Dynamic Transformation: Butterflies & Moths / On Gallery Wall

Tender Series:Blue

Works in progress

Tender Series: Blue
acrylic & wood stain on board
24" X 24"
Sold

Bowen Island Wharf for Spring Moon

Sam at Bowen Island Lodge has been generous with his prime waterfront wharf.. Giving us great wharf privileges from March through to end of June at his families beautiful Lodge.  We're the only boat here for now, and have power and water on the dock. Only steps from Ferry and market, and five minutes from Juniper Gallery in Artisan Square.  So lucky.  Truly grateful.

New Tender painting that I've been working on for the last week.  This one has been commissioned by a young couple who liked an earlier work (Blue Tender) which had already sold before they got to the gallery.  It's difficult working on a commission basis, and a good challenge, because I have to be so much more cautious.  No wild ventures into creative madness.  Can't experiment to the same degree- everything has to be exacting.  But, it makes for a steady hand and a relatively predictable outcome...

Blue Tender II
Becca Fairbairn
acrylic, varnish  and stain on wood
24 X 24

New Work / Tender Series - April

Getting ready for the summer....

Red Tender
acrylic on board

Bob McKnight & Boats

: 

My love affair with Bob, which lasted through the summer and into the fall,  went far beyond our common interest in sailboats.  We shared a love of bikes, all boats, family and friends, and he even tolerated living with Rose (and I)  for a few months.  (Bob loves to pretend he doesn't like dogs).  We read Farley Mowat's Boat That Wouldn't Float out-loud to one another for a week, and during this time Bob spoke to me, almost exclusively, in Newfie dialect (Come topsides and sees whats I'm doin'!!) he'd shout from the upstairs of his lovely (built by Bob) home.  He cooked pizza from scratch, rolling the dough out and adding the most bazzare toppings you could imagine, resulting in a mouth-watering feast of Italian (his grandparents) inspired cuisine. He shopped for and cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for twelve, with two turkeys and enough vegetables to feed all of the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower. He used an electric paint mixer to mash the potatoes. The list goes on. Bob loves to drive his vintage 1969 Porsche, which usually means several hours on his back under the car adjusting something, usually the brakes, before he can get behind the wheel.  He rides a classic BMW 650 Boxer motorcycle in the summer to work , looking like a helmeted version of a very sexy Steve McQueen.  Even though our tryst was short-lived, the impact of Bob's powerful and passionate personality will never leave me.  His is a unique spirit.. full of fun, quick to forgive, incredibly generous to friends and family, hard-working (he said that if he worked any harder he'd throw up),  crazy and super athletic (rides a longboard most places in the city. He's 63. Can you bloody believe it??) and he's very, very loving.  He is, above all, a conundrum, mostly to himself.  A wild-spirited, soulful and wise 'young' man, who lives life DAILY to the fullest.  I will miss his presence in my life... 

Dynamic Transformation: Butterflies & Moths

Just about finished....maybe Saturday.

I've had to take an x-acto knife and cut out areas that don't work, and repaint them.. then wait for them to dry and reintegrate them with the work.  Constantly balancing and rebalancing the composition as I go along... always following the direction of the wood's grain.  There is a natural aesthetic in the grain that is harmonious and dynamic, which has it's own ebb and flow.