Before the Wind I - A Work in Progress

It managed to make it up to 26F (-3C) today and with the climbing temperatures the fog has rolled in and has drastically reduced visibility. Perhaps tomorrow it will finally make it to above freezing, but I won't hold my breathing waiting for it to happen.

I went through a number of sketches and decided to start putting the ink on this one.












I will have to add a little more detail into the ship before I can put on the ink.

I will post this drawing at a later date once more work on it has been completed.

Dockside 1 and 2 - Two Works in Progress

It is 4F (-15.5C) perhaps we will make it over the freezing mark today, but I am not going to get my hopes up and it is a good thing is I didn't as 22F (-5.5C) was the high.

Today I am sitting the Christmas show at KAGS and I wanted to get a number of smaller paintings completed.

I wanted to do work on these two pieces and get them completed (see postings on 16 October 2012, 09 February 2013, 20 May 2013, 15 August 2013 and 10 December 2013) since I have been working on them for quite some time.

Dockside 1

As usual when I am working on these paintings the day seems to be fairly busy and I do not get as much work done on them as I would like.

I did manage to complete the posts in the first painting and put in the larger gull on the second.

I will post these painting once I have finished the rope and added a little more detail to the seagulls.

Dockside 2

Christmas Candles 1 - A Work in Progress

It is still bitterly cold, -2F (-19C) and with the wind chill it feels like -13F (-25C). The one nice thing is the sun is shining.

The Weather Network is saying the temperature will finally make it above freezing by the weekend, which would be nice as we haven't had a day here above freezing since around the middle of November.

I thought I would like to do a little more work on this drawing that I had started quite a while ago (see post on 25 December 2011).

First I added more details to the drawing of the candles, giving them a definite shape and straightening them.

Next I fixed the flames on the candles.

From there I used a black ink pen and darkened the base of the red candle and then added the wicks on each of the five candles.

I will post this drawing at a later date once more work on this has been completed.

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

Free Form - A Work in Progress

-10F (-23C) and the temperature is steadily dropping. You can hear the boards on the house crack as the nails in the wood contract.

I filled all the seed feeders around the house and have had to bring one of them inside to repair the broken hanging cord which snapped due to the winds yesterday. Tomorrow I will have to put more fat into all the feeders in the swamp maple.

It continues to be windy and although it is only -14F (-25C) now, but with the wind chill it is closer to -31F (-35C). Walking up from the barn facing into the wind my cheeks came very close to being frost bitten. The bright point is that it isn't snowing and we have sunshine.














I really couldn't get into painting today so I decided to play with a large flat brush and a limited palette of colours and swirl paint around to create some interesting shapes.

I am not sure where I am going to go with this one, but it looks as though I have an abstract fish in here swimming around.

I will post this painting at a later date.

Cerulean Blue Backgrounds - Two Works in Progress

It is hard to believe that the temperature went up overnight to 32F (0C) and it had rained, which with the rapid temperature drop afterward caused a flash freeze.

The roads iced up, in fact everything turned to ice. Now the wind has picked up and it is snowing. Currently it is -8F (-22C) and all the doors on my vehicles are frozen shut so it will have to wait until tomorrow before I get around to trying to thaw them out.

Pine Tree 1

I pulled out a couple of small paintings that I had started a while ago (see post on 27 February 2012 and on 12 December 2013) and painted the background with a flat wash of cerulean blue and then set them both aside to dry.













Out of the Fog 1

I will post both paintings at a later date once more work on them has been completed.

Field Poppies - A Work in Progress

The temperature continues to sit at 22F (-5.5C) and it is snowing again.

To get into a brighter mood I decided to work on one of my favourite flowers the poppy (13 December 2013).

I had started this painting back in November of last year as part of a class demonstration.

In a small plastic container I first mixed a puddle of pure raw sienna and then set it aside. In another container I mixed raw sienna with Antwerp blue for a brighter green colour. In a third container I mixed together French ultramarine blue and raw sienna for a darker more olive coloured green.

Then I wet the paper with water and while the "glow" was coming off the wet paper I mixed some pure burnt sienna in one section of my palette, in another section some pure French ultramarine blue and I made a dark mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

First I poured the raw sienna over the upper part of the paper and toward the right side, being sure to leave some areas of white.

Next using the bright green I poured it into the center of the painting and rolled it around. Then with the paint brush moved some soft lines outward in leave shapes.

Using the final container of dark green I poured it mainly towards the bottom of the painting and rolled some of the paint toward the center of the painting.

Lastly using a brush and each of the colours mixed on my palette I painted in various soft leaf shapes. Once the paper was completely dry I removed the masking fluid.

I will post this painting at a later date once more of the painting has been completed.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

OSWOA - Dawn 2

This is a painting I started while teaching a basic watercolour class last year (see post on 12 Dec 13).

I put the pine trees in against the dawn sky and added some sun touched grasses into the foreground.













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