Monster in the Barn

This morning, while I was doing barn shores I got quite a shock when I went upstairs into the mow to throw hay out for the horses.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw what seemed like the face of  a monster. It was just the way the light coming through the knot holes and spaces between the barn boards caught the headlights and grill to give it an eerie glow.

Especially since I didn't know they had put Christine's ATV in the alleyway between the hay mows.

She had it at her place for the winter, using it to keep the pathways clear of snow between the house and the garage.















Now, I know Christine's monster is in my barn for the summer and it won't cach me by surprise again.

Dusk 7 - A Work in Progress

Today I was going to work on a couple of small paintings and try to get them finished.

I pulled out this little piece that I had started last year (see post on 09 March 2017).

Since I liked the colours in the top of the painting, I decided to put in a low horizon line so I could have a lot of sky showing.

Next I added a few rocks on the shoreline, followed by placing in some of the larger pine trees on the shore.

Before I could go any further with this painting I had friends come over and I will post this piece at a later date once it has been completed.

ACEO - Moonlight 7

Today I thought I would like to work on another of the moonlight paintings (see posts on 17 September 2016 and 08 March 2018).

I decided that I would make a few changes to this one by removing the trees on the foreground land mass as well as on the land on the left side.

With the sky colour on this one being more into the mauve range I thought I would continue with the same colour throughout the painting.

Mixing together alizarin crimson, Antwerp blue and French ultramarine blue I brushed in the areas of water first, being careful to leave areas of white paper showing, which could be snow on the frozen water or areas of thin ice.

Adding water to the paint I washed in the shadowed snow covered areas of the land, again leaving areas of white paper touched by the moonlight.

Next I painted in the moon with new gamboge and lemon yellow.

Adding a little bit of cadmium yellow to the moon colour I painted in the moon's reflection on the water.

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.

Selwyn Beach VII and VIII

Today was another bright and sunny day with a nice breeze, although a little cooler than yesterday at 63F (17C).

After all the work we did to clear most of the debris from the windstorm we decided to go to Selwyn Beach for a picnic. While the others were looking for "treasure" with their metal detectors I sketched the south end of the beach.

Most of the rocks at the end of the beach were underwater.

The only thing showing above the water was the top half of the post where during the summer one end of the rope is tied to mark the south edge of the beach's swimming area ends and goes the other end of the rope goes through the water across to a dead weight mooring at the north end of the beach.

Selwyn Beach VII

My first drawing was of the shoreline on the east side of Chemong Lake facing south down the lake. I started with the edge of the water on the beach and continued where the land juts out into the lake.

I added in the main trees on the shore first, followed by the grasses, growies and smaller bushes.

Lastly, I put in the horizon line and added the trees on the distant shoreline.















Selwyn Beach VIII

For my next drawing, I thought I would start with the post at the end of the submerged rocks and work my way back to where my first drawing ended.

Once the post was drawn in, I followed the path through the water first to a clump of bushes, then the top of a few rocks, followed by a small bent cedar tree, partially submerged by the high water of the lake and then, I a few more tops of rocks with some small, partially submerged bushes.

Lastly, I put in the horizon line, added trees onto the distant shoreline, a closer island and a few cottages and boat houses on the west side of the lake.

I will probably ink in both of these drawings in at a later date.

Buckhorn Artists' Group Blog - Show Updates

I have updated the Buckhorn Artists' Group blog with a listing of shows some of the various artists in the Group are exhibiting their work in during the month of May.

If you get a chance come out and visit them at one or all of the shows.

Wind Damage

So far this year we have had quite a few Meteorological Alerts and Warnings from Environment Canada; and today we are having another batch.

We are under a severe  thunderstorm warning, a severe wind warning with the wind speeds to reach 55-60mph (90-100km) and a severe rain warning with another 3/8" (10mm) and the temperature to reach 70F (21C).

It was overcast and fairly calm until around noon and then the wind started to pick up, the thunderstorm rolled in bringing the rain.

With all this going on, we also lost power a number of times during the course of the day and into the evening.















At the end of the storm more branches came down from the willow tree, a few of the pine trees lost the top branches and the maple in front of the house also lost a few more branches.















The maple tree at the back of the house lost a large limb and the old apple tree along the fence line had its trunk snapped in half.















The south walls on the east and west barns took  a major hit with the west barn losing eight boards and the east barn losing more than ten boards and the wind breaking one of the doors.

Although, the damage could have been a lot worse than what happened.

The Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery Exhibit

Today Cindy Allan, Diane Collins and I went to the Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery to hang our show.














Once all of the artwork was brought into the building we each chose one painting to hang in  the front room on the wall between the windows in front of the computer terminals.











From there we hung our art in the main room of the library. Diane and I shared one long wall, while Cindy took the long wall on the opposite side of the library.













We were very fortunate to have the help of one of the Library volunteers, Debbie O'Grady whose help with hanging the exhibit was invaluable and cut our time with setting up the display in half.














Since I used only one half of the wall in the main room of the library and left the area above the book shelves to Diane and Cindy, I took a number of my paintings into the front room to hang above some of the book shelves.















I started on one wall above a lower set of books shelves and hung four paintings on that wall.














Just around the corner from there was a place for a single painting above a tall set of book cases.















Lastly, there was a place on a wall to the left of the tall book cases, which I shared with Diane.













All that remained to do was to hand in the list of paintings, pack up the containers and wrappings and take them out to our vehicles.

The exhibit runs from today through to 04 July 18, with opening night on 11 May 18 from 7-8p.m. I hope some of you will come out and enjoy the show.