Spooky

It is a New Year and I have to come to terms with myself that my little Spooky cat won't be back again.















The last time she was here was on 27 November 2019 and she hasn't returned, which is unusual, as she always stays for the winter and in late spring she leaves for the summer and comes back when the snow returns.

I can only hope she is with my other animals which have passed over before her and is enjoying a peaceful existence.

Resting Place - A Work in Progress

There is a flash freeze warning in place for this afternoon and it looks like we are going to have freezing rain all day. Needless to say, I decided that I would stay in and go through a box of art supplies that I brought down from the heated storage room I have upstairs.

While I was going through some of the pads of acrylic, pastel and drawing paper I found this partially completed drawing that I had started in the 90's when I was doing a number of drawings in pastel.

I started by blocking in the sunlit background with a pale yellow green, then applied the base for three cedar tree trunks with a medium brown followed by using a dark green for the base colour of the cedar foliage.














Using a soft grey, I put in a little bit of detail into the cedar foliage, followed by using a yellow green for some variation. Then I added a few cedar boughs of different greens to see in which direction I wanted to take the cedar colours.

Lastly, I put in the base for the foreground with yellow ochre and then started adding a little detail into the grasses with various greens into the foreground before calling it a day.

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

Eyes of Caution 1 - A Work in Progress

While sorting through some boxes that I had in the basement I came across a block of pastel paper. To my surprise as I flipped through the pages, I came across this sketch that I did for a much larger drawing of a wolf that I did in the early 70's.















There are a large number of faults in this piece and at a later date I will go in and fix them.

I will post this drawing at a later date as I go through the process to correct the mistakes.

Patch

I took this photograph of one of the male barn cats called "Patch", who is quite a character.

He usually follows me around when I am in the barn doing chores, and on this day he decided to find a comfortable spot where he could be out of the way and at the same time he could keep an eye on me while I threw hay out of the mow to feed the horses.















As soon as I was finished, he followed me down the stairs into the main barn and waited for me to get out his kibble and feed him. With a final pat I left him to enjoy his meal.

This photograph when matted and framed will be available for $80.00.

Cows 3-5 - Three Works in Progress

Today I was back working on the cow paintings. I would like to have these finished for the upcoming 26th Annual Among Friends Show at St. Matthews Church in Buckhorn, Ontario next weekend.















Cow 5

I completed the drawing of Cow 5 that I had started earlier this month (see posting on 02 May 2014) and made a number of changes.















Cow 3

I decided that I was going to work on these three pieces in the same manner I worked on the two that I completed. (see yesterday's posting).

First I painted in a simple sky on Cow 3 using French ultramarine blue, white and a touch of burnt sienna and set it aside to dry.















Cow 4

Next I worked on Cow 4 and after painting in the sky decided to give it a little more interesting background and with Hansa yellow, and French ultramarine blue I put a pasture behind the cow.

With the last cow, since the image takes up so much of the canvas I once again did a simple background sky.















Cow 5

I decided that I wanted to work up Cow 4 since it was different than the other two cow paintings.

Using just black and white I painted in the markings on the cow and indicated some of the hair detail as well as some of the shadows.















Cow 4

I will post each painting at a later date as the cows are completed.

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

Cows 1 and 2

I worked on some of the drawings of cows that I put on canvas earlier this month (see posting on 02 May 2014).
















Cow 1

I started with putting the background in on the first painting of a cow. Then I set it aside to dry and worked on the next painting and put in a slightly different background, this one with clouds.















Cow 2

Now it was time to paint the first cow. I used a limited palette of white, black, for most of the cow's body and burnt sienna for the eyes. For the nose I used mixtures of alizarin crimson, Hansa yellow and burnt sienna.

Lastly the fence rail was painted in using mixtures of all the colours to create an interesting weathered look on the wood.
















I changed the name of Cow 1 to Holy Cow! which  is available for $95.00. SOLD

Using the same colours as for the first cow painting I completed the next cow. I also changed its name from Cow 2 to You're Joking?















I would like to thank Ms. Adrienne West of Bethany, Ontario on her purchase of You're Joking? as a gift for her mother on Mother's Day.

Cows 1-4 - Four Works on Progress

Cow 1

Today I had a very pleasant surprize. I received a phone call from a lady who was at the Canvas Confidential show yesterday and saw my painting called "What?" (see postings on 06 April 2014).















Cow 2

Her mother fell in love with the expression on the cow's face and was unable to get it; so now I have been commissioned to do another painting of a cow similar to the one at that Show.















Cow 3

Here are the sketches for some new paintings and I will post each of these paintings at a later date as more work is completed on the cows.















Cow 4

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Long Hair on Cat

Today I taught my last watercolour class at KAGS for this year. My students wanted to do hair texture and chose as the subject a long haired cat and wanted it to be ginger coloured.

It seems appropriate to be painting a ginger cat today since this morning was the first time that I was able to touch the wild ginger tom cat that has been in my barn since November of last year. He is still extremely wild but with time he may stop being afraid.















This is as far as I was able to take the class with this painting in the three hour lesson.

Thank you to Mrs. June Wismer of Peterborough, Ontario wanted the painting for reference material and it is now in her collection.

What?

This is a painting I stated with Gail Hawkins a couple of months ago (see posting on 25 February 14).

I enjoyed working on this piece and I think I may do a few more pictures of cattle in the future.














This is the third of three paintings that will be donated to the Canvas Confidential fund raiser for The Lindsay Gallery.

Quilt of Hope

This is the completed Quilt of Hope and it is currently hanging in the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio.














Later this week it will be taken to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre where will be permanently displayed in the Mental Health Unit.