Laces - A Work in Progress

I transferred the sketch of the laces to the canvas (see post on 03 May 2015).

The next step was to decide on a colour and paint all the lines one colour to give them definition.

I had a part tube if yellow ochre and used that for the outline colour for all of the lines to give it a warm glow and in a few areas of the line work I painted in a little bit of Hansa yellow to brighten it.

Next I used a little of the Hansa yellow to paint in one of the open areas on the canvas.

Then I painted another small open area with Cobalt blue and set the painting aside to see if I was going to go with a warm palette for the background or a cool palette.

It was time for lunch and I needed a break to get away from it, relax and when I returned to look at the painting with fresh eyes before I made my decision.

When I returned and looked at the two areas it was easy to see that going with yellows and reds the colour would jump out at you, whereas the blues and greys would be much more relaxed and I could add a few reds and yellows into the blue areas to create interest without it being garish.

Using the Cobalt blue as a base I added an orange made with Hansa yellow and alizarin crimson to grey the colour and started painting in a few dark areas and at the same time covered over the area that had been painted yellow.

Next I added Titanium white to the greyed blue and put in areas of lighter colour.

I decided that I would leave the painting for the time being and set it where I can look at it and decide on how I would like to place my colours.

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

Jewellery Tree - A Work in Progress

Last month at KAGS in one of the Still Life classes our theme was Scarves, Jewellery and Trinket Boxes.

There was a very nice display set up and it could be viewed from any angle. It had many interesting sections to do individually or you could do the entire display.

I worked on two different sections of the display as individual paintings. This is the second one I started (see post on 02 May 2015 for the first one).

For this one I chose to do the large jewellery tree which had many interesting pairs of earrings, necklaces, chains and a bracelet.

I will post this piece at a later date once I have completed the drawing and started to painting the background.

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

ODYSSEO Cavalia

As a mothers' day gift my daughter gave me a pair of Rendez-Vous VIP tickets to go and see ODYSSEO Cavalia in Toronto last night.

It was an unbelievable experience starting with a buffet supper produced by the KEG, the wonderful performances by horses, riders and performers, followed by a tour of the stables.














I cannot thank Christine enough for her wonderful, unexpected and extremely thoughtful gift.

The performance I saw last night inspired me to produce this sketch which I will post at a later date once the line drawing is completed.

OSWOA - Two Family Home 1

While going through a box of small paintings I came across this piece that I had started last year (see posts on 06 and 17 May 2014).

A lot of things needed to be changed on the building so I started at the top and changed the angle on the front part of the roof adjusted the chimney and lowered the back roof to give more definition to the shape of the building.

I used various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna to match the greens in the background to make the changes to the silhouette of the building. Since I was using the green mixes I washed over the bright teal colour to the right side of the building.

For the front roof I used alizarin crimson and burnt sienna for the shingles and repeated those colours with the addition of raw sienna for the chimney.

For the back roof I used mixes of raw sienna, French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna and kept it as a tin roof.

On the far right side of the building I wasn't pleased with the window over the top of the door, it looked as though the building had a screaming face so I removed the window with water and made the door a little larger.













Next I added two more windows, one beside the door on the left side and another to the right of the door on the other section of the house.

Since I wanted the building to have that neglected look I used a greyed green of Antwerp blue and burnt sienna and brushed it through some areas of the white walls. While the paint was still wet I put in the shadows on the building with cobalt blue.

While that was drying I added a few fence posts to both sides of the house using burnt sienna and connected them together wire. At the same time I added some of the burnt sienna to the tree trunk and on some of the branches to take away the solidness of the dark shape.

Now that the building had dried I went in with a dark of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue and gave a little definition to the door and window frames.

Lastly I went into the foreground grasses and weeds with various mixtures of raw sienna, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue.

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 - Shapes 3

It seems as though we have totally by-passed spring and have jumped straight into summer with the temperature today reaching 82F (27.8C) with the humidity making it feel like 89F (31.7C). We were fortunate to have a strong breeze blowing to make it pleasant to be outside.

I thought that today I would work on another abstract painting.

Using a pencil, I marked out a couple of rectangles.

With alizarin crimson, I painted in the long rectangle on the right side.

I moved diagonally to the bottom and used Antwerp blue to paint in the rectangle.

Using a mixture of both colours, I painted in the horizontal bar at the top left side.

Lastly, I used cadmium yellow on the bottom horizontal bar to complete thee painting.

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 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. 

It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Sunlit Builidings 1 and Moonlit Buildings 1 - Two Works in Progress

Another bright, sunny day with a nice breeze, which even though the temperature reached 78F (25.6C) it was nice to be outside.

Today is the last day of the Doug Mays workshop and it has been a very enjoyable and learning experience. I look forward to future workshops with him.














For the morning he did a demonstration of a number of sunlit buildings with the only thing being masked was the window on the first building.

Once the painting was completely dried he washed over the entire painting with indigo turning it into a moonlight scene and set it aside to dry.













I will complete the first painting and leave it as a sunlit scene and the second one I will wash over with indigo and turn it into a night scene.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date once they are completed.

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

Snowy Trail - A Work in Progress

Today was day two of Doug Mays' workshop.

This is of a winter forest trail with the background trees in muted shades of green greys and cast shadows in a variety of blue greys throughout the snowy landscape.

The sky was brushed in using Cobalt blue and as it dried the distant trees were painted in using raw sienna which mixed with the blue of the sky.














A little darker mixture of Cobalt blue and raw sienna was added to create a slightly closer layer of background trees.

The main tree trunks were put in using pure burnt sienna on the sunlit side, burnt sienna with a little French ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson was added to the grey mix for a dark on the shadowed side of the tree trunk.

Smaller background tree trunks were added using various shades of the greyed browns. I will post this painting at a later date once more work on the trees has been completed.