Old Cottage II - A Work in Progress

Even though it is a bright, sunny day with the temperature reaching 78F (25.6C), the welcome breeze kept away the humidity.

I pulled out this sketch that I started at a paint out a few years ago (see post on 14 July 2013) and I decided to do a little more work on the buildings.

Starting on the roof of the garage, I put on the shingles and then added some moss and dead leaves on top of the roof.















Next I added some siding onto the playhouse and onto the one side of the garage.

Lastly, I added some more growies and grasses to the base of the buildings.

I will post this drawing again once it has been completed.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Daisies I - A Work in Progress

After working on yesterday's painting I thought it may be interesting if I did another as a companion piece with the taller daisies on the opposite side and who knows I may do a third one in the landscape orientation.

Once again I used masking tape as a resist to create the daisies where I wanted the white of the paper to show.

I used various mixtures of Antwerp blue, alizarin crimson, raw sienna, burnt sienna, new gamboge, Cerulean blue and French ultramarine blue for the under paint which was applied wet on dry paper.

I set this painting aside to dry and will post it again at a later date once I start to work on it in the negative.

Daisies - A Work in Progress

This is a painting I started earlier this year in a watercolour class with Emil Varga (see post on 05 March 2014).

The under painting was already completed with the basic growies and grasses and now it was time to add more details by painting in the negative which is a slow and thoughtful process.

I mixed various dark colours using Antwerp blue, French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, Cobalt blue, Payne's grey and alizarin crimson.

Using the blacks, browns, greens and purples I gradually added the dark grasses and growies and wove them in between and behind the existing grass shapes.

Sometimes this can be discouraging, when you spend a fair amount of time and at first it doesn't seem as though much has been accomplished. But the end result is usually well worth the effort.

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

Thistle in the Snow

It won't be long before we have deep snow on the ground and will only see the tops of many of the dried weeds in the fields.

There are many Scotch thistles in the infield of the track beside the house. I leave them and the milkweed to provide food for the goldfinch and for the monarch butterfly caterpillars.









I had started this painting a couple of years ago along with Thistle in the Snow (see posting on 15 March 2010). It is of the same thistle just taken from opposite sides.

This 5" x 12" original, framed watercolour is available for $195.00.

Overgrown Weeds

Today I wanted to do something different for a change. So I pulled out some of my Oriental papers and decided to work on some collages.

I washed in the top of the paper with French ultramarine blue for a sky and raw sienna into the bottom of the paper just to have some background colour on a couple of pieces of watercolour paper.

Once the paint had dried I applied various pieces of the Oriental papers onto the paintings using matte medium to fix them to the watercolour paper and set it aside to dry.

I started painting on the smaller piece of paper first and put a barn against the sky, being careful to pull back some of the small wisps of the Oriental papers so they would lie over top of the barn.

Then with various mixtures of burnt sienna, raw sienna and French ultramarine blue I painted some weeds into the foreground allowing some of the Oriental papers to show through.

This original 3-1/2" x6-1/4" framed collage is available for $95.00.

Weeds

In the many sheltered areas around my barns the weeds are able to find a foothold.

This is a scene I often see in winter; the dried stalks of the weeds covered with the freshly fallen snow highlighted against the barn board.

Thank you to Mrs. Mary Smith of Lakefield, Ontario on her selection of this original 2" x 4” framed watercolour painting for her art collection.

Autumn Weeds

This is a scene I often see in the autumn down by the edge of the Snelgrove Brook which runs thrpough the back of my property..

The soft reflections of trees' changing leaves in the water are a sharp contrast to the hard dried weeds and grasses growing on the bank.

This is an original 3-3/4" x 10-3/4” framed watercolour available for $125.00.

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

Dandelions - A Work in Progress

Today I just played with French ultramarine blue and once I had a graduated wash painted onto the paper I then threw salt into the wet paint.

I left the salt to do its work on the painting while I got my all the things together that I needed to take to KAGS for the Christmas Show.

By the time I had finished loading everything into the Blazer there was no more time to work on my painting.

With the way the salt worked on the paper it looked like a field of dandelions gone to seed just before the winds blows sending them up into the air and on their way to a new location to grow.

I will post this painting when I complete it at a later date.

Wild Flowers - A Work in Progress

Today I wanted to do a little more work on this painting (see posting on 12 April 2010). Using various mixtures of burnt sienna, raw sienna, alizarin crimson, Antwerp blue and French ultramarine blue. I started on the seeds of the Curly Dock on the left side first and added some of the detail to a few of the many seeds that are there on each branch.

With a darker mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, I painted in the main stalk, some of the dead leaves and the tiny twigs that are at the end of the seed bundles.
















I added another Curly Dock into the background fairly loosely as it is behind most of the Queen Anne's Lace which is still masked out so I didn't have to worry about being careful to control the paint in order not to lose the "white".

I then started working on the Curly Dock on the right side of the painting, painting in the main stalk to join the areas of seeds together. Then I worked on the bottom area of the seed bundles putting in a little detail as before.

I still have to decide on where I want to place the golden rod and chicory in the paintings before I go too much further.

Wild Flowers - A Work in Progress

For this is the painting I masked out the areas where I wanted to keep the white of the Queen Anne's Lace and let it dry.

I use 300 lb. d'Arches watercolour paper and find that I do not have to stretch the paper when working wet on wet and it holds a fair amount of water allowing me plenty of time to apply my paint.















The background was created by applying pure colours first in French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue and raw sienna. I use artists' quality Windsor & Newton watercolour paint.

As the paper begins to dry a little I put in upward strokes of mixtures of the two blues with the raw sienna to indicate background grasses. Using pure burnt sienna I indicated the areas I wanted to have some of the dark seed bundles. French ultramarine blue was added to the burnt sienna for the darker areas.

This painting was then set aside to dry.