Black and White Plus One Colour

Today Cindy and I sat at the new Black and White Plus One Colour art exhibition at KAGS today.












There are many news things being tried at this show for the first time.

First we are having a People's Choice Award by ballot from the people coming in to view the exhibit.














We are also trying out QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) on two of the paintings and hope to have more in future shows.

If you have a chance come out and view the exhibit which runs from 24 August - 11 September 2016 and if you would like to meet some of the artists please come to the opening reception being held on 28 August 2016 from 1-4pm.

Meadowpond's Bonnie Charlie

While all the dog breeds are eligible to compete in the Obedience Ring most of the time you will almost always find at least one Shetland Sheepdog, Labrador Retriever, Poodle, Border Collie, German Shepherd Dog or Golden Retriever.

This is a sketch of a Golden Retriever as he sat waiting during the long sit for his owner to return to the ring. He never moved, he just stared at the last place he saw his owner, ignoring everything going on around him the arena.

It was not surprising that he took High in Trial with an almost perfect score of 199-1/2 out of a possible 200 score.

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Jack McKissock of Nepean, Ontario on their selection of this charcoal painting of their Obedience Trial Champion Meadowpond's Bonnie Charlie UD.

Ben

Ben was a Percheron stallion often seen in the show ring and in parades with his team mate a gelding called Bill pulling the wagon.

Both horses were used as a working team for ploughing fields in the spring, haying in the summer, sleigh rides and skidding logs in the winter.

Ben made a made a name for himself as the sire of a number of heavy weight hunters and police horses used by the Metropolitan Toronto Police Mounted Division.

Congratulations to Boyd Dunford of Lakefield, Ontario for selecting this painting.

Polly

This was a sketch from I did in the barn area at a horse show with a charcoal pencil on a 9" x 12" sheet of pastel paper.

The horse, Polly stood patiently in the stall while the groom finished the mane braids before going on to braid up her tail.

Congratulations to new collector Mlle. Martine Veillette of Trois-Riviere, Quebec for selecting this piece to add to her collection.

Gourds - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I started in Sharon Taylor's class (see my posting on 12 October 10 for Corn Stalks 1-3).

With everyone else in the class working on either corn stalks or different types of trees I had to do something different.

Since the gourds were sitting on the window ledge anyway, I thought they may make an interesting painting.

There is still a lot more to do on this painting, but at least the base colours have been painted in and I still have to add a lot more detail to the gourds.

I have to mark in where the shelf will be that the gourds are resting on and then decide what I want to do with the background. I really don't want to have a window behind them, although I could make the background into a lacy curtain, or perhaps patterned wallpaper.

Once I have made my decision I will post the results.

Sharon Taylor Workshop - Corn Stalks 1-3

Today the Buckhorn Tuesday Painters had Sharon Taylor as a guest instructor. She usually comes out with some interesting and creative things for us to try.

Fortunately, we had a bright sunny day with very little wind which was ideal for using powdered charcoal as a background for our paintings and having to work outside on them.

Sharon brought corn stalks, some still with ears of corn attached for us to use for doing a basic outline on the paper.

Corn Stalks 1


The areas we wanted to leave without charcoal were coated with water, then we took our paintings outside and dusted the paper with powdered charcoal.

We then literally threw containers of water over the paper to remove the excess charcoal. The paintings were left outside to dry.

Each of us made three attempts to create interesting backgrounds for our corn stalk paintings.

Corn Stalks 2

By the time we had the third background doused with water and set to dry in the sun, our first attempt was dry and ready for us to proceed with the next step.

Before bringing the painting into the building it was sprayed with workable fixative, to prevent the charcoal from spreading any further while still allowing us to paint on the paper.

Raw sienna was used as the first layer of paint to indicate where some of the leaves and stalks will be.

Corn Stalks

A mixture of burnt and raw sienna was applied to other areas of the leaves and stalks. A hint of French ultramarine blue was added to the mixture and painted into some of the areas to give the impression of the partially dried leaves.

A lot more detail still has to be added to the paintings before they are complete. I will post them as I do more work on them.

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