First Snow - A Work in Progress

After being above freezing yesterday and getting rain today it is back into the deep freeze with the temperature at 18F (-8C) and the wind chill the making it feel like 7F (-14C) and the temperature to continue to drop throughout the day.

Needless to say with the rain we had yesterday and the overnight freeze my driveway has turned into an ice rink and I will have to wait for the sand truck to come by before I go out and run errands.

In the meantime I decided to paint a little more on this 8" x 10" canvas I has started last year (see post on 23 December 2014) for the Small Treasures Show.














I started with the trees on the hill in the distance and painted the evergreens using a mix of cerulean blue and raw sienna. I added a little cadmium yellow to the green mix and painted in the evergreens in the field.

Next I wanted to paint in the deciduous trees starting with the far hill.

First I mixed a dark of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson and painted in the taller background tree trunks and moved on to work on the closer ones in the field.














Next it was time to put the leaves on the trees. For this I used various mixtures of Cadmium red, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow and alizarin crimson.

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

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

Evening Sky 4 - A Work in Progress

With today being fairly mild I decided to do a little more work on this painting that I had started last month (see post on 31 December 2014).

I wanted to get at least the island completed.

First I had to paint the background shoreline across so some of it would show through the trees on the island.













Next I painted the trees and did a little more detail on the rocks.

I started to paint in some of the darker reflections below the island into the water but decided that I would set it aside and look at it before deciding just how much reflection I would paint.

I will post this painting at a later date once it is completed.

Background 13 and 14 - Two Works in Progress

It is another very cold day -8F (-22C) and the wind chill makes it feel like -20F (-29C) but it is supposed to get warmer as the day goes on which will be a pleasant change.

These two canvases are backgrounds made from the leftover paint from a painting I was working on from the John Dave Anderson workshop held at KAGS earlier this month (see post on 10 January 2015).














Background 13

I decided to use two canvas panels instead of just one. The first using the remaining white paint and the two different blues which were first applied with a palette knife and then smoothed using a brush.














Background 14

For the second canvas I put all the warm colours, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, raw sienna and cadmium yellow onto the panel with a palette knife and blended the colours over the canvas.

I will post each of these panels once more work has been completed on them at a later date.

Jumping 1-3 - Three Works in Progress

Another cold day with the temperature at 4F (-15.6C) with the wind chill making it feel like -8F (-22.2C).















Jumping 1

It is an unpleasant day outside and it was much nicer to be inside by the fire. Fortunately, I found a program featuring stadium jumping on television.














Jumping 2

With pencil and sketchbook in hand I chose to try and capture some of the horses going over the fences.

With the way the cameras followed the course I worked between three different sketches trying to capture the position of the horses in the different directions and angles.














Jumping 3

It was an interesting exercise; using bits and pieces of a number of different show jumpers and it has given me three sketches to complete at a later date.

All of them have the potential to become paintings and if they do I will also post them.

Red Candle - A Work in Progress

Junkyard has finally returned, although he has shed a couple of pounds he is alive and his leg seems to be healing. He has become a lot shier but I was still able to touch him before he ran away, so I put food out for him and he did eat.

The morning started off overcast, but with everything coated in white frost. The trees were a wondrous sight to behold and I wanted to stay home and take photographs, but I had to head down to KAGS for the still life class.

The theme for the class was candlelight.

We had two different displays set up. One was a single amber coloured glass candlestick with three pears.

The other was a collection of various candle holders in everything from glass, porcelain, clay, stained glass, crystal and brass. I chose to work on a single candle in a holder of crystal and pewter from the collection.

I will post this painting at a later date.

After the class I sat the "Free Expressions" show in the Gallery.

When it was time for me to head home the weather had warmed and it turned out to be a fairly nice, sunny day with the temperature climbing to 24F (-4.5C)

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

ACEO - Happy Hippo 1

Today I wanted to finish is little piece that I had started a couple of years ago (see post on 17 November 2013).

I tidied up the arm and leg on the right side and added a little more hair on his head.

First I put down a wash of burnt sienna as the base colour of the wooden floor.

Then I added a little French ultramarine blue to darken the colour and using a dry brush I added in the wood grain using horizontal strokes.

For the background behind the hippo I used a mix of raw sienna and new gamboge.

Once the background was dry it was time to paint the hippo.  I started with alizarin crimson for the inside of the ears and then added a small amount of new gamboge to paint the muzzle. I then put in the mouth with alizarin crimson.

For the main parts of the body and the head, I used alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue and a small amount of burnt sienna.

To the body colour I added a little more burnt sienna to darken the colour and painted in the hooves.

Using the hoof colour I made it almost black by adding more of the blue and burnt sienna and painted the hair, eyes, and nostrils.

With pure Antwerp blue I painted in the scarf.

Lastly, using cadmium yellow I put in the highlight on the hair and on the edges if the eyes.

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.

Skies - Three Works in Progress

Today I was at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Lakefield giving a class on painting skies to the Lakefield Creative Arts Group.

They wanted to learn to paint skies at different times of day and clouds formations.

To make it easier for the class I decided to use a limited palette of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna for the first painting of a sunset.

The sky and water would be painted wet on wet.

Each student first mixed a puddle of the three colours on their palette and then the paper was thoroughly wet with water. Once the glow had left the paper pure raw sienna was swept into the sky area leaving some sections of white paper.

A thin line of white paper was left to indicate the horizon line.

Sunset Silhouettes

The water of the lake was put in with horizontal strokes to make it appear to be a flat surface.

Burnt sienna was used next and brushed into the sky in various areas and allowed to mix with the raw sienna creating a subtle orange glow in the sky. This colour was also painted into the water, again using horizontal strokes.

Finally, French ultramarine blue with a touch of burnt sienna were brushed into the still wet sky and water. It was set aside to dry.

The morning sky was again painted with a limited palette of Antwerp blue, alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

The colours were prepared in the same way as the first painting, with the exception that the French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna were premixed for a warm grey,

Going Uphill

Once again painting wet on wet Antwerp blue was applied to the paper leaving the bottom of the paper white for the snow and some areas of the sky white for the other colours.

Next alizarin crimson was brushed into the sky and a pale wash was put into the snow area with slightly curved lines to give the snow covered hill a little shape.

Lastly the grey clouds were put into the sky covering some of the pinks and blues already applied to the sky. This painting was also set aside to dry.

The last painting was to be mainly of clouds. For this one we wanted a little more control over the colour as it was applied so the paper wasn't wet as much as for the first two pieces.

Only three colours used for the sky, they were French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and raw sienna.

Gathering Storm I

The paper was lightly wet and the horizon line washed in using pure raw sienna.

Various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna were made on the palette, some more to the blue shade some more to the grey shade.

The clouds layers were brushed in using the different mixes, keeping some areas of the paper white and allowing the colours to blend on the paper as well. This painting was then set aside to dry.

After the lunch break. We started again on the sunset painting by lightly sketching in with pencil the distant island and the closer island, rocks and trees.

Using a mix of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson to create a warm dark black the far shoreline was painted in first without a lot of detail.

Next with a little more detail the distant island was painted in and reflections were painted into the water below the island.

Work was started on the closer island before we ran out of time. I will post the continuing progress of each of these three paintings at a later date.