Frozen Lake 1-4

The cold weather is here and I am breaking the ice off of the horse trough with our high for the day going up to a balmy 22F (-5.6C), but the bright side is that the sun is shining.

I thought today I would take the dog with me and go to the Selwyn Beach Conservation Area and do a couple of sketches of the frozen lake while walking along the beach and on the trails.














Frozen Lake 1

Once we arrived at the park She-Ra stayed close beside me, normally she would be rushing ahead of me and wait until I caught up with her before racing of again. But I have to keep remembering that she is thirteen years old and starting to slow down.















Frozen Lake 2

I stopped and did my first drawing at the end of the first trail which led down to the beach and you could see the edge of Chemong Lake through the trees. From there I continued along the second trail which ran along side of the lake and stopped again to do another drawing.















Frozen Lake 3

I kept an eye on She-Ra, making sure she didn't go too far out on the frozen lake because the last thing I wanted was for her to find a thin spot in the ice and go through it into the lake. After I finished my third drawing I decided it was time to head back.















Frozen Lake 4

Just before we came to the trail which took us back to the parking lot, I stopped and did my last drawing of the lake before heading home.

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

OSWOA - Rocks and Water 4

Today was very windy with snow squalls and the temperature was 30F early in the morning dropped rapidly through the afternoon.

I decided that I would work inside today and finish up another of the paintings I started in the third Tuesday "Basic Watercolour" class I am teaching at KAGS.

With this exercise they were learning about the colour Antwerp blue which was used for the sky and water, different ways of putting leaves on trees, and how to scrape out rocks with a credit card or palette knife.

Antwerp blue was used with raw sienna to make the greens. Three different ways for creating the foliage were used in this painting.

The trees on the horizon line were put in using a brush, the leaves on the left side were applied with a sponge and the leaves on the right side were put in by wetting the surface of the painting in the areas the leaves were to be placed and Antwerp blue and raw sienna was dropped into the wet areas and allowed to mix on the paper.














The under paint for the rocks  was put in using Antwerp blue and alizarin crimson. While the under paint was drying a dark was made using the blue with burnt sienna.

The dark mixture was painted over top of the rocks and while it was still wet a palette knife was used on the left to lift out the rock shapes and a credit card was used on the right side rocks.

This dark mixture was used to paint the tree trunks and the reflections below the rocks.

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 - Twin Willows 1

This morning I woke up to a very heavy fog, but the temperatures had risen to 46F (7.5C), but that is not expected to last very long as we currently have a wind warning in effect for the area.

Going through my file of started paintings I came across Blue Sky J (see post on 28 October 2012) and thought I would like to use that as the background for a painting of my willow tree at the front of the lawn.

I sketched in two different views of the trunk and main branches of the tree and added a couple of the fence line maple trees into the background.














Using a mix of French ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson I put in the distant hills behind the fence line.

With raw sienna I painted over the blue sky colour on the paper and put in the dead grasses of the lawn.

Adding some Antwerp blue to the colour used for the distant hills, the shadows from the trees were put into the foreground.














For the tree trunk I mixed a dark colour using French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson and painted in the tree trunks, main branches and many of the smaller branches.

By the time all the smaller branches were painted the background maples were pretty well covered over and I decided not to paint them as I felt they would distract from the weeping willows.

Mixing Antwerp blue and new gamboge I put in the green leaves on the willow trees which would be in shadow.














Adding cadmium yellow to the mix the rest of the leaves were added and lastly with pure cadmium yellow a few of the leaves that were high lit were added into a few areas.

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.

Glasses

Today is the last day of the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group exhibit and I am sitting the show.

While I was there I found a pair of sun glasses and a pair of wire rimmed spectacles that had been left on the front desk.






Since I knew the person they belonged to I phoned them to let them know where they were and while I waited for them to come in I did these little sketches.

I would like to thank new collector Mr. Martin Parker of Peterborough, Ont. on his section of Evening Arrival (see posting on 03 August 2011).

Four Ships

It is a bright and sunny day, but cold outside and the wind has finally stopped blowing.












Engage I

The movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was on television again and I wanted to do more sketches of the ships as I did earlier this year.














At Anchor I

It is a good exercise that I often do with landscape drawings, as you have seconds to observe what is interesting and you put down on paper what you remember.













First Battle I

Later the sketch may be developed into either a drawing or a painting when I have time.














Derelict I

Pine and Cedar Trees

Winter seems to have arrived and the snow remains on the ground; with our high for the day to be 32F (0C).

Today was the third class in "Basic Watercolour" I was teaching at KAGS and the class was learning different ways to paint leaves and needles on trees using a sponge instead of painting them in with a brush.

Using any colour left in their palette they lightly painted in a trunk and branches for a pine tree. Then using a sponge dipped into the paint they carefully added the needles onto the branches.

With a brush they darkened in the tree trunk using broken lines to give it texture.

The next tree they worked on was a cedar. For this they lightly indicated the oval shape with a pencil and using the sponge filled in the area being careful to leave lots of space between the clumps of needles.

This original 4' x 6" watercolour painting is available for $30.00 and is sold unframed.

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

Candies

Today I woke up to high winds and a mix of rain and snow, together with the knowledge it would be a very busy day, starting with a meeting at KAGS in the morning and from there taking my paintings to Lindsay for the Christmas show.

While I was there I picked up my canvas for the Canvas Confidential fund raiser for the Lindsay Gallery.










On my way home I ran a few errands and while in the grocery store I picked up an assortment of candies.

After supper I threw a handful of the candies onto the coffee table and did a few quick sketches of them. In the future I may work them up into small paintings.