Country Evening - A Work in Progress

This is a painting I had started a while ago (see posts on 21 October 2011 and 05 August 2013) and I wanted to get it closer to being finished.

I started where I had left off by adding more colour into the background hills and the various trees and giving them a little more definition.

While the background was drying I added some wood grain to the fence posts and tried to lift out more of the reflections from the water.

Next I did a little more work on the buildings on the left side, adding some of the barn boards, fixing the roof lines and adding a little more detail to the door and window.















Moving over to the left side buildings I added a window to each of them and darkened the door on the center building.

I lightly drew in where I wanted the reflections to go in the water and lifted more of the reflections to remove them from where they shouldn't have been placed.

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

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

Morning Lake 2 - A Work in Progress

I didn't have a lot of time today to paint but I selected this piece that I had started last year (see posts on 08 December 2013 and 27 January 2014).














I added the far island reflections into the water using a mixture of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

I will post this painting again at a later date once I have drawn the foreground trees.

Winter Walk - A Work in Progress

The weather since yesterday has been a mixed bag of tricks. I came home last night after the take in for the Photography show at KAGS during a raging snow storm which added another 2" (5cm) on the ground.

During the night the temperature rose to just above freezing and we had a mix of rain and freezing rain which changed back to rain for most of the day helping to melt some of the snow, which also changed my driveway into a skating rink. Although at the end of the day we managed to have a lovely sunset before the storm clouds came rolling back in once more. I can hardly wait to see what we get next.















Since it was a good day to spend inside when I came across this sketch I thought I may as well put some paint onto paper and at least get it started.

Using French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I brushed in a cloudy sky and into the foreground added a roadway.














While the paint was still wet I sprinkled in a little salt into the sky to create snowflakes. This painting was then set aside to dry.

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

Material - A Work in Progress

Today the theme for the still life class at KAGS was fabric, drapery and hanging clothes. We were fortunate to have a wide variety of materials, skirts, wraps and even a hat. To give the still life a little added interest we placed a large glass goblet in among the materials.

I have always enjoyed creating the folds and shadows on fabric, it is time consuming to get it correct; but the final result is well worth the effort.














It took most of the class to block in the various materials and the major folds as well as indicate where the highlights are placed on the materials.

It was the last day of the Abstracting from Life show and while I was looking after the Gallery I was able to paint a little of the background behind the materials. Having taken a little time away from the drawing I know I will have to do some more work on the hat as it doesn't quite look right and the glass needs to be leveled.

I will post this painting at a later date once the drawing is fixed and more of the painting has been completed.

Clouds 1-4 - Four Works in Progress

Finally, a day above freezing! It  made it up to 36F (2C) and it is so nice to see the snow slide off the barn roof and some of the snow melt off the driveway. But I know this is just Mother Nature's joke on all of us, because next week the temperature is going to plunge back down below the freezing mark yet again, so I am going to enjoy it for the short time it lasts.

Clouds 1

It somehow seemed fitting that I should paint some nice blue skies with snow clouds.














Clouds 2

I worked back and forth on all four pieces at the same time so by the time I had finished washing in the fourth sky the first painting would be dry enough to paint in the next layer of paint.














Clouds 3

I used French ultramarine blue to wash in the sky leaving some areas of the white paper to show for the white of the clouds.















Clouds 4

Next I added a little burnt sienna to the blue to grey it slightly and painted in the shadows on the clouds.

I will post these paintings at a later date as each of them is completed.

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

Snow Lady and Child 1 - A Work in Progress

Going through a file folder last week, I came across two paintings with a little colour at the bottom (see post on 23 February 2013) and decided they would make ideal winter scenes.

The first one was made into a Snow Man 1 earlier this month (see post on 12 February 2013).

I decided that I would continue with that theme using the one called Abstract B and rename it Snow Lady and Child 1.

The area at the bottom seemed as though it was the base for a small snowman which would become the Snow Child.

The round shape also gave me a light source to use for this piece.

To complete the snow family I would place a larger Snow Lady with the smaller Snow Child.

It didn't take long to do the sketch of both the snow people with the child wearing a scarf and toque, the lady wearing a bonnet and to complete them stick arms were added.

I will post this painting at a later date once they have been transferred onto the paper.

Autumn Tress 1 and 2 - Two Works in Progress

These are two paintings I started last year when I was at the Knoepfli Inn in Magnetawan, Ontario (see post on 20 October 2013).

I started by masking out the leaves on both paintings with liquid friskit and then set them aside to dry.

Once the friskit was dry on the first one, using a pencil I lightly did more drawing on the birch tree trunks and to the branches to give them more definition.

I then did the same to the larger maple trunks and branches and added in some of the background tree trunks that didn't need much detail.

Now that the second piece was dry I indicated many of the pine branches from the trees that were in the background.

Next I added more details to the larger oak tree trunks and added many of the branches joining them to the clumps of leaves.

Lastly I worked on the maple tree trunks, branches adding the maple leaves which will be masked out with a different friskit.

I will post both of these paintings at a later date once I have  masked out the maple leaves and have the backgrounds completed.