Evening on the Lake - A Work in Progress

Today I was pleasantly surprised to have a Purple Finch at one of my feeders.

With today being Ron's birthday I didn't have a lot of time to paint but I wanted to do a little work on something so I worked on this one that I had started last year (see posts on 29 August, 22 October 2015 and 16 January 2016).














Using a mix of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue I started to put in the waves, using lighter paint for the distant waves and gradually adding more paint to darken the colour for the foreground waves.

Adding more burnt sienna to the wave colour I put into the distant shoreline and once that was dry I added more French ultramarine blue for the closer slightly more detailed trees.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have removed the friskit and started painting the sailboats.

Background 76 and 77 - Two Works in Progress

Today I had to go to Toronto to take Christine to see a specialist and on the way back we will stop at a couple of the art supply stores so I can get a few things that I need.

The two pieces below were created by using yesterday's remaining paint.














Background 76

The first background was made using titanium white, Hansa yellow, raw sienna, burnt sienna and a touch of Cerulean blue.














Background 77

The second background was various blends of titanium white, ultra marine blue, Cerulean blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red and burnt sienna.

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

Sunlit Birches - A Work in Progress

Today I couldn't get motivated to go down into Peterborough to KAGS for the Still Life class; especially since we had freezing rain overnight and it is going to snow all day and the temperature is 0F (-17.8C) and with the wind chill it feels like -12F (-24.4C).

Instead I decided to do some more work on this painting that I had started earlier this week (see post on 25 January 2016) in the Lucy Manley workshop.

I started in on the sky and added a slightly darker layer of colour into the sky using titanium white, burnt sienna and raw sienna.

Next I touched up the tops of the distant trees on the top of the hill against the sky using various mixtures of ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue, raw sienna, burnt sienna and Hansa yellow.

Using ultramarine blue with a touch of white I darkened the shadows from the main tree and added shadows into the foreground from trees that are outside of the painting.

I added another layer of pure titanium white to the high lit areas of the snow drift against the main tree trunk.

Next I wanted to work on the main birch tree in the foreground.

With the sunlight coming from the left side of the painting I put in the brightest highlights on the right side of the birch tree.

I started with titanium white and added a touch of Hansa yellow to warm it and put this colour in a few areas first.

Next I added a little raw sienna to the mix and worked on the next darker highlight on the left side and toward the center of the trunk.

Then a small amount of burnt sienna was added to darken the mix slightly for areas where the bark has pealed or been damaged.

On the shadowed side of the tree I used white and various mixtures of ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue, burnt sienna, and alizarin crimson.

With a small amount of the second brightest highlight colour I put a mark on the second largest tree as a guide for when I paint that tree on another day as the brightest value.

With not having very much more time to work on the painting I went to the small birch tree in the background and painted it with the blue grey shadow colours.

I will post this painting at a later date once I paint the second largest birch tree.

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

My First Horse Head

I came across this drawing that was in some of my Mom's old files that I am slowly going through before they are shredded.

On the back of the drawing is the date I drew it, which was 11 November 1961.

I can still remember when I did this drawing while laying on the floor in the living room, with my crayons and paper in front of the television watching Jon Gnagy "Learn to Draw" on Saturday afternoon.

I had also did another horse drawing of a Bucking Bronco with Jon Gnagy "Learn to Draw" and sent it to the Uncle Bobby Show (which was a Canadian children's show that aired from 1964 to 1979) and that drawing appeared on his show in 1964.

For Christmas that year, Mom got me Jon Gnagy's Learn to Draw kit.

My Mom, who painted wall murals in acrylic and miniature paintings in watercolour as a hobby, always encouraged me to draw and paint. She also made sure that I had all the art supplies I needed.

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

Background 73-75 - Three Works in Progress

A number of things happened today starting with it raining and the temperature rose to 41F (5C), but this isn't going to last for long as the wind came up during the afternoon and the temperature started to drop and we are to have snow overnight.

With my driveway covered in ice due to the thaw, walking on it tomorrow to do the barn chores is going to be treacherous.

The following backgrounds are the created from unused paint from yesterday's acrylic painting.














Background 73

This background was made using Hansa yellow, yellow ocher and a small amount of ultramarine blue.














Background 74

Ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizarin crimson and titanium white were used on this background painting.














Background 75

This piece was made using cadmium red, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna and titanium white.

I had plans to complete some of my acrylic paintings at St. Matthews church in Buckhorn with the Tuesday Painting Group, but once Heather and I arrived there we found that there was a leak in their gas heating and they had the doors open so we wouldn't succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Needless to say we didn't stay very long and by the time I dropped Heather off at her house and returned home I was no longer motivated to paint.

But tomorrow is another day.

Sunlit Birches - A Work in Progress

For me today was a busy day at KAGS.

In the morning we had the acrylic workshop with Lucy Manley where we did a forest scene in the winter and the afternoon was taken up with the Executive meeting.

Using raw sienna as an under paint to give a warm tone to the painting which will show through in some areas.

Next with cadmium red the main trees were indicated using a deeper tone with more detail.

Less detail and a lighter wash of colour was used for the further back trees in the forest.

The main shadows were then indicated as well as the thicker forest on the top of the hill.

The darkest colour was indicated with a mixture of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

The background trees on the top of the hill were painted in using mixtures of Hansa yellow, ultramarine blue and cerulean blue.

The areas of the brightest sunlit snow were put in with pure titanium white.

The sky was a mixture of titanium white and cadmium red.

The background snow which is mainly in shadow was put in with titanium white, ultramarine blue and a hint of cadmium red.

The darkest shadow which is of the large foreground tree was put in with ultramarine blue and white.

The next darkest shadows were of the second and third largest trees using cerulean blue and white.

The remaining shadows were put in though out the areas of high lit snow using various mixtures of titanium white, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue and with a little bit of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

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

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

Sailboat 2 - A Work in Progress

I had a little bit of time to work on a painting and I decided that I should work on the last of the sketches I did when we went on the Stoney Lake Boat Cruise last year.

I started work on the outline drawing of Sailboat 2, tightening up some of the details.

Once I was happy with the drawing I transferred it onto watercolour paper.

In order to keep the sails and the boat white, I used a liquid masking fluid on the image and set it aside to dry.

I will post this piece at a later date once I have completed the sky and the water and I am ready to remove the mask to start work on the boat.