Rock Shadows - A Work in Progress

Today I am painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group.

I thought I would get a little more work done on this piece that I started a number of years ago (see posts on 30 January 2011, 12 March 13 2016 and 14 December 2016).

I started by making a pale green of the background colour using Antwerp blue and raw sienna and put it on the shadowed side of the birch tree trunks.

















Using mixtures of burnt sienna and raw sienna I indicated some of the larger areas of dark markings on the tree trunks.

With a dark of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson I started putting the dark lines onto the bark on the trunk and branches.

I will post this painting at a later date once the birch trees have been completed.

Hanging Baskets

Today is Mother's Day and I would like to wish everyone a very happy day.















When I let Kyora out this morning I found on the front porch my first Mother's Day gift. It was a flat of Marigolds.















Ron has watched while I fought with the many weeds that have taken over my rock garden and how long it takes me to remove them from just a small section of ground.















When I returned from grocery shopping I was greeted by four hanging baskets along the side of the house.















There was a fuchsia, which is one of my favourite plants and the other three were petunias, two were of mixed colours; pink, purple and red and the last one was a rich burgundy.















The nice thing about these flowers is that they attract hummingbirds throughout the summer.















Around suppertime Christine arrived bring Chinese food for supper, which was wonderful as I really didn't feel like going out to eat.















The other thing she brought for me was a beautiful hanging basket of very dark, almost black  pansies.















I moved the fuchsia to the hook by the maple tree at the front of the house and hung her basket on the hook by the kitchen window where I can see it every time I look out the window.

ACEO - Pink Sky 3

I wanted to work on something small that I could complete today and after looking at a number of partially completed paintings I picked this one that I had started quite a while ago (see posts on 16 October 2016, 14 May 2017 and 05 January 2018).

I mixed various different greens using Antwerp blue, burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue and raw sienna.

Using the darkest green I put in the shadowed areas onto the pine needles. This was followed by adding the sunlit needles with the lightest green.

With some of the remaining greens I added the ripples in the water below the horizon line and the reflections below the island.

Next I put the grasses in with raw sienna.

Lastly, I used the dark green and added some alizarin crimson and put in the tree trunks, branches and a few dead 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.

Cottage Country 1 - A Work in Progress

After a long and very hard winter the snowdrops in my rock garden finally decided to bloom. I have never had them wait until May to see them.

I spent a couple of hours of clearing out the debris that accumulated over the winter in the rock garden and I thought I would go inside, have lunch and then work on a painting.















I wanted get the sky and water in on this piece that I had started a while ago (see post on 05 June 2014).

First, I wet the paper and using aureolin put the first part of the sky and reflections on top and below the horizon line. This was followed by brushing in new gamboge above and below the first layer of paint for the sky and the reflections.















With a mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I brushed in the darker clouds into the top of the sky and into the reflections at the bottom of the lake, as well as adding a few clouds into the sky and their reflections into the water.

I also added a few darker areas into the sky and water using burnt sienna and new gamboge.

I will post this painting at a later date once work on the islands has been completed.

The Old Outhouse 1 - A Work in Progress

I thought I would do a little work on this piece that I had started while in Magnetawan at the Knoepfli Inn.

First I wet the paper in the background, then carefully wet the area around the outhouse and the two main trees leaving them dry and finished by wetting the foreground.

Using aureolin, I brushed the paint into the wet areas to create the look of sunlit foliage in the background and the under paint for the brightly coloured leaves in the foreground.

Then I set it aside to dry while I mixed the colour for the tree trunks and the boards on the outhouse.















Before I could get further on the painting Ron came by and needed my help raking up the branches from the willow tree that had broken and fallen during the winter.















It took the rest of the morning and after a short break for lunch we worked through the rest of the afternoon and finally had all the branches raked up, placed onto tarps or piled into the wheelbarrow. By then it was time for supper.















I will post this painting at a later date once I have painted the boards on the outhouse and the foreground tree trunks.

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.

Chopping Block 1 - A Work in Progress

The theme at today's still life class at KAGS was "what's cooking?"

We were spoiled for choice with two tables of pots, frying pans and soup pots, knives and cutting boards, vegetables, spices and seasonings.















I chose to do a small section of the display with the chopping block in the foreground, the stainless steel soup pot behind and various vegetables, knives and seasonings.

At a later date I will add some colour to the drawing, especially to the soup pot with the reflections showing on its side of the vegetables which was also quite interesting.