Birch Song 5 - A Work in Progress

It started off with fog in the morning although not as heavy as it was yesterday; but it was another humid, cloudy day with heavy rain in the afternoon.

The temperature was at 75F (24C) and felt like 88F (31C), but I am not going to complain about the heat as it won't be long before we have snow on the ground.

The trip to Toronto for Christine to see a specialist wasn't bad, but the return trip was just a nightmare.

The trip that usually takes at most 1-1/2 hours, with the weekend traffic heading out to cottage country it was a 3-1/2 hour journey.

Not my idea of fun, but at least there is the weekend to enjoy.

I painted in the background on this little painting of birch trees in autumn and set it aside to dry.

I will post it again at a later date once I start work on the birch trees.

OSWOA - Sunset 1

This is a painting I had started last year (see posts on 08 February 2013 and 15 March 2013) and wanted to finish.

I started by painting in the main pine tree on the left side of the painting and then gradually adding in the background tree trunks.

I added more pine trees of various sizes along the ridge of snow and using a pale was of the pine needle colour lightly indicated the tree shadows on the snow.

Finally I added the grasses and growies to the base of the trees and in some areas of the snow.

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

The OSWOA 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 $40.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Koi 2 and 5

The temperatures are climbing again with a lot of humidity the high being 73F (23C) and feeling more like 86F (30C) with rain falling for most of the day.

I thought with it being a wet day I may as well do more work on some of the Koi paintings that I had started earlier this year (see posts on 06, 18 and 30 July 2014 and 12 August 2014).

For the first one I used a wash of new gamboge over the body of the koi as a base and then while it was still wet added in a darker mix with the addition of alizarin crimson to give the fish a little shape.

Using various mixtures of new gamboge, alizarin crimson, raw sienna, burnt sienna and cadmium red I painted in the orange markings.

Koi 2

I used French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson to create a warm black and used that to paint in the dark scales on the koi's body, the markings on the fins and the pupil of the eye.

For the second koi I used new gamboge as the base colour for the orange areas of the body and while it was still wet I added mixtures of alizarin crimson and burnt sienna to give the body shape.

For the white areas I used a mix of raw sienna, with a touch of the black mix used for the pupil of the eye and painted in the shadows and the details on the fins and tail.

Koi 5

Using cadmium yellow I added a little more definition to the tail and the dorsal fin.

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here are all original watercolour paintings using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. They are priced at $20.00 each and sold unframed.

Buckhorn Artists' Group Blog - Shades of Summer Art Show and Sale

If you go to the Buckhorn Artists' Group blog you can see the daily results of the about what happened during the Shades of Summer Art Show and Sale.

Snow Man 1 and Snow Lady and Child 1 - Two Works in Progress

Once the drawings were transferred onto the watercolour paper it was time to paint the background.

To keep the backgrounds of these paintings similar I worked on both pieces at the same time.

I started with the sky using a mixture of French ultramarine blue and cobalt blue, being careful not to get any paint on the snow people.

Next the snow was the put in using the sky colour and a small amount of alizarin crimson was added so the white snow people would stand out from the background.

Snow Lady and Child 1

Raw sienna was added to the snow colour to get a greyed green which was used to add trees onto the top of the hill.

Now it was time to start work on the snow people.

Using the tree colour I added more blue and burnt sienna for a nice, rich black and painted the top hat, leaving the hatband and lining to be painted with pure cadmium red.

A mix of Antwerp blue and raw sienna was used for the scarf.

Snow Man 1

I ran out of time before I could finish the scarf, but I will post each of these paintings at a later date once more work is completed on each of them.

I would like to thank returning collector Mr. Derrick Ryan of Hastings, Ontario on his purchase of Ruffled Grouse (see post on 29 June 2014).

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

Last day of the 24th Annual Shades of Summer Art Show and Sale

Today started off bright and sunny with the temperatures at 58F (14C) first thing in the morning and by late afternoon reaching a high of 64F (18C) but with the humidity feeling more like 75F (24C).

It was the second half day of the show and we had a fairly steady stream of people going through the show.

I didn't have much time to work on this piece but I did manage to start adding the growies into the base of the on the trees.

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













Five originals were sold from Rebecca Bilcox. Catherine Selinger, Susan Sydney and Tom Young as well as small items purchased from JoAnne Connell Northey and Penny Little.

I would like to thank new collectors Mrs. Margaret Tough of Peterborough, Ontario on her purchase of Setting Sun (see post on 06 May 2010) and Mrs. Mary Lou Harrison of Toronto, Ontario on her purchase of Whatever (see post on 13 May 2014).

The hours for our show are:
17 Aug 14 - 12:30pm - 4:00pm

Shades of Summer Art Show and Sale

Today we opened early to accommodate the people who also came out for the annual yard sale held by Buckhorn Community Care in the front parking lot of St. Matthews Church.

Although it remained cool throughout the day it started off warmer 54F (12.2C) than yesterday in the morning but the temperature did not rise as much remaining a constant 56F (13.3C) throughout the afternoon with a steady rainfall until closing time.













Sailboat Sketch 3

The one nice thing about the rain and cooler temperatures was that the attendance was up considerably and we had a steady stream of people coming through the show all day.

Because of this I didn't even try to paint, instead I worked on a couple more sketches of sailboats which could easily be left when I had to talk with our many visitors.












Sailboat Sketch 3A

Nine paintings were sold by Diane Collins, Heather Grant, Penny Little and Susan Sydney. Pottery was sold by JoAnne Connell Northey and small items were purchased from Diane Collins, JoAnne Connell Northey, Pat Harvey, Barbara McGregor and Bonny Windover.

I would like to thank new collectors Ms. Jessica MacKenzie of Selwyn, Ontario on her selection of Sunset Silhouette 2 (see post on 27 December 2011), Mr. John Van Laars of Cobourg, Ontario on his purchase of Simplicity (see post on 08 June 2011) and Ms. Bonnie Baker of London, Ontario on her purchase of Rapids 1 (see post on 17 July 2011).

We hope you will be able to come out and visit the show either today or before it closes tomorrow.

The hours for our show are:
16 Aug 14 - 10:00am - 5:00pm
17 Aug 14 - 12:30pm - 4:00pm