COVID-creations

fhoffman alla prima, art, artist, Artist blog, Artist studio, British Columbia, Exhibiting, Expressive Realism, faye Hoffman, Jasper, AB, Landscape painting, Painting, plein air painting, Studio painting, Victoria

Andrew and I were scheduled to have a 2-person show this summer. What with the COVID situation, the show was cancelled and yet… we still have all that work in our studio! I’ll show you what’s been happening on my side of the studio over the past year or so, below. Larger versions of this work can be found in Nature Work and Landscapes.

I’ve made progress on finding a surface that really works for me (Arches oil painting paper) and have started seeing a personal style develop. This is something most artists strive for and I’m very happy to see it and to push myself to keep on track with it.

All work is for sale (unless indicated). Please email Faye if you are interested.

Small Birds of BC – Series 1

View larger images in Nature Work.
  • Western Bluebird, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • The Purple Finch, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • The Semipalmated Plover, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • Gold-crowned Kinglet, oil on paper, 5”x7” SOLD
  • Wee Chickadee (Black-capped chickadee), oil on paper, 5”x7” SOLD
  • Grey-headed, dark-eyed Junco, oil on paper, 5”x7”
My first set of 6 small bird paintings. The original paintings are for sale (unless indicated) as well as a set of 6 greeting cards (on demand). Please email Faye if you are interested. Individual cards can be purchased at Picture Perfect Gallery.

Small Birds of BC – Series 2

View larger images in Nature Work.
  • The Western Tanager, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • The North American Robin, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • Stellar’s Jay, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • Tree Swallow, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • Black-capped Chickadee, oil on paper, 5”x7”
  • Anna’s Hummingbird, oil on paper, 5”x7”
My second set of 6 small bird paintings. The original paintings are for sale (unless indicated) as well as a set of 6 greeting cards (on demand). Please email Faye if you are interested.

The Mean One

Studio landscapes

Working on composition and the flow of the eye as well as painting style on the wonderful oil paper.
A closer and more abstract view of the landscape and light we see in the forests here in BC. Working with colour and visual texture.
One of my favourites because of the contrasting light and balance of structural and organic details.
A local farm scene (Sooke) and the texture of rock formations in Jasper, Alberta
An in-progress view of Jasper mountains.
A wet coast scene at Cattle Point and a flowing Athabasca river.
Ocean and forest.
Everyone loves an old barn.

Size Matters

fhoffman art, artist, Artist blog, Artist studio, British Columbia, Exhibiting, faye Hoffman, Landscape painting, Painting, plein air painting, Sidney Fine Arts, Studio painting, Victoria

My last post was a while ago but it’s interesting that it ends off saying that I wanted to paint bigger… because I’m painting bigger now! Well, sometimes. Painting en plein air with a large panel is difficult because you turn into a human kite. So mostly I’m bigger in the studio. I have been working on a few low tide scenes. All that variation in colour and texture is so fun to play with, it allows me to add more colour and use the palette knife on the more hard-edged stones and the depth of field helps me to work on composition – drawing the viewer’s eye into the scene. It’s all just huge fun.

Here’s a piece in progress (below). I believe I have just a bit more work to do – on the upper left side rocks. Since it’s so big, it has taken several long studio sessions and as I am back at work after vacation now, even more 1 hour sessions after work. I’m using a solvent-free medium rather than linseed oil to loosen the paint and it creates the ability for me to use transparent layers of colour. Very nice. However, if you use too much of it, the medium won’t layer on top of itself anymore – it just pools. Live and learn, people. Live and learn.

The Sidney Fine Arts Show is being adjudicated right now so we’ll see if either my work or Andrew’s is accepted. Hopefully both!

New Year, New Tools, New Toys!

fhoffman faye Hoffman

Storm Season, Cattle Point
Oil on panel, 24″ diameter

For my artist husband’s birthday wish a few weeks ago, we both selected large round wood panels to spend the day with in the studio. My new fondness for painting knives, a love for new Princeton brushes and their “paint mover” plus some photo references from Cattle Point a few days before resulted in a painting which I am very, very happy with. I LOVE working with painting knives!

The knives allow me to put paint on quickly and in a more structured way as well as thicker. I can then use the brush to vary the texture so it’s not all so hard-edged. The round format was great fun and though I’ll use it sparingly (for cost reasons and so as not to make it trite), I think it brings a new perspective to the standard rectangular landscape.

It did, however spoil me. I want to paint larger and larger and larger…