Countryside Art Group Blog - Show Updates

On the first of each month I will update the Countryside Art Group's blog with a listing of shows where the various artists in the Group are exhibiting their work.

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

ACEO - Shapes 2

Today was the final day of the Small Treasures Show at KAGS. It was very well attended and 57 tickets were sold to raise funds for prize money for the students exhibiting in the Best of High School Art Show that is held in May each year.

I arrived early and had everything set up for the ticket draw and while I was waiting I worked on this little painting by blocking in some rectangular shapes with a pencil.

Using Antwerp blue I painted in the lower right shape; this was followed by paint the upper right shape with alizarin crimson.

I added some cadmium yellow to the Antwerp blue to make a green and painted the lower left shape.

Using the same yellow I added alizarin crimson and painted in the shape on the upper left side.

I set this painting aside to dry as people were coming into the Gallery for the draw and within an hour it was quite crowded when it was time to start. Mrs. Vera Penrose of Peterborough, Ontario had the first ticket drawn and I would like to thank her for choosing my painting A Winter Sunset (see posts on 30 January and 27 February 2015).

The people wasted no time choosing their paintings as their number was called. I would like to thank Mrs. Joanne Fernall of Norwood, Ontario who is a long time collector of my work and she selected First Snow (see posts on see posts on 23 December 2014, 19 January and 15 March 2015) with the fifth ticket that was drawn.

When the seventh ticket drawn I was very pleased and would like to thank Mr. John of Toronto, Ontario for selecting the my final painting in the show, Autumn Reflections I (see posts on 30 December 2014, 28 January and 26 February 2015) as his choice.

Everyone had a wonderful time at our closing ceremonies and perhaps we will have another one in about five years.

Before I left the Gallery I wanted to complete this painting and I painted the remain square with 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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

In the Shade I - A Work in Progress

It is -3F (-19.4C) and with the wind chill it feels like -18F (-27.8C). Needless to say when I returned from doing the ban chores it was time to warm up with a nice of cup of tea.

I wanted to do some more work on this drawing that I had started a couple of years ago (see post on 04 August 2013).

Rather than having just a single horse in the drawing I started doodling and adding a couple of foals and then some adult horses soon I had an entire herd of horses.












Next I started adding some grass below the hooves of the horses and soon it was time for me to get ready to go out for supper.

I will post this painting at a later date as more work is completed on the horses.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Taking Down the Show at the Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery

Today was a very busy day with starting the morning off by going to Fenelon Falls for a seminar on business plans and marketing. It was interesting and very informative with plenty of new ideas that I can put to good use.

From there it was off to Douro-Dummer Township to take down the Countryside Art Group show at the Library Art Gallery.

Finally I was back home and wanted to do a little work on a painting and I chose this one (see post on 20 January 2015).

Using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I started first by painting the island.

Then I started on the tree trunks and branches in the foreground and darkening the mixture started to add in the pine needles.

Evening Sky 5

Painting in the negative I created the rocky base against the water below the tree trunks. I added growies above the rocks and around the base of the trees.

Lastly I put in the reflections in the water below the rocks. I will post this painting at a later date once it is completed.

Glass on Mirrors - Two Works in Progress

Today in the Still Life class at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio our theme was Glass on Mirrors.

There were two distinct groupings and both were challenging subjects, especially when some of the glass was cut crystal and etched glass; and the others were transparent and reflected the colours from their surroundings.














Crystal Reflections I

The first one had a plain goblet, a blued glass with tiny bubbles inside the glass sides, a tall patterned green vase, a large cut crystal candy dish and a small etched glass bowl containing pieces of candy all of which was reflected on the mirror.














Half Full or Half Empty?

The second one had two wine glasses, a bevelled water pitcher which reflected the surrounding colours and a couple of bottles of wine, one was half full and both had some interesting colours showing through the liquid.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date one more work on them has been completed.

Display at the Norwood Skillet

This morning was cloudy and a little cool at 20F (-6C) with the wind chill making it feel like 9F (-12.8C) as I loaded the car to take my paintings to hang the show at the Norwood Skillet Restaurant, in Norwood, Ontario.

I was exhibiting my work there with fellow artist Ron Ward who I have known for almost 25 years.

Ron has mainly much larger paintings than I have and we decided his work would be better suited to hang in the Lounge where the large open spaces would do justice to his paintings.

With having a large number of pieces being displayed in so many venues including the Peterborough Theatre Guild, the Township of Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery, St. Matthews Church, Adventure Divers and the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio.

I chose to bring smaller paintings to exhibit at the Norwood Skillet.

These pieces were much better suited to be hung in the middle room as a single collection.

Ron then hung his remaining smaller and mid-sized paintings in the front Entry room.

This gave the display unity with Ron's acrylics in the front Entry room and my small and mid-sized watercolours in the Middle room leading to Ron's large acrylics in the Lounge.

The show will remain until 27 May 15.

I hope many of you will have the chance to come out and view the show.














By the time we had finished hanging the show the temperature had made it above the freezing mark and it started to rain.














From there I headed to the Township of Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery to meet with new collector Mrs. Heather Heffernan of Warsaw, Ontario.














I would like to thank her for her purchase of Honda Goldwing 1500cc (see post on 05 February 2010) from the exhibit as a birthday gift for her husband.

Skies - Three Works in Progress

Today I was painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and we had Emil Varga as the instructor who was demonstrating different skies.














Dramatic

In the first painting the horizon line was masked out using a piece of tape and the paper was wet above the tape. The dark clouds were created with a mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna on one side and the other side was a mix of Cobalt blue and burnt sienna leaving a white area slightly off center. The paint was sprayed with water and the colour was rolled around on the paper to create cloud shapes.

Each layer of paint was slightly thicker and darker than the one before and added into the corners of the painting, sprayed with water and rolled around the mix with the under paint.

A few areas of Cerulean blue were added into the clouds toward the bottom of the sky, sprayed with water and rolled to mix in with the existing paint. Then the painting was set aside to dry.














The next one was of a graded sky using three colours and glazing each layer over top of the one below.

The horizon line was put in using masking tape and the paper was wet above the tape. Using pure new gamboge the paint was swept into the area just above the tape in a diagonally upward stroke to create interest and movement.

The painting was set aside to dry before the next colour could be applied.














Pale Sky

Clear water was applied over the paper and  permanent rose was applied just slightly over lapping the layer of new gamboge and upwards leaving some of the area at the top of the painting without paint. It was then set aside to dry.

The paper was once more wet and this time painting from the top of the sky down into the permanent rose, Cobalt blue was applied.

Once again the paper was set aside to dry completely.














A Patch of Blue

For this painting the tape was applied on two different levels the highest was the bottom edge of the farthest island and the lower line was the bottom of the closer island.

The edges of the islands were lightly drawn in as a guide and the paper was wet above pencil lines.

A mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was brushed into the sky in various areas, sprayed and rolled around leaving some areas of the sky white. Pure burnt sienna was added into the sky sprayed and rolled always trying to keep some areas of white. Pure Cerulean blue was brushed into the bottom of the sky and rolled upward into the clouds.

A little pure Cobalt blue was added into the upper part of the cloudy sky in a couple of places, sprayed and rolled. More colours were added into the clouds until I liked the way it looked (and before I made a muddy mess of it).

I will post these paintings as more work on each of them is completed.

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

Autumn Maple 1 - A Work in Progress

It is another cold day -1F (-18.3C) with the wind chill making it feel like -16F (-26.7C) but the sun is shining and the wind is supposed to die down a little by the afternoon.

I went to St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Lakefield help the Lakefield Creative Arts Group complete their paintings which had been started earlier this year (see post on 12 January 2015).

Most of them had completed their paintings but needed some help with tree structure and putting leaves on the trees.

Many of them practiced on small pieces of paper doing various different kinds of deciduous trees and using a sponge to make the leaves.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have painted in the background.

Wine Glass - A Work in Progress

My high school friend Henry came out to visit with me yesterday at KAGS and enjoyed seeing the Small Treasures show. He left me a list of the paintings he would like to have if still available when his numbers are drawn on the tickets he purchased since he will be back in Prince George, B.C. at the time of the draw on the 29th.

It was nice seeing him again after four years but I bet he wishes he would have chosen another time to come to Ontario, yesterday was cold but today is even colder with the temperature at 2F (-16.7C) and even though the sun is shining the wind chill makes it feel like -11F (-23.9C).

Our next Still Life class is going to be glass on mirrors.

I decided to get some practice in and do a drawing of one of the wine glasses and its reflection on the table.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have added some colour to the painting.

Opening of the Small Treasures Show

I was hoping for a sunny day today with seeing the first two robins of the year yesterday; instead it is 27F (-2.8C) and it is snowing with already almost an inch (2.54cm) on the ground.















We will see how many brave souls come out for the opening of the Small Treasures Show at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio.

There are a total of 77 original 8" x 10" paintings on display and the purchase tickets are available for $30.00 each.

On the closing day of the Show on 29 March 2015 is when the draw for order of selection is made for the ticket holders. The draw begins at 2:00pm.















If you are interested in purchasing a ticket be sure to get them soon as there are only 77 tickets available.

Background 29 and 30 - Two Works in Progress

I finally found the two canvases from the painting I did for the Small Treasures Show called First Snow (see posts on 23 December 2014, 19 January and 15 March 2015).

The first was created using the left over Titanium white, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, raw sienna and a small amount of French ultramarine blue.

Background 29

The second one was painted with French ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red and burnt sienna.

I will post each of these backgrounds once I decide what I will paint on them and have at least the sketch completed.




Background 30

Teddy Bear Bedtime - A Work in Progress

It is another cold day 8F (-13.3C) but at least there is very little wind and the sun is shining causing more of the snow to melt.

Today Margaret Tough the President of KAGS and I are going to be on CFFF Trent Radio 92.7 FM in the afternoon after the Still Life class. We will be talking about the Gallery and the current Small Treasures Art Show. It should be interesting.

In the morning our theme for the Still Life class was "Sleepwear".

We had many interesting things to work chose from including various types of housecoats, satin robes, pajamas, night gowns, negligées, slippers, a couple of teddy bears and an alarm clock.














I decided on the two teddy bears, the alarm clock and the negligée on a blanket.

I put in the background with a pale mix of cobalt blue and alizarin crimson. While it was drying I added a section of hardwood floor.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have started painting the teddy bears.

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

Background 24-28 - Five Works in Progress

I had set these ones aside to dry from Autumn Reflections I (see posts on 30 December 2014, 28 January 2015 and 26 February 2015) and I forgot about taking a photographs of them to post.















Background 24

The first canvas was painted with cadmium red, alizarin crimson and cadmium yellow.














Background 25

The second one was a mixture of French ultramarine blue and Titanium white.














Background 26

The third one was Titanium white French ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue and burnt sienna.















Background 27

The fourth one was of Titanium white, Cerulean blue and a small amount of burnt sienna.














Background 28

The final canvas was of Titanium white, French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

I will post each of these canvases as I decide what I will paint on them and have at least a sketch transferred onto them.

ACEO - Shapes 1

Today my Red-winged Blackbirds arrived from the south and it is nice to know I can expect all the various black birds to arrive shortly. Once the Grackles and Cowbirds show up spring cannot be too far behind them.

Today I came across five pieces of paper that I was going to make into a collection of abstract paintings.

First, I blocked in various rectangular shapes with a pencil.

Now it was time to start putting colour into the various shapes. I started on the left side and painted the long rectangle with pure alizarin crimson.

Next, I made an orange of cadmium red and cadmium yellow and painted the large shape on the top right corner.

While that section was drying I mixed aureolin with Antwerp blue and painted in the small shape on the lower right side.

Using pure cadmium yellow I filled in the shape between the red bar and the orange shape.

Next I mixed French ultramarine blue with alizarin crimson for a dark purple and painted in the last shape at the bottom of the painting.

Once the paint was dry, I washed a layer of cadmium red over the shape on the left side to darken it slightly.

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.

First Snow

Today I needed to finish this painting for the Small Treasures Show that I thought I had completed last month (see posts on 23 December 2014 and 19 January 2015) which I will be hanging at KAGS tomorrow.

The only thing I needed to do is paint the foreground trees, add some growies and apply the final layer of snow.

The trunks were painted in using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and alizarin crimson.















The yellow leaves were mixtures of Titanium white, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, and draw sienna.

The brightest areas of snow were painted in using Titanium white with a touch of lemon yellow. Lastly the growies were painted at the base if the trees using mixtures of burnt sienna and raw sienna.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Underwater Housing I-III - Three Works in Progress

Often when I go diving in the Caribbean you can find all manner of creatures in the making their homes in some of the strangest places. I have found crabs and lobsters in old rusted buckets and in Barrel sponge and while diving in Bonaire a number of fish  had made their home in a crumpled  45 gallon oil drum.














Underwater Housing I

In the Still Life class earlier this month we painted old clay oil jugs and large clay pots (see post on 05 March 2015).

I thought why not turn them on their sides, put a hole in them and then add a few sea creatures.













Underwater Housing II

For the first one I have started painting in some of the colour on the clay oil jug and have to decide where to put the broken part and what sea creature I will put into it.

For the second one I will have it buried a little deeper in the sand and will probably have the opening closer to the front.






Underwater Housing III

For the third one I have indicated where the opening will be and it is just a matter of finding the tenant.

I will post each of these underwater homes as more work is completed on them.

Small Treasures Poster and Art Show

My artwork appears on the poster for the upcoming Small Treasures Show, which is a fundraiser for the Best of High School Art Show held in May.

Art is a very difficult field in which to earn a living; but it is important in that it is a form of expression, it can evoke emotion in the viewer, be thought provoking, make a statement or cause one to see the world in a different way.

It has been with us for thousands of years and should not become something that is lost with time and a lack of encouragement.

I am not the only one at KAGS that feels it is important to encourage the next generation of artists. KAGS supplied up to three canvases to any member artist that was interested in helping with this fund raiser. The response was wonderful with almost 30% of KAGS artists willing to donate their time and talent to create paintings for this show.

The upcoming art show called 'Small Treasures' is a little different than what is normally the way an art exhibit is ran at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio. Instead of the public buying the art from the artist as they see it at the Gallery both the public and Gallery members will be eligible to purchase tickets at $30.00 each (with all proceeds going for prize money for the Best of High School Art Show) starting on Wednesday, 18 March until the start of the final day on Sunday, 29 March, with no more tickets available than the number of paintings exhibited.

Tickets will be drawn on the final afternoon of the exhibit starting at 2:00pm with the first name drawn having the first choice of one of the paintings on display. This will continue until all the purchased tickets have been drawn.

The Best of High School Art Show was the idea of Cap Leahy who together with Barry Parsons (both of whom are members of the Outdoor Painters' Group) held the first show at KAGS in the mid-1990s and it has been an annual event ever since. We have had students enter our show from the Kawartha Pine Ridge School Region, as well as schools from Norwood, Lakefield, Lindsay, Peterborough and the surrounding area.

Prizes are from many different fund raising events over the course of the year such as the Annual ODPG silent auction for artwork by their members and the KAGS Christmas Silent Auction, last year funds were raised at the show held at the Lockside Trading Post with artists donating 25% of the proceeds from their art sales, private individuals and with generous donations from the Rose Baker Fund and the Retired Teachers Association.

Prizes for this annual event are given to the students in the form of cash and gift certificates from Victory Art Supply.

If you have a chance, please come out and help support our future artists. 

Vases - Two Works in Progress

Today in the Still Life class at KAGS we set up four displays of porcelain, ceramic and glass vases with dried floral arrangements.

To do all four of them in a painting would have been just too busy so instead I decided that I would do a sketch of each vase.

I started with the green ceramic vase which had Chinese lanterns, teasel, silver dollars and dried ornamental onion.

The orange of Chinese lanterns glowed against the silver dollar plants.

Green Vase

The white ceramic vase was the next one I sketched.

The vase was filled with dried ornamental onion and silver dollars.

I liked the way the orange colour of the Chinese lantern resting on the table at the base of the vase were reflected against the bright, shiny whiteness of the vase.

White Vase

I will post each of the pieces as the sketches are completed and colour has been added to the painting.

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

Horse Heads - Three Works in Progress

It seems that Junkyard has gone out on the prowl again and I haven't seen him in the last two days. I hope he isn't going to be gone as long as he was the last time.

I decided to work on some sketches of horse heads today starting with a draft horse.

This first sketch is of a dapple grey Percheron gelding that I saw last year at one of the fairs.

Together with his team mate, they were in the horse pulling competition and did fairly well placing third behind two teams of Belgians.

Billy

Perhaps as I do more work on this sketch I will add his team mate, Bob and put the harness on the pair of them.

This sketch is simply working on the proportions of the head and how each part of the head relates to the other and where the proper placement should be to make it correct.

When I sketch I have a tendency to block the various parts and pieces in with straight lines and rectangles without using a lot of circles.

Hunter Head Study

Many other artists prefer to use circles and connect them together with lines to block in their subject. Either way works well, it just depends on what works best for the artist.

This last sketch of one of Ron's Standardbreds is drawn from a photographic reference and I haven't compensated for the camera distortion.

As I work on refining this sketch into an outline drawing, I will have to make a number of changes to the basic shapes in order to have the head drawn in the proper proportion.

Try Me Now

I will post each of these sketches at a later date once the outline sketch has been completed.

Background 22 and 23 - Two Works in Progress

It is nice to have the temperature finally making it to 40F (4.4C) and to have some of the snow melt; although I am not looking forward to my driveway turning into a skating rink. But eventually all the snow will be gone and my flowers will bloom.
















Background 22

Yesterday in the Lucy Manley class I used the left over paint as background on two canvases.

For the first one I used half of the raw sienna, the cadmium yellow and the lemon yellow.














Background 23

For the second canvas I used the remaining raw sienna, alizarin crimson and cadmium red.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date once I decided what I would like to paint.

Walking the Dog - A Work in Progress

It is getting warmer out 21F (-6C) and even though there is a wind making it feel colder 14F (-10C) the sun is shining and the snow is starting to melt. With the warmer temperature it seems as though overnight most of the snow buntings has left and I only have one small flock of about thirty five birds here today. I will miss them when this flock leaves.














Today in the last Lucy Manley class at KAGS and we are going to do a Peterborough street scene.

As usual we under painted the canvas with raw sienna and the buildings were blocked in using cadmium red.














The shadowed side of the buildings were painted, the shadows under the eaves and the windows. Lastly the trees were indicated as well as a person out walking the dog.

Now it was time to start adding colour to the buildings.














On the first building Titanium white mixed with  lemon yellow was put on the sunlit side, then raw sienna was added to the mix for the shadowed side and a hint of red was added to the shadow colour for the cast shadow on the sunlit side as well as the fence on the left side.

The red brick on the next building was cadmium red with a little lemon yellow added. For the shadowed side alizarin crimson was added to the mix with a touch of French ultramarine blue.














Using a mix of French ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and raw sienna, the windows of the buildings were blocked in as well as the dark shadows under the eaves. A small amount of cerulean blue was added to the mixture and the shadowed side of the front building and the spaces between the fence, on the left side were painted.

More raw sienna and a touch of Titanium white and cadmium red were added to the dark paint and the sunlit side of the front building and the right side fence were added.














Using pure Titanium white the snow was applied to the foreground, the roofs of the buildings, the front top of the brick building and onto the tops of the fence posts and fence.

Cerulean blue was added to the white with a little alizarin crimson for the snow shadows in the foreground and on the shadowed side of the roofs. A little French ultramarine blue was added to the mix and darker shadows were added to the foreground snow and the shadow from the tree was put onto the roof.















Using the shadow colour I added a roof for a small shed on the left side behind the fence and adding a little cadmium yellow painted the front part of the shed green. I will use this colour later on the coats of both the dog and person.

Using white and lemon yellow I added more colour to the sunlit side of the first building. The tree shadows on the front of the building were put in using the yellow mix and adding raw sienna.

I will post this painting at a later date as more of the buildings have been completed.

Background 21 - A Work in Progress

Spring cannot be too far off with the temperature this morning being 20F (-6.7C) and even with the wind chill making it feel like 8F (-13.3C) and the snow blowing it is warmer and you don't mind when the sun comes out from behind the clouds.

This background is the result of using the leftover paint from a painting I started in Lucy Manley's class at KAGS earlier this month (see post on 02 March 2015).














The colours used to create this background are Titanium white, French ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, raw sienna, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

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

Koi 4 - A Work in Progress

Today is a much milder day with the temperature at 14F (-10C), and the wind chill making it feel like 3F (-16C). It is overcast and we are supposed to get some snow flurries this afternoon, hopefully there won't be too much blowing snow.














I had planned on getting this painting that I had started last year (see posts on 18 July 2014 and 09 January 2015) completed while I was at Art on Kent this afternoon, but we had a number of people come through the Gallery that I didn't have very much time to paint.

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