New Friend

It looks as though the weatherman was wrong when he said we wouldn't see the temperature climb to 70F (21.1C) until the spring. I am certainly glad he is wrong as today was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature being 72F (22.2C).

I would like to thank new collector Mrs. Barbara Miller of Toronto, Ontario for her commission to do this pen and ink drawing of her son and one of their horses.

It brings back fond memories of whenever I had the chance to make a new equine friend. It didn't matter if it was the milkman, iceman or policeman's horse.

Each meeting, no matter how fleeting was a joy to remember for a lifetime.

Queen Angelfish

Today I thought I would work on a sketch of a grouping of tropical fish from the Caribbean reef.

I wanted to have a Queen Angelfish as the largest fish and a couple of smaller fish and some coral or sponges around it.














I barely had time to do more than block in some basic shapes when I had unexpected company arrive.

I am sure that this will work into an interesting painting.

Pine Trees

It is sunny today with the temperature reaching 69F (20.5C), making it great working weather.

Once I finished doing the barn chores and the house chores I decided I would take a little time and go out and paint plein air.

There are so many things I would like to paint on the property it is sometimes hard to make a choice. In this case I decided to paint some of the pine trees on the north fence line.

I put the sky in using a mixture of ultramarine blue and titanium white.

The background trees were put in with white, raw sienna and burnt sienna.

I added a little bit of ultramarine blue to the background mix and put in the next layer of pine trees and the under paint for the larger foreground trees.

Next I added more blue to the green mix and put in the trunk and the branches on the largest tree.

I darkened the green down with blue and burnt sienna and did the closest tree to the right of the large tree.

Lastly, I added a few spots of raw sienna and burnt sienna throughout the painting to create some interest.

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

Autumn River

This is the last of three paintings I found in a box in the storage room earlier this month.

All it needed was to finish the dead and weathered cedar trees on the right side of the painting that were currently just "white sticks".

Using a mix of titanium white, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I put the shadows on the trunks of the cedar trees. 
















With a fine brush I carefully put in the dead limbs onto the tree trunks. 

Lastly, I put a few reflections into the quiet water near the base of the cedar tree trunks.

This original 16" x 20" acrylic painting when framed will be available for $375.00.

OSWOA - Wanna Play?

Today we set up a show at the Purple Onion Festival held in Millennium Park in Peterborough.












We were fortunate in that we had gotten all of our paintings inside the building before it started to rain. I felt sorry for some of the exhibitors who had to go through high winds and a torrential downpour during the morning hours that caused a couple of tents to collapse due to the amount of rain that fell during a very short time and the high winds. By noon the sun came out and the temperatures climbed to 66F (19C) and the crowds came out to enjoy the Festival.














I would like to thank new collector Gary Smith of Peterborough, Ontario on his purchase of Autumn Birch 1 (see post on 14 July 2012).











This is one of the pieces that I took to the show that I had started in a Still Life class earlier this year (see posts on 27 March 2014, 31 July 2014 and 07 August 2014) and decided that I wanted to finish it as a companion piece for the one I completed a couple of weeks ago (see post on 07 August 2014).













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 - Tree Tops 10 and 11

The colours here are absolutely stunning, with the various reds, yellows, golds and greens; especially when I look out over the trees below the hill and across the Snelgrove Brook and the far hill beyond.

Today I wanted to work on these two pieces that I had started earlier this year (see post on 19 February 2014) and called them Clouds. I have already completed the first two of them earlier this month (see post on 06 September 2014).














Tree Tops 10

Keeping with the same theme I first worked on the one that had been called Clouds 3 and used as my subject more of the trees from the north fence line that I see out of my kitchen window.

Once this one was completed I worked on the final background which had been called Clouds 4 and painted the last of my bare bones trees.














Tree Tops 11

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 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. They are priced at $20.00 each and sold unframed.

Meandering Stream

This is another painting that I found in storage earlier this month that I had started in a class a number of years ago with Mary Lampman.

This one as with the other two that I found, they just needed a few grasses and growies put into the paintings to finish them.

Using yellow ochre and a small amount of burnt sienna I painted in the dead grasses at the base of the trees on the left side of the painting and smudged in a little as a reflection into the stream.














Using a mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, I put in the small twigs and branches of small trees and bushes peeking up through the snow on both sides if the painting.

Mixing the grass colour and the twig colour together I put in small bits and pieces into the background.

This original 16" x 20" acrylic painting when framed will be available for $375.00.