share this series with you, warmest regards, Carole.

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Here is the story of the fourth painting in this series.  The series began with taking pictures of the poppies growing in my garden and designing a background that would incorporate the colors of the caf (Canadian Armed Forces) camouflage pattern on their uniforms and the Canadian flag.  Then I chose my favorite pics, cropped them and using a photo editing program turned the photo into a basic silhouette.  Once I was happy with the composition it was time to paint the background. My favorite paint to use is a liquid acrylic, the brand I love is "Golden" for it's in tense transparent colors and staining capabilities.  Expensive but worth every penny! 

At this stage it's time for color in the foreground.  Started with basic vivid red (Napthol Red) as a base color followed by a primary yellow which was followed by washes of cooler colors (Quinacridone Magenta, Quinacridone Red and Permanent Violet) to bring out the details.  The foliage started with a base color of primary yellow and intense primary green (Quinacridone Green).  Once dry, a dull turquoise color is mixed for the shadow areas while leaving some of those super bright yellows and greens peaking out where the sun is hitting this backlit composition.