Serene Place 2

It is 28F (-2C), but at least today it isn't snowing and pretty much all of the snow that fell yesterday is gone.

Later today I have to go to the Annual General Meeting for the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio.

Before I went there I wanted to do a quick drawing on a small piece of tinted paper.

I kept the darker coloured areas of the paper at the bottom to be the reflected light from the sunset on the water.

On the right side I put a large island in the foreground with a number of large pine trees on the island.

I put in the horizon line and added an island onto the lake on the left side.

Rocky Shore 1

Today I was going through some photographs of the area around Burleigh Falls, with its dark water contrasting against the pink granite rocks that grace the shoreline and did this little sketch of Burleigh Bay.

I think it is a shame that the shoreline in Burleigh Bay is going to be filled in and developed into expensive homes and destroy the habitat of the Blanding's turtle (Emys blandingii or Emydoidea blandingii) which is on IUCN (Internation Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List as either a threatened or an endangered species throughout Canada.















Hopefully the groups fighting against the development and destruction of the marshland and save the  spawning areas for a wide variety of fish species and the habitat to prevent other animals species from going the way of the dodo bird - never to be seen again. 

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

Race the Wind I

It is snowing out this morning and with the high temperature for the day at 34F(1C), it will be just warm enough to melt the snow by this afternoon.

I pulled out this little drawing that I started a year ago (see post on 26 January 2013) and should be able to complete it before I have to leave.










I finished the remaining legs on the horses, added the mane and shading on the bodies and then put the grass beneath their legs.

This original 2-3/4" x 6-1/4” pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $25.00.

Barn VII

I arrived late for the still life class at KAGS today and just took photographs of the display. I may or may not do a painting from them at a later date, but at least I have the reference.

After making a cup of tea, I sat down for lunch with both the Still Life Group and the Outdoor Painters' Group, which is interesting as some just come in for the still life class, others just come in for the outdoor painters' afternoon and some of us belong to both groups.

It was soon time for me to open the Gallery, put out the signs and set myself up at the front desk on the upper level to wait for visitors.









While I wait, I pulled out one of the many barn sketches I did last year (see post on 28 September 2013).

I worked on this drawing on and off during the afternoon until I was pleased with the building and the drawing.

This original 3-1/4" x 9” pencil drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $30.00.

It wasn't long before the evening shift arrived and it was time for me to go home. Since it rained all day and the temperature stayed just above the freezing mark, 31F (-0.5C) I will be careful driving home as you never know at these temperatures and conditions if a patch of black ice has formed on the road.

Autumn Beauty 1

On Monday we had our first of six classes with Lucy Manley at KAGS.

To complete one of her paintings usually takes two sessions, but with this one I was told to leave it alone and just sign it as it was finished.















I will leave it out and continue to look at it as I feel a little more work needs to be done before it is complete.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

OSWOA - Grey Day 1 and 2

Today is another nice day with the temperatures to reach 55F (12.8C) even though there is rain in the forecast it is still better than having it snow; although that is coming for later in the week when temperatures once again drop below freezing.














This afternoon I taught the basic watercolour class at KAGS and with this class all my students had never painted in watercolour.













I had them start with small paintings no larger than 8" x 10" which is a lot less intimidating that doing a first painting on a piece of 11" x 15" (a quarter sheet) watercolour paper. This way they can also finish the painting within the three hours of class time and can have another painting started.













Grey Day 1

I also limited the number of paints used to a maximum of three colours in order for my students to learn the wide variety of colour combinations they could achieve with a few colours. In this case we used burnt sienna, raw sienna and French ultramarine blue.














I had these two samples of skies using various mixes of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna that I did with another class (see post on 11 December 13)  and then showed the class how to do various types of clouds and allowed them to make a choice for their painting of how they would like the sky.













While their painting was drying I showed them how to put in the trees lightly with pencil and how to mix the colour for painting the trees.

After my students completed their painting I gave them homework. To do the another two more paintings using different combinations of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna for the sky only and that next week we would learn about putting in water, rocks and different types of trees.













Grey Day 2

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

The OSWOA shown here are original watercolour paintings using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. They are priced at $40.00 each and sold unframed.

ACEO - Approaching Storm 1

I wanted top complete a painting today and I picked out this one that I had drawn earlier this year (see post on 20 April 2014).

I didn't want to use a lot of colours in this piece so I used a limited palette of burnt sienna, raw sienna and French ultramarine blue.

After wetting the paper, I used a grey made of burnt sienna and the blue and brushed in the underside of the clouds, leaving the tops of them the white of the paper.

I used the same cloud colour to put in the waves on the lake, leaving areas of light and dark.

With various mixtures of raw sienna and the blue I put in the pine trees on the islands and on the distant horizon line.

Using the green mix, I thinned the colour with water and brushed the pale green over the water of the lake.

I decided to use a small amount of alizarin crimson on the rocks of the island.

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 Winsor & Newton paint on 90lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.