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.

Snow Storm 1 - A Work in Progress

I wanted to do something easy today so I thought I would do a snow scene.

I wet the paper and with a mix of cobalt blue and burnt sienna I brushed in some of the background trees.















Unfortunately, before I could do any more work on this painting I had unexpected company drop by for a visit,

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

A Secret Place

Today I couldn't get into finishing a painting or starting anything serious, so I decided to play and work on a mixed media piece.

I came across some rubber stamps of snowflakes that I used with my daughter when she was a little girl and thought I could use them in this painting.

Using cadmium yellow, aureolin and Antwerp blue I put a flat wash of colour over the paper.

While the background paint was drying I mixed a small pool of burnt sienna and raw sienna, then another of lemon yellow and cobalt blue and a larger one of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna.

I put the first mix into some areas by pouring it and rolling it around on the paper.

Using the larger pool of dark green I poured it over some areas of the paper, rolled it around and with a sponge I created some leaf like shapes being careful to leave some areas of the background colour showing through.

Then with the sponge and the last pool of medium green I put areas on around the edges of the painting and in a few areas to create some lighter coloured leaves.

The painting was then set aside to dry.














With a heavy mix of China white and cobalt blue I applied it to some of the snowflake stamps and pressed the image in a couple of areas on top of the darker green paint.

I also splattered some of this paint throughout the painting.

Using pure burnt sienna I put in a few branches through the painting to tie all the leafy areas together.

With gold paint I lightly splattered a little into the bottom of the painting first. Then I put in a few star shapes, small branches and twigs, as well as highlighting some of the larger branches.

Lastly I washed some glitter paint throughout areas of the painting and set it aside to dry.

This original 4-1/2" x 6-1/2" mixed media painting when framed will be available for $85.00.

I would like to thank Mr. Derrick Ryan of Hastings, Ontario on his purchase of Bufflehead Duck (see post on 16 November 2012).