West Barn I

Today had some of my friends over for a paint out at the farm which was a lot of fun.

They arrived around 10:00am, had a cup of tea or coffee before settling down and finding a place to paint or sketch.

Lunch time was enjoyable with many of the artists having completed some drawings or sketches and had a good start on a painting.















In the afternoon I joined some of the group that was working on drawings or paintings of my barns.

Everyone had a wonderful time and succeeded in getting a drawing or painting completed.

I did this outline drawing of the west barn which is the one closest to the house.

Spice Jar 1

Today, I decided to make a large pot of beef stew and while the meat was cooking I started looking at various jars of seasoning that I used for the stew.

It didn't take long for me to pull out a pencil and a piece of paper and start working on a drawing of the jar that held the parsley.

I was pleased with the results of this drawing and in the future I may do a series of spice jars of various shapes, colours and sizes. Especially, since I have a large collection of spices, most of which are in different containers.

For now, I had better get back to cutting the vegetables that I have to put into my stew and allow them to cook.

OSWOA - Winter Night 1

This is a painting that I started a while ago and have been working on a little bit at a time (see posts on 22 Dec 2011 and 18 Feb 2013).

Today I added the tree on the right hand side of the painting and added the growies that are so often found at the base of most trees.













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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $30.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Hazy Day 1

The days are getting warmer and more humid so I thought I would work on this painting I had started last year of a summer day (see posts on 07 July 2012 and 25 May 2013).

I started with the background and put in the distant field with a mixture of Antwerp blue and new gamboge.

The trees against the skyline were various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue and new gamboge.

Using mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna the tree trunks and main branches were painted into the foreground.














With a sponge I applied the layers of green leaves on the foreground trees with mixtures of both blues, raw sienna and new gamboge.

Lastly the foreground bushes were put in with the darker mixture of the leave colours.

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.

Clear Lake I-IX

Today after barn chores were finished we decided to take a short drive and go out on one of the nearby lakes in the canoe.

Once everything was loaded, we were soon on Highway 28 to find one of the marinas on either Clear Lake or Stoney Lake.

We found a marina just off the highway with a public boat launch and we were soon out on Clear Lake.

We decided to head toward Youngs Point Lock 27 instead of going up and into Stoney Lake.

Clear Lake I

As usual we paddled until lunch time and then stopped to have our lunch before turning around to head back to our launch site.

Clear Lake is one of three interconnected lakes which form the eastern end of the Kawartha lakes region.

The area to the northeast is Upper Stoney Lake, in the centre is Stoney Lake and stretching to the southwest is Clear Lake.

Clear Lake III

Clear Lake has a maximum depth 30' (9m) with an average depth of 17' (5.2m). It is home to bluegill, carp, large and smallmouth bass, rock bass, muskellunge, yellow perch and white sucker.

Ron caught three small mouth bass and I did nine sketches and had reference photographs, some of which will end up as paintings.

Clear Lake V















Clear Lake II











Clear Lake IV













Clear Lake VI













Clear Lake VII












Clear Lake VIII















Clear Lake IX

Autumn Storm 1-3

Today I thought I would do some sketches of stormy skies in an autumn landscape.

I went out onto the porch and set myself up on one of the chairs and started drawing some of the trees along the west fence line on the north side of the driveway.

This is where in the morning the rising sun touches the trees with light.

Autumn Storm 1

After the first one was completed I moved into another of the chairs on the porch and started the next drawing.

This one was further along the fence line almost to the north west corner of the front field, still along the road.

For this one I wanted more of the sky to show making it the focal point instead of it being mainly the trees.

Autumn Storm 2














Autumn Storm 3

For the last one I once again changed into another chair and did this drawing of the north fence line having a balance of trees against the sky.

Clarice

A number of years ago I wrote a children's book about a baby dragon called Clarice.

This is a quick sketch on a scrap piece of watercolour paper, which I did of the baby dragon while I wrote the story.

I will need at least another 12 to 16 drawings for the book as I finish editing it and set the pages.

I will post more of these sketches as I complete the ones for each page of the book.