Arrogance - A Work in Progress

It was cold yesterday and today we are greeted with a snow storm. It is a big change from the 84-89F (29-31C) we enjoyed every day in while in Aruba.

Painting a black horse or for that matter a white horse is a challenge. Especially to capture all the detail in the face and muscle masses.

I do not have black paint in my palette; they are all mixed with various combinations of French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

The horse's body is divided up into different sections and I start with putting the first layer of colour in the darkest area of the body and move back and forth from one section to another that is not touching a wet area and allow the paint to dry before I go back and put in the next layer of paint gradually building up the depth of colour and shape.

I will post this painting later when I have completed more of the horse.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Overpowering Forces - A Work in Progress

Last night we got everything packed and ready to head back home.

With having a late flight home we were able to have a final swim and go back to the north shore for me to take a few more photographs of the crashing surf.

While walking along the beach I found a dried crab in perfect condition on the shore. We carefully packed it in tissue and I will take it back home with me in my carry-on luggage.

I will post this painting once it is completed.

Sailing - A Work in Progress

Today we spent a lot of time on Eagle Beach enjoying the sun and the sea.

Outside the cordoned off area for swimming there was a lot going on. Rides on personal water crafts (Sea-Doos and Jet Skis), speed boat rides, wind surfing, sailboat rides, para sailing and kite boarding.












I spent a fair amount of time taking pictures and making quick sketches of the activities and perhaps next year I will do a series of paintings on the various water sports.

This painting is of the water off of Eagle Beach and I haven't decided which type of "sailing" I will put into the painting. But I will post the final result at a later date.

One thing I will have to take back to Canada is a great tan.

Power - A Work in Progress

Normally the north shore is pounded by large waves crashing in against the shore.

This time the north shore is fairly calm due to Hurricane Thomas to the north of us and we can visit the Morning Star and the Di Mishi wrecks without having to deal with the large troughs.

We spent more time along the shoreline and this painting is the start of another scene of the surf against the rocks on the north shore.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork. I hope you will return often.

Whispers - A Work in Progress

It is nice to just get away and relax.

Today we spent the afternoon on Eagle Beach swimming and enjoying the sun.

I haven't had a lot of time to paint, but I have taken a lot of photographs. This painting I started gives you an idea of how calm the water was today.

I will post it once I have finished the painting.

Rays of Light - A Work in Progress

Diving on the reef just beyond the breakwater by Baby Beach on the south eastern end of Aruba is wonderful.

The rays of light shimmer down through the clear water and glimmer on a dazzling array of fish.

I will post this painting once I decide which of the many different types of reef fish I wish to put into this painting.

Washed Ashore - A Work in Progress

One thing about Aruba the weather doesn't change very much and the temperatures remain fairly constant between 84-89F (29-31C).

The eastern shore of Aruba is fairly rugged and has a constantly crashing surf. This year with Hurricane Thomas north of us in the gulf, it is very calm compared to previous years.

On one of the small beaches between rock cliffs we came upon an abandoned boat stranded above the tide line. If only it could speak and tell the tale of how it arrived to its present destination.

I will post this painting later when it is completed.

Carousel Horse

The last time we were in Aruba we had planned to go and explore the caves on our last day since we can't dive 24 hours prior to our flight.

Unfortunately, we rented a new KIA with less than 800 miles on it which broke down in the middle of Arikok National Park. Fortunately, one of the tours takes ATVs through the Park and they called a tow truck for us.

By the time the tow truck arrived in the middle of nowhere, got us back to civilization and had the piece of junk replaced with another one, it was too late to go back and see the caves.

This year we made sure we rented a North American built car and visited the caves on our first day. They were well worth going back to Aruba to explore.

This 15" x 20” graphite pencil drawing is the first in a series of Carousel Horse drawings for hand coloured limited edition prints. I will post them once the edition is printed and in each of the different colours.

The Carousel Horse graphite pencil original will be framed and available for purchase in after the prints are produced for $445.00.

Arriving in Aruba and Painting Wave Patterns

The weather in Aruba is beautiful 87F (30C) and the water is wonderful!

After leaving Toronto early this morning we have landed, gotten out luggage, picked up our rental car and made it into our lodgings at Paradise Beach Villa which is right across the road from Eagle Beach.

This is a quick watercolour sketch of the wave patterns. I will finish it when I return to Canada.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork.

OSWOA - Trees 1

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

The OSWOA shown here is an original watercolour paintings using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $30.00 and sold unframed.

Today I have to go and hang my seven paintings for the Outdoor Painter's Group Show at KAGS called "Here and There".

Afterwards I have all the last minute running around before we leave for Aruba. It is going to be one busy day.

ACEO - Ladybugs 1-3

With the weather turning cooler for the mornings it seems like the Ladybugs are congregating together for the coming winter.

After painting the barn board background it was fun to decide just where I wanted to place that little black spotted bug.

Once I had the red base colour of the body painted on the barn board I had to decide on my light source. Then I could place the highlights on the shiny body and put the cast shadow beneath the Ladybug to ground it.

Ladybug 1


I had hoped for better weather today since I have to go to Lang Pioneer Village Museum in Keene to take down my paintings from the show at the McKelvie Gallery.

The up side to it raining is that it just makes the autumn colours that much brighter. While I am at Lang I will take some pictures of the Village.

Ladybug 2

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here are all original watercolour paintings using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. They are priced at $20.00 each and sold unframed.

Ladybug 3

Lighthouse - A Work in Progress

The lighthouse and the rock face were drawn onto the paper first.

These areas were left dry and the rest of the paper was wet with water. A pencil mark was put on the stone face and on the left side to indicate the horizon line.

Alizarin crimson was brushed into the sky and the water first.

Then the cloud colours of French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue and burnt sienna were brushed into the sky and into the water.

A little new gamboge was put into the sky to indicate the sun behind the clouds and a bit in the water as its reflection.

A little raw sienna was brushed into the shadowed side of the lighthouse tower.

The rock face was painted with a mixture of alizarin crimson, burnt sienna and a little bit of French ultramarine blue. A palette knife was used to scrape out some of the rock shapes.

I will post this painting at a later date when I have worked on it again.

Rushing Water - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I have been working on from my sketches and photographs from Burleigh Falls with Neil Broadfoot.

This is right at the top of the Falls where the water is rushing over the rocks just before the drop.











There is still a lot more work to be done on this painting and I will post it as I continue to work on it.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Neil Broadfoot Workshop - Burleigh Falls

Today was spent at KAGS on the final day of a three day workshop with Neil Broadfoot.

We had two weeks to develop our final drawing using sketches made on location at Burleigh Falls and from any photographic reference we had from the pictures taken at that time.













We were shown how to transfer them to our watercolour paper so the pencil lines wouldn't be visible.

Neil demonstrated various ways of painting the granite rocks found at Burleigh and capturing the movement of rushing water as it flows over and around the rocks.

This is the painting that I worked on in class and will show once it is completed. I have another three drawings transferred down onto watercolour paper which I will paint at a later date.

Birch Trio - A Work in Progress

This is the third painting of birch trees in winter that I have started.

The background was originally painted in with mixtures of Antwerp Blue and raw sienna. The sky was then darkened to give it a stormy effect as though more snow was in the forecast (I may pick out a few snowflakes once the painting is complete.) by washing over the sky area with a mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

The dark pines where painted with various mixes of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and raw sienna. The bottom edge of the treeline was softened with water so it was not a hard straight line.

Shadows on the snow are a mixture of both French ultramarine blue and Antwerp blue, with a touch of burnt sienna added to darken the colour in the shadowed areas.

The painting was allowed to dry before the masking was removed.

With the light source being on the left side of the painting a wash of the lighter snow shadow colour was painted down the center of the tree and the right side of the tree trunk was the darker more greyed snow shadow colour.

On the larger birch tree on the right side I left some areas without the darker wash over the trunk to indicate the reflected light.

A mixture of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna was used as an under paint to indicate where the dark markings were to be placed on the tree.

On the left side of the trees a thin wash of raw sienna was put in to give the trees a bit of warmth to contrast against the cold snow.

Using mixtures of raw sienna and burnt sienna dead grasses and growies were added to the snow banks and around the bases of the trees.

I will post this painting when it is completed.

Birch Song - A Work in Progress

This is another painting of birch trees in winter.

Again the birch trees were masked out to protect the white paper.

Mixtures of Antwerp blue and raw sienna where applied to the background of the paper. Colour needs to be put onto the foreground snow to indicate drifts and shadows.

I will post this painting at a later date once more work has been completed.

Birch Sonnet - A Work in Progress

This is one of three paintings featuring birch trees that I started today.

The birches were masked out to protect the white of the paper. The background was painted in using various mixtures of raw sienna and Antwerp blue to indicate sky and where some of the trees will be placed.

I still have to work shadows into the snow. I will post this again once I have completed the background,

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Gourds - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I started in Sharon Taylor's class (see my posting on 12 October 10 for Corn Stalks 1-3).

With everyone else in the class working on either corn stalks or different types of trees I had to do something different.

Since the gourds were sitting on the window ledge anyway, I thought they may make an interesting painting.

There is still a lot more to do on this painting, but at least the base colours have been painted in and I still have to add a lot more detail to the gourds.

I have to mark in where the shelf will be that the gourds are resting on and then decide what I want to do with the background. I really don't want to have a window behind them, although I could make the background into a lacy curtain, or perhaps patterned wallpaper.

Once I have made my decision I will post the results.

Abandoned Farm - A Work in Progress

When horses have escaped from their pastures or paddocks there is always the worry that they will not be found or that they may injure themselves.

Here the worried owner has found the missing animals and must now catch and lead them back home before it gets too dark to be done safely.

The evening sky and background trees have been painted in as well as the under painting for the autumn grasses.

The base for the barn and the house has been painted, and the loose horses and people are already drawn.

I will post this piece once it has been completed.

Sharon Taylor Workshop - Corn Stalks 1-3

Today the Buckhorn Tuesday Painters had Sharon Taylor as a guest instructor. She usually comes out with some interesting and creative things for us to try.

Fortunately, we had a bright sunny day with very little wind which was ideal for using powdered charcoal as a background for our paintings and having to work outside on them.

Sharon brought corn stalks, some still with ears of corn attached for us to use for doing a basic outline on the paper.

Corn Stalks 1


The areas we wanted to leave without charcoal were coated with water, then we took our paintings outside and dusted the paper with powdered charcoal.

We then literally threw containers of water over the paper to remove the excess charcoal. The paintings were left outside to dry.

Each of us made three attempts to create interesting backgrounds for our corn stalk paintings.

Corn Stalks 2

By the time we had the third background doused with water and set to dry in the sun, our first attempt was dry and ready for us to proceed with the next step.

Before bringing the painting into the building it was sprayed with workable fixative, to prevent the charcoal from spreading any further while still allowing us to paint on the paper.

Raw sienna was used as the first layer of paint to indicate where some of the leaves and stalks will be.

Corn Stalks

A mixture of burnt and raw sienna was applied to other areas of the leaves and stalks. A hint of French ultramarine blue was added to the mixture and painted into some of the areas to give the impression of the partially dried leaves.

A lot more detail still has to be added to the paintings before they are complete. I will post them as I do more work on them.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork.

Autumn Rapids - A Work in Progress

With working on sketches and drawings for Neil Broadfoot's workshop I decided to work on white water in acrylic for a change.

Most of the work on this painting is done using a palette knife to apply the paint rather than using a brush.

The background has been finished. The foreground trees need more work on the trunks and branches as well as adding some leaves. The under painting has been completed on the rocks and for the foreground grasses.

I will post this painting at a later date once more work has been done.

Towards the Light - A Work in Progress

We have a lovely park about five minutes away called Selwyn Beach Conservation Area, located on the north east shore of Lake Chemong.

The 72 acres (29 hectares) Park was established in 1973 to provide a section of the Lake's shoreline for public use.

It has an unsupervised sand beach with nearby barbecues and tables for picnics, as well as a large shelter complete with a central barbecue pit. Further down the shoreline there is a boat launch and docking facilities.










What I enjoy the most are the hiking trails in the northern portion of the Park. It has been left undeveloped except for the trails which pass through a wide variety of terrain including open fields, wetlands and woodland.

The area shown is found close to the parking lot; and you past through this small portion of the woodland as the three children in this painting are in order to get to the beach.

I will post it again as I complete more on the painting.

Floral Demonstration - Two Works in Progress

I am often asked by the members of the Buckhorn Artists' Group to show how I paint various subjects. It can be anything from backgrounds, birds, animals or landscape.

These are two paintings I started as demonstrations to show how I approach floral paintings of irises and roses.

With the irises it was primarily what colours to use when painting yellow flowers. For the base coat on the iris I used new gamboge and added mixtures of raw sienna and burnt sienna for shadows.

Iris Trio

With the roses it was a lesson on how to paint the overlapping petals without them having an "outline" to keep them separated from one another.

A wash is put on the first petal and left to dry while another petal on the same bloom that is not touching the first petal has a wash applied to it. This is repeated though the entire flower.

With each succeeding wash more detail and shadows are added to give shape to each of the petals.

Rose Bouquet

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork.

OSWOA - Cecropia on Barn Board

The Cecropia is the largest native North American moth. It belongs to the family of large silk moths known as Saturniidae.

We often find them on the shadowed side of the barn or inside the mow hidden in the darkness during the day.

At night they can be seen flying around the sentinel light at the front of the house or hanging on the window screens.

The Cecropia depicted here is a male. They are easily distinguished from the female by the very large bushy antennae.

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

The OSWOA shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $50.00 and sold unframed. SOLD

Now I have to head out to Norwood Fairgrounds to judge the art show. It should be an enjoyable day.

ACEO - Rocks 1

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Water was first splattered onto the paper. Alizarin crimson mixed with burnt sienna was dropped onto the paper, followed by French ultramarine blue and finally a little raw sienna. The colours were rolled around on the wet paper and allowed to blend.

While the paint was still fairly wet I scored a few places on the paper to allow some of the paint to collect in the indents.

As the paint dried I used a mixture of burnt sienna with a touch of French ultramarine blue added to darken it slightly and loosely painted the rock shapes in the negative.

Buckhorn Artists' Group Blog - Show Updates

I have updated the Buckhorn Artists' Group blog with a listing of shows some of the various artists in the Group are exhibiting their work in during the month of October.

If you get a chance come out and visit them at one or all of the shows.

October - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I started on the same day as September (see posting 03 October 10).

The under painting had been put in and today I added more details to the trees and foreground.

It still needs more work and I will post this painting once it is completed.

Neil Broadfoot Plein Air at Burleigh Falls

The group met at Burleigh Falls for the second part of Neil Broadfoot's painting rushing water workshop.

It was a cold and very windy day and I was glad that I had stopped at Tim Hortons for an extra large tea to help keep my hands warm.

Neil demonstrated sketching and how to capture the movement of the water. Then we did our own value sketches before stopping to have a hot lunch at the local restaurant. Which helped get rid of our cold fingers and toes.

It was a cold and very windy day and I was glad that I had stopped at Tim Hortons for an extra large tea to help keep my hands warm.












Neil demonstrated sketching and how to capture the movement of the water. Then we did our own value sketches before stopping to have a hot lunch at the local restaurant. Which helped get rid of our cold fingers and toes.

Then back out into the cold to try doing colour sketches in pastel, watercolour or acrylic. I found a somewhat sheltered spot from the wind just below a rock face and set up there.

I would peek my head up over the rock edge and take a look at what I was painting and then duck back down into the shelter of the rocks. This was my end result; I added a few more details once I returned home.

Racing Clouds is an original 14" x 22-1/2” framed watercolour available for $295.00.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

September - A Work in Progress

I came across a couple of gessoed boards and decided that I would paint in acrylic for a change.

The autumn colours are wonderful to see. So I did the under painting on a small scene at the bottom of the hill.

When I removed the tape from the edge of the painting it lifted some of the paint. That is one of the nice things about painting with acrylics; you can cover a multitude of mistakes.

I will post this painting once I have it completed.

Confirmed Shows for 2010 and 2011 - October

This is a listing of confirmed shows that I will be exhibiting my artwork at this year and into next year. I will update the list as more shows are added.

Lang Pioneer Village and Museum, Keene, Ontario
05 Aug - 21 Oct MacKelvie Gallery

Kawartha Artists’ Gallery and Studio, Peterborough, Ont.
24 Oct – 11 Nov Outdoor Painters Show
Opening Reception 24 Oct 10 from 1-4pm.
05-22 Dec & 04-13 Jan 11 Christmas Show
Opening Reception 05 Dec 10 from 1-4pm.
27 Feb – 10 Mar Miniaturia
Opening Reception 27 Feb 11 from 1-4pm.
13-31 Mar Figuratively Speaking
Opening Reception 13 Mar 11 from 1-4pm.
05-23 Jun Temperatures Rising
Opening Reception 05 Jun 11 from 1-4pm.
11-29 Sep Changes
Opening Reception 11 Sep 11 from 1-4pm.
30 Oct – 16 Nov Outdoor Painters' Group Show
Opening Reception 30 Oct 11 from 1-4pm.
04-23 Dec 11 & 03-05 Jan 12 Christmas Show
Opening Reception 04 Dec 11 from 1-4pm.

The Lindsay Inn, Lindsay, Ont.
18 Nov Canvas Confidential Art Sale

The Lindsay Gallery, Lindsay, Ont.
23 Nov - 18 Dec Christmas Show
Opening Reception 25 Nov from 7-8:30pm.

St Matthews Church, Buckhorn, Ont
Buckhorn Artists' Group
21-23 May 23rd Annual Among Friends Art Show
06-14 Aug 21st Annual Shades of Summer Art Show

If you get a chance please come out and visit one or all of the shows.

Autumn Brook - A Work in Progress

The leaves are changing colour and the days are getting cooler. By the end of the month we can start to expect snow flurries.

Here in the Kawarthas we are known for the many lakes, but there are also a multitude of small streams, brooks and rivers all having somewhere along their course fast moving water and small to medium sized waterfalls.

I have the under painting for this autumn scene blocked in with the small waterfall indicated. I will post it at a later date when I have put more work into it.