Queen Conch and Sand Dollars - A Work in Progress

Today I was painting with the Lakefield Creative Arts Group at the St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Lakefield.

Since I wouldn't be able to stay the entire day, I chose to work on small pieces in pen and ink.














I brought along three pieces that I had started a long time ago (see post on 26 September 2014).

Beginning with the first one of three sketches featuring Queen Conch shells, I finished the first Sand Dollar and started on the Conch shell before I had to leave to for a number of appointments.

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

Murex Shell 1 - A Work in Progress

It is another cold day with the temperature at 9F (-13C) with the wind chill making it feel like -9F (-23C) and more snow falling to make things more difficult. The drive into KAGS wasn't as bad as expected, but then I left fairly early for the Still Life class.

The theme for the class was "At the Beach" and we had many seashells of various sizes and shapes, jewellery made of coral and shells, beach towels, sandals, sun glasses and many other things you would take with you to the beach.















Since many of the larger shells were mine, I chose to start on a small Murex shell that another member brought in for the display.

After the break I didn't have much time to work on my drawing as I was busy getting the themes for the remaining Still Life classes put together and ready for the printer.

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

ACEO - Beach Sunset 1

I wanted to complete this little piece that I had started last year (see posts on 15 April and 24 May 2016).

Using a pale was of raw sienna I put in the sand on the beach, leaving the sea shell without color. I then added a tiny amount of burnt sienna to darken the sand colour in the foreground and with a little more burnt sienna added to the mixture painted in the wet sand at the edge of the water.

Now it was time to tackle the water, painting it in with the reflected colours from the sky.

I started at the edge of the shore using new gamboge and a touch of raw sienna, I put in the first section of the waves leaving some areas of pure white against the wet sand.

Next I added a touch of alizarin crimson to the new gamboge for a pale orange and put in the next section of waves from the horizon line on the left side and down to the yellow waves.















To complete the water I used almost pure alizarin crimson from the orange waves to the horizon line.

With French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I made a dark grey for the distant land on the horizon line between the sky and the water.

I put in the seaweed that washed up onto the beach with a green of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna.

Lastly I painted the seashell in with pale shades of alizarin crimson and the shadows were in pale burnt sienna.

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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Bath Time

Today was another hot 87F (30.6C) and humid 103F (39.4C) day and also the first meeting of the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group.

I decided that I was going to complete this painting of the rubber duck complete with a towel, bath oil and bars of soap that I have been working on for quite some time (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014, 21 January, 08 February, 24 May, 23 July and 17 August 2015).

One of the first things I had to do was fix the bottom of the bath oil bottle. I mixed up a dark blue and removed the little bubbles at the base of the bath oil by putting in a shadow.












Now it was time to finish the sea shell container that held the bars of soap.

The inside of the shell was various mixes of greys made from French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

For the outside of the shell, the markings were painted with pure burnt sienna and the shadows with more of the grey mix but more to the brown tones.

This original 6-1/2" x 11” watercolour painting when framed will be available for $175.00.

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

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

With another day of high temperatures 93F (33.9C) and humidity making it feel like 103F (39.4C) I don't expect to see very many people come through the art show until closer to the weekend, although there is a slight breeze today.

Last night I saw all the swallows flocking together and I am saddened this morning as they have left on their long journey south for the winter. I will miss watching them in flight and hearing their soft calls.

I thought this would be a good painting to work on today as I have been working on it for a while (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014, 21 January, 08 February, 24 May and 23 July 2015).

I softened some areas of the towel, as they were too dark and making it look very busy.

Using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, cobalt blue and burnt sienna I painted the wrappers on the remaining two bars of soap, adding a small spot of cadmium red to the top of one of them.

Now it was time to start painting the various seashells of the soap dish.












The flat shells that were set on the back part  of the soap dish to look like leaves were painted in using raw sienna, Antwerp blue and for the darker areas a touch of burnt sienna was added.

For the small shells between the two "leaves" that were supposed to look like a flower I used a mix of alizarin crimson and burnt sienna and blocked in the darker areas.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed the remaining shells.

Bonnie Windover sold a painting and small items were sold by Diane Collins.

The hours for our show are:
17 Aug 15 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
18 Aug 15 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
19 Aug 15 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
20 Aug 15 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
21 Aug 15 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
22 Aug 15 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
23 Aug 15 - 12:30pm - 4:00pm

We hope you can come out and enjoy the artwork.

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

It is 76F (24.4C) on a beautiful, sunny day with a nice breeze helping to keep the humidity away.

I wanted to work on paintings that I had already started and try to get some of the completed.

I decided on this one that I have been working on since last year (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014, 21 January, 08 February and 24 May 2015).

Using mixes of raw sienna and burnt sienna I went over the rubber duck to add a little more shape.












With various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I completed the towel and using a dark mix of the same colours I added a little more definition to the eyes.

I painted the first of the three bars of soap with a green made from raw sienna, Antwerp blue and French ultramarine blue.

Next I started on the second bar of soap which is inside the seashell soap dish using mixtures of cobalt blue, French ultramarine blue and a touch of burnt sienna.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed the remaining bars of soap and started to work on the seashells.

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

I wanted to do a little more work on this painting that I have been working on for  a while (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014, 21 January and 08 February 2015) and hopefully have it completed in time to take to the Motion in Stillness show at the The Lindsay Gallery next month.

After painting the bill with mixes of cadmium red, alizarin crimson and cadmium yellow I finally completed the rubber ducky.













Next I worked on the bottle of bath oil. The yellow from the duck had already been put in and I added the blue from the towel once it had dried I washed over the bottle with raw sienna.

The label on the bottle was put in with a pale wash of alizarin crimson.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have painted the bars of soap.

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

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

The temperature has dropped significantly from yesterday to 2F (-16.7C) and with the strong wind out of the east making it feel like -18F (-27C).

This is a painting I had started last year (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014 and 21 January 2015) and wanted to do some more work on the painting.

The towel was painted using various mixtures of Cobalt blue and French ultramarine blue.












Next I wanted to do more work on the duck and started by putting the shadows and giving shape to the toy with mixes of raw sienna and burnt sienna.

Once the paint had dried I applied a wash of new gamboge over the entire duck body and head.

I will post this painting again once I have completed the duck.

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

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

I chose this painting (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014) to work on and perhaps complete the rubber duck and start on the bath oil bottle today.

Using a wash of new gamboge over the duck and set it aside to dry.












Before I could get back to do more on the painting I had some unexpected company arrive and I will have to leave working on the duck for another day.

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

The temperatures have finally dropped and we are back to the colder winter weather, although there is still no snow in the forecast.

I decided to work on this piece that I had started earlier this year (see posts on 11 and 16 July 2014).

Using new gamboge I painted in the back of the duck's body that would be seen through the glass bottle of bath oil and a little into the cap of the bottle for the reflected colour.

Next I worked on finishing the bottle cap with mixtures of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.













I started on the bill with mixtures of new gamboge, cadmium red, cadmium yellow and alizarin crimson.

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

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

Three Seashells

Today I thought I would do some sketches of some of the various sea shells I have in my collection.

For the first one I thought I would do a single Queen Conch shell on its own and I set it in an upright position rather than have it on its side.

For the second sketch I added a Murex shell and some seaweed to create an interesting display.

Next I added Sand Dollars and Clams with the Queen Conch shell.

Conch Shell I














Queen Conch and Murex Shells I














Queen Conch and Sand Dollars I

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

Today I thought I would do a little more work on this painting that I had started last week (see post on 11 July 2014).












The first thing I had to do was tighten up the drawing and make a few changes to get the proportions correct.












Next was to put in the background using various mixtures of raw sienna and burnt sienna.













Using a wash of pure Cobalt blue I blocked in the towel and set the painting aside to dry.

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

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

Back in March I did some sketches of rubber ducks (see post on 27 and 28 March 2014) I liked the sketch so much that I set up a sea shell with a couple of bars of soap and a sea shell shaped bottle containing bath oil and then added the rubber duck.













I will post this piece at a later date once I have applied some paint onto the drawing.

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

Sea Shells

This is one of the still life paintings that I started last month at KAGS.

There was a wide range of shells, coral, sea fans, sponges, shell and coral jewellery and a string of pearls in the display.














I chose to do just two of the seven larger shells and will probably paint in a few of the smaller shells once I decide how I want the wave rolling on the beach.

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

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

Romance by the Sea - A Work in Progress

This is the third of three sketches that was started at KAGS featuring seashells during a still life class last month (see postings on 05 May and 06 May 2013).

I started painting the candle which has real seashells embedded into the wax. I will post this painting at a later date once more of it has been completed.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Beauty on the Beach - A Work in Progress

This is another sketch of two conch shells on a beach, which was done last month (see post on 05 May 2013 for the first) in the still life class at KAGS.















I will post this at a later date once I started painting the shells.

Beauty on the Shore - A Work in Progress

This is the first of three sketches of seashells that was started last month during the still life at KAGS.















I will post this piece once I have finished the sketch and started to apply paint.

Queen Conch - A Work in Progress

With the theme for yesterday's Still Life class being things that could be found on a beach; I decided that I would like to work on one of the Queen Conch shells that I have in my collection.

I think it is fitting that I continue to do more work using items that could be found in the Caribbean, especially since I am in the process of making a submission to The Lindsay Art Gallery to have a show there next year with Carol Rutherford. The show will be called "Above and Below the Reef".

I will post this painting at a later date once it is completed.

On the Beach - A Work in Progress

Today it was my turn to bring in the subject matter for the Still Life class at KAGS and the theme was the Beach.

With having visited various islands in the Caribbean I had many things to bring in that could be found on almost any beach. A wide variety of seashells, a sand crab, colourful beach cover ups, floppy brimmed sunhats, tanning oils, sunscreen, seagulls, a treasure chest filled with beach jewellery and even a bottle of rum.

It was a good thing that the display was set up to allow people to go completely around the table rather than putting up a backdrop and having the people crowded together with just one side being available.

Today we had the largest number of artists attend the Still Life class ever. It was nice to see more people taking an interest once they found that it was a lot of different themes rather than just traditional still life.

I did a sketch of one corner of the display complete with seagull, beach hat, cover up and of course a bottle of rum.

As I complete more of this painting I will post it at a later date.

Ocean Treasures - A Work in Progress

I took a workshop with Carol Francisco at KAGS on using pastel.

The morning was spent on learning on how to have a safe working environment when using chalk pastel, types of papers and boards that can be used with pastel, the various ways of handling the medium when applying it to the different types of paper and examples how the results.

In the afternoon we were allowed to choose various objects she had brought in for us to use in creating a still life painting in pastel.

I chose a seashell and a piece of coral.

There is still more depth of colour and detail to add to the painting. I will post this piece once I have it completed.