Through the Storm - A Work in Progress

It is the last day of the year and one can look back at everything that has been accomplished; then at the stroke of midnight one can look forward to a bright New Year and what the future may hold.














Today I pulled out this painting that I had started a while ago (see posts on 10 Dec 2010 and 23 Mar 2012) and had set it aside.

I went in and added some Chinese white to the edges of the gull's wings to make them stand out against the dark storm clouds. I know I will have to go in a number of times to build up the layers of white paint until I have them as bright as I would like.

Next I painted in the details on the gull's head, setting in the beak and adding shading to the head and neck in grey tones of cobalt blue and burnt sienna.

Using the same shadow mixture of cobalt blue and burnt sienna I brushed in the under paint for the back and wings of the gull. Then using a slightly darker mixture I painted in the next layer adding some shape to the back and adding a little definition to the to the wings.

With a dark almost black mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I started painting in the individual primary flight feathers on the closest wing.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Suppertime? - A Work in Progress

Today is bright and sunny which is deceiving when you are looking out the window as it is the coldest day so far of the winter season with the temperature being -4F (-20C) and a strong wind blowing making it feel like -12F (-24.4C) with the wind chill.














So it is a good thing that after doing barn chores, filling the feeders and shovelling out the walk way that I spent some of the day working on this painting (see posts on 15 Mar 2012 and 31 Oct 2012).














I marked in the main areas of coral on the rock face first and then started working on the under paint.

While the coral was drying I started painting in the dark markings on the jackknife fish and finally completed them before calling it a day.














I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed the fish. 

Playing with Sponges - Two Works in Progress

Today it is still snowing. So far we have another four inches more on top of the six inches that were already on the ground from the storm that went through earlier this week.

Using a sponge and French ultramarine blue I put some random marks down on the paper and tied them together by using the end of my brush to mark the paper and allow the paint to run into the marks.

Sponge Work A

With the next one I placed marks almost side by side, turning the sponge slightly each time.

It should be interesting to see what I can make this into, either snow covered branches, or turn it and make it into waves.

I will post these paintings at a later date once I decide what I am going to do with them.


Sponge Work B

Rock Beauty - A Work in Progress

I wanted to do a little more work on this painting which I had started earlier this year (see posts on 21 Mar 2012 and 27 Jul 2012).

My goal was to work on the sponges and perhaps get them completed today.

The base colour is Grumbacher red (naphthol red AS-D) and I added mixtures of burnt sienna for the shadows with a hint of ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow deep for the highlights.















I started with the tallest sponge and painted it in completely, then left a space and worked on the next sponge allowing time for the first one to dry.

I continued to work from one side of the clump of sponges to the other until the main grouping of sponges was completed.

Then I worked on the smaller sponges from the left side to the right (since I am right handed) so I did not get my hand into wet paint and smear it across the canvas.















I found that the small central sponge was too distracting and tended to draw the eye to it so I removed it from the painting.

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

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

Posed

It is still snowing and we will probably end up with about 6" (15cm) of snow by the time it is over. But I have nothing to complain about it has been a mild winter so far with very little snow.

Today I wanted to complete this line drawing of a Quarter Horse called Boomer's Ace for returning customer Mrs. Louise Stewart of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

I did a head study of this horse last year (see post on 22 April 2011) and she wanted a full body image she could use on her stationary.

Sea Fans - A Work in Progress

The snow here has held off for most of the day but it is now starting to snow and is supposed to continue through the night and most of tomorrow. We will soon see how much of the white stuff we end up with on the ground.














I am glad that I do not have to go out for anything so I will sit and enjoy the fire in the fireplace and do a little painting.

I wasn't in the mood to start a painting or do anything major so I pulled out this piece (see posts on 20 Oct 2011 and 11 Jul 2012) and decided to paint in the yellow markings on the fish.














Since everything was working on this painting I decided to go ahead and paint in all the black markings on the fish as well.

I will post this painting on a later date as I do more work on each of the fish.

OSWOA - Deep Snow 1

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Even though it is hard to think about a true Canadian white Christmas when there is no snow on the ground.

Since I had some time this morning before going to the family Christmas festivities I decided to finish this painting that I had started a while ago (see post on 30 Dec 2011) and make my own snow covered landscape.

First I lightly sketched in where I would like to have some of the main trees placed, leaving an open area for a snow covered path.

Using burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue I lightly painted in the background tree trunks.

Then the distant pine trees were put in with the trunk colour and raw sienna.

A blue grey made of the Trench ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was used for the closer tree shadows.

With various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson I painted the trunks and branches on the larger foreground trees first.

Next I wanted to put the needles onto the trees and using various mixtures of new gamboge, raw sienna, burnt sienna, cobalt blue and French ultramarine blue.

The middle ground trees trunks were put in using a slightly paler mix of the foreground tree colours.

The needles were a greyed mix of raw sienna, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue.

Next the growies were added to the bases of the foreground and middle ground trees with mixes of burnt sienna, raw sienna, new gamboge and cadmium yellow.

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 Windsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $40.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Christmas Tree 1

With today being Christmas Eve what could be more fitting than a painting of a Christmas tree?

First I splattered masking fluid onto the paper for snow and some of the tree ornaments.

Once the masking fluid was dry I lightly sketched in the trunk and the main branches for the tree.

Just before I was ready to paint in the background I decided I should mask out the tinsel on the tree first.

After the masking fluid had dried the background was painted in using cobalt blue.

The Christmas tree was painted using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna, Antwerp blue and burnt sienna.

The painting was then aside to dry completely before removing the masking fluid.

Once the masking fluid was removed it was time to paint all the Christmas ornaments on the tree.

First I mixed up a blue grey with French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue a little burnt sienna and painted the tinsel.

I wanted to have a number of different coloured ornaments so I started to paint a couple of them with cadmium yellow.

Next I changed the colour by adding a little alizarin crimson.

I added a little cobalt blue to the mix for a couple darker coloured red ornaments.

Next I used pure cobalt blue in various places and followed that by adding a little new gamboge for some green ornaments.

I painted the remaining ones with pure cadmium red.

I decided that I wanted to add a Christmas star to the painting and used cadmium yellow since it is opaque and will cover most transparent colours.

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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper.

It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

The Lindsay Gallery Poster

It is snowing today and with tomorrow being Christmas eve hopefully we are going to have a white Christmas.

The poster from The Lindsay Gallery for the last half of the year has come out and some of my artwork is featured on it for my upcoming show 'Above and Below the Reef 'which will run from from 30 July - 24 August 2013.

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

Spotted Eagle Rays - A Work in Progress

I had started painting in some of the coral on the closest reef face (see posts on 23 Jul12 and 17 Oct 12) and today I wanted to get that section completed.














Now that this part is completed I can decide where I wish to place the rays in the painting. I do this by having my finished drawing on a piece of tracing paper and move it around on the painting until I find where it looks the best. Then I transfer the image onto the canvas.














I will post this painting at a later date once the rays have been completed.

Christmas Show at The Lindsay Gallery

Today I had to go and pick up my paintings from The Lindsay Gallery All Member Christmas Show.  I was fortunate that even with a major snow storm going on the roads were well looked after and traffic was fairly light.










The Gallery has a lovely area in which to display paintings and I am looking forward to having my show with Carol Rutherford called "Above and Below the Reef" there. The show will run from 01 August - 24 August 2013.

Getting Hammered - A Work in Progress

Today with the Still Life class at KAGS one of our members brought in a collection of old tools, many of them more than 100 years old.

We were spoiled for choice and I took a lot of reference photographs and did a number of quick sketches before I decided to concentrate on the grouping of hammers.

I will probably do a series of paintings of these old tools from my sketches and my photographs. I will post this painting at a later date once more of it has been completed.

Old and New - A Work in Progress

This is the other still life drawing I did earlier this month (see post on 13 December 2012) at KAGS.

It was a difficult composition to work with due to the many horizontals and verticals as well as oval shapes with lots of details.














I will post this picture at a later date once I have some of it painted.

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

Autumn Forest 1 and 2 - Two Works in Progress

Today was another snow day; we had four inches more added on top of the six inches that were already on the ground from the storm that went through earlier this week.

I decided that I would work on two autumn scenes, since it is my favourite time of the year and I really didn't want to paint a snow scene.

The first one is of the Snelgrove Brook (see posting on 16 October 2011).

Autumn Forest 1

It was early morning and the mist was just being burnt off by the morning sun.

I painted in the water and some of the shoreline rocks and lifted a little more of this rising mist. Then I indicated where the taller foreground evergreens should be placed.

For the second painting (see posting 24 August 12) I drew in the boathouse that was on the Magnetawan River which had such beautiful autumn colours on the shore and the distant hills. I also put in the trunks of the evergreen trees that are in the foreground.

Autumn Forest 2

I will post these paintings at a later date once they have been completed.

Anemone - A Work in Progress

Today I started working on this painting again (see posts on 24 Feb 2012, 26 and 28 Jul 2012).














It took a little while until I got the colour for the anemone correct but I wanted to at least get that part finished.

Now I will have to decide on which kinds of corals and plants I would like to put in and around the anemone and on the rock face.














I will post this painting at a later date once I have it completed.

Coral Garden - A Work in Progress

This is a piece I have been working on that was started with Gail Hawkins (see post on 11 December 2012).

I have added some of the coral to the bottom of the painting using various colours of white, red, yellow and orange.

I will go back into it at a later date and add some coloured washes over the coral, add the white sand at the base and add a few reef fish.

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

Hockey Equipment - A Work in Progress

This was a very detailed composition and it took most of the class just to get it drawn in correctly and in proportion.

I did manage to have the time to at least put in the first layer of red on the hockey shirt and on the knee pads. It still has a long way to go before it is finished. But, with the hockey players locked out, there isn't much of a hockey season this year.

Once more work on it has been completed I will post this painting at a later date.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Trio - A Work in Progress

This painting I did the basic drawing in a still life class at KAGS (see post on 06 December 2012).

In this painting I took three of the elements I liked and drew them. Today I had a little time and put the under painting on them.

I will post this painting at a later date once each piece is completed.

Snow Shoes - A Work in Progress

There were many different components in today's still life display at KAGS. It had may long horizontals and verticals due to the set of ski jumping skis and cross country skis with poles. There were also many interesting shapes with  a pair of beaded Woodland moccasins, downhill boots, cross country boots and  two different kinds of snow shoes .

I did a drawing of the entire display as well as one of just the snow shoes and the beaded leather boots. It was the latter one chose to start painting on within the time I had left.

I will post this painting at a later date one more of it has been completed.

Seasonal Delights - A Work in Progress

We had a Christmas theme for one of the earlier still life classes during the month of November.

This was arranged so some of the class members could submit a still life painting for the "Seasonal Delights" show at KAGS which opened on 02 December and runs through to 22 December 12, closes for the Christmas holiday and reopens on 05 January until 10 January 2013.

There were many seasonal items to choose from in the still life display including wrapped gifts, candles, Christmas trees, poinsettia, dolls, candy canes, bells, deer, Santa hats, tinsel and Christmas ornaments.

I decided to focus on the snow woman doll which was sitting on top of one of the wrapped gift boxes. I also wanted to do the stained glass candle which as lit and its light glowed on the base of the little Christmas tree.

I will post this painting at a later date once more of the elements in the painting have been completed.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Coral Garden - A Work in Progress

I had taken V. Gail Hawkins class earlier this month (see post on 01 Dec 12) for a different way of painting backgrounds and putting an image over top to create an interesting painting.

She did two demonstrations for the Buckhorn Artists’ Group one of a street scene in Italy by using a pen and ink drawing in sepia and putting water colour washes over it. The other one was of poinsettias using acrylic puff paint for the outline of the leaves and stems and putting watercolour washes for the colour and the background.

After doing the first demonstration she showed me how to apply colour to a canvas to create movement for an underwater painting close to the surface to capture the sunlight with the yellows and let the colour blend down through the greens to the blue base mixing the colours on the canvas. She also took the time to show me how to create fast and easy coral.

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

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

Hooves - A Work in Progress

Today while waiting for the blacksmith to arrive to trim up my horses' feet I thought I may as well do some sketching of my horses in this case their hooves.










I will post these sketches at a later date once they have been completed.

Glass Bottles - A Work in Progress

In one of the Still Life classes at KAGS last month we had an amazing collection of glass bottles from which to choose.

I did a small section of the bottles which had at least one of every colour that was available. I also have reference sketches and photographs of the rest of the bottles and I may do a couple more paintings later.

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

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

OSWOA - Reeds 2

This is a piece I started during the summer (see post on 09 July 2012) and decided to work on today since I really didn't feel like going outside and playing in the cold.














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 $30.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Christmas Snow 1

In less than three weeks it will be Christmas and I wanted to do a painting of snow falling on a pine tree forest.

I used masking fluid and splattered it across the paper and set it aside to dry.

Once it had dried I noticed that there was a large blob of masking fluid that was just too large to be a snowflake, so I removed it from the paper.














Using Antwerp blue, alizarin crimson and French ultramarine blue I brushed in the sky and added water to the sky colour to make it paler I brushed in some shadows onto the snow.

I added a little raw sienna to the sky colour and painted in the distant trees on the horizon.

Now it was time to paint in the trees.














Using a mixture of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna the main branches were painted.

Burnt sienna was added to the green mi and some darker branches and needles were added.

After setting it aside to dry before I could remove the masking fluid I decided that the painting needed a few more trees.














Using the same green mix and put in another large tree into the foreground, added two trees into the background on the left side and one more into the right side.

After it had dried I removed the masking from the painting to show the snowflakes. I added some growies into the base of the large trees using Antwerp blue and cadmium yellow.














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.

Amarylis - A Work in Progress

Today is the second last still life class of the year at KAGS, and with only half of the class being able to be here we decided to use things that were in the building.

We used one of the pots of Amaryllis that were decorating the Gallery and found a number of bowls, cups and a copper kettle to place on a mirror for our display.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to do a vertical painting to include the Amaryllis or to do a horizontal one of just a few of the many items that were available. In the end I did a drawing of each one and I will post the other after I have put down at least some of the under painting.

I did a fair amount of the under painting on this vertical piece, but I am still not very happy with the results. Who knows, perhaps with a little more work on it and some correcting of things that I can see are wrong, I may change my mind.

I will post this painting at a later date once more of it is finished.

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 December.

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

Sweet and Sour - A Work in Progress

This was an interesting exercise with cut crystal candy dishes, decanters, vases, glasses, fruit, foil wrapped chocolate, pine boughs, winter berries and poinsettia all reflected into a mirror.

I chose to do a small corner of the entire display, using the two candy dishes, some of the chocolate and the lemons and pears.

There is still a lot more work to do on this painting, especially all the details on the cut crystal which is going to take a lot of thought before I start working on that. I will post this at a later date once more of it has been completed.

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

Watchful I - A Work in Progress

Often while watching television I will sketch a scene that appeals to me; in September I did some sketches of mustangs.

This is a partially completed sketch of a lone stallion. It sill needs more work in the background hills and a lot more work on the horse.











I will post this drawing at a later date once it has been completed.

Confirmed Shows for 2012 and 2013 - December

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

Algonquin Provincial Park, Whitney, Ont.
Algonquin
03 Nov 12 - 26 Jun 13 Algonquin Palette

Kawartha Artists’ Gallery, Peterborough, Ont.
KAGS
02-22 Dec 12 & 05-10 Jan 13 Seasonal Delights
Opening Reception 02 Dec 12 from 1-4pm.
13-24 Jan 12 Execuspective
Opening 13 Jan 13 from 1-4pm
27 Jan - 14 Feb 13 Faces and Figures
Opening Reception 27 Jan 13 from 1-4pm.
07 Apr - 02 May 13 Unfolding
Opening Reception 07 Apr 13 from 1-4pm.
23 Jun - 11 Jul 13 Monochrome
Opening Reception 23 Jun 13 from 1-4pm.
15 Sep - 03 Oct 13 Rural Scenes
Opening Reception 15 Sep 13 from 1-4pm.
20-31 Oct 13 Motion in Stillness
Opening Reception 20 Oct 13 from 1-4pm.
03-21 Nov 13 Outdoor Painters' Group Show
Opening Reception 03 Nov 13 from 1-4pm.
08-22 Dec 13 & 05-10 Jan 14 Winter Delights
Opening Reception 08 Dec 13 from 1-4pm.

The Lindsay Gallery, Lindsay, Ont.
LindsayGallery
20 Nov - 21 Dec Christmas Show
Opening Reception 22 Nov from 7-8:30pm.
30 Jul - 24 Aug 2013 Above and Below the Reef
Opening Reception 01 Aug from 7-8:30pm.

St Matthews Church, Buckhorn, Ont
BuckhornArtistsGroup
18-20 May 25th Annual Among Friends Art Show
10-18 Aug 23rd Annual Shades of Summer Art Show

Cobourg Waterfront Festival, Cobourg, Ont.
Waterfrontfestival
29 Jun - 01 July The Lions Club Art Show and Sale

MacKelvie Gallery, Keene, Ontario
PioneerVillage
11 Jul - 08 Aug Lang Pioneer Village Museum, Keene, Ont.

Fenelon Falls Fairgrounds, Fenelon Falls, Ont.
KawarthaArtsFestival
31 Aug - 01 Sep Kawartha Arts Festival

Brightness - A Work in Progress

I took a one day workshop in acrylic with Gail Hawkins at KAGS. It was an interesting class and I learned a lot of things about painting in backgrounds and how to apply the foreground onto the painting.

This is the background for the landscape painting. I still have to decide how I am going to develop it and what I am going to put into the foreground.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have more of it completed.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Three Trees

We already have snow on the ground but you still can see some of the tall grasses and growies sticking up out of the snow along the tree line.

It won't be long before they are bent down before the winter winds and completely covered by the snow an ice where only the trees are standing up out of the snow and very thing else is a study in white.














This is an original 4-3/4" x 6-3/4" pen and ink drawing and when framed will be available for $65.00.

Homeward Bound

It seems that this month I am working on a number of paintings with boats and ships in them. So I will continue on today with this theme.

I pulled this painting out and decided to work on the waves to finish the water.













After setting it up and glancing at it for a couple of hours while I worked on various sketches I thought nothing more needed to be added to the painting and went ahead and signed it.

This framed, original 12" x 21-1/2" watercolour painting is available for $485.00.