Coral Reef 3-5 - Three Works in Progress

I came across these three pieces, that had once started as granite rocks in a larger painting but it didn't quite work out.

After looking at them, I decided that I would turn them into underwater paintings.















Coral Reef 3

Using French ultramarine blue, cobalt blue and burnt sienna I painted in the water on each painting.















Coral Reef 4

Before I could get more work done on these paintings, I had friends come over for a visit.















Coral Reef 5

I will post each of these paintings at a later date as more work on them is completed.

Coral Reef 1 and 2 - Two Works in Progress

Today, I wanted to paint but just wasn't sure which piece to work on and try to finish.

I decided to go through some of my pieces that didn't work out and were kept for playing with colour or cut up to make into small paintings.

I pulled out these two pieces that had started as moss covered, granite rocks, but it didn't quite work out.















Coral Reef 1

After looking at them I thought I could turn them into underwater paintings.

Using French ultramarine blue, cobalt blue and burnt sienna I painted in the water. For the first one I put the darker water at the bottom against the rocks and added some lighter areas toward the top to indicate the waves and light coming in from the sky.















Coral Reef 2

For the second painting I lightened the colour slightly with water to try and create what it looks like from under water when a wave comes over a rock near the surface and the sun shining through the sallower water.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date as more work on them is completed.

Suppertime? - A Work in Progress

Today, I wanted to get more of the sponges, coral and plants painted on this piece I had started quite a while ago (see posts on 15 March, 31 October and 30 December 2012, 25 March 2013 and 09 August 2017).

Using Titanium white, ultramarine blue and raw sienna I finished adding to the plants at the top of the rock face. With the white, I indicated the top of some of the sponges lower down on the rock face.

With various mixtures of raw sienna, burnt sienna and Hansa yellow, I added some tube sponges on the edge of the rocks closest to the Jack-knifefish (Equetus lanceolatus).

From there using the same colours I added more sponges into the middle of the center area and a few more smaller ones towards the left side.















Next, I used a mixture of Titanium white, ultramarine blue and vermillion and put in a couple more of the purple sponges toward the middle of the rock face and some much smaller, duller coloured ones to the left side.

At this point I wanted to get the top area of the rock face completed. I mixed various greens using ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, raw sienna and Hansa yellow.

Using the greens I put in some of the small, leafy sea weed, draping it down the rock face from beneath the light coloured sponges and corals.

Lastly, using the darker greens I added a few pieces of seaweed above and around the smaller purple sponges.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have finished painting the remaining coral and sponges on the rock face.

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

School's Out - A Work in Progress

Today, I thought I would do a little more work on this drawing (see posts on 15 July and 28 December 2016 and 29 January 2017) which is an underwater scene near the rest stop at the CoCo View Resort.

I started by adding more details onto the branches of the sea fan at the top of the rock and indicating the outer edges of the fan.

Next, I brought the outer edge of the large rock down and in behind the tube sponges.

I added some of the shadows onto the tube sponges to give them a little more shape.

I will post this drawing at a later date once I have finished adding all the details onto the various fishes.

Suppertime? - A Work in Progress

Today we are under a Severe Storm Warning with the temperature at 86F (30C) and the humidity making it feel like 97F (36C).

We did get a wonderful thunderstorm in the late afternoon, during which I spent my time on the front porch watching the lightning.

I wanted do some work on this painting of a Knifefish that I had started a number of years ago (see posts on 15 March, 31 October and 30 December 2012 and 25 March 2013).

Using a Schwan-STABILO All-Surface water-soluble pencil, I drew in where I wanted to place sponges, coral and other underwater plants on the rock surface.














The nice thing about using these pencils is that they was off completely with water; so if I don't go to the edge of the line or change my mind about the placement, it doesn't matter as once the paint is dry I can easily wash it off.

Using Titanium white, ultramarine blue and raw sienna, I started putting in some of the plants and soft coral on the top of the rock face.

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

School's Out I - A Work in Progress

I started to work on this underwater drawing that I began last year (see posts on 15 July and 28 December 2016) by indicating the bottom edge of the sea fan by the top edge of the rock.

Next I put in the top of the highest rock on this piece of the reef.

Part way down the reef I put in the rock out cropping with some yellow tube sponges. At the base of the sponges I put in some sea weed.

I will post this drawing at a later time once I have decided whether I am going to put in a school of French Grunts or Purple Wrasse.

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

School's Out I - A Work in Progress

I pulled out this sketch that I started earlier this year (see post on July 2016).

First I added more details to the fish and started on the branches of the sea fan.

Next I added various coral and sponges onto the rock.

I started to ink in the main branches of the sea fan before I ran out of time.

I will post this sketch at a later date.

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

Barracuda I - A Work in Progress

It is typical hot July weather with the temperature reaching 91F (33C) and the humidity making it feel like 99F (37C).

This is another sketch I transferred onto paper from my diving slate when I was in Roatan, Honduras at the CoCo View Resort.















I was on Newman's wall after the first morning dive on my way back to the Resort when I came across this small school of barracuda slowly moving along the reef.

I did a quick sketch of their placement in the reef and thought it may turn into a nice painting later.

I will post this sketch once more work on it has been completed.

School's Out I - A Work in Progress

We had rain last night and the power went out in the evening around 7:30 and didn't return until around 4:30 this morning. The rain, wind, heat 79F (26C) and the humidity 88F (31C) continued throughout the day.

I came across my slate that I use when diving and transferred this sketch that I did when I was in Roatan onto a piece of paper.

This landmark rock formation is at a decompression stop at 30' (9.1m) located between the Prince Albert wreck and the platform in the backyard of the CoCo View Resort.

While waiting there you are almost always guaranteed to see a multitude of fish swimming around the large sea fan.

I will post this sketch at a later date when I have tightened up the drawing of the fish and added the details of to the rocks and sea fan.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Ripley's Aquarium of Canada

Today started off fairly cool this morning at 27F (-2.8C) and a layer of frost on the grass, but at least the sun is shining and it supposed to get warmer as the day progresses.

After the chores were completed we headed out to Toronto to go to Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, which is a place I have wanted to visit since it first opened to the public in October 2013.

With the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team playing today it took a while to find a parking spot as most of the closer parking lots were already filled. We were fortunate and finally found a parking lot south of the Aquarium that had a few spaces available.

While Ron got the tickets to enter Ripley's I enjoyed looking at the various kinds of goldfish they had in tanks at the waiting area.

Once inside we took our time to enjoy the nine different galleries into which the Aquarium is divided. One gallery flows into the next. They include:
Canadian Waters,
Rainbow Reef,
Dangerous Lagoon,
Discovery Centre,
The Gallery,
Planet Jellies,
Ray Bay,
Life Support Systems and the Shoreline Gallery.

Seahorses

In the Canadian Waters Gallery there is amazing range of fresh and salt water displays featuring Atlantic lobster in a wide range of colours, Pacific octopus, a vast array of game fish, a large, shimmering silver, school of alewife and an impressive display of a Pacific kelp reef.

This towering display tank has a ramp which starts at the main level and wraps itself around the tank allowing you to view the inhabitants from the top all the way to the base of the tank. Needless to say this was one of the displays where I walked back up the ramp to enjoy the wide variety of fish before returning to the bottom where Ron was patiently waiting for my return.

From there we entered the Rainbow Reef Gallery which is a stunning display of the colourful reef fish of the Indo-Pacific region. To dive in the reefs surrounding the Fiji Islands and visit Micronesia and dive the many WWII wreck in Truk Lagoon is on my wish list and after seeing the multitude of fish in this display makes me want to go sooner.

We had just missed the every other hour interactive dive show, which leaves something to look forward to enjoying on my next visit.

From there we entered the vast Dangerous Lagoon exhibit.

It starts out as a large tank and changes into a tunnel where you are surrounded by the underwater world and as you look up you can see a variety of sharks, reef fish and green sea turtles swimming overhead.

Seahorses I

This display features a moving sidewalk running alongside the main display area where you can watch the ever changing reef, or you can step off the sidewalk and stroll along beside it and observe the sharks and other sea life on the opposite side of the tunnel stopping whenever you please to enjoy the fish.

This was another display that I had to go through a couple of times. I took the sidewalk to the end which leads to the Discovery Centre where Ron decided to wait for me as he watched the people in the pop-up research submarine replica located within the waters of the Dangerous Lagoon.

When I joined him there after walking back to the beginning of the Lagoon and taking the sidewalk back again, he decided he would find a table at the far side of the Discovery Centre and pick up lunch for us while I went back through Dangerous Lagoon for the third time.

On my return I strolled through the Discovery Centre which is a wonderful place for children to view fish up close in the viewing bubbles as well as having the opportunity to touch horseshoe crabs; which are living fossils, unchanged since prehistoric times.











Seahorses II

After lunch we continued on our way through the Aquarium to The Gallery which is home to many of my favourite fish species from around the world and also houses an impressive display of propagated corals (grown in an off-site facility) showing the wide variety of types and colours in one amazing location.

Ron and I enjoyed watching the deadly beauty of red lionfish as they slowly glided about their tank. Their bold coloration of black, brown, or red and white stripes and showy pectoral fins, serve as a warning to potential predators that they have defenses such as being poisonous which is backed up by their venomous spiky fin rays.

We moved on to the tanks filled with my favourite family of marine fish Syngnathidae which includes seahorses, pipefish, leafy and weedy sea dragons. Ron at first didn't believe that the weedy sea dragons were real, since they look just like floating seaweed in the tank, but once he saw their eyes moving he was amazed at how well they were camouflaged.

The next Gallery is called Planet Jellies, which is an enthralling room filled with back lit and colour changing display tanks featuring five different species of jellyfish. Even the ceiling has a delightful display of aptly called translucent moon jellyfish.

Ray Bay is made up of two Galleries in one; the lower level features three species of stingrays and like the Rainbow Reef Gallery features daily interactive dive shows.

The upper level called the Shoreline Gallery, which has a small beach area and offers a two hour package called the Stingray Experience where you can have a closer, hands-on experience with the stingrays.

I have always considered rays to be the butterflies of the underwater world and have had many experiences with them as they gracefully glide through the water past us while diving and snorkeling in the Caribbean. We snorkeled with nurse sharks and rays when we visited Marinarium Park, in Cabeza de Toro, Dominican Republic and while in the Bahamas we spent an afternoon on Nassau Balmoral Island and had unlimited time in the sting ray pool feeding and swimming with the rays.

The last Gallery is probably the most important one to the well-being of the many wonderful animals at the Aquarium and is called Life Support Systems Gallery. It gives a behind the scenes look some of the massive life support and filtration equipment needed to maintain the water quality and conditions for the survival of the marine life. What you see there is only the equipment for the Dangerous Reef and Ray Bay and there is much more not being shown that is required to maintain the other Galleries.

I enjoyed my visit to the Aquarium and will return again in the not too distant future.

Underwater Housing I-III - Three Works in Progress

Often when I go diving in the Caribbean you can find all manner of creatures in the making their homes in some of the strangest places. I have found crabs and lobsters in old rusted buckets and in Barrel sponge and while diving in Bonaire a number of fish  had made their home in a crumpled  45 gallon oil drum.














Underwater Housing I

In the Still Life class earlier this month we painted old clay oil jugs and large clay pots (see post on 05 March 2015).

I thought why not turn them on their sides, put a hole in them and then add a few sea creatures.













Underwater Housing II

For the first one I have started painting in some of the colour on the clay oil jug and have to decide where to put the broken part and what sea creature I will put into it.

For the second one I will have it buried a little deeper in the sand and will probably have the opening closer to the front.






Underwater Housing III

For the third one I have indicated where the opening will be and it is just a matter of finding the tenant.

I will post each of these underwater homes as more work is completed on them.

Outdoor Painters' Art Show

Today I hung my paintings for the Outdoor Painters' Show at KAGS called "Aqua".

As the name implies the theme for the show is water and each painting had to have water in it in some form; whether it is actual water or in one of its many forms such as ice, snow, rain, fog, etcetera.

For this show each artist purchases space in two foot increments to a maximum of eight feet and hangs the paintings themselves.

As usual I chose to have eight feet of space.

I was fortunate that I was able to have the same space as I have had for the last two years and this year I was also given a plinth to use as well.













On the plinth I placed three of my underwater paintings and on the short wall I put two winter scenes having both snow and ice as a form of water.












On the long wall I had paintings from Aruba, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Magnetawan and Buckhorn.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Last Day of Water, Water Everywhere

Today was the last day of the Water, Water Everywhere show at Art on Kent.

I had one of my paintings in the display window on the lower level of the Gallery facing out on Kent Street.

It was a lovely display but unfortunately I couldn't take a better photograph of it due to the glass reflecting back the building from across the street.

But it did give a very good idea of the artwork patrons would find on the upper level of the Gallery.

I brought in three paintings for the next show called Abstractions and Contractions which will open on 01 November, which unfortunately I will not be able to attend as it is also the same day as the opening of the Outdoor Painters' Show at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery & Studio.

In addition to the show opening at KAGS there is also the silent auction of art work by the ODP to raise funds for the Best of High School Art as well as a frame sale to raise prize money for the Juried Art Show being held next year.














I spent most of my time either taking in paintings for the upcoming show at Art on Kent or working on drawings of Koi for six paintings on which I am working and hope to have completed before the year is over.














I hope many of you will be able to come out and enjoy the art at both shows next month.

Water, Water Show Poster

I just found out that one of my paintings "Spotted Drumfish - Juvenile 2" (see post on 23 February 2011), that I had submitted for the Water, Water Everywhere Show with KAN held at Art on Kent in Lindsay.

It is a pleasant surprise with it being the second time my artwork has been selected for one of their posters.

Queen Angelfish

Today I thought I would work on a sketch of a grouping of tropical fish from the Caribbean reef.

I wanted to have a Queen Angelfish as the largest fish and a couple of smaller fish and some coral or sponges around it.














I barely had time to do more than block in some basic shapes when I had unexpected company arrive.

I am sure that this will work into an interesting painting.

Red Sponges 1 and 2 - Two Works in Progress

These are two paintings I started while I was sitting at the final day of the Monochrome Show at KAGS.

Since the show was called Monochrome I thought I should work the under painting with one colour and I chose alizarin crimson.

I brushed water onto the two pieces of paper being sure to leave some areas dry.

Red Sponges 1

Using a brush I dropped in various strengths of the alizarin crimson and while the paper was still wet rolled it around allowing the paint to float across the water.

Once the painting was dry I started on the first piece giving shape to the sponges using various mixtures of alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue, cadmium red and cadmium yellow.


Red Sponges 2

I will post these paintings at a later date as more work is completed on them.

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

Anemone

Today I wanted to finish this painting of the anemone (see postings on 24 Mar 2012, 26 and 28 Jul 2012 and Dec 2012) in order to have another painting completed for the Above and Below the Reef Show at The Lindsay Gallery.














This 8" x 10" original acrylic painting when framed will be available for $225.00.

ACEO - On the Reef 2

This painting was originally called Sponge Work C (see post on 29 Dec 2012) and I have changed the name to On the Reef 2.

I saw a small seahorse shape in the coral and painted it in using cadmium red. Using cadmium yellow, I put in the under paint on a Yellow Tang.

I washed cobalt blue into the top of the painting and set it aside to dry while I decided which kinds of fish to put throughout the coral.














I started by putting in a small school of five French grunts among the top of the plants. This was followed by adding in a rock beauty, a squirrelfish, another yellow tang and a small starfish.

From there using various mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, new gamboge, lemon yellow and French ultramarine blue, I put in various tube sponges, elk horn coral, sea fans and seaweed throughout the reef.

With a pale wash of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I dulled down the bright white areas.















Using raw sienna, Antwerp blue and burnt sienna I put in some of the coral and vegetation on the sea floor.

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 90lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Hazy Day 1

The days are getting warmer and more humid so I thought I would work on this painting I had started last year of a summer day (see posts on 07 July 2012 and 25 May 2013).

I started with the background and put in the distant field with a mixture of Antwerp blue and new gamboge.

The trees against the skyline were various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue and new gamboge.

Using mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna the tree trunks and main branches were painted into the foreground.














With a sponge I applied the layers of green leaves on the foreground trees with mixtures of both blues, raw sienna and new gamboge.

Lastly the foreground bushes were put in with the darker mixture of the leave colours.

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.

Sea Fans

This is another painting that just needed a few details added to the fish before it is completed (see postings on 20 Oct 2011, 11 Jul 2012, 26 Dec 2012 and 17 Feb 2013).

With a mixture of burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson I added the markings on the bodies of the two four eyed butterfly fish.














This original 15" x 22" framed watercolour painting is available for $450.00. SOLD

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