Birch Trio - A Work in Progress

This is the third painting of birch trees in winter that I have started.

The background was originally painted in with mixtures of Antwerp Blue and raw sienna. The sky was then darkened to give it a stormy effect as though more snow was in the forecast (I may pick out a few snowflakes once the painting is complete.) by washing over the sky area with a mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

The dark pines where painted with various mixes of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and raw sienna. The bottom edge of the treeline was softened with water so it was not a hard straight line.

Shadows on the snow are a mixture of both French ultramarine blue and Antwerp blue, with a touch of burnt sienna added to darken the colour in the shadowed areas.

The painting was allowed to dry before the masking was removed.

With the light source being on the left side of the painting a wash of the lighter snow shadow colour was painted down the center of the tree and the right side of the tree trunk was the darker more greyed snow shadow colour.

On the larger birch tree on the right side I left some areas without the darker wash over the trunk to indicate the reflected light.

A mixture of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna was used as an under paint to indicate where the dark markings were to be placed on the tree.

On the left side of the trees a thin wash of raw sienna was put in to give the trees a bit of warmth to contrast against the cold snow.

Using mixtures of raw sienna and burnt sienna dead grasses and growies were added to the snow banks and around the bases of the trees.

I will post this painting when it is completed.

Birch Song - A Work in Progress

This is another painting of birch trees in winter.

Again the birch trees were masked out to protect the white paper.

Mixtures of Antwerp blue and raw sienna where applied to the background of the paper. Colour needs to be put onto the foreground snow to indicate drifts and shadows.

I will post this painting at a later date once more work has been completed.

Birch Sonnet - A Work in Progress

This is one of three paintings featuring birch trees that I started today.

The birches were masked out to protect the white of the paper. The background was painted in using various mixtures of raw sienna and Antwerp blue to indicate sky and where some of the trees will be placed.

I still have to work shadows into the snow. I will post this again once I have completed the background,

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Gourds - A Work in Progress

This is another painting I started in Sharon Taylor's class (see my posting on 12 October 10 for Corn Stalks 1-3).

With everyone else in the class working on either corn stalks or different types of trees I had to do something different.

Since the gourds were sitting on the window ledge anyway, I thought they may make an interesting painting.

There is still a lot more to do on this painting, but at least the base colours have been painted in and I still have to add a lot more detail to the gourds.

I have to mark in where the shelf will be that the gourds are resting on and then decide what I want to do with the background. I really don't want to have a window behind them, although I could make the background into a lacy curtain, or perhaps patterned wallpaper.

Once I have made my decision I will post the results.

Abandoned Farm - A Work in Progress

When horses have escaped from their pastures or paddocks there is always the worry that they will not be found or that they may injure themselves.

Here the worried owner has found the missing animals and must now catch and lead them back home before it gets too dark to be done safely.

The evening sky and background trees have been painted in as well as the under painting for the autumn grasses.

The base for the barn and the house has been painted, and the loose horses and people are already drawn.

I will post this piece once it has been completed.

Sharon Taylor Workshop - Corn Stalks 1-3

Today the Buckhorn Tuesday Painters had Sharon Taylor as a guest instructor. She usually comes out with some interesting and creative things for us to try.

Fortunately, we had a bright sunny day with very little wind which was ideal for using powdered charcoal as a background for our paintings and having to work outside on them.

Sharon brought corn stalks, some still with ears of corn attached for us to use for doing a basic outline on the paper.

Corn Stalks 1


The areas we wanted to leave without charcoal were coated with water, then we took our paintings outside and dusted the paper with powdered charcoal.

We then literally threw containers of water over the paper to remove the excess charcoal. The paintings were left outside to dry.

Each of us made three attempts to create interesting backgrounds for our corn stalk paintings.

Corn Stalks 2

By the time we had the third background doused with water and set to dry in the sun, our first attempt was dry and ready for us to proceed with the next step.

Before bringing the painting into the building it was sprayed with workable fixative, to prevent the charcoal from spreading any further while still allowing us to paint on the paper.

Raw sienna was used as the first layer of paint to indicate where some of the leaves and stalks will be.

Corn Stalks

A mixture of burnt and raw sienna was applied to other areas of the leaves and stalks. A hint of French ultramarine blue was added to the mixture and painted into some of the areas to give the impression of the partially dried leaves.

A lot more detail still has to be added to the paintings before they are complete. I will post them as I do more work on them.

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

Autumn Rapids - A Work in Progress

With working on sketches and drawings for Neil Broadfoot's workshop I decided to work on white water in acrylic for a change.

Most of the work on this painting is done using a palette knife to apply the paint rather than using a brush.

The background has been finished. The foreground trees need more work on the trunks and branches as well as adding some leaves. The under painting has been completed on the rocks and for the foreground grasses.

I will post this painting at a later date once more work has been done.