Abstract 38 and 39

This is the another technique we learned called "dipping" in the Pour Your Heart Out workshop with Valerie Kent at the Cavan Art Gallery.

This is another way of using up the excess acrylic paint, rather than wasting by throwing the paint away.



















Abstract 38

As the run off paint collects in the tray, canvas can be set down into the paint and then carefully lifted to create interesting designs.

In both of these pieces most of the other students in the class found shapes of fish. Can you see fish in these paintings, or do you see something different?



















Abstract 39

I found it to be an easy way of creating an interesting abstract painting and some of the others in the class added small amounts of pure paint to create different designs.

Each of these original 2" x 2" acrylic paintings and will be available with its own display easel for $25.00.

Twin Falls

This is the painting I did for tonight's class at The Point.

I have decided that I will donate this original 8" x 10" acrylic painting as the first of two that I will be donate for the Small Treasures show held at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio  in March to raise prize money for the Best of High School Art Show held each May.

Now I have to complete the other canvas that I started last year.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Poster for the Waterfall Painting Class

I just had the poster made for the class I am teaching at The Point - the Young's Point Diner and Pizzeria, at 403 South Beach Rd., Lakefield, Ontario on 17 January 2018.

If you are interested in taking this class, please contact Janice Costa at The Point.

Background 84 - A Work in Progress

This is a background I made using the remaining paint left on my palette from yesterday's art class.















I will post this painting at a later date once I have decided what I will put into the background.

I'm Cute - A Work in Progress

Today I taught an art class on painting a Holstein cow at The Point in in Young's Point, Ontario.

I had the outline drawing of the image already drawn out on a template for the class and all they had to do was transfer it onto their stretched canvas.















Once that was done I had them paint in the sky using a mix of ultramarine blue and titanium white.

Next I had them do the muzzle and nostrils of the cow using various mixes of ultramarine blue, titanium white and Grumbacher (naphthol) red before we took a break for supper.















When we returned they started with the black areas on the cow using Mars black as the base and the highlights were various mixtures of the black with titanium white added.

Titanium white was painted into the white parts of the cow as the base and the shadow colour in the white areas was the same colour mixtures that were used in the black areas for the highlights.















I needed to help most of my students with painting the eyes.

For the most part they could get the brown part of the eye painted in with burnt sienna, but then had problems with the placement of the black pupil and the white highlight.

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

Poster for the Crazy Cow Class at The Point

I just had the poster made for the class I am teaching at The Point - the Young's Point Diner and Pizzeria, at 403 South Beach Rd., Lakefield, Ontario on 23 August 2017.

If you are interested in taking this class, please contact Janice Costa at The Point.

Backyards - A Work in Progress

It is a nice mild day with the temperature at 47F (8.3C) and the ice on the driveway starting to melt.

We are having the second to last workshop with Lucy Manley and are going to do a street scene on black canvas using a mosaic style of painting.

I was supposed to do a painting last year (see post on 19 October 2015) but was unable to start painting in that style as I had to leave early.

I already had a couple of canvases painted black and used this one called Background 52 (see post on 21 October 2015) from that workshop.

The outlines of the buildings were sketched onto the canvas using cadmium red.

Since the background was already the darkest dark we started the painting with the lightest light, in this case titanium white for the sunlit snow, the white window frames and the clouds.

Adding Cerulean blue to the white for the next lightest colour, the snow and the brightest part of the sky were indicated.















For the next darker colour ultramarine blue as added to the white for the darker area of the sky and the cast shadows in the snow.

The background trees were indicated with various mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, white and a small amount of alizarin crimson.

Next was to start painting in the various buildings. Using the tree colour and adding a little ultramarine blue to grey the colour, the larger background house was painted and then the shadow under the eaves of the garage, the small area of roof from the house and the smaller shed in front of the garage.

Adding a little more white to the grey a few highlights were added to the larger house and the shadowed side of the garage was painted.

After adding a little more white to the grey mix, the sunlit side of the garage was completed.

Lastly a mix of raw sienna, burnt sienna and white was used to indicate the front of the house across the street on the right side of the painting.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed more work on the various buildings.

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

Sunlit Birches - A Work in Progress

For me today was a busy day at KAGS.

In the morning we had the acrylic workshop with Lucy Manley where we did a forest scene in the winter and the afternoon was taken up with the Executive meeting.

Using raw sienna as an under paint to give a warm tone to the painting which will show through in some areas.

Next with cadmium red the main trees were indicated using a deeper tone with more detail.

Less detail and a lighter wash of colour was used for the further back trees in the forest.

The main shadows were then indicated as well as the thicker forest on the top of the hill.

The darkest colour was indicated with a mixture of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

The background trees on the top of the hill were painted in using mixtures of Hansa yellow, ultramarine blue and cerulean blue.

The areas of the brightest sunlit snow were put in with pure titanium white.

The sky was a mixture of titanium white and cadmium red.

The background snow which is mainly in shadow was put in with titanium white, ultramarine blue and a hint of cadmium red.

The darkest shadow which is of the large foreground tree was put in with ultramarine blue and white.

The next darkest shadows were of the second and third largest trees using cerulean blue and white.

The remaining shadows were put in though out the areas of high lit snow using various mixtures of titanium white, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue and with a little bit of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

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

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

Autumn Beauty 1

Today I was painting with the Tuesday Buckhorn Painting Group and I decided that it was time I revisited Autumn Beauty 1 (see post on 05 November 2014).

I wanted more blue in the main area of the sky and painted it in using French ultramarine blue and titanium white with a touch of cadmium yellow.

There was just too much sky in the trees on the right so with various mixes of French ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, raw sienna, cadmium yellow and alizarin crimson I put in more of the green tree leaves, leaving just small holes where the sky would be peeking through the foliage.

I also added a little of the new greens to the left side and into the bottom to keep everything united.














It was time to put in the brighter oranges of the maple trees on both sides of the painting and into the foreground area using various mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson and raw sienna.

Using the ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson I made a dark to put in the various tree trunks the were showing through the leaves and added a dead tree into the painting to break up the all the vertical trees from looking like a row of soldiers.

Using various mixtures of alizarin crimson, titanium white, and cobalt blue I put in the highlights on the dark tree trunks and the shadows onto the birch trees.

This original 8" x 10" acrylic painting when framed will be available for $125.00.

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

Imperial Chinese Horse I-V - Five Works in Progress

Today is the second day of a workshop in abstracts with Melanie Browne at KAGS. I thoroughly enjoyed the first day doing the sketch (see yesterday's post) for the image I was going to use for the series of small paintings.













Imperial Chinese Horse I

For the first canvas I drew the sculpture fairly realistic and have lines for the background to show movement and to ground the horse.














Imperial Chinese Horse II

For the second canvas I drew a more stylized horse, concentrating more on the negative space, which will be filled with colour.














Imperial Chinese Horse III

For the third canvas I used more of the geometric shapes found within the horse sculpture. It will be interesting to see what colours I finally decide to use for both the horse and the background.













Imperial Chinese Horse IV

On the fourth canvas I exploded the shapes of the horse using squares and rectangles and it will be on a pale coloured background for a strong contrast.













Imperial Chinese Horse V

On the first canvas which is similar to the fourth canvas in that the horse shapes are exploded but the background is also made of geometric shapes.

I used a limited palette of black, French ultramarine blue, Grumbacher Red (Naphthol red AS-D), Hansa yellow and Titanium white.

I started by mixing my background colours making the various mauves of blue and red with touches of white and black, then the greens of blue, yellow adding white and a tiny amount of black. These colours were used throughout the painting creating an interesting pattern.

In a few areas I used pure French ultramarine blue as well as mixing white and a small amount of black or red for variation.

Next I added a little more yellow into the green and a lot of white for a pale yellow green and painted in the mane and tail as well as a few areas to create movement throughout the painting.

I under painted the horse shapes with a mix of black and red for a warm colour, then to lighten I added yellow and a bit of blue and went over them leaving a few areas of the black mix to show.

It still needs a little more work before it is completed and I will post each of these paintings at a later date as more work on them is completed.

Imperial Chinese Horse

It is the Victoria Day weekend and it seems so strange not to be going to Buckhorn, Ontario for what would have been our 27th Annual Among Friends Art Show.

So I filled the first two days with a workshop in abstracts at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio with Melanie Browne.

Most of the morning was a discussion about what we wanted to learn from the class and about a number of different styles of abstracts.

There were a number of different sculptures that had been brought in and it was no surprise that I chose to abstract an Imperial Chinese war horse copied from the T'ang Dynasty.

The first step was to do the sketch of the image I was going to do and then transfer it to a canvas and do a realistic painting with an abstract background.

Unfortunately I had to leave early and was unable to do more than the sketch.

Tomorrow I will draw the five images for a series of the various stages of abstracting the horse.

This original 4-1/4" x 4-1/2” graphite pencil drawing when framed will be available for $40.00.

Winter Pine - A Work in Progress

It is a little warmer at 10F (-12C) with the wind chill it feels like 1F (-17C), but at least there isn't supposed to be any snow until late afternoon.

It is back to KAGS for day two of the John David Anderson workshop.

Today's painting will be another snow scene, this will feature the many subtle colour variations both warm and cool that can be found in white snow just before sunset.

For a change we used Cobalt blue for the under paint to cover the canvas.

Using a thicker Cobalt blue the horizon line was painted in, the lone pine tree and the darkest shadows in the snow.

Various mixtures of Cobalt blue and Titanium white were used to indicate the sky and the tonal values of the snow drifts on the hill.

I had to rework the distant shoreline, change the tree to make it look more like a windblown pine tree instead of having it look like a Christmas tree and rework the sky.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have started painting in some of the many colours in the snow.

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

Frozen Marsh I - A Work in Progress

It is 0F (-18C) and with the wind chill it feels like -18F (-28C). There is still no sign of Junkyard and I am starting to think that something has happened to him; but I am hoping that I am wrong and he will show up again.

Today is the first day of the John David Anderson workshop at the Kawartha Art Gallery and Studio.














In the morning we started by under painting the canvas with a thin layer of French ultramarine blue. Then with thicker paint we blocked in the basic shapes of the painting establishing the rock, the trees, the first line of reeds and the distant shore of the marsh.

Next the darkest darks were painted in, then the mid tone values and finally the lightest colours were painted.














After the lunch break it was time to add more detail starting with the background dead trees in the sunlit area.

Some of the brighter colour was added into the closer area of weeds on the edge of the marsh and shadow and colour onto the closer trees.

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

Autumn Beauty 1

On Monday we had our first of six classes with Lucy Manley at KAGS.

To complete one of her paintings usually takes two sessions, but with this one I was told to leave it alone and just sign it as it was finished.















I will leave it out and continue to look at it as I feel a little more work needs to be done before it is complete.

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

Plein Air with John David Anderson

Today is the first day of the John David Anderson workshop at KAGS. I had taken a workshop with him last year (see postings on 27 and 28 October 2013) and wanted to return and see what new things he would be showing us this weekend.

We spent the day painting "en plein air" which translated from French means: in the open air.

For me this was a new experience as I usually paint outside with watercolour paint instead of acrylic. I learned quite quickly the many differences, especially since the acrylic paint tends to dry a lot faster outside in 78F (26C) when in the sun.














Not to mention that the beautifully landscaped home on the river where we were able to paint had a small koi pond that I was painting. Unfortunately I often was distracted and constantly stopped to get photographs of the fish as they glided through their underwater home.

I will post this painting once I have finished the rocks and added a little more detail into the water.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.