Fire

Today is going to be fairly mild, with the temperature just below freezing at 30F (-1C) but we are also going to get about 6" (15cm) of snow.















It is the kind of day where once the barn chores are done and all the animals have been watered and fed it is time to relax with a nice fire. Which is exactly what I am going to do today.

Winter Creek 2 and 3 - Two Works in Progress

Last night Environment Canada posted a Meteorological Alert for freezing rain.

The storm began early this morning and is to continue into tomorrow afternoon.

Today I spent most of the day in the barn making sure Tai and Chi would be comfortable in deeply bedded stalls, with full buckets of water and plenty of hay to keep them occupied since they would be inside for the next couple of days.

Since I wasn't going to go out anywhere today I thought I would work on these two paintings that I had started last year (see post on 15 September 2016).














For the first one I used French ultramarine blue for the sky leaving a few areas of white paper for clouds.

Next I darkened the blue slightly and added a little bit of Antwerp blue and then brushed it in the water.

I also used it for the sky in the second painting.

I added a touch of burnt sienna to the blue mixture to grey the colour slightly and added a few horizontal streaks of this colour into the water.

I changed the name of this painting from River 1 to Winter Creek 3

Then I set this painting aside to dry.














I changed the name of this painting from River 2 to Winter Creek 2.

Next I added a touch of alizarin crimson to the grey mix and painted in the distant hills and the water.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date once they have been completed.

Meandering Stream

This is another painting that I found in storage earlier this month that I had started in a class a number of years ago with Mary Lampman.

This one as with the other two that I found, they just needed a few grasses and growies put into the paintings to finish them.

Using yellow ochre and a small amount of burnt sienna I painted in the dead grasses at the base of the trees on the left side of the painting and smudged in a little as a reflection into the stream.














Using a mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, I put in the small twigs and branches of small trees and bushes peeking up through the snow on both sides if the painting.

Mixing the grass colour and the twig colour together I put in small bits and pieces into the background.

This original 16" x 20" acrylic painting when framed will be available for $375.00.

Cold Day 1 and 2

This morning I woke up to 4" (10.2 cm) of snow on the ground. There is also more snow in the forecast, but at least it is a little warmer outside 22F (-5.6C) and the wind has died down.

I thought I would do a couple of drawings of the scenery as I looked out my kitchen window at the infield of the track.

By the entryway to the track by the barn, there are a couple of young maple trees on the bank which rises above the last turn.

It is here where the track is at its lowest level in between both sides of the land.

As you head into the first turn everything levels out and is almost even with the ground as you head into the backstretch.

Cold Day 1

Partway along the backstretch the track becomes higher than the ground and by the time you are at the second turn the infield side it is about 8' (2.4m) higher and on the roadside there is a 40' (12.2m) drop.

Midway between the second and third turn the track levels out again and after the third turn the track once again becomes higher than the land on either side, although nowhere near as much as on the backside of the track.

On the driveway side it is about 6' (1.8m) and on the infield side it is less than 2' (.6m) before it levels out in front of the house.

Cold Day 2

Just past the sentimental light the track starts to once again be lower than the banks on either side heading into the fourth turn.

Pristine Beauty

Early March when Winter is gradually losing its tight grip on the season as Spring is trying to bring back the warmth to a frozen land. Rivers and lakes are starting to thaw as ice and snow slowly melt.

It is a peaceful time, a time of reawakening. Very soon the first snowdrops will brave the cold to defiantly show their blooms; a herald to the coming and much welcome change.

This is an original 7-3/4" x 11-1/4” framed watercolour available for $295.00. SOLD

Winter Barn - A Work in Progress

I had an enjoyable day painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painters. Our instructor for the class was George Elliott, who is well known for his pen and ink drawings of the local churches, buildings and historical sites in the area.

We spent the first hour in the morning doing three minute sketches of various barns, farm houses, and broken down buildings. It was from these sketches that we were to develop the drawing for our painting. I had about fourteen sketches to choose from and worked on a number of them; many are now ready to be transferred down onto watercolour paper and made into paintings.

I chose to work on a painting with a barn that I had started on a while ago and would like to have completed for the May show with the Buckhorn Artists' Group.

The sky was washed in with Antwerp blue and a hint of French ultramarine blue was added to the top left side of the sky. The white of the paper was left for clouds.















Using a mixture of the sky colours and a touch of burnt sienna, the snow was painted in giving the base for various snow drifts. The background trees were painted in with a mixture of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna.

A wash of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was applied to the roof, leaving the white paper for accumulated snow on the roof. With the paper fairly dry I used various mixtures of alizarin crimson, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue, letting the paper help to create the texture of the old barn boards. The barn is almost complete.

A mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was added use to put the shadow under the eaves of the roof, and to indicate where some of the boards end on the barn. One of the fence posts has had some of the dark lines added to it as well as having started on one of the trees. The first layer of wash has been added to the horse using burnt sienna.

I will work on this painting again and post it at a later date.

Spring Thaw

This is an original, 11" x 30” framed watercolour and is available for $670.00 by contacting the artist. SOLD









This was at sunset in late March just below the lock in Young's Point. What I liked about the scene was the strong contrast of the silhouetted shoreline trees and the reflections of the sky into the areas of open water.

Snow Thistle

I had noticed a number of Scotch thistles in bloom during the summer along my fence line that had attracted a flock of goldfinches to them looking for the seeds.

This is what it looks like now after one of our major winter snow storms has come through leaving just the top of the thistle to bravely peek its snow crowned head above the top of a snow drift.










This original 5" x 11” framed, watercolour is available for $225.00 by contacting the artist. SOLD

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

Snow Covered

The weatherman keeps saying that next we are going to get some unseasonably warm weather. But the latest snowstorm has left everything in shades of white looking much like this painting.















Congratulations to returning collector Mme. Cecile Desrochers of Ste-Ramon, Quebec on her purchase of this 11" x 15" framed, original, watercolour painting. SOLD

Maple and Fence

This is a framed, small work of 4-1/4" x 4-1/4” in watercolour, available for $85.00. SOLD

Winter is a good time of the year to study the way a tree looks without the leaves and to learn about the under laying structure.
















This is a study of a lone maple tree along a fence line.

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

Snowbank

There is still a lot of snow on the ground from this last storm. But the bright side is that they are calling for milder weather in the next two weeks.














This is an original 6" x 9" framed watercolour painting of one of banks on the quarter mile track beside the house. It is available for $165.00.

Christmas Day

This is an original, 5" x 6" framed watercolour available for $95.00.














It is another nice sunny, but cold day. Everything is covered in a blanket of snow and looks very much like something you would find on a Christmas card.

Downhill Rush

Today they are having the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics being held here in Canada out at Whistler, B.C. It seems fitting that I have found a series of rough sketches that I had started last summer of my father ski jumping, my daughter snowboarding and my husband cross country skiing and both my daughter and husband downhill skiing.

In the old family albums I have photographs from the 1930's and 1940's of my father when he used to ski jump in Trois-Rivières, Québec; where in 1941 he was the Québec Provincial Champion. I have used some of these photographs as reference material for some of the sketches.

I still have his old, heavy wooden skis in that he used in the attic and one day I will do a painting of them.

It is amazing how much the equipment has changed since that time, becoming wider and lighter more aerodynamic to sustain the flight time. The clothing from sweaters and pants to the streamlined one piece suits of today.

The style while the skiers are in flight after leaving the ramp has changed as well, from having the arms straight out front to being held behind for a more streamlined profile.

I think they will make a nice grouping with this 7-1/2" x 11” watercolour of a downhill skier as he plunges down and almost vertical slope, pushing it to the limit as his speed increases.

This original, framed painting is available for $250.00.

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

Fence Line

Looking out my living room window at a snow scene like this makes me very happy to be back inside with a roaring fire in the fireplace.












At the back of the house there are snow drifts almost 2' (.61m) deep, which I had to break a trail through in order to fill all the bird feeders. At least they won't go hungry and I enjoy the many varieties of birds that come to visit.

This is an original 9-1/4" x 12-1/4" framed, watercolour available for $225.00.

Frozen Barns

Today we hung works by eight members of the Buckhorn Artists' Group at Showplace Performance Centre in Peterborough. The show will run from 02-28 February 2010.

I have a solo exhibit of my paintings at Showplace in April of this year, and I will post more information about it closer to the time of the show.

The painting I am exhibiting with the Buckhorn Artists' Group is Frozen Barns, an original 22" x 30" framed, watercolour painting available for $980.00.














Please excuse the reflections that appear on the picture of the painting but I had framed it before I took a photograph of it.

The cold weather brings back memories of when I started this painting of my barns. It had been a cold winter day and many of the roads were closed due to the freezing rain we had overnight and continued throughout the morning. The tree branches and grasses were coated in glittering armour made of ice, which crackled as the wind blew. Just for a moment a ray of sunlight managed to force its way through the storm clouds to brighten the snow bank before the barn.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.