Elegant Elm and Elegant Elm I - Two Works in Progress

Today I pulled out a box containing various leaves that I had pressed and dried earlier this month.

I started by picking out all the elm leaves that had been dried so I could decide how I would like to place them on a canvas for a mixed media painting.

I had two different sized canvases that I was planning to use for a series of paintings of different kinds of leaves.

On the larger one I hadn't painted the background colour onto the canvas, but on the smaller one I used a mixture of black and iridescent acrylic paint.

Next I placed the leaves onto the canvases and moved them around.

Elegant Elm

It took quite a while, but I finally found how I wanted them placed

I put the rest of the leaves away and I will have to decide what colour or colours I will paint the leaves before attaching them to the canvas.

I will post these pieces at a later date as more work on them is completed.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.


Elegant Elm I

ACEO - Dusk 4

Today I wanted to finish this painting that I had started last year (see posts on 08 March and 13 July 2017).

With a pale green of raw sienna and Antwerp blue, I put in the trees on the far side of the lake.

Next I added some French ultramarine blue to the green paint to darken it down and painted the three pine trees into the foreground.

Using various mixtures of raw sienna, new gamboge and aureolin I put in the grasses and growies at the base of the pine trees.

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.

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

Abstract 40-44

The paintings shown here were created with the run off  paint from the bottle bottom pour (see post on 10 October 2018) in the "Pour Your Heart Out" workshop with Valerie Kent at the Cavan Art Gallery


















Abstract 40 SOLD

With the larger canvas raised up off the tray with a 3" (7'6cm) block the smaller canvases were placed under each of the edges to catch the paint as it dripped down.



















Abstract 41 SOLD

As paint covered each of the small canvases I tried to remove them and replace them with a new canvas.


















Abstract 42

For the most part, other than making sure that the paint flowed over the edges of the canvas, there was very little work that needed to be done to create some interesting paintings.



















Abstract 43 SOLD

Each of these canvases were set aside to dry as they were completed, with only the last canvas not having very much of the bright neon showing in the painting.



















Abstract 44

Abstract 40 through 44 are original 2" x 2" acrylic paintings and will be available with their own display easels for $25.00 each.

Creation VI

This is the fifth technique we learned and it is called a bottle bottom pour in the "Pour Your Heart Out" workshop with Valerie Kent at the Cavan Art Gallery.

First we mixed a little Floetrol into some white acrylic paint and put a thin layer across the canvas and set it aside to dry.

With three bright colours, in my case neon green, teal and Copenhagen blue, as well as black and white in individual containers, mixed with water to make them thin enough to pour easily.

We used the bottom 4" (10 cm) cut from a 2 litre (1.76 quarts) plastic bottle of (soda) pop and set it in the middle of the canvas, with the cut part on the canvas.



















Layer each of the colours one after another, in random order into the centre depression of the bottle bottom until the paint runs down onto the canvas.

Keep pouring the layers of' paint until it reaches all of the edges on the canvas and at this point carefully lift the bottle bottom off the canvas and set aside.

If the paint doesn't move into the centre area of canvas left by the bottle bottom, you can add a little of the paint into the empty space and move it around with a palette knife.

Creation VI is an original 12" x 12" acrylic painting and will be available for $250.00.

Garlic 1 - A Work in Progress

Today I was painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and we had Gail Hawkins as our guest instructor.

She was going to demonstrate three different ways of painting in the negative, but unfortunately I could only stay for the first one.

In this one we lightly drew three cloves of garlic with the stems still attached onto our watercolour paper.

We wet the paper thoroughly, leaving the inside of the pencil lines untouched.

Next we brushed in various into pure colours of blues, reds, and yellows into the wet background allowing them to mix together on their own as we moved the paper to help the paint flow through the water.

Lastly, we sprinkled salt into the background before setting it aside to dry.

Once the background was dry I brushed off any access salt remaining on the paper and started to paint in the garlic.

I will post this painting at a later date once it is completed.

Burleigh Inn Pine Tree I - A Work in Progress

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

We have just returned from Algonquin Provincial Park and I thought I would do a little more work on this drawing that I had started last year at my first paint out (see posts on 08 June and 21 October 2017 and 02 August 2018) with the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group.

I started by finishing the trunk on the big pine tree in the foreground first and then continued by completing the remaining tree limbs and added in all the pine needles.

From there I put in the three maple trees to the left side of the pine starting with the tree trunks first and then added in the tree branches followed by the leaves.

On the rocks in the foreground and background I added some of the small bushes, grasses and growies around the bases of the trees and into some of the cracks and crevices in the rocks.

Before putting this drawing away for the night I added some ripples into the water.

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

Going Camping in Algonquin Provincial Park

Today we went up to Algonquin Provincial Park in Whitney, Ontario for the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

We stayed at the Lake of Two Rivers Campground which is of course, located on Lake of Two Rivers.

Algonquin Provincial Park, was established on 27 May 1893 and is the oldest provincial park in Ontario and the first provincial park in Canada.

Facilities include lodges, campgrounds, scenic drives, hiking and skiing trails and over 930 miles (1,500 km) of lake and river canoe routes.















The park lies across the southern edge of the Canadian shield and is located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River and has Highway 60 running through the south end of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north.

Additions since it was first created have increased the park to its current size of approximately 2,955 square miles (7,653 square kilometres).

The rolling landscape was smoothed and gouged by the glaciers that receded 10,000 years go during the last ice age which also created the over 745 miles (1,200 km) of streams and rivers and over 2,400 lakes which provide access by boat to the interior of the park.















The park is considered to be an area of transition between the Northern Ontario coniferous forest and the Southern Ontario deciduous forest. Due to this unique mixture of the different forest types and also the wide variety of environments within the park, it allows the park to support a wide diversity of both plant and animal life.

The on land the park is famous for its wolves and a wide variety of other animal species are common and almost 250 bird species have been recorded throughout the park. The cold, deep, lakes are home to trout, small-mouthed bass, pike, muskellunge and walleye can also be found.

In 1992 Algonquin Provincial Park was named a National Historic Site of Canada in recognition of its many heritage values, a few of which are its role in the development of park management; it being an important site for wildlife research; its role in inspiring artists, which gave many Canadians an appreciation of their country; pioneering visitor interpretation programs many of which were later adopted by both national and provincial parks across the Canada.















A new visitor centre complete with bookstore, museum and restaurant was opened in 1993 to celebrate Algonquin's centennial.

Algonquin Provincial Park is the only designated park within the province of Ontario to allow industrial logging to take place within its borders. Logging began in the 19th century, especially for white pine and today over 70% of the park is still subject to controlled logging.

Recently park planning and land use pressures and have led to a lot of public debate regarding the appropriate use and designation of the park, which in my opinion doesn't bode well for the Park.

The last thing I want to see is a subdivision in the middle of the park or the lakes being ruined by having hundreds of cottages and motorboat traffic destroying the peace and tranquility of these pristine areas.