Fred Perchaluk Watercolour Artist

Since I haven't done any paintings that I feel are something that I would like to share with my friends, I thought I'd show you a few of my older favourites and the stories that go with them.

The First one is a painting of an old, abandoned house on Prince Edward Island.  My wife Joan and I vacationed there in the early spring several years ago.  One of the subjects I love to paint are old houses, so I thought, old houses and autumn foliage go together, so I started this painting.  The painting did not go well initially, the nice red trees that I imagined were too garish, I add rocks in front and had trees growing out of them, in other words it was a real mess.  Then one evening about a year later I was looking for something to play with so I pulled out this old abandoned painting.  I wet it, lifted out some of the colours I didn't like and just had a good time with it, not worrying about wether I would ruin it or not.  I guess I had something in mind that my first art teacher Leona Brown told me, "never give up on a painting".  When I finished it I put it in my art club show.  It won the People's Choice award for best watercolour, it was published in a pamphlet advertising the Local Colour Art Club, and it sold too.
So I guess Leona was right.  I hope you enjoy it too.

The second painting is "Strawberries on Deck".  My wife was looking for some hanging pots one spring, so I went to Superstore where they were clearing out strawberries in hanging pots for $1.84, what a bargain!

 I bought a couple and hung them on our deck that summer.  The plant produced strawberries and in the fall I took them out of the pot and put them in the ground for the winter.  Next year they produced more strawberries for us to enjoy once more.  I took some photos of it and did two versions of the hanging strawberries.  Both paintings sold quite quickly, so the $1.84 I paid for those strawberries turned out to be one of the best bargains I ever got.

Have a look and let me know what you think.