Autumn Forest 4 - A Work in Progress

Today I sat the show at Art on Kent which is called Blast from the Past.

It is a display of some of the artifacts and historical photographs from the collections of the Victoria County Historical Society focusing on the people and places throughout the Kawarthas.

This is the first part segment of a two part collaborative exhibition.

The second part will be exhibited in the fall.

This show was well attended and I was only able to do a small amount of work on this painting which I will post at a later date once it has been completed.

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

Cross Roads - Winter

It is another warm, sunny and beautiful day with the temperature reaching 54F (12.2C).

The crow wouldn't have survived outside on his own. His eyes had sealed shut overnight and after I cleared all the crusting from around his eyes so he could open them and see again he is doing much better.

He is eating well and is a little more active than he was yesterday and I moved him from the box into one of the large dog crates and put a couple of branches across for him so can sleep on a perch.












If he keeps improving I will release him back into the wild once his eyes are clear.

Today I wanted to do the last of my Cross Roads sketches (see posts on 13 and 25 February and 06 March 2016) which is Winter.

I thought it fitting to do a sketch of two sleighs having a race to the cross road.

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

Crow Rescue

Due to the warm weather, the ice and snow melting and the temperature dropping overnight we have a very foggy morning. But we are having above another seasonal temperature day at 51F (10.6C).

Today I saw one of my little hawks has arrived back from the south and will be nesting in the hawk box under the eaves on the house.













I have an injured crow to nurse back to health. I saw him this morning when I was filling the bird feeders. Usually the crows fly off when I appear on the front lawn, but this one stayed in the elm tree.

This afternoon he was eating a little and slowly hobbling around; when he stopped he just stood shivering with cold.

I got a small blanket from the house and walked very slowly toward him and he didn't move, not even when I dropped the blanket over him. There was no struggling, he let me wrap him in the blanket and bring him into the house.














It looks as though he was attached by other birds, most of the feathers are off his head and neck, fortunately there is no damage to his eyes although they are weeping and I have cleaned most of the crust from them.

Once he was warm I moved the box out onto the porch with food and water, but he is proving to be an escape artist and has gotten out a couple of times. But he stays quietly even when I pick him up and carry him back and put him in the box.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Bunny and Basket 1 - A Work in Progress

It is another warm, although overcast day with the temperature reaching 62F (16.7C). It won't be long before all the ice and snow is gone.

The cow birds have arrived and it won't be long before the grackles make an appearance, just a few more signs that spring is not far away.

Because it won't be long before the pussy willows are out, I decided to do a little more work on this painting that I have been picking away at each month (see posts on 27 May 2014, 06 January and 22 February 2016).

I completed the pussy willows that were already started and will decide what I wish to do with the rest later once more of the painting is finished.

Using various mixtures of raw sienna, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue I painted the head covering.

Next I worked on the vest with alizarin crimson adding Antwerp blue into the shadows.

I painted the ribbon with cadmium red, cadmium yellow and aureolin and will do the ribbons on the lower sections of the bunny once I have painted the lace.

Lastly, I painted in the head with aureolin and raw sienna. A pale wash of alizarin crimson was put into the cheek area.

A black made from French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson was used to put in the eyes, freckles, whiskers and mouth.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed the bunny.

Backgrounds 81-83 - Three Works in Progress

Today is unbelievably warm with the temperature making it to 52F (11.1C) and a lot of the snow melting. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot warmer; perhaps I will be able to work in my garden.

These are three backgrounds created by using the remaining acrylic paint from yesterday's workshop with Lucy Manley.















Background 83

The first one was a mix of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, titanium white and a little raw sienna.














Background 83

This second painting was a combination of titanium white, cadmium red, Cerulean blue and ultramarine blue. 














Background 83

The last piece is various mixtures of alizarin crimson, titanium white, ultramarine blue and Cerulean blue. 

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

Backyards - A Work in Progress

It is a nice mild day with the temperature at 47F (8.3C) and the ice on the driveway starting to melt.

We are having the second to last workshop with Lucy Manley and are going to do a street scene on black canvas using a mosaic style of painting.

I was supposed to do a painting last year (see post on 19 October 2015) but was unable to start painting in that style as I had to leave early.

I already had a couple of canvases painted black and used this one called Background 52 (see post on 21 October 2015) from that workshop.

The outlines of the buildings were sketched onto the canvas using cadmium red.

Since the background was already the darkest dark we started the painting with the lightest light, in this case titanium white for the sunlit snow, the white window frames and the clouds.

Adding Cerulean blue to the white for the next lightest colour, the snow and the brightest part of the sky were indicated.















For the next darker colour ultramarine blue as added to the white for the darker area of the sky and the cast shadows in the snow.

The background trees were indicated with various mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, white and a small amount of alizarin crimson.

Next was to start painting in the various buildings. Using the tree colour and adding a little ultramarine blue to grey the colour, the larger background house was painted and then the shadow under the eaves of the garage, the small area of roof from the house and the smaller shed in front of the garage.

Adding a little more white to the grey a few highlights were added to the larger house and the shadowed side of the garage was painted.

After adding a little more white to the grey mix, the sunlit side of the garage was completed.

Lastly a mix of raw sienna, burnt sienna and white was used to indicate the front of the house across the street on the right side of the painting.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed more work on the various buildings.

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

Cross Roads - Autumn

Today I wanted to work on the third sketch in a set of the four seasons at a Cross Road (see posts on 06 and 25 February 2016).

This one is of my favourite season, Autumn with all its beautiful colours.













It is a team of harness horses pulling a carriage. I just have to decide which type of carriage I want.

I will post this painting at a later date when the horses, carriage and background have more work on them completed.