Toadstools 1-3 - Three Works in Progress

Today is the second day of the Watercolour Class I am teaching at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio.

Some of my students wanted to do fairies and mushrooms in a painting.

I did a few sketches of mushroom silhouettes on tracing paper and had them transfer the various mushrooms they wanted to use onto their paper.

While they were doing that I did a couple of sketches of fairies for them.

Toadstool 1

Once they were pleased with the placement of the mushrooms they were able to transfer the fairies they liked onto the watercolour paper among the mushrooms.

I liked the idea of doing painting some brightly coloured toadstools and did three small drawings of the Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria).

The name Fly Agaric comes from the traditional use for this mushroom in medieval times when it was ground up, placed in a jar and used as an insecticide.

Toadstool 2

The Fly Agaric is a large mushroom, which when fully grown the caps are usually around 3-8" (7.6-50.8cm) in diameter, although larger specimens have been found. It is easily identified by its rich, deep red coloured cap with its contrasting bright white scales. This bright colouration serves as a warning that it can be harmful and should not be eaten.

Although classified as poisonous, reports of human deaths resulting from its ingestion in recent times are extremely rare and it is known for its hallucinogenic properties.

But with that being said, it does belong to the Amanita family which contains a number of highly poisonous toadstools.

Toadstool 3

Some of which are its close relatives the Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera) and the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) which are responsible for the majority of deaths due to mushroom poisoning.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date as more work on them has been completed.

Moonlight Island - A Work in Progress

It is another day with a hard frost in the morning and the temperature again below freezing. I think it is just a little early in the season to find a thin layer of ice on the top of the water trough for the horses; but tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and raining.

In the Lucy Manley workshop today at KAGS we were doing mosaic paintings.

For this we either used a black canvas or painted a canvas totally with black paint as a base coat for the painting.

I painted three canvases black while I waited for the first canvas to dry before I could start the next step.

Finally, I lightly painted the outline of the main trees trunks, branches, rocks, reflections in the water and background hills on the horizon line using Grumbacher red.

I wasn't able to do much more on the painting in this class as I had to leave early to go to a meeting.

I am looking forward to trying this technique at a later date and I will post this painting again as more work on it is completed.

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

Moonlit Buildings 1 - A Work in Progress

We had a hard frost this morning with the temperature at 29F (-1.7C) together with a few snow flurries and the high for the day in the late afternoon was 38F (3.3C).

Last month I completed the companion piece to this painting (see posts on 07 May and 16 September 2015).

I wanted to at least get a more work completed on this one and perhaps get it to the stage where I would put the dark wash over it to turn it into a night painting.

I started with a greyed mix of raw sienna and burnt sienna and put in some of the barn board on the lighter coloured walls of the buildings to give them a little texture.













With a dark mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I brushed in some of the barn boards on the shadowed side of the building and also gave a little detail to the window frame.

I started adding some of the shadow under the eaves of the roof and the corner of the building when I was interrupted by unexpected phone calls which took most of the afternoon.

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

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Autumn Leaves IV - A Work in Progress

Today I didn't have a lot of time to paint but I wanted to get a little more work done on the painting of autumn leaves I had started earlier this month (see post on 13 October 2015).

Using washes of burnt sienna, raw sienna, alizarin crimson, new gamboge, aureolin and a green of Antwerp blue and raw sienna a base coat was added to define each of the leaves.















By being careful when applying the washes to make sure that each leaf was not in contact with any other wet leaf so the paint did not bleed into another one or make the colour muddy.

As I finish each of the leaves I will post this painting to the blog.

Background 47-51 - Five Works in Progress

These are the backgrounds from last month (see post on 22 September 2015) when I completed Autumn Beauty I while painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group at St. Matthews Church.

As usual I applied the left over acrylic paint from my palette onto spare canvases as a background and occasionally they become abstract paintings.














Background 47

The first one was raw sienna, burnt sienna and some of the leftover green mixtures.














Background 48

On the second one I used burnt sienna, raw sienna and cadmium yellow.














Background 49

For the third one I used burnt sienna, titanium white, cadmium red, alizarin crimson and the leftover orange mixtures.














Background 50

The fourth one was French ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizarin crimson and I added a little titanium white to prevent it from becoming too dark.














Background 51

On the last one I used the remaining colours on the palette which included alizarin crimson, cadmium red, burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue and titanium white.

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

White Water I - A Work in Progress

I like driving along River Road as there are always so many interesting things to see no matter what the season.

I came across this stand of birch trees just south of Lakefield Lock 27.

Today I took the time to pull over and do a small sketch of the birches, rocks and fast flowing water of the Otonabee River.

It is a very pretty place and I will have to make a point of it to return in the fall, winter and spring as I think it would make a nice collection of the four seasons.

I will post this painting later once I finish the rocks and water.

Background 41-46 - Six Works in Progress

As usual after painting with acrylics the remaining paint is applied onto stretch canvas panels as the under paint for future paintings. These are the various ones from Back Lit which was worked  on earlier this week (see post on 10 October 2015).














Background 41

The first one is predominately cadmium red, cadmium yellow with a little bit of titanium white.














Background 42

On the second one the colours are various mixtures of burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow and titanium white.














Background 43

For the third one it is mainly burnt sienna, raw sienna, with a little cadmium yellow.














Background 44

This background has a base of raw sienna with streaks of alizarin crimson and cadmium red with s touch of French ultramarine blue.















Background 45

This one used most of the remaining French ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue and cobalt blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. There is also a little bit of Titanium white in the top.

In a couple of places in the dark top area a few drops of water touched the paint on the canvas while it was still wet and could be used as "stars" in the sky.















Background 46

This final one is various blends of burnt sienna, Titanium white, Cerulean blue and French ultramarine blue.

I will post each of these backgrounds when they are used in future paintings.