Staghorn Fern

16 x 20 inches - oil on canvas - While visiting a fern garden in Cuba we found a number of these spectacular plants.
 

Crocus

 

6 x 8 inches - oil on canvas board - Soon these will be up in the garden.  It has been a long winter.

Hellebore

 

16 x 20 inches - oil on canvas board - This is sometimes called a Christmas rose because that is when it blooms in warmer places than where we are. The leaves stick around through most of the year though.

Japanese Iris

 

16 x 20 inches - oil on canvas board - While these irises will tolerate damp conditions, we also grow them in normal garden beds.

Blue Irises

 

16 x 20 - oil on canvas board - Irises are one of my favourites in the garden.

Opuntia

16 x 20 inches - oil on canvas board - Don't even get close to these unless you have gloves and tongs. The spines are worse than a porcupine.
 

Pink Peonies

 

16 x 20 inches - oil on canvas board - Here is the first of a series of floral portraits I painted recently.

Purple and White

 

8 x 10 inches - oil on linen board - Here is a little fun thing I did a while back.

Peonies in the Morning

 

9 x 12 inches - oil on linen board - I tend to jump around when it comes to both subjects and style. I suppose I could stick to one thing and perfect it. That might sell more and increase the popularity of my work. However, that would not be as much fun for me and I would not learn as much. So I will probably continue to do a series of a few at a time and then move on to something else. I hope you will have patience with me as I try to become a better artist. For inspiration and ideas I draw on a lifetime of experiences including travel, places I have lived, visits to family and just plain imagination. You will find subjects from Peterborough, the small town where I live along with our gardening experiences there, Stratford where we spend a lot of time particularly in the summer, from Hawaii where we have visited three times, from Rondeau Park a small bay on the north shore of Lake Erie where I spent a lot of my youth....etc. etc. You will also find portraits of pets that I have done by request mostly. Getting a portrait made of your pets is a good thing to do, because I am often asked to recreate an image of a pet that has passed. The most valuable thing you can do is to take a photo at eye level of your pet while they are with you and you will not regret the effort.

Cora's Teapot

 

11 x 14 inches - Oil on hardboard.  Every week after church, Cora poured herself a cup of tea. She shared her tea with her African violets, and I kept her pot to remember her by.

Bromeliad

 

12 x 26 inches - oil on canvas board - In the tropics, bromeliads often can be found growing in trees.

White Orchid From Above

 

8 x 8 inches - oil on canvas board -

Yellow

8 x 10 inches - oil on canvas board - I waited until there were two flowers open because one just looked too pathetic.
 

Dark Red

 

16 x 20 inches - oil on stretched linen - These help to cheer us up during the long winter months.

Before the Rain

 

8 x 8 inches - oil on hardboard - If you don't pick your peonies before a heavy rain, you might just find them on the ground.

Pink Orchid

 

6 x 6 inches - oil on hardboard -

White Orchid

 

6 x 6 inches - oil on hardboard - Orchid blooms last longer than those of most plants.

White Rose

 

6 x 6 inches - oil on hardboard - The colours in a white rose are not what you would think they are.

Yellow Lady Slipper Orchid

 

10 x 8 inches - oil on hardboard - These are hardy and flower in our garden every year. I wish I could convince them to face the front of the garden instead of following the sun.

White Tulips

 

8 x 6 inches - oil on hardboard - Even though winter is just starting these will be back before you know it.