Woodland Nymph - A Work in Progress

I pulled out this drawing that I had started in the late 80's. I had set it aside because I had to make changes to the little girl in the drawing.

I wasn't totally happy with the nose; it was a little "bulby" at the end and needed to be smoothed out.

I started with the top of the head to get rid of the flat top first, followed by adding strands of hair going across her forehead at the sides of her head and going across the ear.

The fingers of the hand needed more definition as well as the back of the hand and wrist.  I also added a few details to the elbow and defined the arm from the shoulder down.

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

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Blue-Spotted Salamander

Today is Saturday and with the weatherman calling for showers later in the day and continuing throughout tomorrow, Ron and I decided to get the yard work done early.

With me doing most of the lawn mowing today Ron decided to clean out the underbrush beneath the willow tree at the front of the property.

It wasn't long before he flagged me down and when I went over to him he handed me a small, seemingly lifeless body of a salamander.

I took it up to the house to see if it was dead or just stunned.

I examined and identified it as a Blue-spotted salamander (Ambystoma laterale). Fortunately, it didn't appear to be crushed or harmed in anyway.

I placed it in a terrarium and added some water and a few leaves which seemed to revive it.

The Blue-spotted salamander is a member of a group of subterranean amphibians known as mole salamanders.

They are native to the Great Lakes area, parts of Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec.

Their range extends as far to the north as James Bay and to south eastern Manitoba in the west.

Adult salamanders measure from 3-5.5” (7.6-14cm) in length and have dark bluish-black skin, with blue flecks on its back and tail, with bluish-white spots on the sides of its body.

These salamanders have large heads with protruding eyes and stocky bodies supported by sturdy limbs, with four long toes long toes on the front feet and five on the hind feet.















Blue-spotted salamanders usually live in moist, deciduous hardwood forests such as red maple swamps and oak/birch woodlands, although they can also be found in coniferous forests and fields.

They prefer spring pools that retain water into mid-summer, to ensure access to a suitable breeding habitat. The adult is found in mature woods where the ground is littered with rotting logs, underbrush, leaf litter and rocks below which the salamanders dwell within moist depressions or burrows.















This is why the front of the property is an ideal location for the Blue-spotted salamanders as the area is under water from the early spring when breeding occurs and their eggs are laid in small clutches of about a dozen eggs, attached to twigs, rocks or plants at the edge of a pond and remains wet through to the middle of the summer and remains fairly damp until late summer when the juveniles emerge and disperse to terrestrial locations.

Once the Blue-spotted salamander was moving around in the terrarium without difficulty, I returned him to where Ron found him under the willow tree and heaped some of the partially rotted leaves around him.

Resting Place - A Work in Progress

There is a flash freeze warning in place for this afternoon and it looks like we are going to have freezing rain all day. Needless to say, I decided that I would stay in and go through a box of art supplies that I brought down from the heated storage room I have upstairs.

While I was going through some of the pads of acrylic, pastel and drawing paper I found this partially completed drawing that I had started in the 90's when I was doing a number of drawings in pastel.

I started by blocking in the sunlit background with a pale yellow green, then applied the base for three cedar tree trunks with a medium brown followed by using a dark green for the base colour of the cedar foliage.














Using a soft grey, I put in a little bit of detail into the cedar foliage, followed by using a yellow green for some variation. Then I added a few cedar boughs of different greens to see in which direction I wanted to take the cedar colours.

Lastly, I put in the base for the foreground with yellow ochre and then started adding a little detail into the grasses with various greens into the foreground before calling it a day.

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

Woodland Nymph

Today I wanted to work on this drawing of a little girl and a fawn that I had started a while ago (see posts on 30 November 2015 and 20 April 2016).

I worked on the fawn first. I wasn't totally happy with the muzzle so I reworked it.

I added more details to the eye, the forehead and the ear.

Next, I positioned the girl where I wanted her to be in relation to the fawn. Although I lost a lot of the fawn's body this seemed to work best.

Now I just have to decide which media I would like to use when I do a painting from this drawing.

Eyes of Caution 1 - A Work in Progress

While sorting through some boxes that I had in the basement I came across a block of pastel paper. To my surprise as I flipped through the pages, I came across this sketch that I did for a much larger drawing of a wolf that I did in the early 70's.















There are a large number of faults in this piece and at a later date I will go in and fix them.

I will post this drawing at a later date as I go through the process to correct the mistakes.

Crow Rescue

Due to the warm weather, the ice and snow melting and the temperature dropping overnight we have a very foggy morning. But we are having above another seasonal temperature day at 51F (10.6C).

Today I saw one of my little hawks has arrived back from the south and will be nesting in the hawk box under the eaves on the house.













I have an injured crow to nurse back to health. I saw him this morning when I was filling the bird feeders. Usually the crows fly off when I appear on the front lawn, but this one stayed in the elm tree.

This afternoon he was eating a little and slowly hobbling around; when he stopped he just stood shivering with cold.

I got a small blanket from the house and walked very slowly toward him and he didn't move, not even when I dropped the blanket over him. There was no struggling, he let me wrap him in the blanket and bring him into the house.














It looks as though he was attached by other birds, most of the feathers are off his head and neck, fortunately there is no damage to his eyes although they are weeping and I have cleaned most of the crust from them.

Once he was warm I moved the box out onto the porch with food and water, but he is proving to be an escape artist and has gotten out a couple of times. But he stays quietly even when I pick him up and carry him back and put him in the box.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Woodland Nymph

Since we have an Executive meeting today I am picking up my paintings from the Elements of Nature Art Show which closed yesterday and will be dropping off my paintings for the upcoming Christmas Art Show and Sale at the Kawartha Artists’ Gallery and Studio.

I doodled while there were some discussion going on about whether it was worth keeping the Gallery open late on Thursday nights.

When they asked if there were any other comments, I made mine which was "Those that want to sit from 4-7pm Thursday night can put their names down in that time slot and do it, since no one is coming out in the dark."

It seemed that those that wanted the Gallery to be open were not inclined to sit at night in the winter. Needless to say, the Gallery will no longer be open Thursdays from 4-7pm.

I continued working on my rough sketch until I pretty much knew how I wanted it be with the placement of the girl and the fawn.

It wasn't long before the meeting was over and we all headed home.

When I got home I did the barn chores, had supper, made myself a cup of tea and then started working on the outline drawing.

In the end I was pleased with the drawing of the girl. Since it is getting late, I will do the drawing of the fawn another day.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Goslings

Last night we had a fair amount of excitement with Kyora having found a family of Canada geese at the top of the front field and chasing the parents away while scooping up a gosling in her mouth. She decided not to come when called and that it was great fun to have Ron chase after her until he finally caught her and took it out of her mouth. Needless to say she was scolded and sent to her bed for the night.

At first Ron didn't think the gosling would survive since it lay on the grass panting, but after I looked at it and found no puncture marks and the back wasn't broken I wrapped it in a piece of flannel and we went to look for the parents, which we could hear calling for their baby.

They were across the road in a farmer's field but as soon as I entered the field they flew off. We went along the road to where one of the pairs of Canada geese had nested hoping to find them, but they were nowhere to be found, so we decided to take the little one that was starting to perk up and calling softly for its parents back home.











Before we arrived home we saw walking across the road at the bottom of the hill another gosling. So I got out of the vehicle and picked it up so it wouldn't get hit by a car and set it on the seat with its sibling. Getting almost to the top of the hill what should run out in front of us, but two more goslings which I caught and it was a good thing too as I was putting the fourth one into the car another vehicle came speeding over the hill in the opposite direction and would probably have run them over.

Now we had four goslings to look after for the night, so we put them in a large cardboard box lined with a bath towel, filled a dish with water and put some chopped grass and bread into the water for them and left them on the porch for the night.

In the morning they were all doing well and had eaten some of the food and almost all of the water was gone and even the smallest one seemed much better after its experience of being carried around in the dog's mouth. So I put them out into the child's pool that we have for the dog and added more grass and bits of bread.











We called the Peterborough Humane Society to see who would take in the goslings if we couldn't get them adopted by a pair of Canada geese that had goslings of about the same age and they gave us the phone number for Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge in Pefferlaw, Ontario.

After going through the Snelgrove Brook, over to Chemong Lake and then to the Peterborough Riverview Park and Zoo where you can almost always find geese (in fact they even have signs posted "DO NOT FEED THE GEESE") we managed to find one lone Canada goose, but no pairs or goslings.

So we made the trip to Shades of Hope and they felt that in another week or so that there would be many more families of geese and that they could successfully be adopted by another family.

Deer in the Shadows I - A Work in Progress

Nothing like starting a spring morning off with 32F (0C) temperatures and the wind chill making it feel like 23F (-5C) but, the sun is shining and that is a bonus.

It was bound to get a little warmer as the day progressed and I decided to go for a walk through the fields behind the barn.

As I was walking up the slight hill by the north fence line just before the coming to the opening in the fence leading into the middle field a doe came out from behind the trees and stopped in the opening looking around before moving out into the opening.















I quickly pulled the camera out and did manage to get a slightly blurred photograph of the deer just before she turned and bounded away across the middle field and out of sight.

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

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

Deer in the Shadows - A Work in Progress

This morning as I was going over to my friend Heather's house to drop off her Christmas gifts now that she was back home from celebrating the holiday with her family in Toronto.

I glanced at the lake as I was driving by and at the edge was a doe with last year's fawn standing with her deciding if they were going to cross the ice covered lake.

I stopped the car and quickly took a photograph before opening the door and getting out just in case I spooked the deer and they disappeared before I could get closer.

It was a good thing that I did because as soon as I got out of the car she spotted me and that is exactly what happened. So it is a good thing I listen to the voices in my head some of the time.

I got back into the car and visited with Heather for a while before returning home and doing this little sketch.

I will post this piece at a later date once I have taken the time to develop the sketch and transfer it onto either watercolour paper or a canvas.

Stormy Sky I

It was a beautiful day today with the temperature going up to 77F (25C) and with the humidity it felt more like 88F (31C), this caused us to be treated to three thunderstorms.

I have always enjoyed watching thunderstorms and with living on the top of a hill you can see the lightning all around you during a storm. It was especially nice being able to sit on the front porch with my husband and enjoy the beauty of the storm with its many lightning strikes.












While going through some drawings I came across this one that I had started a few years ago (see post on 27 August 2011).

I thought it fitting that I should finish this drawing of a stormy day.

I lightly penciled in the bottoms of a series of clouds and then gradually inked in the layers of the clouds as they stacked one on top of the other.

This original 4-1/2" x 9" pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $45.00.

Summertime

Although today is overcast with the promise of more rain and thunderstorms in the forecast it is a wonderful 72F (22C) with a breeze blowing which helps keep the mosquitoes away.

I received confirmation yesterday that one of my paintings "Through the Storm" (see posting on 19 April 2013) was accepted for the juried show at The Lindsay Gallery which is held 03-26 June 2014.

I wanted to paint today and came across this painting in my portfolio of a Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) that I had started many years ago.  It didn't need a lot of work for it to be finished as there were only that a few wild grape leaves on the fence rail that needed their final layer of colour.

After a couple hours of work on those leaves and a few other spots throughout the painting I was finally happy with the results.

I will continue to post the painting I finish each day during the course of the month. I hope you will return often to see the postings.

This original 15" x 22" watercolour painting when framed will be available for $1,480.00.

Fisherman 1

Today I was greeted with another grey day and rain. But I had no intention of letting that stop me from getting four dives in today; and using my new underwater digital camera.

The nice thing about being in "my" beach house here at the CoCo View Resort is that some things don't change.

The little grey heron was sitting on this rock in the tide pool out in front of my screened in porch. He reminded me so much of the Great Blue Herons we have back in Canada, that you see waiting patiently for unwary prey to come close and then his meal is served.

This original 4-3/4" x 5” pen and ink drawing once I frame it will be available for $125.00.

Now I had better head down to the docks or I will miss my first two dives of the day.

Royal Red

Royal Red is an original 5" x 7” oval, framed watercolour.

I have a pair of Cardinals nesting in amongst my lilac bushes. With the brilliant red colour of the male cardinal you would expect to be able to see him easily against the green leaves, but with the way the light casts shadows he is very hard to see.

Now I had better get to the Creative Art Guild in Lakefield as I am demonstrating framing using aluminum and acrylic frames.

Thank you to new collector Morley Alldred of Toronto, Ontario on his purchase of this painting.

Bunny - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I have developed from my sketches while on location at the Riverview Zoo.

I have was Antwerp blue behind the rabbit and will probably not do anything more to the background.

Most of the rabbit is completed; it just needs a little more detail added to the hair and the face.

A mixture of Antwerp blue and raw sienna was washed in below the rabbit to give it a base. I will have to add a few more detailed grasses and a shadow to ground him in place so he doesn't seem to be floating.

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

Peter Cottontail

This is an original 5" x 7” oval, framed watercolour available for $135.00.

While at the Riverview Zoo I took photographs of a number of rabbits running loose on the grounds. They were very friendly and would often approach if you offered food to them.

I did a number of sketches while there and this is one of the paintings that I completed.

Over the Rise

This is a scene I saw at the top of the middle field back of my barns.

It is at the corners where four fields all come together, with pathways down into each of them.

I was too far away, and with the sun in my eyes I couldn't see if it was a wolf, a large fox or a wild dog, but it was one of the three.

I may do this painting again at a later date with a couple of wolves in it.

Over the Rise is an original 14-1/4" x 21-1/2” framed watercolour available for $295.00.

Misty Lake

As I was walking down to the barn to do morning chores the sun peeps over the distant hills. I could hear the distinctive call of the loons on Chemong Lake echoing through the mist.














Their hauntingly beautiful voices always makes me appreciate living in the country, away from the noise and traffic of Toronto were I was raised; I know I could never go back to living there.














This is an original 9" x 12" framed watercolour available for $275.00.

Day's End

I often see herons on the lakes and we have one that does occasionally come into the pond at the bottom of the front field. They are easy to miss when they are hunting and will stand motionless for a considerable amount of time while waiting for the chance to catch their prey.

This is an original 4-1/2" x 9-1/4” framed watercolour available for $225.00. SOLD









A number of artists I know are taking part in the 30 day art challenge; which means for each month having 30 days in it they must finish a painting a day.

Here is the first of my daily paintings. I will continue to post the painting I finish each day during the course of the month.

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

Turnabout - A Work in Progress

I decided to work on this painting which I found in the same box as yesterday's posting.

The final layer of colour was added to the leaves.














With a dark of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a touch of alizarin crimson another section of markings on the birch have been blocked in and some are completed. A few more of the smaller branches were added. Feather details have been lightly added to the tail and lower part of the wings.

I will leave this painting for now as I have to go up to Buckhorn to help set up the panels for the upcoming Among Friends Art Show and Sale which will be held this weekend.