Elli's African Violets - A Work in Progress

This morning in the Still Life class at KAGS our theme was Potted Plants.

There were two different displays; the first one was of house plants, two kinds of African violets, orchids and cyclamen placed on a quilt in various shades of blue.

The second display had mainly flowering bulbs in pots, white tulips, red and white tulips, yellow daffodils, miniature daffodils, crocus, hyacinths and a large container of various coloured African violets, resting on a throw with sunflowers on a blue background. 














I decided to work on the large pot of African violets. Once the basic sketch was completed I brushed in the background with a mix of French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue and raw sienna.

By then it was time for a break and when I returned the background was dry and I put in a base colour for the sunflower throw.

While waiting for the bottom of the painting to dry I put in the under paint on some of the African violet blooms using various mixes of French ultramarine blue, Cobalt blue and Antwerp blue combined with alizarin crimson.

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

Autumn Reflections I - A Work in Progress

Today is supposed to be the last day of the very cold weather -5F (-20.6C) with the wind chill at -17F (-27C) and it is going to get warmer over the next couple of days before the temperatures take a nose dive once again.

I wanted to do some work on one of the paintings I am donating to the Small Treasures Show at KAGS, so I pulled this one out that I had started last year (see post on 30 December 2014).

I started by first painting in the small section of the sky using Titanium white and French ultramarine blue.

Next I blocked in the areas of red, orange and yellow maple leaves.

For this I used various mixtures or cadmium red, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, raw sienna and alizarin crimson and also left some areas with the background raw sienna wash showing. These colours were also brushed into the water.

To create the shadows a dark was made using French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

Cerulean blue and Titanium white was added to the shadow colour and the tree trunks were indicated as well as the rocks.

The greens were painted in next using various mixtures of both blues, raw sienna and both yellows.

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

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

Study in Blue I - A Work in Progress

Today was another cold day 3F (-16C), with the wind chill it feels like -16F (-26.7C) and tomorrow it is to be more of the same. The bright side is that I will not receive the massive amounts of snow that is hitting the east coast today.

I painted with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and one of our members, Tom Young had an exercise for us to try.

He had printed out copies of a painting by Ron Hedrick and asked that we pick a colour and do a value scale at the top of the paper and then paint the entire piece using just the one colour.

It was an interesting exercise and although I didn't complete the figures it is good to keep it as a reference piece.

ACEO - Foggy Forest 1

We had snow overnight, but then the wind came up out of the west and swept the driveway clear right down to the ice. It was a colder day 16F (-9C) and the wind chill made it feel like 5F (-15C) and we can expect it to be colder tomorrow, oh joy.

I thought I would spend the day painting and I pulled out this piece that I had started a couple of years ago (30 September 2013).

First I put in the background with a pale wash of Antwerp blue and burnt sienna.

While the background was drying I made a pale mixture of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue for the furthest back tree trunks.

Using the pale greyed brown I put in the furthest back tree trunks with very little detail. While these tree trunks were drying I darkened the colour slightly with the brown.

Changing the colour slightly with the blue I put in the next layer of trees and started indicating a few branches.















Again I darkened the colour adding in a little more brown to the mixture and put in the closer trees, adding the branches and giving more detail to the tree trunks. 

Again I darkened the tree colour mixture with a little more blue and did the three trees in the foreground adding more detail to them and more distinct branches.

Lastly, I used a slightly darker mix of the background colour and painted in the grasses and growies.

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.

Foals 1-4 - Four Works in Progress

At the barn where my friend Joanne boards her horses over the winter they had a couple of thoroughbred foals born early in the New Year.

It was an unexpected treat to have two foals to sketch at this time of the year while I was waiting for Joanne to get her horse ready for her riding lesson.

Both of them were colts and born only four days apart and had the same sire; but they were as different in their personalities and actions as they were in their colouration.

Foal 1

I did a sketch of each of the foals while they were in the box stalls with their dams.

After the riding lesson, while Joanne was putting Fiona away I went back down to their adjoining stalls and studied the differences between the two foals.

Bruno was a bright bay without any white markings. The other was a rich red chestnut with a lot of chrome, four long white stockings, one up over the knee, called Jimmy.

Foal 3

Just as we were getting ready to leave the stable for the night the owners of the foals came in together.

They were going to turn the mares and foals out into the covered arena for a little while to give the foals a chance to stretch their legs.

We decided to stay and watch.

Bruno went right out into the arena after his dam with no hesitation, while Jimmy didn't want to leave the stall and had to be coaxed.

Foal 4

Bruno stood quietly surveying the large open area of the arena, his ears pointed forward until his mother lay down to roll. Suddenly he burst into action, bucking and kicking on his long spindly legs.














Foal 2

Jimmy once in the arena watched Bruno's antics and decided to join in and took off as fast as his slightly wobbly legs would carry him and almost fell making a sharp turn but managed to stay upright.

Before long it was time for them to return to their stalls for the night.

I will post each of these sketches at a later date once I have completed the outline drawing.

Barn Swallows - A Work in Progress

We had a light dusting of snow overnight which just hides the ice underneath and made walking treacherous. The nice thing is that the sun is out and we can hope that things will melt a little even with the temperature at 16F (-8.9C) and the wind chill at 7F (-13.9C) it is a lot warmer than it has been.

I had started this drawing last summer when the three pairs of barn swallows were here and nesting (see post on 24 August 2014).

I was not happy with where I had drawn the swallow in flight so I moved him away from the light post.

I completed the post and added more detail to the unused socket light.

Once I have completed more work on the swallows I will post this drawing again.

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

Morning Lake 2 - A Work in Progress

I didn't have a lot of time to paint today but I wanted to do a little more work on this painting that I had started a number of years ago (see posts on 08 December 2010, 27 January and 22 February 2014).

I started with putting in the main tree on the left side of the painting by putting in the under paint for the needles with Antwerp blue and raw sienna.













Next using a grey of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I put in the tree trunk and branches.

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

I would like to thank Mr. Derrick Ryan of Hastings, Ontario on his purchase of Great Horned Owl (see post on 08 April 2013) to add to his collection.