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Meredith MacRitchie

@meredithmacritchieart

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artist
painter | sketchbook | photography
Burnaby, British Columbia 🇨🇦

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We’ve said goodbye to my brother and my nephew, and they’re back in Scotland with their people. My brother moved to Edinburgh nearly two decades ago, so getting to spend an entire month with him (and his kid!) was such a treat. I am having a hard time adjusting to the absence, and it’s weird just going back to normal life. So because I’m feeling melancholy, it felt like the right time to share this mini I painted of Holyrood Palace, one of my favourite tourist traps in Edinburgh. My daughters were both there when they were little but then each of them have visited as teens, and this was the first time they saw (understood) artifacts older than anything that exists where we live. It’s so fun to watch your kids discover things that light them up, and mine both love a bit of history. I doubt my son will want to make the trek when we go… I’m guessing I’ll get to know a whole new Edinburgh when it’s his turn!

If you swipe, you can see the photo I took of the Abbey ruins when we visited last year. I’m looking forward to when I can go back and make art on location in a favourite city!

canadian artist | canadian painter | scotland painting | holyrood house | edinburgh art by @meredithmacritchieart

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2 months ago

Family time with my brother and my nephew as they are with us from Scotland… my little friend is an artist in the making…. He has impressed me daily with his talents and skill, so I had to take him to my favourite art store @opusartsupplies when we visited Granville Island a few days ago with my oldest, who is also quite the painter. They each left their mark on the paint wall, while my brother and I also brought our real cameras to play around together. This one goes down as a favourite day, for sure.

vancouver | granville island | opus art supplies | summer in british columbia | scotland | canada | thistle art | maple leaf art by @meredithmacritchieart

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3 months ago

Another mini, inspired by @sarahburnsstudio as I can only steal short painting sessions these days. This is from my husband’s favourite ride of all time, The Jungle Cruise, when we were in Disneyland before going south of the border wasn’t cool anymore.

vancouver artist | vancouver painter | canadian artist | disneyland painting | gouache landscape by @meredithmacritchieart

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3 months ago

June is always a busy month, and we always feel like we are crawling to the finish line. This year has been… extra. A season full of some pretty major transitions and adjustments. I’m working hard to find moments of rest but it’s been a challenge. Still… I’ve been doing lots of creative things to keep myself somewhat sane, kind of an assortment of whatever catches my eye in the moment when I have time. Bring it on, summer… by @meredithmacritchieart

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4 months ago

Last year, we packed up the kids and went to Alberta, where I had not visited since before I was married. I moved to BC when I was starting grade 6, so I’m definitely more of a coastal girl now… but my roots are for sure planted on the prairies too.

I was inspired by @sarahburnsstudio and decided to do my own version of a challenge she gave herself - grab a reference at random and paint a mini.

(I would love to make this a daily thing like she did, but I have too many kids for that, apparently)

Visiting Calgary was such a bizarre, twilight zone experience, because it is so unfamiliar and so familiar all at once. This painting is from Heritage Park which was one of my absolute favourite places to spend time when I was a kid. Going back as an adult showed me where my love of all things old and antique started. When we passed the cottage behind this sandstone wall and gate, it reminded me of so many places in Scotland, which is where my mum was from. This photo/painting kind of ended up representing many of the influences on my life, all in a lovely stone wall. Of course it needed to be painted!

vancouver artist | british columbia artist | heritage park | calgary | landscape painting | gouache by @meredithmacritchieart

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5 months ago

Can we talk about AI for a second? If you check in on my stories with any regularity, you know how I feel. I am usually not someone to really push back at people for what they post, but lately I am seeing artists using generative AI to showcase their work in other ways and I just… can’t.

Obviously as a creative person, I absolutely *hate* that AI images are dominating spaces where actual artists would previously have been hired. People don’t seem to realize that in order for AI to learn how to make art, it has to steal from actual human artists. If another person stole my art, I would sue. If AI takes my work, I’m supposed to just shrug and accept that “this is the future”? Insane.

But whatever… artists have always been under appreciated and under valued. This isn’t something new, just a new angle.

BUT… every single time you ask ChatGPT to make an image for you, you’re choosing useless internet images over essentials like clean drinking water and land to grow food. For real. Farmers are already struggling to work their land under climate change and water restrictions. Data centres use up to FIVE MILLION GALLONS of water… Every. Single. Day. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, this is equivalent to the water used by a community of 10,000 to 50,000 people.

Just so you can see what your work would look like hanging in a fake living room. Or make an image of yourself but like, make it cartoon. Or asking it to write your email for you.

Don’t even get me started on how deferring to the robots is ensuring humans will possess zero critical thinking skills or creativity.

AI is literally killing the planet, faster than humans already were. There is absolutely no reason for it. And I will speak out against it every single time, until it becomes embarrassing to use it. I am genuinely a you-do-you kinda gal, but when it comes to farming out our brains in exchange for starvation, drought and extinction? I’m gonna get opinionated.

canadian artist | vancouver artist | strawberry art | acrylic markers | #arrtx by @meredithmacritchieart

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5 months ago

I haven’t shared much in awhile because I’ve been focusing on the ‘boring’ side of my practice. It isn’t boring at all, but it also isn’t colourful, finished work either. I was explaining to my husband this morning as I painted… I’m working hard to unlearn years of training my eyes to see allllll the details so I could make my paintings and sketches realistic. You can see in this value study that I still got caught up in the details!

My only real training is high school art classes - and I graduated in a different century, so….. it’s a lot of self teaching and experimenting. That means I never had an art prof force me to do the boring work. It’s actually been really great digging into the theories and exercises that I always knew I should do, but could not be bothered with.

I plan to fill this little book - the first few were done in the food court while I waited on an appointment for my kid. They came fast and it was a million times better than doom scrolling - especially these days. And they are already helping me in my painting (more exercises just in a sketchbook). Too many reasons to stick with them, even if they’re grey and boring!

vancouver artist | canadian artist | sketchbook | value studies | stanley park art by @meredithmacritchieart

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6 months ago

Sometimes it’s when I’m watching tv at night, the mood strikes, the idea is there, but no thank you to leaving the comfort of the sofa and blankets… so I grab my iPad and play with digital paints and pencils. This is not even close to the same gratification I get from the tactile experience of paper, brushes and water, crayons and dip pens… but it *does* beat scrolling online and consuming post after post about how the world is on fire, and no one seems to notice. I often use Procreate for things like value studies or throwing ideas down before I can do them for real, which is where this was born. I wanted to do a series of local landmarks, but I wanted them to be less obvious, if that makes sense. This is a view of the Lion’s Gate Bridge that connects Stanley Park to the North Shore. It’s an iconic landmark but not generally seen from this kind of angle. You kind of have to know to know, you know? I still plan to put these to actual paper one day, but I also have so many other ideas so it all depends on when the mood strikes. In the meantime, I thought I would share an example of how you CAN make art digitally without asking a robot and destroying farmland. For anyone arguing they aren’t “artistic”, I say this; athletes aren’t born with the ability to break records. Never underestimate the power of practice and play.

vancouver artist | canadian artist | vancouver art | digital art | procreate | lions gate bridge | british columbia art by @meredithmacritchieart

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6 months ago

You don’t get to choose your family, and you definitely don’t get to choose who your family brings into the folds, and I’ve learned the hard way that this can lead to all kinds of heartbreak and bad days… lucky for me, my brother married someone I adore. I wanted to send her something special and as soon as I dropped the bright pink ink onto the paper, it was clear this was for her. I really loved how this came out, and now that it’s arrived in Scotland, I can share it here!

canadian artist | vancouver artist | watercolour artist | floral painting | mixed media art by @meredithmacritchieart

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7 months ago

I have not painted in weeks! February was packed (with all great things) and I’ve spent most of March catching up on things at home that have been neglected for ages. So I’m filling my time with positive things, but I miss my paints and brushes! This one was a remake of a painting I did last summer, but included experimentation with pigment powders. I’ve also been cleaning out all the things, and so my art room needs a good tidy up and I keep not doing that, and now the kids are on spring break, so… I won’t be painting for a few more minutes 😂 by @meredithmacritchieart

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7 months ago

Thought I better pop this here now before it really isn’t winter anymore! I painted this for my hubby as an anniversary card - our wedding decor included lots of snowflakes! I tried out some new-to-me pigment powders to add some shimmer… still figuring those out but I think I love them! Snowflakes and flowers… two things I can never get tired of.

canadian artist | watercolour artist | snowflake painting | snowflake watercolour | handmade card by @meredithmacritchieart

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8 months ago

Valentines for my valentines…. The middle kid loves @yungblud and her face lit right up when she saw I painted hers with his signature hearts… the husband loves gnomes, the oldest likes pretty and the youngest just wants the candy…

watercolour artist | canadian artist | british columbia artist | valentine painting | valentines | heart | yungblud painting by @meredithmacritchieart

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8 months ago