postaday

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fun

fun ii

What could be better than seeing our beautiful granddaughter
and all the other children having fun in the water park today.
Now if only there was one for seniors!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning

morning

A frosty early morning walk last January was rewarded with this view from Hadden Park in Vancouver looking west to English Bay, with a backdrop of distant snow-capped peaks and the ski slopes of Cypress Mountain to the North, all bathed in a glorious rosy pink light from a spectacular sunrise in the east. A magical moment to be remembered, savoured and shared.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Narrow

narrow ii

Just for a few minutes each day a narrow shaft of sunlight illuminates the glorious natural beauty of Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona. It will take your breath away.
It certainly took mine.

we happy few

Discover Challenge: Shared Journeys.

“For this week’s challenge, tell a story that shows the value of company.”

I think these pictures speak for themselves. I am always happy to have the opportunity to revisit our six day trek to Machu Pichu three years ago with Mountain Lodges of Peru in the company of a great group of individuals who came together for the first time and parted as the closest of friends, having shared in the adventure of a lifetime.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”…and sisters 🙂

Machu Picchu

she loves me

shelovesme i

 

she loves me, she loves me not…she loves me

With all the dandelions about at the moment I couldn’t resist
one final submission for this week’s Photo Challenge: Details.

shelovesme ii

all you need

love

On another day of tragedy taking place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a message from our beautiful granddaughter whose radiant smile is lifting all of our spirits this weekend.
If only love was all you needed, but it certainly is a start.

palettes de jour encore

Weekly Photo Challenge: Details

These close ups of my watercolour palette become
unique pieces of abstract art.

detail iii      detail iv

detail vi      detail vii

detail ii      detail v

detail i

Palette de Jour 16.7.16

the right road

A Piece of Advice

This week’s Discover Challenge from WordPress “brings out the positive: tell us about a piece of advice you’ve received — and would like to share with others.”

right road

The Right Road  14.7.16

When I was a young boy my beloved grandfather said to me:

” In life Andrew there are always two roads, the right road and the wrong road.
Make sure you always choose the right one.”

His advice has stayed with me all of my life and echoed in my mind over the years whenever an important decision has needed to be made or a life-changing direction to be followed.  It has been the best advice a young boy could have ever have hoped.

right road viii

To complement this week’s Discover Challenge, and particularly as this month I am working through Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination,  and also painting as part of Worldwatercolormonth, I thought I would continue the exercises of Chapter 8 in the book with imagined images that reflect the spirit of my grandfather’s advice to me.

right road iii

Tony suggests making small loose drawings and washes as notes, and not to worry about the consequences.  Some are very abstract but some became quite specific and more detailed as they developed, as you can see.  Each was intended to convey the sense of a fork in the road with a choice of direction between the light and the dark.

right road vi.     right road vb

right road vii     right road ivb

This last image is perhaps the darkest of all and reflects what might have been.

Dedicated to the memory of my wonderful grandpa from his grandson,
now a besotted grandpa himself.

a summer bouquet

bouquet iv

I couldn’t resist painting this summer bouquet of
lavender, margaretas, cosmos and photinia
picked from the garden today.

bouquet iii
 
bouquet ii

Worldwatercolormonth Day 9