Winter Wonderland 1

It won't be long before Christmas and the New Year are upon us and with that in mind I did this sketch of a snowy day.














With that in mind I think I will go out and finish up my Christmas shopping so that all I will have to do is wrap everything.

Long Shadows 4 and 5

Today I wanted to start getting in a Christmas mood because it won't be long before it is time to put up the Christmas lights and decorated the tree.

Looking out my kitchen windows I see the many white pine trees that I planted along the fence line thirty years ago, when Christine was born.

Most of the trees survived through their first year and continued to flourish and now act as a wind shield protecting us from the worst of the north and west winds.

It is wonderful to see them against the snow.

Long Shadows 4

Especially, when they are back lit by the setting sun and cast their long shadows across the white snow.















Long Shadows 5

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

Winter Woods

Today I went to KAGS in the morning for the still life class where the subject was toys.

Unfortunately, nothing that I drew worked out the way I wanted so, I took a number of photographs that I may use in future drawings or paintings of toys.

After lunch I stayed to paint with the Outdoor Painters' Group and worked on this painting of one of the many trails that can be found throughout the woods at the bottom of the front fields on my property.













I am pleased with the snow and the general composition of the painting, but before I consider this piece completed, I think it needs some time.

I will decide whether it needs some colour added into the wooded area and perhaps post it at a later date.

I would like to thank returning collector Mrs. Sheila Stanley of Norwood, Ont. on her purchase of Golden Moments (see post on 18 September 2012).

Frozen Reflections 1 and 2

The temperatures were at 25F (-3.9C) this morning when I went into Peterborough to take down my exhibit at the Dancing Blueberries.

On my way home I stopped at the small park on Water St. to do a couple of drawings of the reflections of the trees on the ice of the frozen Otonabee River.

Just off the shore of the park there was a small island and I did a part of its shoreline.

This section of the island had more coniferous trees which had lovely reflections.

Frozen Reflections 1

From there I walked along the shore of the park until I could see where the shoreline jutted out into the river.

I could see a few deciduous trees which cast long shadows across the snow as well as seeing the tree reflections onto the ice on the river.

In the distance I could see the far shoreline and I indicated the trees on the horizon  line.

Once I finished the second drawing, I had enough of being out in the cold and it was time to go home for lunch and a hot cup of tea.

Frozen Reflections 2

At a later date I may decide to make these drawings into paintings.

Against the Sky I

Today I wanted to sort through a box that was in heated storage. It contained some of my paintings that needed to be completed as well as a number of sketches for paintings that either had been completed or that needed to be developed for future paintings.










After finding this quick sketch, that was the basis of a painting that I had completed a number of years ago (see post on 03 June 2011) I may do a set of the four seasons using the sky as the background for Standardbreds jogging on the track.

At the Beach 1

Almost all of the snow has melted and the temperature today is to go up to 56F (13.3C)  which is just to tease us as tomorrow we are to get snow once again.

The sunset was beautiful this evening with the warm reds, oranges and yellows lighting up the sky before the sun disappeared from sight.

As I sat at the kitchen table watching the sun go down I thought of the sunsets we would see in Aruba while looking out over Eagle Beach from our balcony.

I did this drawing of the beach at sunset.

Since there often were people strolling along the beach in the evening I added someone walking along the shore.

Winter

A couple of days ago, when I was going through some old canvases I came across a couple of partially finished paintings.

This one needed something to make it more interesting from just a row of pine trees, so I added another layer of trees in front of the pines.

I started with titanium white and indicated the trunks of a few birch trees in the middle area and then some more larger ones just above the snow covered rock.

Next, I added a small amount of ultramarine blue to the white and put shadows on the right side of the birch tree trunks.

With a mix of titanium white, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I put the markings on the further back birches.















I darkened the mixture slightly and added a maple tree and a tree stump by the birches.

Next, I added more ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a small amount of alizarin crimson to darken the colour for the markings on the closer birch trees and added the dark limbs and branches that were indicated in white.

In some areas I added tiny amounts of pure burnt sienna onto the trunks to give some added colour to the markings on the trees.

Using various mixes of burnt sienna and yellow ochre I put in the grasses and growies sticking up out of the snow around the closer birches.

This original 16" x 20" acrylic painting when framed will be available for $375.00.