Upper Buckhorn Lake I-V - Five Works in Progress

Tonight we are setting up the grids for the 25th Annual Shades of Summer Art Show and Sale held at St. Matthews Church in Buckhorn, Ontario.

I arrived early and decided to walk along the shoreline and do a few sketches of the lake around Buckhorn Lock 31 which divides Upper and Lower Buckhorn Lake.

I plan to develop these sketches into paintings and complete them during the nine days of the art show where I traditionally set up my small drafting table at the back of the Church and can be found painting there daily.

Upper Buckhorn Lake I

Upper Buckhorn, Pigeon and Chemong Lake, make up what is known as a tri lake system of three lakes connected by narrow waterways.

While we have never gone through any of the Locks in the boat, we have spent all day out on the tri lakes.

Starting from the public launch in Ennismore going down to the bottom of Chemong Lake before going back up to pass under the Causeway linking Ennismore and Bridgenorth before going through the Harrington Narrows.

Upper Buckhorn Lake II

From there we passed on the east side of Fox Island and continued through Upper Buckhorn Lake until we reached Buckhorn Lock 31 where we tied the boat and stopped at Mainstreet Landing for lunch on their patio overlooking the Lock and enjoyed watching the boat traffic as we ate our meal.

Lock 31 of the Trent Severn Waterway is one of the busiest locks in the waterway, having between 5,000 to 8,000 boats annually going through them during the boating season.

The Locks open on the Friday of the Victoria Day weekend in May and remain open until Thanksgiving Monday in October.

Upper Buckhorn Lake III

After lunch we headed back down Upper Buckhorn Lake which is the second deepest of the tri lakes with a maximum depth of 47' (14.3m) and passed through Gannons Narrows into Pigeon Lake where we went partway down the lake before stopping for a while so Ron could go fishing while I would sketch and take reference photographs.

Ron prefers to fish until he lands at least one of the major fish species which in all of the tri lakes include black crappie, carp, large mouth and small mouth bass, muskie, perch, walleye, bluegill and pumpkinseed sunfish.

It doesn't matter how large or small the fish he catches is because all are live released back into the lake before we turn around and head back up the lake.

Upper Buckhorn Lake IV

We go back through Gannons Narrows into the lower end of Upper Buckhorn Lake and go down the west side of Fox Island taking the trek through the islands to Harrington Narrows and back into Chemong Lake to return to our launch site in Ennismore where after loading the boat back onto the trailer it is time to have supper at the Sip and Dip Restaurant in Ennismore.

It is nice to be able to spend an entire day out on the these three lakes which provide large bodies of open water for boating, sailing and other recreations without being unrestricted by having to pass through the Locks.

I am fortunate to live such a short distance away from the lakes and be able to enjoy all they have to offer.

Upper Buckhorn Lake V

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Lovesick Lake VIII - Beaver Island Pine II - A Work in Progress

I pulled this sketch out that I had started last month when we were out canoeing on Lovesick Lake.

It is one of the many beautiful pine trees that are found in the area on the islands.

Originally I only had enough time before we drifted past to do the top part of the tree and put in a few of the many twisted and broken branches that attracted my attention and gave this lone tree on Beaver Island so much character.

I pulled up my reference photographs and added more of the dead branches to the trunk and will later add more of the areas where needles still clung to the branches.

Next I added the two dead tree trunks on either side of this pine that were not able to survive the harsh winter winds.

Then I indicated where few smaller pines were trying to take hold at the base of the trees and in between the crevices in the rocks.

Below the rocks I lightly blocked in where the reflections would appear.

I will post this piece at a later date once I have applied ink to the sketch.

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

ACEO - Rainy Day 1

Another warm 76F (24.4C) and humid 86F (30C) day and it is raining, which hopefully will take away some of the humidity.

A couple of days ago I worked on the other three paintings in this series (see post on 08 August 2015).

While it is still summer I thought I would do this piece in autumn colours and what better than with the bright and glowing colours of a stand of maple trees.

I put a brook running through the maples.

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 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Flower Power 1 - A Work in Progress

It is another bright and sunny day with warm temperatures 77F (25C) but the humidity makes it feel like 85F (29.4C) which is still a nice summer day.

I decided to work on this piece that I had started quite a while ago (see posts on 09 May 2012 and 23 January 2014).

Using various yellows such as raw sienna, new gamboge and aureolin and painting in the negative, I gave a little more definition to some of the flower shapes.

Then with Antwerp blue and cobalt blue I tinted some of the off white flowers.

I darkened some of the red flowers with alizarin crimson.

Using cadmium yellow, new gamboge and raw sienna I painted in the stamens into the center of some of the flowers.

I will post this painting again once I have completed the yellow flowers in the middle sections of the floral arrangement.

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

Rainy Day 2-4 - Three Works in Progress

It was a nice day even though the sun went into hiding and it was overcast, with an occasional sprinkle of rain and the temperature reached a very pleasant 74F (23.3C).

I pulled out these paintings that I worked on last month (see posts on 06 March 2013 and 15 July 2015).

I wanted to at least get the background in on all four of the paintings.

For this one I wanted to make it an early autumn scene when the leaves have just started to change, with the promise of autumn colours.

Rainy Day 4

Using various mixes of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna, alizarin crimson and Antwerp blue to create the background trees and field.

I put in the under paint on the tree trunks using French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna and washed in raw sienna in a couple of places on the trunk.

On the next one I wanted to make it look like a day in late spring with more of the bright green colours.

I used Antwerp blue as the base with aureolin and new gamboge to make a wide range of bright greens.

The background fence was a mix of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue.

Rainy Day 2

The first tree I made into a birch  using the dark colour from the fence and adding some burnt sienna in areas and raw sienna to give the tree marking some colour.

For the two remaining trees I have to decide if I want them as birches or another type of deciduous tree.

On the next painting I started putting the bark on the one main tree with a dark of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

I was debating what kind of background to put behind the tree and thought about a dead tree on Highway 507 that is in a field at the edge of a large area of ground water that doesn't dry up even in a drought.

Rainy Day 3

But then I had friends drop by and I put my paints away.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date as they are completed.

Four Seasons - Four Works in Progress

We are having wonderful, bright and sunny summer weather with the temperature at 74F (23.3C), with a light breeze.

Today I wanted to do a little more work on this series of paintings showing the four seasons that I have been working on for a little while (see posts on 07 July 2012, 18 July 2013, 14 July 2014 and 24 July 2015).














Spring Forest 3

Using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I painted in the main tree trunk and branches.

Next I used a mix of Antwerp blue, French ultramarine blue and raw sienna to  paint in the darker middle ground and foreground grasses, before setting this painting aside to dry.














Summer Forest 3

With all the tree trunks completed it was time to start painting in the ground cover with grasses.

For this I used a pale mix of Antwerp blue and raw sienna  as an under paint, then gradually darkening the green with French ultramarine blue and adding more details to the grasses as they come closer to the front of the painting.

This painting was then set aside to dry.














Autumn Forest 3

For this painting I added  some dark twigs into the foreground and around the base of some of the larger trees.

To give the painting a little more warmth I added in some grasses and growies with burnt sienna.














Winter Forest 3

For this piece I used raw sienna and burnt sienna to put in the grasses at the base of some of the larger trees.

I felt the large foreground tree should have a few leaves still clinging to the branches and added them in as well as a couple of fallen leaves among the grasses.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date once they have been completed.

Selwyn Beach Conservation Area I-VI

The sun was shining, the was a nice breeze to keep the bugs away, for the most part and it was warm 74F (23.3C) making today was an ideal day to go over to the Selwyn Beach Conservation Area, located at 2251 Birch Island Road.

I arrived at the Park for 9:00am trying to beat most of the people who would come out to spend the day at the beach and for the most part I succeeded.

For many years from the time Christine was a year old child we would take her to the Beach most week days during the summer and do other things on the weekend when the beach was crowded.

Selwyn Beach IV

One of the things she liked was going along the trail from the parking lot through the shadowed tunnel created by the trees and coming out into the bright sunlit and running across the grass to the sandy beach.

We would take her on the hiking trails and eventually she walked the entire 3.1 miles (6km).

Selwyn Beach VI

The unsupervised beach is located on the northeast shore of Chemong Lake.

There is a marked off area that reaches a depth of 4.5' (1.37m) and the bottom is sand to that point. Once you go under the rope the bottom becomes a little bit on the weedy side.

But in all the years I have lived in this area the Beach has never been closed due to water quality.

Selwyn Beach V

The 72 acre (29.1 hectare) Park was purchased by the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority (ORCA) in 1973 to make sure that the public would have access to a section of the lake.















Selwyn Beach I

There are many small barbecues and picnic tables in the area around the beach area where families have the opportunity to spend the day and cook a meal in the great outdoors.

There is also a picnic shelter complete with a large barbecue for birthday parties, family reunions or other special occasions which can be reserved by contacting the head office.













Selwyn Beach II

Selwyn Beach also has a public boat launch and dock and years ago in the off season I would sometimes take Pagan and Fancy there to swim.

Pagan preferred to stay at the edge of the water and just get his feet wet; whereas Fancy loved the water and would race to the end of the dock and jump out as far as he could into the lake and would sometimes dive down for the water plants.












Selwyn Beach III

I will post these sketches at a later date once they have been completed and paintings have been started.

It was well worth paying the daily entry fee of $10 per vehicle.