ACEO - Sunset Reeds 1

This is one of the area's best fishing places and is located at the bottom end of Chemong Lake.

The only drawback is that it is also very weedy and you can lose a lot of lures there.

But then, when the muskies and bass are biting it does make it worthwhile.

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 Windsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Carousel Horse II - A Work in Progress

Although there is still no rain in sight, at least it is a little cooler today. I decided to spend some time out in the field watching the horses and worked on another sketch of a Carousel Horse.

The legs need a lot more work but the general idea is there and I will need to do more work on it until I am happy with the final drawing.














I will post it at a later date once more of it is completed.

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

Courting - A Work in Progress

With having the show at The Lindsay Gallery next year with Carol Rutherford entitled "Above and Below the Reef" I decided I had better start working on this painting which will have a pair of my favourite fish in it -seahorses.














The seahorse that is found in the Caribbean is Hippocampus reidi, commonly known as the longsnout seahorse or slender seahorse.

Over the years I have seen and taken pictures of some of the many colours in which they can be found. They range from brown almost black to completely white in colour. The most common being a wide range of yellows.














Seahorses are also masters of camouflage and unless you are carefully looking it is very easy to swim right past them.

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

Prairie Storm 1 - A Work in Progress

The skies remain dark and foreboding with the threat of a thunderstorm.

The field beside the house is fairly dry and the grass seems much like golden wheat stalks as they bend and sway before the wind.













I thought it fitting to try and capture the contrast between the ominous clouds and the golden colour of the grasses.

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

The Ones That Got Away - Painting the Stump

With being able to dive it is amazing what you can find in the lakes. Everything from cars, boats, snowmobiles and boat motors.

In one of the lakes in about 60 feet of water there is an ancient native village. Pottery shards from this site have been carbon tested which dates it approximately 30,000 years old. Obviously long before the lake was there.














But aside from a wealth of bottles that have been accidentally dropped or dumped overboard there are many anchors and a lot of lures caught among the rocks and attached to old cedar stumps.

Shown here are just a few of the ones I have lost over the years. Today I finally finished putting the wood grain on the sunken stump (see posts on 08 July 2010 and 31 October 2011).

I still have to wash in more of the water colour over the painting and lift out the rays of light as it travels through the water. I will post this painting at a later date once it is completed.

Autumn Birches 2 - A Work in Progress

Today on the final day of the Bobcaygeon Art Show it is going to be slightly cooler, with the temperatures only going up to 88F (31C).

One of my fellow artists decided to help me with my painting by putting in texture marks on my birch trees. I was not impressed.

I tried lifting the lines from the birch on the right side of the painting and couldn't keep any of the white paper so I changed it into a maple tree (see posting on 13 July 2012).

I will try lifting the lines and see if I can save any of the pure white  on the large middle tree to keep it as a birch tree.

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

Autumn Birches 1

It looks like today is going to be another hot and humid day at the Bobcaygeon Art Show, with the temperature climbing up to 92F (33C) for this afternoon.

Hopefully we will get a breeze to keep things a little cooler in the school house.

Using a pencil I lightly drew in the boundaries of my birch tree trunks, to give me a guideline when bringing the background colour over to the white area.

First I lifted some birch trunks out of the background using water and added the birch markings on them with a light wash of colour.

Then I started adding a few maple tree trunks into the background with a grey brown mixture.

Using mixtures of burnt sienna, raw sienna and alizarin crimson the background colour was brought over to the trunks of the main birch trees to give them shape and definition.

Gradually building up layers of background tree trunks, branches and leaves to give depth the background.

Growies were painted into the foreground and slightly more defined leaves were added to the small branches.

Finer markings were put onto the birch tree trunks using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and raw sienna.

A couple of branches were added to the two smaller birch trees.

After looking at the painting for a little while, I added a wash of new gamboge ad alizarin crimson to give the painting a little more of an autumn glow.

This original 4" x 6" watercolour painting is available for $40.00 unframed.