OSWOA - Out of the Fog 1

Starting the day off at 54F (12C) and a layer of fog blanketing everything this morning.

I thought it fitting to work on this painting (see postings on 12 December 2013 and 06 January 2014) that I had started in a class I was teaching last year.

With this painting I started with pale images of trees in the background gradually darkening the trees as they came closer to the foreground to give them a misty effect.













Now that the fog has lifted I am going to go out and work in my garden.

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.

ACEO - Purple Rocks 2

Today was a wonderful day, starting off sunny and 40F (4C) first thing in the morning and I was able to go out and work in my garden later in the afternoon when it made it up to 72F (22C).

I spent the time in my garden transplanting the new plants I got from Heather yesterday in the rock garden and in the main flower bed. The sky the entire time clouded over as I continued with the weeding and preparing the soil for the gladioli bulbs I bought last weekend.

Shortly after I called it a day and came in to make supper it started to rain which was just what the garden needed.

I thought I would like to work on a painting that I had started a long time ago, (see post on 23 August 2012).















I started on the growies that were coming up in between the rocks and added a few more leaves using French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and new gamboge.

Next I placed the reflections from the rocks into the water with alizarin crimson and the blue. To the reflection colour I added a small amount of burnt sienna and added in the shadows and crevices onto the rocks.

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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Moonlit Forest 1 - A Work in Progress

Today is the last day of the Brian Atyeo workshop and the theory for the day was about the importance of the use of line and shape within a painting.

For the demonstration in addition to doing his usual tonal value sketch, he also did a small colour watercolour value sketch.

This little painting was later raffled off to the class; unfortunately I didn't win it, but the small piece was exquisite.

The painting he did was a semi abstract with the use a line and shape to create an image of a forest of birch trees on a moonlit night.

My painting isn't quite as abstract as his one was and I am using a mixture of birch and cedar trees.

I will post more on this painting as it gets closer to completion.

Barron Canyon 1 - A Work in Progress

Today is the second day of the Brian Atyeo workshop and most of the theory was about the differences between, transparent, sedimentary and opaque paints, how they work together and what they do when applied to paper.













We worked on a landscape painting in the afternoon using different layers of both transparent and sedimentary colours along and when mixed together as well as layers of transparent glazes to achieve a depth of colour.

There are a number of things I still need to do and I will post this painting at a later date once I have added the trees and completed the painting.

Two Family Home 1 - A Work in Progress

Today was the first day of the Brian Atyeo workshop.

It was a learning experience; especially about the importance of preliminary sketches to get your tonal values correct before you start painting. Brian works on a scale of five tonal values in his paintings as well as strong use of shape and contrasts.













I did a number of sketches of a painting of a barn I would like to do at a future date and Brian's comments concerning the tonal values were very helpful.

I started a small painting of his demonstration piece. The painting still needs a little more work before it is complete. I will post the finished piece at a later date.

Background 6 - A Work in Progress

It was nice that we managed to have a bright and sunny day for a change with the temperatures starting off at 34F (1C) and by the late afternoon had climbed to 56F (13C).

I managed to get out and work in my garden for a bit until Ron finished servicing the lawn mower and got it ready for me to mow the lawn for the first time this year.

Since I have been using the leftover paint from when I paint in acrylic for backgrounds, I decided I may as well try that for some of my watercolours.

I applied washes of the colours I had been using from when I did Bookends (see posting on 04 May 2014) and this looks much like a morning sky.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have decided what I would like to put into the foreground.

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

Ship Book Ends - A Work in Progress

This is a piece that I started last month in the still life class at KAGS.

There were so many wonderful pieces to paint and I had only time to work on one and I chose the one with the ship bookends with the beautifully bound leather books on sailing.

After drawing my sketch I painted in the background using mixtures of aureolin, cadmium yellow, raw sienna and a touch of burnt sienna.

The table cloth was mixtures of Antwerp blue and raw sienna and I will have to go back into it later and give more definition to the folds in the cloth.














Just before the break I painted the ship bookends with a wash of raw sienna and left it to dry.

I wanted to capture the rich burgundy colour of the leather bindings on the books. It took a couple of tries to get the correct mix of alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue with a touch of cadmium yellow to get the colour I was after.

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

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