Thoroughbred Foal

After the beautiful warm sunny spring like day, winter has come back with a vengeance. It is 22F (-5.6C) and dropping with strong winds and snow.

I worked on this drawing of a Thoroughbred foal that a friend had at her stable.

He was a big solid baby from the time he was born but had such a laid back personality.

In fact in the morning when she went into the stall to put his halter on he wouldn't even bother to get up and she had to lift his head to put on the halter. He learned things quickly and seldom gave any trouble.

It will be interesting to see how he matures and if he continues with having his sweet personality.

This original 5" x 7" graphite pencil drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $30.00.

Moonlight - A Work in Progress

Spring cannot be too far away, the branches on the willow are turning golden, the jays are chiming and the horses are running, bucking and kicking in the paddock.

It was another bright and sunny day with the temperature going up to 42F (6C). A day that I could almost have spent outside, but I preferred to take the second of four classes with Emil Varga in watercolour at KAGS.

We worked with spray bottles, sponges and palette knives. The horizon line was drawn in and masking tape was put down in the area below the line.

Using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, layers of paint were put onto the paper, then sprayed with water and rolled around.

Each layer gradually getting darker but leaving an area with a little pure white and some very pale shades of the sky colour.














The distant shoreline was painted in with a pale wash of the sky colour. Then the painting was set aside to dry.

Once the paper was totally dry the tape was removed and a new piece of tape was put down slightly below the horizon line for the base of the middle ground island.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have put the trees in using a sponge and the rocks using a palette knife.

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

Winter Trail I

Today I was back at KAGS to continue with the winter painting we had started last week in the first of four classes with Lucy Manley.

We started with painting the evening sky with a thicker paint of cadmium yellow, lemon yellow and white.

Using a darker mixture with more cadmium yellow and white toward the top of the sky and gradually changing the mix to more of the lemon yellow than cadmium in the middle and toward the bottom.

A few small areas of lemon yellow and white were used to indicate where the sun is located.

A mixture of white, cerulean blue with a touch of alizarin crimson and added it to the tops of the background trees and giving them a few of them a little definition.

Then French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and lemon yellow, the dark trees in the background were put in, which pushed the bright light green trees forward.

A few indistinct trunks were added at this time in the background as well as a larger dead tree trunk into the foreground.

Using the two blues, burnt sienna, and raw sienna the main tree trunks were painted being sure to leave a little of the cadmium red under paint showing through to allow a warm to the painting.

The pine needles were applied using various mixtures of the two blues, burnt sienna, raw sienna and the two yellows.

This is the first of three painting that will be donated to the Canvas Confidential fund raiser for the Lindsay Gallery.

Background 1 - A Work in Progress

While taking acrylic classes with Gail Hawkins last month at KAGS she showed the class at the end of the day that rather than throw out the paint she has left over she uses it to put the background colour onto a canvas.

That way there is no waste and it also creates an interesting background for another painting.

This is what I did with my paints that remained from the Lucy Manley class from earlier this week.

I will post this painting at a later date once I decide what I am going to put over this background.

The Drawing Show

Since I was sitting the show at Art on Kent I was planning on doing a little more work on a couple of paintings, but it was very busy with many artists bringing in new paintings for the next art show called 'Paint It Big'.













Here are a few pictures of the paintings I had exhibited in 'The Drawing Show'.














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

Winter Trail I - A Work in Progress

This is a painting I started on Monday in the first of four afternoon workshops with Lucy Manley at KAGS.

While most of the class worked in oil with Lucy, there were three of us who preferred to work in acrylic.

The panel was first primed with a wash of raw sienna.

Next the landscape was sketched in using a brush and cadmium red paint.

A mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was used to put in the darkest objects and shadows.

Using French ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow the needles were put onto the main tree branches and then the sunlit areas were indicated with lemon yellow in the needles.

The green mixtures used in the pine needles were glazed throughout different areas of the background trees to unite the colours through the painting.

Various mixtures of white, cerulean blue and ultramarine blue with a little alizarin crimson was then applied into the background trees to create the illusion of distance.

The same colours were used for the snow shadows in the foreground.

Using pure titanium white the snow was painted throughout the foreground between the snow shadows. Care was taken so the shadows followed the line of the trail through the snow. Rising and falling in and out of the ruts.

The sky was painted in using white and cadmium yellow. A small amount of this paint was also glazed over a few areas of the snow.

I found it interesting the way she applied the different layers of paint for the under painting and next week the top layers will be applied over most of the under paint. It is quite different from any other instructor with whom I have had a workshop.

I think I will have to try this technique a little more often in some of my next acrylic paintings

We will be completing this piece next week at which time I will post this painting as far as I have finished it in class.

Wine Bottles and Fruit - A Work in Progress

Today in the still life class at KAGS out theme was Wine Bottles, Cheese and Fruit.

We had two separate displays which were needed since we had a fairly large class this morning.

I chose to work from the smaller display and omit some of the extra glasses and wine bottles shifting a few things around until I had the items that I wanted and was pleased with the arrangement for my painting.

I started on the pear to get it set into place as a grounding for the rest of the painting and added some of the shadows beneath the fruit.

I will post this painting at a later date after more of it has been completed.