Amazing Grace SOLD
Being married to a piper means I listen to lots of bagpipes…which I love. This image represents the MacGilivray Pipe Band marching in one of their many concerts.
watercolour 16″ x 20″
Jam Session SOLD
A simple watercolour expressing the mood and movement of a free wheeling jam session.
Through the Trees
A drive along the coast of Captiva Island is like a drive through the forest, alternating beach and lush tree growth with the smell of the ocean in the air. This piece was juried into the Capture Captiva exhibit.
Amber SOLD
Rocks and trees dominate this incredible landscape, harsh yet so much warmth and beauty infused into the landscape.
Bodacious, 2nd place, “A Fine Line” BIG Arts Founders Gallery, Sanibel Island
A quick 30 minute pose with nothing but the basics…charcoal. Sometimes simple turns out best.
Mixed media nudes
I like how watercolour pigments give a gentle wash to nudes however sometimes a crisp edge helps define the shape, these are watercolours with charcoal for definition.
Fireweed
I spent the summer touring Alaska by motorcycle. This year and last were a tough couple of years for forest fires, thousands of acres burned but much of it was so remote no suppression efforts were made. The year after the fire has been through the burn areas fill with fushia coloured fireweed, it’s a beautiful, colourful landscape . That’s what inspired this 9″x12″ oil on canvas board.
Pukaskwa November SOLD
A small oil capturing the change from fall to winter on the shores of Lake Superior, cold yet beautiful and it’s found a new home on the north shore.
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Shapes, sizes and Age
One of the attractions of life drawing is the variation of models that offer to pose for the group, all sizes, shapes and age make for a new venue on a regular basis. This model was exceptionally tall and slender and another opportunity to portray the human figure. The first 2 are the same pose just different media and technique.
Manatee Migration over Sanibel
We occasionally bump into pods of manatee while out in the kayaks, big, lumbering and a little shy, it’s always a treat to float motionless amongst them as they go about feeding on the sea grass. This is pen and ink with watercolour and a bit of a stretch on reality…I can just imagine them migrating like geese in formation above the gulf coast of Florida (Sanibel Island and the causeway), airborne blimps.
Crab Culture, Merit award, BIG Arts Founders Gallery, Sanibel Island
A couple of crabs from a different perspective, these guys walk funny, look funny and are fun to watch. Oil 9″x12″
Two Palms – Captiva SOLD
Joined a plein aire paintout group at a small chapel located in a clearing just feet from the ocean on Captiva Island, a good mix of sun and shade led to this piece, a small 9″x12″ oil.
Sleep my Beauty
This is a watercolour crayon and watercolour paints piece, a 25 minute pose, I left out as much detail as I could while still trying to capture the essence of the model, 24″x18″.
Just some lines
Sometimes it’s easiest to just get some simple lines on paper than produce a finished piece, relax, music in the background, a great model and the lines just flow…such as…
These guys show up with the snow
Chickadees somehow appear out of no where every year when the snow flies, they travel in small groups like gypsies coming in for a quick meal at the feeder and then they’re gone. Oil and watercolour versions, they both have their own qualities.
Pukaskwa Series 3 SOLD
Another copper sand beach in the wilderness of Pukaskwa. What caught my eye was the way the rocky outcrop resurfaced as it fell into the water, the rhythm of the shoreline seemed to echo the rhythm of the water.
Pukaskwa Series 2 SOLD
Pukaskwa National Park on Lake Superior has a variety of beaches, some piled high with driftwood, some pebble beaches and some with multi coloured brown sands. This beach was made up of copper coloured sand which gave it a warm glow as the shadows lengthened. Oil 9″x12″
Life Drawing
Most of my life drawings are pencil or charcoal but when I see a pose that really catches me I pull out the watercolours and get the image down in 20 minutes. It’s fast and loose, 20 minutes isn’t much but I think it creates some of the best work I produce.
LAYED BACK
CRIMSON POSE – SOLD
Pukaskwa Series 1 SOLD
Remote and wild… my artist in residence stays in Pukaskwa still inspire my work. I’ve been thinking of doing a series of small oils of the area and this is the first. Much of my time was spent kayaking the area so there will be lots of rocks and water. Oil 9″x12″
Dry Pastels
I’m still new to dry pastels and trying to figure out how it best works for me, trying to stay loose while adding some colour is the goal for now…and it seems to be working.
Sunbow River
We often kayak to this spot, it’s a small, winding river with the boreal forest closing in on the banks. It’s a small oil 9″x12″
Foothills
An oil 48″ x 30″, sunset over the trees with the last rays just catching the fields of grass. The focal point is the field of poppies leading into the distance so little detail went into the barns perched over the valley.
Pastels Nudes
Jurors Choice Merit Award, Philips Gallery, BIG Arts Sanibel Is. Florida
A couple of pastel nudes from life drawing, both are 20 minute poses. This model always manages to strike a pose that just wants to make you get it down on paper, a powerful body with flowing curves.
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Pen and Ink
I spent a couple of months in Florida and usually carried a sketchbook and drawing supplies with me, these are a few of the pen and ink plein aire sketches. They’re small 9″x12″ so work well as give aways for friends etc. Three of them were donated to a cancer fundraiser…always a good cause that is worth donating to since I’m a survivor myself.
RON VILIM 