This is my latest painting, inspired by looking at some beautiful sunrises recently out my livingroom window. I've taken liberties, of course. There are actually large numbers of Oak trees in front of the view and doing the trees was my original inspiration. But I really liked the background I did so I couldn't bring myself to put the trees in. Will do another background and put the trees in this time!

I seem to be reading an awful lot of what could be loosely described as historical fiction. Seems to be a lot of books in this category these days. A few notes about them.

"Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters. This was shortlisted for the Booker and I notice she was at the Vancouver Writer's Festival recently. A big beast of a book but very intriguing. I really loved all the twists and turns and the historical aspect of London and life in the 1860's. Quite an interesting modern way through all sorts of standard stuff like gothic, romance, etc.

"The Last Crossing" by Guy Vanderhaeghe. He really seems to capture all those issues of the wild west in an authentic but modern way. Debunking the romance yet leaving something admirable of those times and pioneers, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

"Mount Appetite" by Bill Gaston. Read a few of his stories since the book was shortlisted for the Giller. He's a reasonably good story teller.

"Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett. A novel that was very hard to put down and really very beautifully written. I look forward to reading other work by her.

"The Story of Lucy Gault" by William Trevor. A very good tale as one comes to expect from Trevor. Incredible ironies in the events of the Irish and English background families. A story, of hate, loss, love, redemption, mercy, forgiveness, and the essential mystery of being human---irony does best explore those themes.

We saw "Frida", the movie about Frida Kahlo, the other day. Really quite worth seeing. I'm currently taking a course on Emily Carr, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Frida kahlo and it made me more sympathetic to her work. I don't need to build up enthusiasm for the other two artists. Also saw "Italian for Beginners" on video...also quite good.

This is my latest painting and I've included the photo I painted it from. I debated quite a while whether to keep it simple much like the photo or add various coloured sailboats, kayaks, kites, etc. I decided to keep it simple since I was initially attracted to the simplicity of the photo and the three elements of white: snow on the mountains, sailboat, and seagull.


Olympic View
11 x 14 acrylic on paper


photo of the Olympics

Snow...only in Victoria, you say....!

Looks like Montreal received its first snowfall yesterday. Although we west coast types love to tease the rest of Canada, just to remind Monique that we also get snow from time to time here in Lotus land.


Snow in Victoria in 2001

And a little quicktime movie on our "snowstorm".
SnowinVictoria.mov