Table of Contents

• February 2025 Goings on

• Exhibitions

• Major works

February 2025 Goings on

February has been a busy month and it all started with a Buddy Check Coffee at the Lower Sackville Legion where I learned a lot about Team Rubicon, met up with some old friends and made some new ones. The new friend was George Shewfelt, a veteran who happened to mention that he was going to Vancouver for the Invictus Games later that week. I chatted with him about art and the shows connected to the games, which he expressed interest in. In a nut shell he also offered up a space in the Bedford Legion to run an exhibition of veterans art. So I guess I’ll be curating an art show later this year. Lots to think about. I will be leaning on Chris H who set up all of the Veterans Artist Collective Shows with the Gallery George and Arts Whistler to know what to do for sure.

I completed 14 sketches this month, 6 of them with the Halifax Urban Sketchers @Halifaxusk. We went to the Dartmouth Winter festival to sketch Ice Sculptures on Feb 2, the 9th saw us sketch from home due to a storm. Feb 16th we went to the SMU Art Gallery and sketched at an exhibit and on the 23rd we were at the NS Museum of Natural History and sketched in the monsters of the deep exhibit.

This month I completed one 6×6 acrylic and started a second for a Jed Dorsey workshop. I was quite happy with this one as I find painting clear water hard. I think I managed to get the shallows in the foreground better than I usually do.

I also submitted my work for consideration in a number of open calls. The Atlantic Art Showcase and the Canadian Artists and Artisans April to Sept showcases (better luck next time) and I just finished submitting entries for the Delphian Gallery Open Call 2025. I decided not submit my application to join the Parsboro International Plein Air Festival for the main competition, but to attend the quick draw on the closing day.

I sold one of my early paintings this month.

Here is the painting’s story. This little bird was surveying the turbulent waters of the Grand Passage between Brier Island and Long Island off the NS mainland between the Grand Passage Light and the Brier Island Lodge when I took this photo on an August evening in 2018. I was immediately struck by the contrast between the bright yellow and black colours of the goldfinch standing out against the swirling waters of the passage as the Fundy tide was moving near sunset.  I painted this during the community art class run by Heather Hawley in Winter 2019. This was the first time in that class where I got to choose the subject of a painting. When I was done, this painting spent 5 years in our living room until the fall or 2024 when I was asked to nominate a number of my paintings to go to Vancouver for the Invictus Games. This was among the candidates. For several years, I had been unsatisfied with the goldfinch. The original body was smaller and fatter and it looked like it had no beak. I corrected this last fall. Unfortunately, this little bird did not go to the west coast. However, I did submit him as part of a number of paintings I am highlighting to the Delphian Gallery for their annual open call for a virtual exhibit.  The open call submission piqued the interest of a friend from Ottawa who had just moved to Brier Island last fall. So in the end this little bird is going to a new permanent home about a km from where their journey started six years ago. I signed the painting on the 20th Day of February 2025 before mailing it out.

Exhibitions

I participated in two exhibitions tied to the INVICTUS games and curated by the Veterans Artist Collective https://vetartists.ca/

The exhibitions went well and were pretty interesting. I was briefly featured on the final day of the Exhibit at the Gallery George. Here are some walkthroughs of the exhibits

• Arts Whistler Exhibition by @Chris TT https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid025XjVbYREq9gbJDN5iUv6ogyi8VvEiydnnRGawTSR2Tn6Kbk5jbXmtuDXD53GVMZal&id=545276954

• Gallery George Walkthrough by Theresa Mura https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0pxfZTJHB7ADFJzJM5UxX21uzWAhtjj5AFcgYHQdNudujmD7E4jsh3bVEPJPMA8E3l&id=100066875178010

I now have to repatriate my paintings from the west coast.. unless that Vet Arts Collective magician @chrishennebery pulls another rabbit out of his hat. There might just be an announcement in March on this.

Major works

So I have decided to do a few major projects this year:

• I have decided to paint my garage door. It is a 63 square foot (7×9 foot) space. I am looking to paint a sunset on that space. I am now working out how to do this. To help out I drew a 1” = 1’ scale drawing of the garage door with the indents to scale to help draw the scenes. I also have to determine whether I am going to fiddle with spray paints to paint this scene or whether I am going to use outdoor acrylic craft paints. I might actually use both, getting the sunset colours done with spray plains and overlaying the clouds in the craft paint. I am open to suggestions on this from my fellow artists! See the concept below.

• I live on the banks of the Shubenacadie Canal and I have always been fascinated by the waterway. I have sketched and painted a number of scenes of views from its banks in my area. I want to continue this work and am making a concerted effort to paint scenes farther from home, particularly between Wellington and the Fundy exit of the canal. More to follow in the coming months.

See you in March!