Korea - Kimchi Pots in Winter Garden

Acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

Another in our Korean series. I wanted to try to return to the 7-step method and avoid concentrating on the details too much (as I tend to do). I was interested in the reflections on the kimchi barrels, so I concentrated on that and didn't spend too long on the painting. - Chris

Korea - Oido Fish Market

acrylic on canvas, 18x24

Another Korean market picture.  I loved the chance to play with brighter colours, and using a larger canvas. - Chris

City Winter Scene

acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

A quick painting from a fotolia picture, at our weekly get-togethers. I don't like the smaller size - I find it too hard to paint freely. - Jill

Korea - East Coast Beach

acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30

I really enjoyed painting this one, and playing with the colours. I like the bigger canvases, too. - Jill

Boat on Shore

acrylic on canvas, 16 x 24

A quick study from a web picture - we all did the same picture, and it was fun to see how different they were. I won't bother keeping this one - Jill

AZ- Monument Valley

acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

Wanted to play with the colours a little. - Jill

Utah - Mexican Hat

acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

I wanted to try a quicker picture of this rock formation called 'Mexican Hat'. I'm still not happy with the darkness of the background, but I thought I'd just leave it for now. - Chris

Goats

acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

We had on old picture from the farm, so I wanted to try painting the goats. - Jill

San Antonio - River Walk Cafe

acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18

We blew up a small area of a photo we took of the Riverwalk - I wanted to try something with more people in it. - Jill

Korea - Woman Cleaning Fish

acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

I really liked the subject of this photo, from our Korean trip in 2006. Despite my attempts to paint more freely, I seem to be a bit of a detail person - never mind, I'm still new to this, and I'm still experimenting. - Chris

Middle of Winter

acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 16

Was looking for a subject, and a friend had this picture. Just a quick study. - Jill

Morning Sun at Arches National Park

acrylic on canvas board, 12x16

Spectacular shadows and highlights in this view of Arches National Park - I hope I did it justice. Tried to keep it more abstract. - Chris

Utah - Bryce Canyon

acrylic on canvas, 12x16

After a long break from painting, was eager to get back to it. I managed to finish this one quite quickly, without concentrating on the detail too much. We were just stunned by the multicoloured hoodoos in Bryce Canyon - difficult to give the impression of all the striations and jagged rocks while not focussing on the details. - Chris

Korea - Nam Dae Mun Market

acrylic on stretched canvas, 20x24

The markets in Seoul were amazingly vibrant and colourful! This picture was so much fun to paint. Now Chris wants to paint a market scene as well, since it's so full of colour and movement. - Jill

Korean Fishing Boat

acrylic on canvas board, 12x16

After the very detailed horse picture, I really wanted to do something more loose. I did the sea and sky quickly with a pallette knife, then tackled the boat in more detail, but didn't spend too long on it. It was a relief to paint something so much more quickly! - Chris 

Boats in Kelsey Bay

acrylic on canvas, 16x20

The photo from which this was painted was taken in July 2008, when a small fleet of native war canoes visited Sayward on their way from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Victoria. As usual, it was a pretty dull day but the colours on the canoes were brilliant. This was a tough painting to do, for two reasons - the details on the boats were hard, and many were edited out, and I also discovered later that the problems I had applying the paint were because I was painting on the rough side of the canvas! It worked in the end, though, and I'm fairly happy with the result. - Jill

Korean Horseback Acrobats

acrylic on canvas panel, 12x16

In the demonstration Korean village we visited, there were some people doing acrobatics on horseback, and I really liked the colours and movement. This was the most complex painting I've tried so far, and I found myself spending more time on details than I really wanted to, but I like the results. - Chris

Since posting this, I've changed the picture a bit - the left horse looks like it's running around with a nose bag on, so I painted out the post on the house that seems to go through its head.

Korea - Hansanman Bay

acrylic on hardboard, 20x31

A view of the bay from the Hansan Shrine, painted on some hardboard that we had lying around. The surface seems harder to work on. I just loved the colours and the very oriental shape of the tree. - Jill

Korea - Entrance to Hansan Shrine

acrylic on canvas board, 12x16

We loved the bright fall colours in this region. Jill painted a version of this first, but didn't like the result - thank goodness for gesso! I was pretty happy with this version. - Chris

Idaho - on the way to Meridien

acrylic on canvas panel, 12x16

We stopped for lunch on the way to Meridien, and were fascinated by the stream and the brilliant yellow and purple grasses. A few months ago I painted this in watercolour, but I'm happier with the acrylic version. ( The strange diagonal line on the left is due more to camera and lighting than the painting itself.) - Jill