Dixon Cove Wreck I - Revisited

After working on the companion piece to this wreck I felt it needed a little more work and I rather liked the "rust" I put on the Dixon Cove Wreck II (see post on 27 Nov 2012).














There had been a spot in the sky that I really didn't like so I repainted the sky to remove it (see post 23 Apr 2012). Next I put a wash of burnt sienna over the wreck to give it a similar look to what you actually see of it in real life.














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

Dixon Cove Wreck II

Back in April I was at a workshop with Frances Ferdinands (see posts on 21 and 23 April 2012) and had enjoyed doing the mixed media collages featuring wrecks so much that I have decided to do a couple more of them.

Many stories abound about the two Dixon Cove wrecks. There is a version that maintains one of the ships was a Cayman-owned vessel run aground intentionally for insurance. Another colourful story that keeps coming up is that the ships were involved in the Nicaraguan revolution, and then abandoned.

Perhaps one day I will find the true story, I will just have to keep digging every time I go to Roatan to dive.














I added a wash of burnt sienna over the image of the wreck to give it a rusted appearance.

This 8" x 10" mixed media collage painting is of the other wreck in Dixon Cove, Roatan . I have photographed both of these wrecks many times. This painting when framed will be available for $150.00.

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

Downhill

Ron and Christine had gone skiing yesterday at Devil's Elbow in Bethany and I thought it fitting to paint a couple of downhill skiers.

I painted both pieces at the same time.

For the background I used French ultramarine blue for the sky and added a little alizarin crimson to give a warm feel to the snow.

Before I set each piece aside to dry I sprinkled a little salt onto the paper to create "snowflakes".


Downhill Doubles

Once the paint was dry I brushed off any excess salt remaining on the paper.

I lightly drew the slope of the hill and mixed a dark green using French ultramarine blue and raw sienna for the trees.

Using the green mix I added a little burnt sienna and added a few dead tree trunks and the skiers.

Both original paintings are 3-1/4" x 6-1/4" framed watercolours and are available at $95.00 each or the pair for $180.00.

Downhill Duet

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

The Percheron

Today I wanted to work on another horse drawing and since earlier this month I did a Belgian (see post on 06 November 2012); I chose to do another of the more popular draft horses the Percheron.

Going through my files on heavy horses I came across a number of photographs of Gentle Ben a Percheron stallion that I did a head study of last year (see post on 26 January 2011).














I used a number of photographs of him that I had taken from both halter classes and when he was in harness to do this conformation drawing.

This framed original 10" x 11-1/2" graphite pencil drawing is available for $165.00. SOLD

OSWOA - Twin Trees 1

This is a painting I had started earlier this year called Grey Sky 2 (see post on 13 Feb 2012).

On my property at the edge of one of the back fields I used to have a pair of beautiful twin pines. Unfortunately during a wind storm last year one of the pines was unable to survive the force of the wind and fell to the ground broken.

The remaining pine still stands but to me seems to be lonely, as though missing its companion that it had standing beside it for so many years.














I decided to add the pair of pines into the foreground of the painting and changed its name to Twin Trees 1.

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 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $40.00and sold unframed.

ACEO - Autumn Colours 7

I wanted to finish at least one of the paintings that had been started earlier this year and I chose this one that was originally called Grey Sky F (see post on 07 July 2012).

Since the sky was already painted I drew in a main tree at the front to give a starting point to where the rest of the trees would be placed.

Next the background trees were indicated as well as a few growies into the foreground paint.

Since the main tree was going to be a maple I renamed the painting Autumn Colours 7.

Using raw sienna I painted in the fields and the grasses at the base of the foreground trees.

Wetting the area for the background trees I painted the leaves using various mixtures of burnt sienna, alizarin crimson and raw sienna.

I made sure to leave some spaces of sky showing through near the tops of the trees.

I wet the paper where the closer tree leaves dropped in lemon yellow and burnt sienna.

Using mixes of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna the trunks and branches of the larger background trees were painted, as well as a few indistinct branches and trunks into the distant background trees.

The same two colours were used but by adding more blue to make it more of a grey shade were used for painting in the main tree, leaving some areas of the under colours to show through creating the look of bark.

Grasses and other growies were painted into the base of the main tree using raw sienna, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue.

Using a sponge and various mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna the leaves were put onto the foreground tree.

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 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Birch Tree and Rail Fence

Along one of the side roads I sometimes travel when going to KAGS there is an old birch tree at the entrance to a field.

Most of the time the farmer has the rail gate open but during the winter the farmer puts up the rails across the opening as soon as the snow stays on the ground to prevent snowmobiles from running through the fields.

When I went by on this day you could see that someone had dropped the rails down and taken at least three snowmobiles around the fields and made a mess of the once pristine blanket of snow. Obviously they had no respect for private property.

This original 6" x 8" framed watercolour is available for $95.00.