Happy Faces

This is a painting that is currently being exhibited at my solo show at the the Showplace Performance Centre.

I have always liked pansies. They are such a cheerful flower that comes in a wide variety of colours and seem almost to smile at you.


















This is a 10 x 14” framed, watercolour $325.00.

Moon Rise - A Work in Progress

The sun is in the process of setting and the moon is on the rise in the east. The evening sky reflecting back some of the colours from the sunset.

The horizon line was taped and the sky was washed in with layers of colour. Darker cloud shapes were painted in as the paper gradually dried enough to allow some control of where they would be placed and yet still have a softness at the edges.














The painting was set aside until it was completely dry. Using a template and water I lifted the paint from behind the clouds to create the full moon. The masking tape was removed from the horizon line, and as you can see there was a little run underneath it, but it will be covered once the distant shore is painted.

The faint impression of the foreground shore and the main tree trunks has been drawn. I will post more on this painting as it gets closer to completion.

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

Gentle Snow - A Work in Progress

Irene and I were over at Heather's home today painting. The three of us are some of the founding members of the Buckhorn Artists' Group and often get together to paint or do framing.















We were finishing a number of paintings that have been stated over the winter to have more new works ready for our 22nd Annual Among Friends Art Show, held over the Victoria Day weekend at St. Matthew's Church in Buckhorn, Ontario.

It was an enjoyable afternoon and this is one of two paintings on which I was working. While I am still not happy with the overall composition it is closer to completion and I will set it aside to look at until I decide what more it needs.

Stained Glass - A Work in Progress

The Outdoor Painters Group meets at the KAGS on Thursdays from October through to the middle of April and then they paint outdoors at various locations in the area, weather permitting.

I decided that this one would be a good choice to work on while there as in the afternoon (see posting on 13 April 2010), it was my turn to sit the "Faces and Figures" Show which closed today at 4:00pm. It is the kind of painting I could leave it at any time to talk with the people who come in to view the paintings on display in the gallery.

With the areas masked out with liquid friskit that I wanted to keep white, I didn't have to worry about how I applied the colour.

To try and capture the feeling of stained glass, I added brighter, more transparent colours to some of the areas to give the impression of the various sections "glowing" as though light is passing through glass.

Trying to keep the painting fairly bright and clean looking I added various blocks of colour to the painting. To create interest I added darker lineal shapes and then some smaller simple shapes into some of the areas of colour so they wouldn't be just a solid mass of one colour.

I wasn't able to finish the painting today, but then tomorrow is always another day. When I come back to working on this piece again I will post the changes.

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.

Stained Glass - A Work in Progress

Today I paint a half day with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group. I gathered together a number of paintings that are in various stages of completion and took them with me to do some work on and hopefully finish at least one.

Every so often I will work on an abstract, usually I work with Oriental papers and make collages (see posting on 26 Mar 2010 for Enchantment), other times I will just throw paint onto the paper and add salt, or apply cheese cloth, leaves, plastic wrap and let the paint dry and wait and see what I end up with. (See postings on 18 and 19 Feb 2010 for Underwater Playground and Coral Reef.) Then I add what I feel is necessary to complete the painting.

I had started this painting in a workshop with Sterling Edwards a number of years ago. As a base for the painting I used a photograph I had taken of a trellis and blocked out the areas of strong contrasting lights and darks with very little detail.

Using an assortment of colours to the areas that I had marked out, I worked at keeping the painting fairly bright and open without a lot of tight detail.

The large blocks of colour reminded me of stained glass. With the parts of the trellis still left unpainted I decided that it looked vaguely like a cross and masked the area out to save the white of the paper while I applied more colour to the painting.

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

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.