Barron Canyon 1 - A Work in Progress

Today before I could get started on a painting I had a few things to do in the morning in Peterborough.

After completing my errands I arrived back home and started work on this piece that I had started last year (see post on 07 May 2014).

Beginning on the left side of the painting I added some trees to the top of the cliff's edge.













Working my way down the face of the wall I added some details to the rocks and at the base I put in darker colour to the shoreline and some trees against the shore. Then using the colour mixtures for the trees I painted in the reflections on the water.

I started adding some of the trees on the edge of the rock face on the right side of the canyon until Ron returned home and needed my help in the barn.

I will post this painting again once I have completed the right side of the canyon.

Evening on the Lake 1 - A Work in Progress

Today I had errands to run in the morning and missed the Still Life class at KAGS.

I did arrive in time to paint with the Outdoor Painters' Group for the afternoon.

I wanted to paint a background for one of the sailboat sketches I did while on the Stoney Lake Boat Cruise (see post on 29 August 2015) earlier this year.













I thought an evening scene would be nice and using raw sienna I put in the top of the sky and as I worked lower I added burnt sienna for a nice orange glow.

I added a touch of French ultramarine blue to the mix and painted in the clouds and the water.

Once the background had dried I moved the various images of the different sailboats around on the painting.













Finally I decided that I would use two sailboats in this piece and transferred Sailboat 5 and Sailboat 6 onto the paper.

I will post this painting again at a later date once I paint in the distant shore and add the waves into the water.

Background 52-54 - Three Works in Progress

During the Lucy Manley workshop at KAGS earlier this week we were doing mosaic paintings and for that we needed either black primed canvas or we had to paint regular canvas black as a base.















Background 52

For the first two I used black paint as the background on the canvases.















Background 53

For the last one I used the Grumbacher red that I had remaining for painting the drawing of the subject matter as the background colour.















Background 54

I will post these paintings at a later date once I decide what I will put on each of them.

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.