ACEO - Beached 1

It is a cold day today with the temperatures dropping 2F (1.7C) per hour last night until it bottomed out at -20F (-30C) this morning and the wind chill making it feel like -39F (-39.4C).

My flock of snow buntings are staying close to their food supply and are becoming a lot less shy of me when I fill the feeders and put the feed out on the ground in the morning for them.

I thought that doing a painting of a nice, warm place like in the Caribbean would take away some of the chill of what I see and feel when I go outside.

I selected this drawing that I did a few years ago (see post on 14 November 2013) and started by putting in an evening sky using a mixture raw sienna and new gamboge at the horizon line and working upward I added a little alizarin crimson.

Making a grey of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I put in the lower layer of clouds in the sky while the paint was still damp. Then, I added more blue and a little alizarin crimson to the grey mix and put in the clouds at the top of the sky.














Next I put the sand on the beach using raw sienna, before adding various colours from the sky throughout the water being careful to leave an area of white between the beach and the water.

Using various combinations of the cloud colours darkened with burnt sienna I put in the distant land masses on the horizon and the dark areas of the waves.

Using the sky colour I added it to the foreground rocks on the edges closest to the evening sky.

This was followed by using the dark wave colour and adding more pigment to put in the shadows and to indicate the cracks and crevices in the rock face.

I continued using both rock colours into the water to create the foam in the water at the edge of the beach.

Now it was time to start work on the boat. Using alizarin crimson I painted in the gunnels first to define to the boat.















With a dark of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a small amount of alizarin crimson I put in the shadowed areas beneath the seats, being careful to leave the boards of the seats white.

Next I gradually added water to lighten the shadow colour as I worked from the darkest shadows on the boat the lightest.

Once the paint dried I added a small amount of the sky colour onto the bow of the boat.

Mixing a green of the blue and the sand colour, I scattered some seaweed across the sand that had been washed ashore by the waves.

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. Fabriano 100% cotton, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Rusty Stuff 1 - A Work in Progress

Today for the still life class at KAGS I brought in a number of rusty bits and pieces that have been in the barn since before we bought the place almost 40 years ago.













I chose to do one of the smaller pieces from the collection that was on one of the window sills by the stairs going up into the loft.

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

Peterborough Theatre Guild Display

It is another cold and windy day with the temperature at 6F (-14.4C) and the wind making it feel like 1F (-17C)











One of the nice things is that my flock of snow buntings came back again to help themselves to the mixed grain feed I leave on the ground on the south side of the house.










This afternoon I hung some of my paintings at the Peterborough Theatre Guild. They will be on display until 31 March 2015.

Background 15 - A Work in Progress

As usual in acrylic workshops I use the left over acrylic paint at the end of a class as a background on a canvas for future use. This one is from the Lucy Manley class held at KAGS (see post on 09 February 2015).















I will post the piece at a later date once I have decided what I will paint.

Early Spring Sunset - A Work in Progress

Today is the first day of the Lucy Manley workshop at KAGS for the month of February. It had to be postponed for a week due to a snow storm that caused most of the schools in the area to be closed and many of the people in the class have to travel long distances to get to the Gallery.

This painting was started with an under paint of raw sienna to have a layer of warm colour as a base.

Next using pure cadmium red the darkest colours were indicated and the basic outline of the main trees were indicated.














Cadmium yellow was added to the cadmium red for an orange to indicate the trees in the background.

Then the sky was brushed in using pure cadmium yellow as the base colour for a sunset.

A dark was mixed using French ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson this was colour was used to indicate the darkest areas in the trees, the reflections and the foreground.















A little white was added to the cadmium red and yellow mix and the high lit tops of the background trees were indicated.

A dark green of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna was used for the middle tone of the cedar trees; a little cadmium yellow was added to the mixture and the sunlit sides of the cedars were painted.

To the orange mix of cadmium red and yellow a small amount of French ultramarine blue was added and vertical lines were put in to indicate the trunks of the distant trees.















Next Titanium white with a small amount of cadmium yellow added was used to paint the sunlit areas of the snow.

The darkest snow shadows were painted in with a mixture of Titanium white and French ultramarine blue and a touch of alizarin crimson was added to some of the areas to warm the shadows.

Cerulean blue was added to the shadow colour and was painted into a few areas in the foreground.














Adding a little more alizarin crimson to the warm snow mixture the ice was painted into the pond leaving a few areas of open water with the reflections showing through.

A little of the ice colour was put into some of the tops of the background trees to indicate frost.

More of the foreground snow was painted in leaving a few areas untouched as though the sun during the day had melted the snow leaving the water covered ground bare.














I will post this painting later this month after more work on it has been completed.

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

Bath Time - A Work in Progress

The temperature has dropped significantly from yesterday to 2F (-16.7C) and with the strong wind out of the east making it feel like -18F (-27C).

This is a painting I had started last year (see posts on 11 and 16 July and 28 December 2014 and 21 January 2015) and wanted to do some more work on the painting.

The towel was painted using various mixtures of Cobalt blue and French ultramarine blue.












Next I wanted to do more work on the duck and started by putting the shadows and giving shape to the toy with mixes of raw sienna and burnt sienna.

Once the paint had dried I applied a wash of new gamboge over the entire duck body and head.

I will post this painting again once I have completed the duck.

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

Can. Ch. Shanbro's Charisma

It is another snowy day but is a lot milder 23F (-5C).

The bad news came this morning when my daughter called to let us know her dog Sully (Can. Ch. Shanbro's Charisma) would have to be put down today due to health reasons.

We all knew it was just a matter of time; but at age 12 even though his strong and fun loving spirit wanted to stay with us, unfortunately his body was no longer willing.














Sully is now resting peacefully beside She-Ra (see post on 04 August 2014) under the elm tree at the back of the barn with all the other family pets in this sheltered place.

He is another of the noble and loving souls whose time among us is far too short. He will be sorely missed.