A breezy November visit

Back home in Steveston again, after a beautiful and breezy November visit to Exuma.     But the sometimes cooler morning weather didn't stop me from getting up with the sun and heading off to the beach to paint, in the silence and calm of the morning.    Opening new tubes of paint, using a new detail brush helped me to create a few new paintings on my favorite beaches.   

I had a wonderful time sitting on the stone wall at Three Sisters Beach capturing the 3 sisters rocks hoping I would finish before any rain started.    Luckily it never did rain and I spent 2 hours and finished up with a painting I really liked.    The Exuma Palms Hotel, justs steps away was a nice retreat where I had a glass of wine with my new photographer friend.     So nice to meet a another talented creative soul.    There's a feeling of TLC at the Exuma Palms that shows in the hard work of the talented Manager, new to the island.
And I hear he is a fantastic chef too!     I just cant imagine how anyone could resist staying there and waking up to the sound of the waves of the beach.    Then having one of the Managers coffees and sitting out on the patio with nothing to do but breathe, really, what more could anyone looking to get away from it all ask for.

I had several visits to Chat 'N Chill on Stocking Island and tried to complete a painting of the bench by the tree at the tip of the bay.    I think I had too many distractions but did enjoy chatting with some really interesting and new friends, so it was still time well spent.

It was extra quiet on the island and not everything had reopened for the busy tourist season coming up, but that was just perfect for me.    Just exactly what I wanted.

My head is still floating in that "zone" of being away, still clinging to the sensation of sand beneath my feet, the sun warming my shoulders and hugs of a long distance friend.    But I never completely unpack my suitcase, why bother, I know I will be back.

Joanne

April 2012 Regatta

After returning from a trip to Exuma during Regatta this past April,  I couldn't wait to start painting the sailboats racing through the blue waters of my favorite island.    It was the first time I got caught up in the excitement of the races watching the large white triangles of the sails trying to pass each other.     These huge triangular shapes were so easy to draw and paint when I was little, but a little more challenging now trying to capture the movement of the wind as they pushed ahead to the finish line.     Despite the organized parties going on in town, the beaches were still quiet as usual to get lots of painting done.    The wind during April was great for racing but a little tough to paint as the sand whipped around me and my paper and paints.    After painting for the last 2 days, I am almost finished and just need a few more hours before signing and adding the finished piece to my web site gallery.

joanne  

Inspiration from home

Sometimes I have to find inspiration closer to home, Steveston, B.C. I love the water, the sky, and will try to spend as much time as I can around Steveston, our beautiful fishing community. Whether its walking to work, hanging out with friends or walking the beaches, it is inspiring and makes me feel so lucky so grateful, for the view I have every day. The water isn't as nice as Exuma, not as blue and warm, but we have the mountains, and endless blue sky and clean air. I cant imagine wanting to live anywhere else, in Canada.

Painting On The Beach In The Hot Summer Sun.

I've had a busy spring preparing for my trip to Exuma last July and my 1st show at the Sandals Resort. What an experience and what an amazing resort, talk about great staff, but the best part for me was to share my work of local scenes, that staff and guests of the hotel could relate to and admire.

I had such an amazing trip and was really successful with my beach painting this time. I was able to really focus and ended up with a couple of pieces that I really like. There's something so different painting on the spot, the mood of the painting has so much more movement, with the flow of the water on shore, the waves and the constantly changing colours in the sky. Plus, with a couple of new painting accessories, mainly my new painting tray, it really helped. To have a tray that can hold all the necessary colours with room to mix and then to be able to close up the tray and keep these colours, saves me time and money. When packing for a day of painting on the beach, keeping supplies at a minimum helps. I want to have everything I need especially if I am alone without the amenities of food and water but I want to be able to walk around and explore too.
Painting on the beach in the hot summer sun, energizes and frees my soul, leaving me with a peacful and calm feeling so its all worth it.
Stay tuned for these newer paintings to be added to my gallery.

I did the usual camera work while walking around town and I am currently working on some of the George Town buildings, such as the local market. The straw market is filled with beautiful hard working women, creating beautiful baskets, and crafts. the colours in their work are like an abstract painting, in realistic forms, for everyday use. I have several around my home in Vancouver. I finally finished my first of many paintings to come of the market.(see attached painting)

This last trip was very inspiring and brought back my passion for the abstract paintings on large canvases I did while in college and continued to do up until my life led me to Exuma. I find thoughts of Exuma guide me through my latest abstract watercolours, thoughts of missing the island guiding my brush leading the blues around the paper in an expressionist style.

I feel more and more at home when I go to Exuma, always safe always made welcome by familiar faces and friends and I find it harder and harder to say goodbye, even though I know I will be back one day.

Joanne

Christmas Eve with warm thoughts of the Beach

Its Christmas Eve and while my children do some last minute wrapping, warm thoughts of Exuma and the beaches are dancing through my head.

I have several paintings I have been working on of Stocking Island and Three Sisters Beach and I am hoping to finish them over the Christmas holidays. Some of them are almost done, just a few splashes of paint here and there. A couple of them were done as rough painting sketches while on the island, but are good enough to finish now that I see them with a clear mind.

One in particular of Three Sisters Beach was done during a really windy day in November a year ago. I had been sitting on the stone wall by the rocks near the road entrance to the beach. The waves were constant, huge noisy, exciting. The wind blew water and sand around me, on me and I loved every second of it. The energy of the stormy weather gave me energy to attempt to capture the waves in action, the clouds moving at a steady pace, were painted quickly across the top of my paper. And in the back of my mind, I am thinking I need to finish to get as much done as I can before it rains.

But smiling, feeling the strength of nature around me, it was moving, it was a total
creative artistic moment.
And then it started pouring rain and I ran for the cover of the stand in the parking lot, waiting out the rain, waiting to walk home. Home during that visit was a cozy bedroom in my friends house at the end of the beach.

So tomorrow after the unwrapping, the lazy morning of Christmas togetherness, I will head to my painting room upstairs and will give myself a gift for the holiday season.
The gift of hopefully, uninterrupted painting.

Happy New Year!x0
Joanne

Success on Stocking Island

It worked!

Walking around on Stocking Island, enjoying the sun the water and finding
the perfect quiet spot to paint helped to create a successful painting.

While walking down on the beach, there is a bend leading to the quieter side
where the boaters have anchored in a bay for shelter. It is away from the Sunday
crowd, the music from Chat and Chill and very few people seem to wander around there.

I picked a spot with a view of the Salt Beacon atop a hill. Blending greens and yellows and blues I created the hills, surrounded by the turquoise water, and topped
off with the blue sky and fluffy white clouds. The heat and wind actually helped the painting this time as it dried quickly enough to go back in and add the detail.
Adding the white sandy paths down the hill with the Salt Beacon and outlining some trees on the hill added colour and brightened the final piece.

I never mind when people stop and watch me paint and the few that walked by were really quiet, although I had my ipod on, because the music helps to block out the other sounds around me. After going for a swim to wash off the green paint I got on my leg, I headed back to the noisy part of the beach for some mahi mahi and a glass of wine. Yum!

I usually give away my paintings that I do on the beach. To me they never seem perfect enough to sell, like the ones I spend hours on at home.

Tomorrow I think I will just paint on the beach in front of my hotel.

Joanne

"Fall in Exuma"

Its 9:30am and I am sitting on my verandah waiting to catch the water taxi over to Stocking Island. It will be busy at Chat 'N Chill , the restaurant, but I know where to find the quiet spots to paint, and there is the convenience of washrooms to clear up my paints. Not to mention the yummy bb-qued sea food.

Windy cool mornings in the Fall in Exuma, means the best painting time is in the afternoon, but it's taken me a week to relax enough to want to paint and not to be distracted by thoughts of home, work and snow in Canada.

So I think I will have to pull up a beach towel and just start painting and who knows maybe the wait will be worth it. Maybe the wind will help clear the clutter from my mind giving it an opening for that creative energy to move my brushes in a good direction.

During my first week on the island, I have volunteered art lessons to a couple of children on the beach and at my hotel, sharing my painting supplies and my passion for painting. This is great and I packed extra paper for this reason.

I've met up with friends who live on Exuma which is always nice to break up the quiet time of travelling alone, and to see them again is quality time.

Time to get on the sunscreen and pack up my painting supplies for the beach. Maybe
I will try close up scenes of the water the plants, something different. Not that
I am tired of the blue sky, the water and palm trees, I think I am just tired.
I think I just need some vitamin D from the sun to energize me.

Joanne