Skimming the Waves I

Yesterday we went to the dump and while Ron was unloading the trailer of trash collected from the property I was taking photographs of the seagulls which scavenge for food at the dump.







I also did this quick sketch of a gull in flight and rather than having him flying over garbage I added waves below his wings.

Birch Trio 1 and 2

After doing a couple of sketches of maple trees yesterday I thought I would like to do the same with birch trees today.

Once again I started in the bottom field near the Snelgrove Brook, this time a little closer to the centre of the fence line, where there are a number of full grown birch trees.

I sketched one of the sections with three birch trees where there had at one time been five birches. The two missing ones were lost to a beaver cutting it down and only the stump remains.

Birch Trio 1

The other was blown over in a wind storm last year and the upended roots remain and most of the rest of the tree was harvested by the beavers.

Once this sketch was completed I went into the sugar bush which is on the north east end of the property and found some birch trees along the main trail through woodlot.

These ones are younger and thinner trees due to them having to compete with the larger maple trees for sunlight in this 4 acre (1.6ha) forest.

It didn't take long for me to do this sketch.

Birch Trio 2

As I continued through the sugar bush on my way back to the house I noted that even here the trees are not immune to the raging winds as throughout the woods there were a number of old maples that were torn up by the roots that will have to be cut up for firewood over the coming winter.

Autumn Maples 1 and 2

Autumn is my favourite time of the year and I enjoy looking out over the 300 acres (121.4 hectares) of mixed forest at the bottom of the hill with it multitude of colours.

The bright yellows of the birch, elm and beech trees, the glowing reds and oranges of the maples and later in the season the golden colours of the tamaracks standing out against the cedar, pine and spruce trees.

Each year brings a different kaleidoscope of colour and patterns throughout the forest depending on the changes in the weather.

Autumn Maples 1

In the bottom field by the Snelgrove Brook there is a stand of Swamp Maples, also known as Red Maple (Acer Rubrum).

They are one of the first to change colour in the late summer when the temperature starts to drop more than 10 degrees during night.

I did a quick sketch of them capturing the way the trunks and branches bend.

At the north west end of the track there are three maples I call the stop lights because one is yellow green, one is orange and one is red.

Autumn Maples 2

I did this sketch of them showing the fields and the road on the other side of the fence.

Marbles

Today I was at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio sitting the show this afternoon.

We had a large number of people coming in to view the current show, Rural Scenes and I was not able to work on a painting.















Instead, when I came across a couple of marbles in the pencil tray on the desk, I started working on a few sketches of marbles.

I was fairly pleased with the three sketches and I may develop them into paintings at a later date.

Lighthouse 3 and 4

Today I was in the mood to work on something different and since last night I was watching a program on television of the east coast, I thought I would do a couple of lighthouses from memory.

They probably won't look like any of the ones I saw last night but the basics of most lighthouses are similar.

For my first one I did it in a portrait format and placing the lighthouse on the left side of the paper.

Below the lighthouse I placed the rocks with the breakers crashing against them and waves racing toward the shore.

Lighthouse 3

Lastly, I put a moon or a setting sun in the sky. If I was to do it as a painting that is a decision I would have to make or perhaps do one of each.















Lighthouse 4

For my second one, I used the landscape format and instead of doing a cylinder shape for the lighthouse I used more of a pyramid shape.

Again, I put in the rock base, the breakers and in this case I think it should be a sunset should I do it as a painting. 

Fence Line 2

This morning is the first day we have had frost on the ground. It looks as though it will be an early winter this year.

I am sitting the Rural Scenes art show at KAGS this afternoon.














I thought since it was a rural scenes show that I would work on a country scene that is common to the area.

I did this sketch of a local farm driveway that is on Highway 7B (also known as the Lindsay Road).

Along the Shore 1-3

I was going through some photographs of the Caribbean that I had taken over a number of years on various islands.















Along the Shore 1

I came across these pictures from Aruba and thought that I would do a few drawings of the sandy beaches and the rocky shores.















Along the Shore 2

Any drawing of the sand and surf in the Caribbean wouldn't be complete unless it had a number of seagulls in the sky.














Along the Shore 3

I may at a later date do paintings from each of these drawings.