Gorgeous Fall Colours this year!

Summer has come and gone... and the beautiful FALL colours are spectacular this year!

Available on canvas, framed/unframed prints & cards at Claire Bull Art website 

Have been able to get out and take photos with great walks and fun with the dog - she loves Boating!

Fun Boat Rides and Water in the Sunshine = Happy Dog!

New art available from summer - This original is acrylic on 6 x 12 inch wood panel - LOTS of SIZES available as canvas art or prints ;)

Dancing Boots - Original available at Claire Bull Fine Art , or you can choose any size Canvas, Framed and Unframed Prints, Cards available here  Claire Bull Art Selections

The Guardians - from part of a larger acrylic painting - this is available as canvas art, prints, cards at my website on Fine Art America

Also working on some Christmas cards - putting them up at my Zazzle Shop 

Handmade Cards for Christmas - from my original art - available through me at my ETSY shop

or printed professionally through my Zazzle store  http://www.zazzle.com/artbyclaire*

Thanks everyone - I will keep you updated when I can ;) Hope you had a great summer!

VL Artist of the Day: VL Magazine Artist of the Day is Claire Bull

VL Artist of the Day: VL Magazine Artist of the Day is Claire Bull: © Red Umbrella By Claire Bull © The Path By Claire Bull © Color Blocks By Claire Bull "Creative expression and free...



Today was a good day. The entire month of April was good - On the COVER (and inside pages) of Visual Language Arts Magazine for APRILSpring is here after a LONG winter (although it gave us time to create and be in the studio it was really tough on the old bones and heating pads with fireplace and warm knitted sweaters were a necessity ) and YAY for getting some color back to this gray brown world.

We saw the sun about five times through the whole winter. The rest of the time we saw big flakes of Snow and gray. BUT. In the deep cold with the white covering everything, it is silent and magical and there is no dampness and it does not hurt and there are no bears or critters so your dog can run free and the fireplace and the knitting and the sun sparkling on the snow. It is really really nice and crisp and clean and white and beautiful.

and another BUT... I am glad it is done. Welcome Spring and warmth and color and new growth and rain and sun and flowers. The paintings in this "Artist of the Day" featured are my Umbrella painting - It is a Mix of Rain and Snow falling on the Red Umbrella - and "The Path" is from Honey Harbour at Georgian Bay area in Muskoka where we all enjoy our cottage time and those beautiful pink granite rocks and evergreen trees, and the "Color Blocks" is an abstract work from my imagination.

I am honoured to be part of this magazine and featured here among so many talented artists.
Please support my websites Claire Bull Fine Art for my originals and my Print on Demand website with amazing quality and the best reproduction website I could find, I have personally ordered every item from them and am proud to be have them representing my art - Claire Bull Prints, Cards, Canvas Reproductions at Fine Art America and I am working on Art Licensing and Royalty Free images with them (contact me - we are working on it) - and many gift items (iPhone cases, notecards, pillows, binders, magnets, notebooks, etc) available through my Zazzle websites worldwide. Just type in your suffix - ie. ca. nz. au. com.  

My link to the main site is ArtbyClaire at Zazzle

And an "easy to remember" site - Artist Claire  they all get you to my art and my links and you can email with questions or commission requests. And I do LOVE your support so if you are on Facebook, please support my Fan Page and let me know y

ou like what I am doing and I will be happy to keep on going!

my Facebook Fan Page

Of course you can email me from any of those sites

I have been an "artist" since I knew how to hold a crayon. When I am out for a walk all I see is the color and where the branches lie and how the light hits them and where is the moss and what colors in the moss and how the bark shadows hit the tree and how the shadows hit the ground. The new flowers and how they shine and the shades of green in the leaves and the pinks of the flower with the curve of the petals. I am trying to capture that. But it is impossible to capture so I try to interpret it and I am glad you are liking it.

THANK YOU.

Please tell your friends and family and other art people about me as I find it really difficult to do the shows and am trying to work in the studio and just put it here online. We ship worldwide and Canada Post and internet are huge for artists like me.

Grateful to you and thanks for supporting me.

Claire Bull

Merry Christmas Everyone - Stay Safe in this Ice Storm!!

We have had snow every day for three weeks straight (or longer) and it is piled high to the sky... there is nowhere to put it all and now with the ice storm and high winds and colder temperatures, I hope everyone is safe and can make it through alright - I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas - hopefully you have a wood burning fireplace or access to a warming centre.

A Bit of the Process

It takes many layers to make a lot of my paintings and sometimes it takes weeks. I use different materials and techniques to make the textured backgrounds and work on more than one painting at a time so the crackling will crackle or the mediums will work their magic.  I thought I would just post a few "Progress" pics here so you can see a bit of the process.
This one is called "Under the Sea" and is 30 x 30 on gallery sized canvas. This is one of the acrylic paintings that took me weeks of work.

With the Fibromyalgia and arthritis and the back injury, I do have to work at the paintings in increments and take breaks - sometimes it is hard to hold a brush so I use my fingers and sponges. I paint each day and it is my favourite part of the day.

that is a day's work for me ... I cannot work faster than that or do more and all of that motion with my hands meant pain later in the evening but I loved the start of this and it was a large canvas for me so - then it had to dry for a couple of days while I worked on another one. Here is another progress pic...

Lots of colour added (this was over a few days also as i added the colours separately or they would mix together )  we are getting some depth now




And the texture is growing - I don't think I took more pics but will see if I can find any and insert them here - otherwise you can see from this closeup, the texture and the detail increasing. I work on portions at a time and do not work right to left or left to right, I work on where the music takes me and then step back and let the painting tell me where it is going.

So stepping back, you can see the fish now and the way it is building up in layers.

I always love LOTS OF COLOUR so of course, this one was fun to do with the transparent colours and layers and mixing some and leaving others right out of the tube

Eventually it was done and turned into a fantasy seascape of underwater fish and coral and maybe that is what it is really like down there !! Remember the story about Atlantis?? Maybe ....

Then some final touches and wait again a few days for it all to dry thoroughly - this is acrylic so it does not take too long, but with oil paints you wait months before varnishing. So with this acrylic, then you can choose to varnish it (which brings out the colours and seals it) or leave it ... and I like to varnish most of mine. I did not varnish this one as it is such a large painting and I have nowhere to put it in the house to do it !! But I think when the warmer weather comes, I will spray it to seal it and at least get that vivid colour.

This is now available as prints, cards, reproductions on canvas, acrylic and metal surfaces through my websites   here is my Fine Art America website   Have a happy day no matter where you are, full of colour and fun ;)

Second Verse, Same as the First

Ok so we are doing a REVISED edition of the painting which has SOLD now... if it doesn't feel "done" then it doesn't feel "right" = there is a possibility of overworking it, but also there is this unsettling feeling

I will paint a number of these and some of you out there might like a painting as a reminder of the cottage...

I took a photo of some of the pieces of the ROCKS here... you can see the colours and how beautiful they are. So imagine huge rocks that you can walk across with the blue of the water and the big ol' pine trees leaning and the wind blowing - it is so lovely - so here are the rocks... if you enlarge it you can see all the beautiful colours

Now here is some of the scenery...

and this was not a sunny day, it was brutally windy and cold - I actually wore my winter hat and mittens with the windbreaker pants today to walk out here
You have to wear long pants because of the snakes (I don't paint them)

Georgian Bay Through My Eyes

Sorry people - I said I would post yesterday but this painting was a struggle... from previous posts you can see how it started and how much it changed - that is the beauty of working with oils and of spontaneity ... with most of my paintings I walk and think about what I will be painting - then look at reference photos and then just paint - I paint from the heart and out of my head without looking at the photos again ... put on some music and CREATE - so sometimes what comes up is totally different from my original idea
Most mornings I wake up thinking about the colours - to me, the colours and the light and the actual "ACT" of painting and creating is more important than what I am painting, and oil gives me the freedom to do that and change it up - the music for this painting was Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen and some Robbie Williams songs - on my previous paintings I was working with Johann Strauss and a lot of classical music
Also the theme music from "Dances With Wolves" was a big part of the creation of this painting - I seemed to play the "John Dunbar Theme" over and over

I still love the sky on this one - tried to carry the soft purple through into the water and the rocks were tricky ... Alice and I walk these rocks every day and there is A LOT of pink granite but so many colour variations

I am going to paint many more of these because obviously it is what I see every day and I want to share with you and show you my little corner of the world...

The previous post had the "beginning" of the painting - here is one of the progression pics so you can see the trouble I had with it... See how they look like almost totally different paintings? Except for the sky of course - I have so many of these pics in my head and paintings that NEED to be painted - I did not want to give up on this one and was not happy with it.

Happy now and moving on to another - hope you like it too - it is so beautiful here - I think some Annie Lennox and Stevie Wonder might help for this new painting ... a beach scene (I think - haha - you never know with me...) Here is the start - will let you know what happens

I found a quote from a book called Art & Fear - to me the process of creating the art is more important than the painting itself... this quote makes sense to me
”To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you along, what matters is the process.” Art and Fear, page 5.

Georgian Bay Artwork

This week's painting is my interpretation of the rocks and water here on Georgian Bay - many more of these to come - Oil on Canvas 12 x 16

A winter view of the scenery here out at the water and walking about on the rocks in he summer ;)

Hope you have a good walk wherever you are today ... no matter what season ;)

Previous Artwork

This is a new art blog so I will post some of my previous work here and then do updates with my paintings

Added a few highlights and a bit more of the Alizarin Crimson to the smooth rocks but this is an unbalanced painting showing the beautiful granite rocks and the deep blue purple of the water here - the sunsets are just gorgeous
Oil on Canvas - 12 x 16 Sold

The "Maiden in the Meadow" is Oil on Canvas 14 x 18 with deep purples in the sky and the rolling hills, evoking a sense of wandering the moors or climbing uphill on an endless journey - but the lady is headed towards the light and has made her way through the treacherous rocks so there is hope and the solitude is almost peaceful for her

Hope you find solitude and peace on your journeys too ;)