This is my latest watercolor. A collage of sorts. A wimpsy of items from the sea. Matisse once wrote of wanting to perserve his innocence and spoke of "looking at life with the eyes of a child." That is what I tried to capture with this piece.
I did this pink flamingo painting a couple years ago now. I love it a lot. I have never been much of a pink person for a girl but I do enjoy this painting. I found the perfect frame for this, it has a crackled finish to it. Almost like it was aged on the beach. I think it's fun. It looked great in Texas. I always wanted some of the cheap plastic flamingo for your yard, and when living down in Texas I finally got a pair. I just think they are a scream.
Here is another one of the watercolors I have completed of children at the waters edge. I have decided that I am going to call this series "at the waters edge".
This is another watercolor that I have just recently finished. I am thinking of calling this series "waterbabies". I have a few more watercolors that I have just finished of children at the waters edge. Ooo I might call it that. I have really been enjoying doing watercolors of children lately, and am quite proud of how some have turned out. I have yet to have the chance to scan them into my computer but will hopefully get to that soon. Currently I have been working on an intense watercolor of a mermaid and has been taking up all of my freetime. I will be anxious to complete that and get the mermaid scanned. I have received a lot of praise about that already and it is not even done. So keep tuned to see that.
This is a watercolor I have recently completed, I have not had the opportunity to matte it yet or frame it. But I think it is really cute. I loved the was it turned out. Again I use a large number of colors to create this piece.
This is the second acrylic in the series the first being "Gazing at the water". I loved the shadows the sun was casting that afternoon.
This acrylic on canvas artboard, painted from a photograph of my son Chris on the Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. I loved the shadows the mid afternoon sun has cast upon his back. I also liked that you are looking out past him at what he is gazing at, the calmness of the water.
My most favorite painting of mine of all time. I called this "Mr Gorgeous" because that is what my late sister called him. My sister for those of you that do not know, was mentally retarded, and 10 years older than me. She moved to a facility in Orillia, Ontario when I was six or so. She came to visit a weekend a month or so while I was growing up. We always shared a room and I was always very protective of her. My son Christopher painted here, was born in March of 1989. I had just turned 22 eight days earlier. He was the greatest gift I have ever been blessed to receive. He was the out come of a high school love affair--a boy, I will leave unnamed, as I am sure he would appreciate. We dated for about 5 years on and off. We were young, he did not want the child. He wanted me to have an abortion or give him up for adoption. I could do neither. Chris was a beautiful child, the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. He meant and means everything to me. I wanted to paint a picture that would capture that. I think I did. The teddy bear in the picture my father gave to Chris when he was born and he still has it to this day, he is now 20 years old. I could not love and adore anyone more. I painted this from a photo that was taken when Chris was only a couple weeks old or less. After Chris was born my parents retired to British Columbia and I went with them along with Chris and my sister. My sister died of an aneurysm before Chris was a year old. She had moved in with Chris and I to help me out. That is when she named him Mr Gorgeous, and he was. I was over joyed with how well this turned out. My mother and father don't call me an artist, never have, which was always good for the ego. But about the time I painted this I started to call myself an artist, it gave me the courage to do so. The painting is acrylic on canvas framed in an incredible gold guilted frame and is 16" x 20".
Nelson's Secret Garden
A three part watercolor study. My father-in-law is an avid gardener. He has a large variety of roses in his garden; long stem roses, climbing roses and tree roses. In a wide array of colors. They are an artists dream. This is the first in the series, it was very peaceful painting these.
Pointilism, A postimpressionist school of painting exemplified by Seurat and his followers in late 19th century France and characterized by the application of paint in small dots and brush strokes so as to create the effect of blending and luminosity.
Andrew is my stepson, this pencil drawing was a gift to my husband during a very difficult time when we first met. His exwife was denying him visitation after they seperated. Andrew was only 3 and was the apple of his eye. One could say the sun and the moon rose and set on Andrew. I found a cute picture of Andrew in a desk drawer and desided to make this gift for him.
This framed oil on canvas was painted after a visit back home to Toronto. I grew up in Toronto as did my mother. She lived in downtown Toronto on or around Cherry Street. I took a photo from the neighborhood which I painted this from once I returned home to Vernon, British Columbia. It was November in Toronto when the photograph was taken and I tried to capture the dreariness and melancholy of busy city life. I wanted the viewers main focus to be the buildings, that is why the people lack any detail at all. I only want to sugguest them as they hurried to catch the streetcar.
Dawn M Phelps
