Christmas Delights - A Work in Progress

Another cold day -12F (-24C) but at least it has stopped snowing for the time being, but it is fitting with our theme "Christmas Delights" for the Still Life class at KAGS.

There was a wide variety of subject matter to choose from and I left a large number of them out of my composition.














The poinsettia still needs a lot of work before I am ready to paint and I may add another Christmas ornament into the foreground.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have made all the corrections to the drawing and put paint onto the paper.

Ocean View I - A Work in Progress

It is another snowy day with the temperatures above 0F (-18C) so we having a heat wave at 7F (-14C) and will wait to see how the day progresses with the temperatures supposedly climbing to 22F (-5C).

I came across some sketches I had started a number of years ago when we vacationed for the first time in Cuba on a diving trip with Adventure Divers where we stayed at the Veradero Breezes.

Our room was on the second floor and while we could not see the beautiful white sand beach we could see the Atlantic Ocean from our balcony.

It was pleasant to have the balcony and I would often sit out there in the early morning and enjoy a cup of tea and in the evening we would relax after a very busy day of diving or touring.

This is one of a number of sketches I did while in Veradero and I will post it at a later date once it has been completed.

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

Purple Pansies - A Work in Progress

We have a heat wave going on here it started out at -11F (-24C) and now it is 8F (-13C), but then when it snows the temperature usually does rise.

I decided to add some brightness to the day and chose to work on this floral that I had started earlier this month (see post on 13 December 2013).

I mixed a mauve using Antwerp blue and alizarin crimson and started on one of the petals starting at the darkest part and putting down the first layer of paint.

While the paint on the first petal dried I put the darker lines on the next petal and curved them to give it shape.

Then I went back to add another layer of paint onto the first petal, again curving the lines to start to give shape to the petal,

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

Through the Forest I

18F (-8C) and sun, what a pleasant change even though it did cloud over for the afternoon it made it up to a high of 28F (-2C).

I came across this sketch while sorting through some boxes that I had brought home from my parent's house in Toronto when it was sold many years ago and I had been placed in the loft.

The foreground grasses, some of the main trees, the horses and riders had already been inked in and I started to add in the rest of the forest.
















Each layer of trees was made smaller and with less detail the further back it was placed in the drawing.

This original 4-1/2" x 6-1/2” pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $50.00.

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

Footwear with Character - Three Works in Progress

This is another Still Life class that we had at KAGS last month.

There were seven different pairs of shoes and boots on display. I liked three of them that seemed to have a lot of character.

The first one I chose to draw was a pair of well-worn grey moccasins, laid one on top of the other.

A lot of the rabbit fur had been worn away and there were areas where the bare skin was showing.

The soles at the front had worn paper thin and had come away from the bottom of the moccasin.

Retired

The next was a pair of well used barn boots and there was no denying that these boots had been used a lot around the farm.

They were scuffed; paint splattered and even still had some parging caked on the toe of one of the boots.

The ragged and bent tongues were hanging out over the laces which were only laced up about halfway and where the sole had separated from the boot there were pieces of hay and straw trapped in between.

Barn Boots

The third and final pair of boots was an pair of insulated hiking boots.

The laces and soles showed quite clearly how many miles had been walked over the years.














Hiking Boots

I will post these paintings at a later date once more work on them has been completed.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Sea Shells

This is one of the still life paintings that I started last month at KAGS.

There was a wide range of shells, coral, sea fans, sponges, shell and coral jewellery and a string of pearls in the display.














I chose to do just two of the seven larger shells and will probably paint in a few of the smaller shells once I decide how I want the wave rolling on the beach.

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

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

Pansies, Poppies and Hibiscus - Four Works in Progress

These are the four paintings that were used during the final watercolour class I taught at KAGS on the 26th last month.

My students had been told the week previous to bring in one piece of paper with a drawing of poppies and that they were to be masked out.

On another they would have drawn pansies.

Purple Pansies

The first thing I had them do when they arrived was to mix a yellow and a red in two separate containers and wet a piece of paper.

Then they poured the two colours over the paper and rolled the paint around to mix the colours.

The result was a peach colour and then set it aside to dry. 

Field Poppies

I demonstrated how one petal at a time is worked and then the next petal to be painted is not touching the first petal so the colour does not bleed into it.

Next I demonstrated how to paint the colour patterns on the pansy petals and that the lines need to curve in order to give the illusion of shape.













Hibiscus 1

Next I gave each student a piece of torn paper to use as a template.

They were shown how to paint around the template with mixtures of red, yellow and blues and allow it to mix on the paper

I quickly showed where to place the stamens and the direction of the curve for the lines in the petals.













Single Poppy 1

After letting them work on their own paintings for a little while, I had them come back and did a demonstration of how to work on a poppy.

I painted in the dark centre first and then added a few of the darker shadows.

Next I worked on the poppy petals showing how the creases have shadows, lights and highlights.

I will post these paintings at a later date as they are completed.

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