Wind Damage

So far this year we have had quite a few Meteorological Alerts and Warnings from Environment Canada; and today we are having another batch.

We are under a severe  thunderstorm warning, a severe wind warning with the wind speeds to reach 55-60mph (90-100km) and a severe rain warning with another 3/8" (10mm) and the temperature to reach 70F (21C).

It was overcast and fairly calm until around noon and then the wind started to pick up, the thunderstorm rolled in bringing the rain.

With all this going on, we also lost power a number of times during the course of the day and into the evening.















At the end of the storm more branches came down from the willow tree, a few of the pine trees lost the top branches and the maple in front of the house also lost a few more branches.















The maple tree at the back of the house lost a large limb and the old apple tree along the fence line had its trunk snapped in half.















The south walls on the east and west barns took  a major hit with the west barn losing eight boards and the east barn losing more than ten boards and the wind breaking one of the doors.

Although, the damage could have been a lot worse than what happened.

Ice Storm

Today we are still under Meteorological Alerts issued for the area including a winter storm warning, a freezing rain warning with up to 3/4" (20mm) of freezing rain and a high wind warning with the wind speeds reaching 45mph (72.4km/h). The high being, 28F (-2C) and the wind chill making it feel like 16F (-9C).














Due to the high volume of ice accretion they were calling for, we decided to take the Peterborough Garden Show's generous offer of letting us to close the exhibit early to avoid the treacherous road conditions.















We returned home in time to have the power go out at 10:30 a.m. and after reporting the outage I was informed not to expect the power to return until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow evening.















It is a good thing that we have a generator and it wasn't long before we had heat, light and water. With having the microwave oven I was also able to make hot meals.















I will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings and hopefully we won't have too much damage from falling trees and branches.

Gathering Storm 1 - A Work in Progress

Today I went to Buckhorn to paint at St. Matthew's Church with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group.

I wanted to try and get this painting completed today that I had started a couple of years ago (see posts on 12 January, 19 February and 15 May 2015) and I started by drawing in the island in the right side of the painting, and indicated the tall pine tree trunks.



















It wasn't long before we noticed that the room was getting colder, and when we looked at the thermostat we found that the furnace wasn't coming on to heat the building.

After calling maintenance we found that the repair man would not be there until late afternoon to fix the furnace. We decided to go home rather than work in the cold, which worked out well because as we were leaving it began to snow and we are to get 3" (7.6cm) of heavy packing snow today.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have painted the island.

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.

Gathering Storm - A Work in Progress

It is a milder day 24F (-4.4C) than what we had on the weekend and the snow that started yesterday afternoon continues to fall and is supposed to continue into tomorrow.

I pulled out this painting that I haven't worked on in a long while (see posts on 29 May 2010 and 08 August 2013).

I started by indicating lightly with pencil the distant shoreline first, then added a couple of islands into the lake one further back than the other and added some trees onto both. Lastly, I added an island on the left side of the painting close to the foreground and put in the main pine tree trunks on top of the rocks.

I added another layer of raw sienna into the water just below the sky to darken the reflected colour slightly.

Once that dried I applied a pale wash of alizarin crimson just above it to indicate the rocky shoreline.















Next I made various green mixtures using Antwerp blue, French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and aureolin.

I started with the distant shoreline and put in trees above the rocks across to just beyond the rocks of the second island as I knew some of them would be covered by the trees on both of the island.

With a slightly darker mixture of green I put two pine trees onto the smaller island on the left side first.

To finish the trees on the first island I made a dark colour by adding alizarin crimson to some of the darker green and painted in the dead tree.

Going back to the green from the first island I started putting in the largest pine tree when I was interrupted by unexpected company.

I will post this painting at a later date as I complete more work on the various islands.

ACEO - Approaching Storm 1

I wanted top complete a painting today and I picked out this one that I had drawn earlier this year (see post on 20 April 2014).

I didn't want to use a lot of colours in this piece so I used a limited palette of burnt sienna, raw sienna and French ultramarine blue.

After wetting the paper, I used a grey made of burnt sienna and the blue and brushed in the underside of the clouds, leaving the tops of them the white of the paper.

I used the same cloud colour to put in the waves on the lake, leaving areas of light and dark.

With various mixtures of raw sienna and the blue I put in the pine trees on the islands and on the distant horizon line.

Using the green mix, I thinned the colour with water and brushed the pale green over the water of the lake.

I decided to use a small amount of alizarin crimson on the rocks of the island.

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.

Approaching Storm 1

Even though it was overcast for most of the day, we didn't get the rain they were calling for in the afternoon; and the temperature rose to 54F (12C).

While I was on the porch I did this quick sketch of the storm clouds and added a few of the pines from my front fence line and decided instead of putting the driveway in the drawing I would turn it into a lake and added in a distant island on the horizon line.

I gathered together my gardening tools and went outside to get a start on getting rid of some of the weeds.

Hopefully, this is going to be the first of many more days where I can get a little work done in my garden.

OSWOA - Prairie Storm 1

Today I thought I would complete this painting that I had started last year (see post on 17 July 2012).

Using various mixtures of burnt sienna and raw sienna I added the stalks and leaves of the grain crop into the field.

While the foreground was drying I lightly pulled out the lightning in the sky with an exacto knife.














With a mixture of burnt sienna and raw sienna and using a flat bristle brush, I dry brushed distant wheat stalks into the background below the horizon line.

With burnt sienna I put the head on some of the closer wheat stalks. I highlighted some of the kernels of wheat with various mixtures of lemon yellow, new gamboge, cadmium yellow and raw sienna.

On others I used a base of burnt sienna and raw sienna and highlighted them with the different yellows.














Lastly, I scraped a little more of the lightning bolt into the sky.

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

The OSWOA shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Windsor & Newton paint on 140 lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $40.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Evening Storm 1

It is another hot 92F (33.3C) and sunny day. This evening we had a nice sunset which I tried to capture it with my paint.

I started with cobalt blue for the sky leaving areas of white for the clouds. Next I added a little burnt sienna to the blue and put in some of the darker clouds along the horizon line and in between the higher and lower clouds.

With various mixtures of aureolin, new gamboge, burnt sienna and raw sienna I put in some of the reflected from the setting sun. I put in a thin line of new gamboge below the bottom line of clouds.














Using a wash of new gamboge I put the under paint into the water and while it was drying I lightly sketched in the islands and trees.

With a mix of cobalt blue and burnt sienna, I brushed in the water leaving some areas untouched allowing the white of the paper and the new gamboge to show in the water.

Next I made various greens with mixtures of French ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, raw sienna, new gamboge and lemon yellow and painted the trees onto the distant shoreline and on the islands.















Lastly I made a dark of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna and painted the rocks at the base of the islands.

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.

Autumn Storm 1-3

Today I thought I would do some sketches of stormy skies in an autumn landscape.

I went out onto the porch and set myself up on one of the chairs and started drawing some of the trees along the west fence line on the north side of the driveway.

This is where in the morning the rising sun touches the trees with light.

Autumn Storm 1

After the first one was completed I moved into another of the chairs on the porch and started the next drawing.

This one was further along the fence line almost to the north west corner of the front field, still along the road.

For this one I wanted more of the sky to show making it the focal point instead of it being mainly the trees.

Autumn Storm 2














Autumn Storm 3

For the last one I once again changed into another chair and did this drawing of the north fence line having a balance of trees against the sky.