Gourds - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I started in Sharon Taylor's class (see my posting on 12 October 10 for Corn Stalks 1-3).

With everyone else in the class working on either corn stalks or different types of trees I had to do something different.

Since the gourds were sitting on the window ledge anyway, I thought they may make an interesting painting.

There is still a lot more to do on this painting, but at least the base colours have been painted in and I still have to add a lot more detail to the gourds.

I have to mark in where the shelf will be that the gourds are resting on and then decide what I want to do with the background. I really don't want to have a window behind them, although I could make the background into a lacy curtain, or perhaps patterned wallpaper.

Once I have made my decision I will post the results.

Abandoned Farm - A Work in Progress

When horses have escaped from their pastures or paddocks there is always the worry that they will not be found or that they may injure themselves.

Here the worried owner has found the missing animals and must now catch and lead them back home before it gets too dark to be done safely.

The evening sky and background trees have been painted in as well as the under painting for the autumn grasses.

The base for the barn and the house has been painted, and the loose horses and people are already drawn.

I will post this piece once it has been completed.

Sharon Taylor Workshop - Corn Stalks 1-3

Today the Buckhorn Tuesday Painters had Sharon Taylor as a guest instructor. She usually comes out with some interesting and creative things for us to try.

Fortunately, we had a bright sunny day with very little wind which was ideal for using powdered charcoal as a background for our paintings and having to work outside on them.

Sharon brought corn stalks, some still with ears of corn attached for us to use for doing a basic outline on the paper.

Corn Stalks 1


The areas we wanted to leave without charcoal were coated with water, then we took our paintings outside and dusted the paper with powdered charcoal.

We then literally threw containers of water over the paper to remove the excess charcoal. The paintings were left outside to dry.

Each of us made three attempts to create interesting backgrounds for our corn stalk paintings.

Corn Stalks 2

By the time we had the third background doused with water and set to dry in the sun, our first attempt was dry and ready for us to proceed with the next step.

Before bringing the painting into the building it was sprayed with workable fixative, to prevent the charcoal from spreading any further while still allowing us to paint on the paper.

Raw sienna was used as the first layer of paint to indicate where some of the leaves and stalks will be.

Corn Stalks

A mixture of burnt and raw sienna was applied to other areas of the leaves and stalks. A hint of French ultramarine blue was added to the mixture and painted into some of the areas to give the impression of the partially dried leaves.

A lot more detail still has to be added to the paintings before they are complete. I will post them as I do more work on them.

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

Autumn Rapids - A Work in Progress

With working on sketches and drawings for Neil Broadfoot's workshop I decided to work on white water in acrylic for a change.

Most of the work on this painting is done using a palette knife to apply the paint rather than using a brush.

The background has been finished. The foreground trees need more work on the trunks and branches as well as adding some leaves. The under painting has been completed on the rocks and for the foreground grasses.

I will post this painting at a later date once more work has been done.

Towards the Light - A Work in Progress

We have a lovely park about five minutes away called Selwyn Beach Conservation Area, located on the north east shore of Lake Chemong.

The 72 acres (29 hectares) Park was established in 1973 to provide a section of the Lake's shoreline for public use.

It has an unsupervised sand beach with nearby barbecues and tables for picnics, as well as a large shelter complete with a central barbecue pit. Further down the shoreline there is a boat launch and docking facilities.










What I enjoy the most are the hiking trails in the northern portion of the Park. It has been left undeveloped except for the trails which pass through a wide variety of terrain including open fields, wetlands and woodland.

The area shown is found close to the parking lot; and you past through this small portion of the woodland as the three children in this painting are in order to get to the beach.

I will post it again as I complete more on the painting.

Floral Demonstration - Two Works in Progress

I am often asked by the members of the Buckhorn Artists' Group to show how I paint various subjects. It can be anything from backgrounds, birds, animals or landscape.

These are two paintings I started as demonstrations to show how I approach floral paintings of irises and roses.

With the irises it was primarily what colours to use when painting yellow flowers. For the base coat on the iris I used new gamboge and added mixtures of raw sienna and burnt sienna for shadows.

Iris Trio

With the roses it was a lesson on how to paint the overlapping petals without them having an "outline" to keep them separated from one another.

A wash is put on the first petal and left to dry while another petal on the same bloom that is not touching the first petal has a wash applied to it. This is repeated though the entire flower.

With each succeeding wash more detail and shadows are added to give shape to each of the petals.

Rose Bouquet

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

OSWOA - Cecropia on Barn Board

The Cecropia is the largest native North American moth. It belongs to the family of large silk moths known as Saturniidae.

We often find them on the shadowed side of the barn or inside the mow hidden in the darkness during the day.

At night they can be seen flying around the sentinel light at the front of the house or hanging on the window screens.

The Cecropia depicted here is a male. They are easily distinguished from the female by the very large bushy antennae.

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 Winsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $50.00 and sold unframed. SOLD

Now I have to head out to Norwood Fairgrounds to judge the art show. It should be an enjoyable day.