Colour and Happiness

February is one of those months where winter in some parts of Canada has just about driven everyone mad. Here in Victoria, this February 17th, it's a rare sunny day.

Today is sunny and is full of surprises. With my new birthday gift, I am one step closer to being a happy technophile.

Evidence of my happiness is a gift of my first Ipad. The IPad is from my dear computer literate Vic and the glorious spring flowers from a close friend who is far away in the frozen tundra of northern Alberta. Flowers and IPads do make a February birthday interesting and cheerful. 

 I look forward to learning how to use my new toy. I have downloaded a few drawing and painting apps which will be perfect for sketching. I have even downloaded a game of golf which is a bit difficult like real life golf. Below is my painting of the Fifth Tee at the Victoria Golf Club. We are fortunate to golf year round here in Victoria. My painting is very peaceful scene of a golfer on the Fifth Tee with the mountains and ocean as a gorgeous backdrop.

Colour = Happiness

Here are links to Tom Hawthorn's Globe and Mail article about how I love to express colour in my paintings even when Victoria's winter skies are grey.

Article
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/in-a-city-too-often-swathed-in-grey-an-artist-of-the-sun/article2417371/

To view 3 of my painting images in the Globe and Mail photo gallery, please click on this link.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gallery-the-paintings-of-barbara-weaver-bosson/article2417403/

Looking South to the Blue Bridge

  above detail of my in progress painting titled Looking South to the Blue Bridge

 my finished painting of Looking South to the Blue Bridge (2012)

Victoria's Johnson Street Bridge and the working harbour

click on images to enlarge

Now available as fine art prints

image size 15.5 x 28 inches

 signed and titled

 $ 60 and up

Where to purchase my new prints?

http://weaver-bosson.blogspot.ca/2012_11_01_archive.html

click on link to visit my gallery listings in my November archive

Click on images to enlarge for a bigger image view.

The Fifth Tee -Victoria Golf  Club,Trial Island
  11.5 x 23 inches acrylic painting by Barbara Weaver-Bosson all rights reserved
Giclee prints Sold Out

  The Fifth Tee original painting is available for purchase, please inquire e-studio@shaw.ca
 

I love to golf and had over the years golfed several times at the Victoria Golf Club with our friends and members Paul and Iris. I love the view that the Fifth tee and Fourth fairway offers of Trial Island and the magestic Olympic Mountains range. Several fairways of the Victoria Golf Club's course borders the ocean and both sides of Victoria's scenic Beach Drive. If you are in town visiting, please take the scenic drive and you will see this iconic view of the mountains, The Fifth Tee and Trial Island.

Kitsilano Houses and the West End Vancouver
 Acrylic painting by Barbara Weaver-Bosson

14 x 19.5 inches

 Available for purchase, please inquire e-studio@shaw.ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cat In The Window
Acrylic painting by Barbara Weaver-Bosson
18 x 14 inches
Copyright 1999, all rights reserved by Barbara Weaver-Bosson



A View From Moss Rock
Watercolour painting by Barbara Weaver-Bosson
26 x 20 inches

also available in Limited Edition Prints
Copyright 1998, all rights reserved by Barbara Weaver-Bosson

  

My art prints of Victoria's Johnson Street Blue Bridge are now available

My painting of Victoria's Johnson Street Bridge
and Upper Harbour is now available in Fine Art Prints.
 

My painting of the Johnson Street Bridge and Victoria's working harbour

"Looking South to the Blue Bridge"

 by Barbara Weaver-Bosson, copyright 2012

 

click on image to enlarge

 

colours in this image may display differently on some monitors

 

Where to purchase my new prints?
Click here for my print gallery locations
http://weaver-bosson.blogspot.ca/2012_11_01_archive.html
 

 

 

 

 New Years Resolution # 1

 Enjoy Life and organize a lot of Pot Luck Dinners

The last few weeks have been a great break from our usual routine.Vic and I enjoyed spending our holiday time with our dear friends Ron and Marcie and Ken and Donna. We all have lots in common and that would be art. Many of us have backgrounds in fine arts, commercial illustration, design and potlucks.  We all became good friends during the mid 1980's due mostly to our good timing and our memberships in the Island Illustrators Society. Ken helped establish the IIS along side many of our other close artist friends. (which I will mention in my upcoming blogs.)
D and K live here in Victoria and R and M lived in North Saanich for hundreds of years and much to our dismay decided to move to Summerland (a small lakeside town in the Okanagan that is dryer, snowier, icier, and sunnier than Victoria). As R and M pulled into town for the holiday, we knew we were in for some heavy art talk, lots of potluck dinners and too much scotch and wine.

COLD TURKEY
For a good two weeks we all enjoyed a busy and upbeat holiday with many late nights, meeting friends of friends, discussing and arguing about art and most importantly how Downton Abbey should be on every evening. Donna, who always prepares far too much of the good food we eat, has been testing the waters of retirement. It is quite common nowadays that many of our friends who have real jobs in government or public sector are looking at retiring. Retirement is a relief for people who had demanding and stress filled jobs and are now finally enjoying their pensions and the freedom to choose the type of day they will have. The transition from working full time to stopping cold turkey would be a shock to anyones system. I know Donna has many cool ideas for her free time but is planning her retirement at a slower pace than just going cold turkey.

RECHARGING
Many of us artists can't imagine retiring but over the last few years have seen a change in pace and attitude of what projects to take on and what to leave alone. In the art world we have our challenges and stresses and at the end of a hectic year, need a bit of time off. These days my ideal ways to relax are finding a tropical beach with free drink service, flopping on the sofa for Downton Abbey Seasons 1 through 3 or combining the first two ideas with visiting friends and family. All or just one of these acitivites allow us to escape our familiar surroundings and recharge for the busy year that lies ahead.

RETIRING OR SIMPLIFYING
 As the holiday with our friends came to a close we had one other party to attend. It was not just another pot luck dinner, it was a birthday party. We were enlisted to help our delightful friend Betty celebrate a very significant birthday. Betty, now 90, knows how to tell a great story and throw a great dinner party but most importantly is one heck of a good painter. We know from previous visits and from the multitude of stacked canvases in her studio, Betty paints most every day. She loves to paint with Ron when he's is in town and her favourite subjects are still life, figurative and abstracts. Betty's painting style is filled with grace and simplicity. With Betty as a fine example and role model, she inspires us to simplify our lives and offers quiet advice ..... keep painting and don't sweat the small stuff.

BUY LOW AND SELL HIGH
The other side of the retirement question is one of money and pensions etc and how a well earned and deserved public or private sector pension is beneficial to maintaining a stable life and keeping a dry roof over ones head but sorry to say, I am sure you will thank me for not getting into that conversation. All hard working artists have a variety of different situations and I couldn't possibly generalize everyones circumstances or give sound investment advice or suggest how we each should proceed into our senior years but I have to mention... remember that silly banking and investment ad that played for years on tv? It still makes me laugh to this day FREEDOM 55!

ENDLESS INSPIRATION AND ART SUPPLIES
Collectively, we as friends and hoarders of art supplies, we may never ever fill up all our sketch books, use up our tubes of paints and fill up all our space on the computers hard drive. As far as the eye can see, we have far too many subjects or landscapes that will inspire us to paint, we have so much more to learn and so much more to experience and so much more to support or disagree about. All I know for sure, is we look forward to getting up everyday and getting into our studios. We may never just up and quit and retire from doing what we love to do. And as they say, "This is a Good Thing" for our arts and culture of Canada. Hopefully all of us will contribute for many more years to come.

In this New Year 2013 I would like to propose a toast to all

Cheers to all our good friends and colleagues! Here's to using our imagination and here's to visually making the world a more interesting and colourful place to live in.

To view Ron and Marcia Stacy's website
 visit http://stacystudios.com/

                    

Story of a painting and a Christmas Past

And Soon the Snow Began to Melt
acrylic painting and greeting card image by Barbara Weaver-Bosson Copyright 1997.


I have painted a few snow scenes over the years but in 1997 I felt the need to paint a scene of the peaceful aftermath of a rare snow storm that buried the city of Victoria during the last week of December 1996. Sixteen years later I recall

The Snow Storm of  '96

 I recall it was a very busy and crazy December and Christmas. The snow was falling fast and furious as I was in the taxi heading for the bus to the ferry. I was in dire need of a rest and my Christmas present to myself was a sunny holiday in Mexico. As the main cook and menu planner, I knew that while I was away Vic wouldn't be getting around to cooking much while he was working on his illustrations for "The Fox's Kettle."  Thoughtfully, I left him a freezer full of frozen dinners to enjoy.
The trip to the airport went smoothly but soon realized I was dressed for winter and not life on a beach. I ditched my knee high winterized rubber boots in the airport washroom and quickly headed for the gate and climbed on board the plane with the other happy holidayers. Out our tiny window seats we saw the weather turn very ugly. I found out later that we were on the last flight out of the Vancouver airport just minutes before all flights were cancelled.

 The amount of snow that fell during this storm was unprecendented and Victoria was at a stand still for days. Over the week in the beach resort, I was only able to get one successful call through to Victoria. I had no idea what our city had really gone through until I returned. Vic claims that he was not in any danger but was very grateful when two of our friends tunneled their way up to our front door and brought a him a gift of a good long visit.
 Many stories I heard from friends and neighbours were of how everyone had to dig themselves out, how neighbours trudged single file down one path through the waste deep snow, how city road crews tried to cope with inadequate equiment to initially clear roads, how CFAX radio station was broadcasting as an emergency network and arranging aid for individuals who were stranded without food or medications. Many people had to come up with make shift solutions until they could get a crew to repair damage to the caved in rooves in their homes and businesses. The great white blanket covered so much there was hardly a clue that cars were parked along the curbside or driveways. Those adventurous enough walked through the winter wonderland but found they could not carry themselves more than a block or two before becoming worn out from struggling through the deep snow. Others put on cross country skiis and headed out the door with ease. Out of town visitors had to stay put and accept the fact they could not get back home and their Victoria holiday would be extended until the roads were cleared and traffic was moving.
 
 I was away for all the challenges that the storm left but in the aftermath the story tellers all felt the storm had a positive effect on them. Most people who were not working in road or essential services and emergency jobs made sure their neighbours had the essentials of food, light and heat. Looking out for eachother gave communities a chance to get connected and help out however they could. The simple life came into clear focus for many families who played board games of monopoly or sat quietly reading by the window by daylight during the days power failure.

 The title of my painting And Soon the Snow Began to Melt  refers to my seeing only a hint of the snow left behind by the storm. In essence this painting is a statement of how life looks to be getting back to normal after one of  Mother Nature's fierce weather surprises.

Sending you my Warmest Wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. 

Cheers,
 Barbara

Weaver-Bosson's Art Prints of the Johnson Street Bridge and Victoria's working harbour.

My Print Launch at Picture Perfect Gallery

Thank you to all who came by that rainy and blustery, afternoon of December 1st, to say hello to me during my print launch. Mitchell, Angelle and Michael at Picture Perfect Gallery were so pleased you came by to view my exhibition of original paintings and my new print selection of the Johnson Street Bridge and Victoria's working habour. Many who are not familiar with my Neighbourhood and waterfront series had a chance to see a selection of my original paintings and my Victoria Neighbourhood Series art prints. Considering it was a busy time of year for many folks, I was delighted the event was well attended. Thank you,to all of you all who made my print launch a very special day for me.

For all of you who did not get a chance to see my new Looking South to the Blue Bridge prints, Picture Perfect Gallery and many of the galleries listed below have them beautifully framed up and hanging on display. Please call to inquire if you are looking for specific prints in my series.

my completed original painting Looking South to the Blue Bridge November 2012
A view of Victoria's Johnson Street Bridge and the working Harbour
Image size 14 5/8 x 26 3/8 in.

                                All fine art prints on paper are hand signed and titled
  

all canvases are hand signed on front and are titled and dated on the back

Prints on paper and canvases are ready to frame
  print image measures  15.5 x 28 inches.

Priced at $ 60. and up

Here I am with my Looking South to the Blue painting in progress October 15th, 2012

Copyright 2012 text and Images. All rights reserved by Barbara Weaver-Bosson


If you live out of town and would like to order my new prints or inquire about my available Neighbourhood Series art prints

please call first to inquire
 long distance calls please add 1
 

Picture Perfect Gallery
University Heights Shopping Center
324B 3980 Shelbourne Street (at McKenzie)
Victoria B.C. V8N 3E2
Phone 250 477-5621
 

Broadmead Gallery

Royal Oak Shopping Centre

# 102 - 4440 West Saanich Road

Victoria, B.C.

Phone 250-744-1447

Options Picture Framing

2651- Douglas Street

Victoria, B.C.

Phone 250-381-4022

 

Love's Olde Towne Gallery

# 102-535- Yates Street

Victoria, B.C.

Phone 250-385-6722

Neighbourhood Series Art Cards only

Side Street Studio
# 204 2250- Oak Bay Ave
Victoria B.C.
Phone 250-592-1262

* all edition prints can be ordered, ask for Sue Hays

Thrifty Foods

 Fairfield Shopping Plaza

1590 Fairfield Road
Victoria B.C.

*cards are displayed by the Customer Service desk

My GALLERY LOCATIONS for my Neighbourhood Series Art Prints and Art Cards

My GALLERY LOCATIONS
for my Neighbourhood Series Art Prints and Art Cards

Please call these galleries first to inquire about your print and card selections.

Picture Perfect Gallery
University Heights Shopping Centre
# 324 B- 3980 Shelbourne Street
Victoria, B.C.
Phone 250-721-1313

Broadmead Gallery
Royal Oak Shopping Centre
# 102 - 4440 West Saanich Road
Victoria, B.C.
Phone 250-744-1447

Options Picture Framing
2651- Douglas Street
Victoria, B.C.
Phone 250-381-4022

Loves Olde Towne Gallery (for order inquiries)
# 102-535- Yates Street
Victoria, B.C.
Phone 250-385-6722

Neighbourhood Series Art Cards only


Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Gallery Shop
1040 Moss Street
Phone 250-384-4171

Thrifty Foods*
Fairfield Shopping Plaza
1590 Fairfield Road
* cards are displayed by the customer service desk

Side Street Studio *
# 204 2250- Oak Bay Ave
Phone 250-592-1262
* Sue Hays will be also order limited edition art prints for you

Sample page of a few of my limited edition prints from my www.weaver-bosson.com website

                                        

logo design for my art prints

A Sneak Peek of my Current Painting in Progress

A Sneak Peek Detail of my Current Painting

a blow up of a small detail of my current painting of the Blue Bridge and Upper Harbour.

 Regardless of what this section will look in 3 weeks, many areas and details evolve and change as I work on a painting. It may confuse you (the viewer) to see it here because this image is not to scale of the original painting but I feel you may enjoy this close up so you can see some of the paint strokes and textures of my painting.
 

Stayin' Cool in the Studio

Summertime and the Livin' is Sticky

Each summer here on the island, we usually have one week of crazy hot weather. We are often very content with our standard Mediterranean climate but it can go horribly wrong and get very hot and very uncomfortable.
I am a very big fan of 19 Celsius and when the temperature hits 29 blast furnace degrees C. it is just something I must write about. On these extreme days, we wish desperately for a swimming pool and the closest thing to a swimming pool is our beautiful backyard pond. Daily, in the hot weather, we are secretly tempted to take a dip in our pond but wisely refrain, knowing the neighbours are dying to share on the Internet, candid photos of the unusual artist neighbours splashing about in the pond.

Stayin' Cool in the Studio

To combat the 29 degree heat, I fling open my one north facing window which brings in a overwhelming cacophony from wood chippers, chain saws and deafening leaf blowers. Our open window is also an invitation for a migration of over sized spiders who seek shade and refuge from our frenzied neighbour's many electrical garden type power tools.
Yes, we have been meaning to upgrade to a more appropriate cooling system and it would be smart to have a proper air conditioner in the studios. Our two cooling fans are not EnergyStar rated and were purchased during the heat wave of '76. Every summer as we try to stay cool, our Hydro bill skyrockets as we dial our fans up to 11 and hope for a comfort level that will allow us several productive hours of painting.
 

I have not yet grown accustomed to the forced air flow of the fans and the fluttering of assorted sketches and small paintings whirling past my head and shoulders. Even with the distraction of blowing air, I am always optimistic that I am going to get a tremendous amount  of painting done if I am not accidentally knocked out by a flying art object. As the day slowly ticks by, the room gets hotter and hotter.
 

Melt Down

 By 2 pm everything in the room feels tacky and it is all suddenly sticking to me. Sipping my ice tea and trying my best to paint and stay focused, my room feels like a desert with super heated gale force Santa Ana winds. Not surprisingly, tumble weeds roll past my ankles, heat waves appear on the roadways of my painted cityscapes, all the lawns in my paintings are turning yellow and a prickly cactus has started growing in the corner of my dusty window sill.

As the relentless heat plays with my mind, things start to get really weird. In the corner where my monitor usually sits, I notice a large jug of icy cold Kool-Aid with a big smile on its face. He winks at me seductively. Having kicked the Kool-Aid habit years ago, I resist.
Knowing it won't go away easily, I thwart this powerful nostalgic mirage by bravely cranking up my fan to 13! Dealing with the vibrating and moving furniture, I successfully anchor my painting to my table and try to ignore the big spider who is happily cooling off in my ice tea.

                                                                       A spider finds a spot to cool down

                                        

                                       

By 4 pm, I hear Vic's panicky voice from his studio, "Barb, the dishes, cutlery and rugs have started to melt ! "....

 That's it, my survival instincts kick in and we pile into our Volvo and race off to the air conditioned wine store. As the wine store merchant welcomes us, we leisurely browse the cool oasis and isle upon isle of wine and 92 point selections.
 I ask Vic, "why didn't we come here earlier ?" Our over heated minds finally cooled down and hundreds of ideas for sublime wine and food pairings become abundant. After taking a few hours to decide which wine would be perfect for our dinner, the wine store staff politely ask us to make our selection and leave.

By 7 pm we are refreshed and renewed. We head back home where we open our bottle of 2009 Beso de Vino and serve it with a selection of our summer fare. Nestled in the comfort of the cooling basement atmosphere, we find just enough room for a spontaneous romantic dinner of "take out" beside the washer and dryer.



 

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Victor Bosson's Link to the Outside World

Visit Vic's new on line art print store and see his new digital montage art prints.

Click here    www.galleryartlife.etsy.com

                                      

                              

                                               In My Dream, I saw The Queen"
                                                        Digital montage Art Print 
                                                               By Victor Bosson

Cheerful, whimsical, affordable and often thought provoking, Victor Bosson's art prints make perfect gifts for the home and office.

Receive a free gift with your purchase, offer expires soon. Vic will not try to sell you a vacumn cleaner.


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OLD NEWS is Good News
My Blue Bridge painting is developing nicely and I am adding lots of details to the view of the working harbour and old town area. Prints of my finished painting will be available in November 2012 and I will keep you posted as to which galleries will be carrying my new prints of my new Blue Bridge painting.

  Here is an small detail of my Blue Bridge painting in progress. This detail is a small portion of the painting only and does not show the whole view of the composition. 

The painting measures 16 x 26 inches and is an expansive view of the working harbour and the view looking south to the Legislature. I am looking forward to showing off the completed painting.




I reserve all rights including copyrights to my images and writing. Permission to use material within this blog will be given in writing only.