Warm in the Cold

Today is the first day of the Warm in the Cold art exhibit at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio that I was a co-convenor of together with Margaret Tough.














The exhibition runs from 30 Nov - 18 Dec 16, closes for the Christmas holidays and reopens in the New Year and continues from 04-15 Jan 17.

The Opening Reception is on 04 Dec 16 from 1-4pm. I hope that some of you are able to come out and see the show.

ACEO - Autumn Trees 13

I didn't have a lot of time to paint before I had to leave for the Executive meeting at KAGS; I wanted to work on this painting that I started last year while at the Knoepfli Inn in Magnetawan, Ontario (see post on 05 October 2015).

Using a mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I put in all the tree trunks first. Raw sienna was added to the trunk colour and then painted into the foreground.

Using raw sienna, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson I painted in the background trees and undergrowth.

While the paint was still wet I dropped in a little bit of pure new gamboge to create interest.

With a sponge and mixes of raw sienna, alizarin crimson, cadmium red new gamboge and cadmium yellow I added the leaves onto the trees.

Into the dark foreground I put in splashes of bright colour withe cadmium red 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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

New Painting at Roland's Steak House

Today I returned to Roland's Steak House at 845 Highway 7 East, Peterborough, Ontario, to replace one of my paintings that had sold (see post on 21 November 2016).













I would like to thank new collector Ms. Tina Fitzpatrick, of Mississauga, Ontario on her purchase of Aurora Borealis (see post on 04 April 2010).

Break in the Fence 2 and Fence Line 3

While out running errands I noticed as I was on my way home the various different types of fences enclosing the fields.

I stopped along the side of the road and did a quick drawing of one the fences. This one had a break in the wire and some of the fence posts were leaning or broken. The field was overgrown with weeds, showing that this property was no longer being maintained.















Break in the Fence 2

I continued down the road and when I came to the stop at the end of the road, right across from me there was a new post and rail fence that had been put in during the summer.















Fence Line 3

New people had purchased the farm a couple of years ago and now that their new home had been built they were starting to do work on the fence line around the property.

There were a lot of differences between the two properties and it is amazing how a little time, care and a lot of work can change the look of the land.

Poster for Affordableism

This is the poster for the "Affordableism" exhibit at Art on Kent which features one piece of my art.

The show begins on 24 November and runs through to 17 December 2016, then closes for Christmas and New Year's holiday and reopens from 05-14 January 2017.

The Opening Reception is on 26 November 2016 from 1-3p.m.

Hopefully some of you will be able to come out and view the exhibit.

Long Shadows

Today I am painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and I thought I would like to finish this painting that I had started quite a while ago (see posts on 20 August 2010 and 14 January 2016).

Using a grey made with French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I darkened down the pine tree trunks and branches.
















Using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue, cobalt blue, raw sienna, new gamboge and aureolin I made the greens for the pine needles on the trees.

I put the grasses and growies showing through the snow at the base of the trees with cadmium yellow, burnt sienna, raw sienna and lemon yellow.

This original 6" x 6-3/4” watercolour painting when framed will be available for $125.00.

Roland's Steak House

Today Cindy Allan, Norma MacEachern and I hung our paintings together with those of Vera Penrose who was unable to be there with us at Roland's Steak House, at 845 Highway 7 East, Peterborough, Ontario.












With the four of us being the first set of artists from the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group going in to hang the show, we were also setting up the way the following exhibits would be displayed.














Our paintings are to be hung on a 12-1/2' (3.8m) wall in the hallway leading to the dining rooms and in the Club Room which is a large 20' x 30' (6m x 9m) room.

It didn't take us very long to bring the paintings into the room, get them unwrapped and set out so we could decide on the best way to hang them on the walls for a pleasing display.











Since Cindy and I had a number of fairly large paintings, we each put one of them out into the hall as main pieces for that wall and would add a couple of smaller pieces from Norma and Vera once the Club Room was hung.














Cindy put one of her larger paintings on each of the 10' (3m) sections of the first short wall while I hung one large painting in the centre of the 20' (6m) wall on the opposite side of the room and my other large painting was hung by itself on the 6' (1.8m) section of the wall by the door on one of the long walls.












Next we added another of Cindy's paintings to the right side of her larger piece and one of Vera's to the opposite side as all three paintings had the yellow tones in either the sky or the water.

On the other wall we decided that my underwater painting had similar blues to the sky in Cindy's painting and that completed the first short wall.













The first long wall had two windows breaking up the wall space into two 8' (2.4m) sections and one 6' (1.8m) section had a few challenges with lights in the centre of each wall.

We decided that each of the two larger wall sections would be able to have three mid-sized paintings and on the shorter wall just two paintings as we didn't want to crowd one into the corner.












After looking over the paintings we decided to use the ones that had various shades of green as a base and ones with neutral grey tones.

The first section featured two of Vera's paintings with the water and evergreens and beneath the light one of mine in grey tones.











The next section had two of Cindy's paintings one of water and evergreens and the other of a mixed hardwood forest with a few of the maples starting to change colour and beneath the light was a lovely painting by Norma of a water lily.














On the smaller wall keeping with the green and neutral theme we hung another of Vera's landscapes and below the light a snow scene of mine with evergreens and a rail fence.

With two of the walls now completed we decided that we would keep the barn paintings together on the short back wall and then gradually fill in the rest of the wall with paintings that matched in colour and size.













We placed the larger painting of Norma's family farm below the one light and my small grey barn beside my larger painting.

A larger painting was needed on the one side and we chose one of Vera's landscapes which also brought the green colours across onto the new wall.














Next Norma's heron was placed between her barn and my larger one as the colours went well together.

Since my larger painting on the last long wall had orange tones in it we thought Norma's winter landscape should go on the short wall near it and my morning lake scene should be below the light which completed the second short wall.














The other long wall was also broken into smaller sections due to a door on each end of the wall and a cabinet, displaying glassware in the centre of the wall between the two doors.

We thought that we would match the sections in the same way as the opposite wall with a painting on either side of the lights and one below.














We placed Vera's small painting of a water lily just below the light and a landscape from Norma and one from Cindy on each side of the light.

On the final section of the wall with the cabinet being so close to the light we placed a larger painting of Vera's to one side and a smaller piece of mine below the light.














This completed the room with a total of twenty six paintings hanging on the walls.

Now it was time to hang the paintings on the large wall in the hall leading to the dining rooms.













We chose Cindy's large vertical painting of birch trees for the center of the wall and hung paintings to either side.

We put two of Vera's paintings one over the other at the left side of the wall and one of mine between Vera's paintings and Cindy's birch trees.












On the other side of the birches we put Norma's painting of leaves and beside that another of Cindy's with a canoe.

We hung a total of thirty two paintings in just over three hours at at Roland's and the owners Brigitte and Peter Brugger were pleased with the display.














Now that everything was in place, the glass cleaned to remove any fingerprints that were on the glass from hanging them on the walls and our containers were put away in the vehicles, it was time to relax.














Since it was lunch time, we stayed to enjoy a meal of freshly made soup and a garden salad before heading home.

Fire

After the last week with temperatures ranging from 50F-67F (10C-19C) we are greeted today with a temperature of 28F (-2C).

The snow was whipped across the fields by the 25mph (40kmh) winds which made the temperature outside feel like 12F (-11C).















After finishing up the evening barn chores and coming into the house to warm up, it was nice to have the first fire of the season burning in the fireplace after supper.

When it was time to head off to bed the fire had almost burnt itself out and in the morning there would be nothing left but some grey ash.

Feast for the Eyes

Today I was sitting at Art on Kent in Lindsay, Ontario for the last day of the "Feast for the Eyes" show.














I was surprised that there wasn't a larger number of paintings in the exhibit and only two photographs.










But with the wide variety of styles and media it created a very interesting display.














As usual the paintings were beautifully presented to the public by the show hanging committee.














It was also a very busy day at the Gallery with many people coming in to see the show as well as a couple of artists bringing in their art work for the next show called "Affordableism".















The new show starts on 24 Nov and runs through to 17 Dec 16 when the Gallery closed for the Christmas season and reopens in the New Year on 05 January and runs through until 14 Jan 17.














If you would like to meet some of the artists, the opening reception is on 26 Nov 16 from 1-3p.m. and I hope to see some of you there.

OSWOA - Lazy River 3

Most of our autumn colours have gone and some of the trees are left with just a few leaves grimly hanging on before they too will fall to the ground.

I wanted some bright colour, so I pulled out this painting that I worked on earlier this year (see posts on 23 December 2011, 07 May 2013 and 05 March 2016).

With a pencil, I lightly added branches to the two remaining tree trunks.

Using a dark mixture of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna I put in the needles on the branches.

Next I added cadmium yellow to the dark green mix and put the highlights on the branches of all the pine trees.

Next I mixed burnt sienna and a little bit of French ultramarine blue and painted in the rocks at the edge of the river.

Lastly using various mixes of raw sienna, cadmium yellow, burnt sienna and new gamboge I put in the grasses and growies on the shore.

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 $40.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Industry 2

This is the second of three pieces I started earlier this year (see post on 22 August 2016) and wanted to finish. I started by using a muddy brown colour below some of the factories and the different buildings.

I finished the top area of the sky above the toxic emissions with Antwerp blue.

Lastly I put in the warning lights on the smoke stacks and some of the buildings.















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.

Big Cedar Lake IV

Today I was painting with the St. John's Art Group in Lakefield and decided to work on this sketch that I did last year while canoeing on Big Cedar Lake (see post on 23 August 2015).

The sketch was originally of a cedar tree that had fallen over and was laying in the water and I decided that I would rather have it upright before it fell over into the lake.

I started with the dead tree trunk and then added the branches.

Lastly I put a few growies and grasses on top of the rock at the base of the tree.

This original 4" x 9” pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $25.00.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Waiting I - A Work in Progress

This is one of a number of sketches I started when I was in Aruba, relaxing on Eagle Beach.

There was a vendor who had a couple of Sea-Doos, a few paddle boats, and some small sailboats for rent. All of them were brightly coloured and stood out against the white sand, azure sky and turquoise water.









I tightened up the details on the paddle boats in the foreground and straightened up the masts on the sailboats.

Lastly I fixed up the little sailboat near the horizon.

Sand and Surf III

This is a sketch I started in Aruba while spending some time enjoying the sun on Eagle Beach.

I added a few more details to the people that were on the beach and in the ocean.














I hope to return to Aruba next year.

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

Autumn's End I

Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and it is getting colder and winter is just around the corner.

Since I was going to be with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painter's Group today I decided that I would take this drawing that I had started last month (see post on 25 October 2016) and get it completed.

I started in the middle ground and added two smaller trees on the left side to each side of the background tree.

















Next added a tree into the background in the middle near the two trees already there and another one on the far right side of background tree.

Lastly, I added an out of focus treeline into the very distant background.

This original 5-1/4" x 6” pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $40.00.

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

Extendicare Display

Although the morning started out extremely foggy, today I had to go and set up my display at Extendicare, 860 Alexander Court, Peterborough, Ontario.








My friend Cindy Allan came along with me to help hang the show. She always has an eye for setting the paintings on the wall so they make a nice display.









We were fortunate in that the two artists from KAGS we were exchanging paintings with were Dorothy Conlin and Carolyn Anstee who are also Outdoor Painters.










Needless to say, "many hands make light work" is a very true proverb.











It took us less than an hour to take down the previous show and have mine unwrapped, set out and hung on the wall.











The four of us left together to enjoy the rest of what became a bright, sunny day with the temperature climbing to 66F (18.9C).










My paintings will be at Extendicare from 07 November 2016 - 02 January 2017 and if you have a chance please come out to see the exhibit.

Extended Trot

Today I was watching a program on Dressage and watched the various movements of the horses during a dressage competition.














It wasn't long before I got out my sketchbook and did this drawing of a horse doing an extended trot.

Rock Face 1 and 2

This area is known for its pink granite stones, boulders and rock cliffs as well as the clean, dark waters of its lakes and rivers.

We often go canoeing on many of the lakes in the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site Provincial Park.

I have sketches, drawings and paintings of a number of them, including Coon Lake, Loon Call Lake, Wolf Lake and Long Lake which are the most recent.

Next year I hope to explore three or four more lakes from in the Park.

Rock Face 1

This first one is from Long Lake up the first inlet near the launch site.














Rock Face 2

This is from another inlet near an island on Loon Call Lake.

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

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 November.

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

ACEO - Autumn Stream 1

Recently the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group were given the opportunity to hang our artwork in Roland's Steak House at 845 Highway 7 East, Peterborough, Ontario. This morning Vera Penrose and I went to look at the space at Roland's where our paintings would hang.

The first area we were shown was a 12-1/2' (3.8m) wall in the hallway leading to the dining rooms. Then we were shown the Club Room which is a large 20' x 30' (6m x 9m) room with plenty of space for paintings.

After talking with the owners Brigitte and Peter Brugger we decided that the first group of artists going in to exhibit their art work would set up the placement for the paintings and that way no damage would be done to the walls with future shows by changing the nails around.

When I returned home I wanted to do a little painting and I picked this one that I had been working on earlier this year (see posts on 15 September and 10 October 2016).














I started by mixing French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna together for a grey colour and used it to paint in the maple tree trunks and branches. I also used some of the darker mix on the base of some of the rocks, in the shadowed areas, putting in the bridge and into the water for the rock reflections.

With various mixes of raw sienna, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, cadmium yellow and new gamboge the leaves were put on the trees and bushes with a sponge.

While these areas were drying I used mixes of alizarin crimson and burnt sienna to paint in the main color of the rocks.

Using pure raw sienna and pure burnt sienna grasses and growies were painted into the land above the rocks.

Lastly to complete the painting, I put in a small figure walking across the bridge wearing a jacket of cadmium red.

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.

Confirmed Shows for 2016-2017 - November

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.

St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, 81 Queen St., Lakefield, Ont.
150th Anniversary Art Show and Sale
10 Sep - 12 Nov on Saturdays from 11a.m.-2p.m.
Opening Reception 10 Sep 16 from 11a.m.-3p.m.

Dancing Blueberries, 360 George St. N., Peterborough, Ont.
28 Sep - 30 Nov 16
01Nov 17 - 03 Jan 18
05 Sep - 07 Nov 18

Kawartha Artists’ Gallery and Studio, Peterborough, Ont.
KAGS
26 Oct - 13 Nov 16 Outdoor Painters' Show
Opening Reception 30 Oct 16 from 1-4p.m.
30 Nov -18 Dec 16 and 04-15 Jan 17 Warm in the Cold
Opening Reception 04 Dec 16 from 1-4p.m.
18 Jan - 12 Feb 17 The Mix
Opening Reception 22 Jan 17 from 1-4p.m.
15 Feb - 12 Mar 17 Petals and Pitchers
Opening Reception 19 Feb 17 from 1-4p.m.
15-26 Mar 17 Diversity
Opening Reception 19 Mar 17 from 1-4p.m.
29 Mar - 04 May 17 Spark Photography Show
Opening Reception 02 Apr 17 from 1-4p.m.
21 Jun -09 Jul 17 Sunlight and Shadow
Opening Reception 25 Jun 17 from 1-4p.m.
16 Aug - 10 Sep 17 Faces and Figures
Opening Reception 20 Aug 17 from 1-4p.m.
13 Sep - 08 Oct 17 150 Years of Canada's History Featuring Peterborough County
Opening Reception 17 Sep 17 from 1-4p.m.
25 Oct -12 Nov Outdoor Painters' Show- Rural Outlook
Opening Reception 30 Oct 17 from 1-4p.m.
29 Nov - 22 Dec 17 and 03-14 Jan 18 Winter
Opening Reception 03 Dec 17 from 1-4p.m.

Kawartha Arts Network - Art on Kent, Lindsay, Ont.
KAN
27 Oct - 19 Nov 16 Feast for the Eyes
27 Oct 16 - 29 Apr 17 Wall of Small
Opening Reception 29 Oct 16 from 1-3p.m.
24 Nov - 17 Dec 16 and 05-14 Jan 17 Affordableism
Opening Reception 26 Nov 16 from 1-3p.m.
13 Apr - 06 May 17 Added Dimension
Opening Reception 15 Apr 17 from 1-3p.m.
11 May - 03 Jun 17 Annual Members' Show
Opening Reception 13 May 17 from 1-3p.m.
08 Jun - 08 Jul 17 What's Your Canada?
Opening Reception 10 Jun 17 from 1-3p.m.
13-29 Jul 17 Diversity
Opening Reception 15 Jul 17 from 1-3p.m.
03-26 Aug 17 Open for Interpretation
Opening Reception 05 Aug 17 from 1-3p.m.
31 Aug -23 Sep 17 Holy Cow - It's a Moonet!
Opening Reception 02 Oct 17 from 1-3p.m.
28 Sep - 21 Oct 17 Featured Artist in Members' Room
28 Sep -21 Oct 17 TBD
Opening Reception 30 Sep 17 from 1-3p.m.
26 Oct - 23 Dec 17 and 04-13 Jan 18 Affordableism
Opening Reception 28 Oct 17 from 1-3p.m.

Extendicare, 860 Alexander Court, Peterborough, Ont.
07 Nov 16 - 02 Jan 17
06 Nov 17 - 01 Jan 18

Roland's Steak House , 845 Highway 7 East, Peterborough, Ont.
21 Nov 16 - 27 Feb 17

The Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery,
425 Douro Fourth Line Road, Hamlet of Douro, Ont.
28 Feb -30 Apr 17
Opening Reception 03 Mar 17 from 7-8p.m.

The Evinrude Centre, 911 Monaghan Road, Peterborough Ont.
07-09 Apr 16 The 17th Annual Peterborough Garden Show

28th Annual Kawartha Arts Festival
Fenelon Falls Fair Grounds, Fenelon Falls, Ont.
02-03 Sep 17

I look forward to seeing you at some of these shows.