Michelle Grant, artist and resident horse expert, recently won third place in the International Artist painting competition with her painting Storm Front.

Not only did she win third place out of thousands of entries she also received $1000.00 in prize money. Below is the page from the August/September issue. This painting also did very well selling at the Calgary Stampede Western Art Auction for just under $10,000.00. You can see more of her awesome paintings under the instructors page or by going to www.michellegrant.ca

Congratulations Michelle - You Rock!!!

Earlier this spring we invited the watercolourist extraordinaire Alex Fong to do a workshop. For the Friday evening demo he painted a series of small paintings in between working on a larger piece. At some point in the process the larger one decided it wanted to get a bit unruly and didn't want to play fair.

Well after sitting in the corner on the bad boy easel for a spell, once back in Kelowna this painting got a stern talking to. I have posted what has emerged. A very well mannered polite unspoiled watercolour. That was a great lesson about not overworking a painting and just moving on, allowing things time to sort them selves out. We all know you need patience to do watercolour but it takes a real master like Alex to stop, put it away and wait to have a later look, with a fresh set of eyes.

{Intoduction by Doug Swinton, Article by Jerry Markham}

HELLO. I have been writing this newsletter for 16 years, and this time I  decided, while painting in Southern California, I should get a guest artist to write something so I can stay on the beach a little longer and paint. “What a great idea”, I said while eating a bag of Doritos and contemplating why my palm trees look like sticks with explosions on top. I can’t remember if we have ever had a guest writer or not. If anyone remembers, please jog my ever fading memory....................