Background 24-28 - Five Works in Progress

I had set these ones aside to dry from Autumn Reflections I (see posts on 30 December 2014, 28 January 2015 and 26 February 2015) and I forgot about taking a photographs of them to post.















Background 24

The first canvas was painted with cadmium red, alizarin crimson and cadmium yellow.














Background 25

The second one was a mixture of French ultramarine blue and Titanium white.














Background 26

The third one was Titanium white French ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue and burnt sienna.















Background 27

The fourth one was of Titanium white, Cerulean blue and a small amount of burnt sienna.














Background 28

The final canvas was of Titanium white, French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

I will post each of these canvases as I decide what I will paint on them and have at least a sketch transferred onto them.

ACEO - Shapes 1

Today my Red-winged Blackbirds arrived from the south and it is nice to know I can expect all the various black birds to arrive shortly. Once the Grackles and Cowbirds show up spring cannot be too far behind them.

Today I came across five pieces of paper that I was going to make into a collection of abstract paintings.

First, I blocked in various rectangular shapes with a pencil.

Now it was time to start putting colour into the various shapes. I started on the left side and painted the long rectangle with pure alizarin crimson.

Next, I made an orange of cadmium red and cadmium yellow and painted the large shape on the top right corner.

While that section was drying I mixed aureolin with Antwerp blue and painted in the small shape on the lower right side.

Using pure cadmium yellow I filled in the shape between the red bar and the orange shape.

Next I mixed French ultramarine blue with alizarin crimson for a dark purple and painted in the last shape at the bottom of the painting.

Once the paint was dry, I washed a layer of cadmium red over the shape on the left side to darken it slightly.

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.

First Snow

Today I needed to finish this painting for the Small Treasures Show that I thought I had completed last month (see posts on 23 December 2014 and 19 January 2015) which I will be hanging at KAGS tomorrow.

The only thing I needed to do is paint the foreground trees, add some growies and apply the final layer of snow.

The trunks were painted in using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and alizarin crimson.















The yellow leaves were mixtures of Titanium white, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, and draw sienna.

The brightest areas of snow were painted in using Titanium white with a touch of lemon yellow. Lastly the growies were painted at the base if the trees using mixtures of burnt sienna and raw sienna.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Underwater Housing I-III - Three Works in Progress

Often when I go diving in the Caribbean you can find all manner of creatures in the making their homes in some of the strangest places. I have found crabs and lobsters in old rusted buckets and in Barrel sponge and while diving in Bonaire a number of fish  had made their home in a crumpled  45 gallon oil drum.














Underwater Housing I

In the Still Life class earlier this month we painted old clay oil jugs and large clay pots (see post on 05 March 2015).

I thought why not turn them on their sides, put a hole in them and then add a few sea creatures.













Underwater Housing II

For the first one I have started painting in some of the colour on the clay oil jug and have to decide where to put the broken part and what sea creature I will put into it.

For the second one I will have it buried a little deeper in the sand and will probably have the opening closer to the front.






Underwater Housing III

For the third one I have indicated where the opening will be and it is just a matter of finding the tenant.

I will post each of these underwater homes as more work is completed on them.

Small Treasures Poster and Art Show

My artwork appears on the poster for the upcoming Small Treasures Show, which is a fundraiser for the Best of High School Art Show held in May.

Art is a very difficult field in which to earn a living; but it is important in that it is a form of expression, it can evoke emotion in the viewer, be thought provoking, make a statement or cause one to see the world in a different way.

It has been with us for thousands of years and should not become something that is lost with time and a lack of encouragement.

I am not the only one at KAGS that feels it is important to encourage the next generation of artists. KAGS supplied up to three canvases to any member artist that was interested in helping with this fund raiser. The response was wonderful with almost 30% of KAGS artists willing to donate their time and talent to create paintings for this show.

The upcoming art show called 'Small Treasures' is a little different than what is normally the way an art exhibit is ran at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio. Instead of the public buying the art from the artist as they see it at the Gallery both the public and Gallery members will be eligible to purchase tickets at $30.00 each (with all proceeds going for prize money for the Best of High School Art Show) starting on Wednesday, 18 March until the start of the final day on Sunday, 29 March, with no more tickets available than the number of paintings exhibited.

Tickets will be drawn on the final afternoon of the exhibit starting at 2:00pm with the first name drawn having the first choice of one of the paintings on display. This will continue until all the purchased tickets have been drawn.

The Best of High School Art Show was the idea of Cap Leahy who together with Barry Parsons (both of whom are members of the Outdoor Painters' Group) held the first show at KAGS in the mid-1990s and it has been an annual event ever since. We have had students enter our show from the Kawartha Pine Ridge School Region, as well as schools from Norwood, Lakefield, Lindsay, Peterborough and the surrounding area.

Prizes are from many different fund raising events over the course of the year such as the Annual ODPG silent auction for artwork by their members and the KAGS Christmas Silent Auction, last year funds were raised at the show held at the Lockside Trading Post with artists donating 25% of the proceeds from their art sales, private individuals and with generous donations from the Rose Baker Fund and the Retired Teachers Association.

Prizes for this annual event are given to the students in the form of cash and gift certificates from Victory Art Supply.

If you have a chance, please come out and help support our future artists. 

Vases - Two Works in Progress

Today in the Still Life class at KAGS we set up four displays of porcelain, ceramic and glass vases with dried floral arrangements.

To do all four of them in a painting would have been just too busy so instead I decided that I would do a sketch of each vase.

I started with the green ceramic vase which had Chinese lanterns, teasel, silver dollars and dried ornamental onion.

The orange of Chinese lanterns glowed against the silver dollar plants.

Green Vase

The white ceramic vase was the next one I sketched.

The vase was filled with dried ornamental onion and silver dollars.

I liked the way the orange colour of the Chinese lantern resting on the table at the base of the vase were reflected against the bright, shiny whiteness of the vase.

White Vase

I will post each of the pieces as the sketches are completed and colour has been added to the painting.

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

Horse Heads - Three Works in Progress

It seems that Junkyard has gone out on the prowl again and I haven't seen him in the last two days. I hope he isn't going to be gone as long as he was the last time.

I decided to work on some sketches of horse heads today starting with a draft horse.

This first sketch is of a dapple grey Percheron gelding that I saw last year at one of the fairs.

Together with his team mate, they were in the horse pulling competition and did fairly well placing third behind two teams of Belgians.

Billy

Perhaps as I do more work on this sketch I will add his team mate, Bob and put the harness on the pair of them.

This sketch is simply working on the proportions of the head and how each part of the head relates to the other and where the proper placement should be to make it correct.

When I sketch I have a tendency to block the various parts and pieces in with straight lines and rectangles without using a lot of circles.

Hunter Head Study

Many other artists prefer to use circles and connect them together with lines to block in their subject. Either way works well, it just depends on what works best for the artist.

This last sketch of one of Ron's Standardbreds is drawn from a photographic reference and I haven't compensated for the camera distortion.

As I work on refining this sketch into an outline drawing, I will have to make a number of changes to the basic shapes in order to have the head drawn in the proper proportion.

Try Me Now

I will post each of these sketches at a later date once the outline sketch has been completed.