so many views yesterday at the public gardens at Dr. sun Yat Sen Gardens in Vancouver. Sketching and painting watercolours in a cool,peaceful environment.  So many beautiful water lilies, I think I’m going to channel my inner Monet!

Such an amazing weekend at Harmonyarts.ca in westvancouver. Started with the Artspeak Showcase Exhibition opening on Friday.  Thank you to everyone who attended👩🏻‍🎨👨🏼‍🎨🎨😊

Saturday morning up bright and early to participate in the 11th year of the Harmony Grand Prix. 31 signed up, 27 participated and 12 artists were selected to move onto the paint the mountain on behalf of Britishpacifiproperties.com 

i decided on a view from the communal garden to the umbrellas of the main stage.  The hollyhocks, dahlias, sunflowers and nasturtium were so colourful and made for a great foreground to the colourful umbrellas and swag hanging above.

my painting Harmony Vibes got me through to the second round.  16 x 12 watercolour.

early up Sunday morning after a full day at Harmony the day before. The 12 moving on to paint the mountain had to sign waivers and get info for the trails and when the gate would open.

i got to the location of the tent and display area at 9am and then drove around to see the highlights of the different trail points. I went and drove a little further, suddenly realizing I was climbing into much higher wilderness.  Turned around and headed to the end of the trail and saw a beautiful vista right from the road.

i settled on my first watercolour being the road and distant city.  Tried 300lb rough Opus watercolour paper.  I loved that incould use the back of my car as my studio!

at 11 decided to venture into the woods and found a plethora of places to setup to paint en plein.  Managed 3 paintings and started a fourth, but by 2pm, I was exhausted!!! Lucky to see a beautiful hawk, and Happy not to encounter any bears - the experience was worth it!

back on Monday to Harmony to hand in the paintings framed and ready.  545 was the stage time for the announcements of the outcome. Didn’t make it, but was happy with how my paintings looked with all the other terrific artists. Did get to have some great quality time with Artist Jan Poynter, Denise Maxwell, Ann Wilsie, and Maria Josenhans and many others!

onto the next challenge - teaching outdoors next weekend and the next plein air challenge Sept 22, 2018.  More to come!