I am very excited to be mounting an exhibition of new works at The Landing Gallery in Gibsons BC, for the month of August. This feature exhibition is a collaboration with my friend and fellow co-op member Nell Burns, a textile artist. We agreed to create works on the theme of "the ocean," given that Nell already does beautiful three-dimensional embroidered shadow box paintings of seafloor creatures, and I already do paintings of waves.

The show will be hung on Sunday July 31, with an opening reception on Saturday August 6th from 1-2:30 pm. During the reception, a representative of CPAWS (the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) will give a short talk on the endangered glass sea sponges, a rare phenomenon just off the Sunshine Coast (http://cpaws.org/news/rare-sea-creatures-in-danger-vancouver-sun).

In preparation for this show, however, and given my desire to provide some smaller works for it, I experimented with painting some vividly coloured pastels based on a series of photos of "kids on the beach" taken over the past two summers. I was thrilled with the results, and became obsessed with creating more and more of them. In the end I made 21 new images (see the "Figures" tab within the "Works" section for the entire set).

Summer Sparkle 8" x 8" framed pastel $195

I liked the images so much, and got such good feedback from those who saw them, that I decided to try a new venture, and had high-quality prints made of six of the images. These "giclee" prints ( a term used to differentiate a fine-art ink reproduction from a colour photocopy) are available in the same size as the original painting (8" x 8") for $50 each, complete with mat, ready for framing. The prints will be sold through The Landing Gallery, but may also be ordered by email (payment via e-transfer only). The same six images are also available as cards in The Landing Gallery.

Hope you enjoy these happy new paintings as much as I enjoyed creating them!