Big Cedar Lake I and II - Two Works in Progress

The temperature has once again dropped down to 9F (-13C) with the wind chill making it feel like -2F (-19C) as I went out to do the barn chores. The nice thing is that by the afternoon the temperature is to go up to 19F (-7C) with the wind chill making it feel like 9F (-13C) and the sun will be shining.

After warming up with a cup of tea I pulled out these two drawings that I started a couple of years ago while canoeing on Big Cedar Lake (see posts on 23 August 2015 and 09 October 2016).













Big Cedar Lake I

I started near the left side of the paper and put in the large  pine tree on the shore first and continued to work my way across the to the left side of the paper adding in the trees close to the shore.

It was time to take a break and after taking the dog out for a walk and having lunch I started to do some work on the other drawing on the same piece of paper.














Big Cedar Lake II

Starting on the left side I put in a couple of the closer pine trees.

Next I decided that I needed a change and instead of continuing with the trees I put the motor boat on the lake.

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

School's Out I - A Work in Progress

I started to work on this underwater drawing that I began last year (see posts on 15 July and 28 December 2016) by indicating the bottom edge of the sea fan by the top edge of the rock.

Next I put in the top of the highest rock on this piece of the reef.

Part way down the reef I put in the rock out cropping with some yellow tube sponges. At the base of the sponges I put in some sea weed.

I will post this drawing at a later time once I have decided whether I am going to put in a school of French Grunts or Purple Wrasse.

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

Monster Trucks

For Ron's birthday gift Christine got tickets to go and see the Monster Jam event in Toronto, Ont.














We haven't been to see them since the mid 90's, when we took Christine to see the Monster trucks when they first came to Sky Dome.














We were amazed at how many things have changed over the years. The most obvious was when we first saw the arena divided in half with two sets of concrete ramps and on one end a vertical ramp for the trucks to do back flips, was unheard of years ago.














The track itself was flat instead of being hilly and there were a lot less of the cars for the Monster trucks to crush. These changes came about in 2014.














Before there was one huge mound of dirt in the centre of the arena for the trucks to do their aerial maneuvers and with the hilly track they could go airborne during the race and needless to say the Monster Trucks at that time were known for crushing the many cars scattered around the outside edges of the arena.














Unfortunately, due to traffic and finding a parking spot we arrived just as the doughnut competition ended. In the doughnut competition the driver tries to spin their truck until the truck cannot spin any more, the truck falls over or the driver thinks they may have a high enough score to win.














It didn't take long before the next event, the wheelie competition began. The goal in the wheelie competition is to go up a ramp and get as much height in the air while remaining as close to perpendicular to the ground. It was an excellent competition with a couple of the trucks landing on the platform on their back wheels and bouncing back up into the air before landing off the other side of the ramp.














We waited while they set up the Christmas trees and the timers for the next competition which was racing but instead of the usual side-by-side racing each truck started half of the arena away from the other. After two laps the truck with the fastest time moved onto the next round until it was eliminated or won the Championship race. It was an interesting competition with a total of seven heats to determine the winner of the event.














Then it was time for the intermission while the mechanics worked on the Monster Trucks to have all thirteen of them up and running for the final event which was the freestyle competition.














Each driver is given two minutes alone in the arena to show off their skills as they did wheelies, spins, drove their trucks over cars; and did some amazing stunts with their trucks.














It was unbelievable to see two trucks attempt a back flip, Grave Digger completed the flip, while Son Uva Digger did not quite make the landing and ended up on its side.

Communion - A Work in Progress

Today I am not leaving the house except to go to the barn and do the chores. It is one of those days with a strong wind, where the weather is going to give us a little of everything from sun, clouds, rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, snow and back again.

I have spent a fair amount of time working on last year (see posts on 09 May, 18 July, 02, 09, 19, 23 and 30 August, 13 October and 15 December 2016) and I hope to have the water decanter finished today.

Before I started to paint I needed to fix the shape of the right side of the decanter, it just didn't look right.

With greys made of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I started at the top of the decanter adding the grey shadows on the spout, then worked my way down through the neck of the decanter.













I touched along the outside edge of that I had corrected and then filled in the areas of the main body being careful to leave areas of white highlights before I worked my way up the handle. Lastly I added the grey to the base of the decanter and into some of the water.

Using new gamboge with a little raw sienna added, I put some colour showing through the glass from the plate onto the handle and in the main body of the decanter.

The wood showing through the water was added with a mix of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. French ultramarine blue was added to this mix for the wood that was in cast shadow.

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

Old Oak I and Lily Pond I - Two Works in Progress

Today isn't a very nice day with the temperature at 37F (3C) and the wind chill making it feel like 30F (-1C), but the worst thing is the mixed precipitation making everything cold and wet.

So I decided that I would do a little more work on a couple of sketches that I had started a long time ago (see posts on 22 February and 18 June 2013).
















Old Oak I

I started on the fence posts to the left of the oak tree first and once they were finished I added the grasses in some areas of the foreground.















Lily Pond I

From there I did a little work on the fence in front of the barn and decided that I needed to do a little more work on the drawing. I will post each of these drawings at a later date once more work on them has been completed.

Gathering Storm 1 - A Work in Progress

Today I went to Buckhorn to paint at St. Matthew's Church with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group.

I wanted to try and get this painting completed today that I had started a couple of years ago (see posts on 12 January, 19 February and 15 May 2015) and I started by drawing in the island in the right side of the painting, and indicated the tall pine tree trunks.



















It wasn't long before we noticed that the room was getting colder, and when we looked at the thermostat we found that the furnace wasn't coming on to heat the building.

After calling maintenance we found that the repair man would not be there until late afternoon to fix the furnace. We decided to go home rather than work in the cold, which worked out well because as we were leaving it began to snow and we are to get 3" (7.6cm) of heavy packing snow today.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have painted the island.

Autumn Maples 1 and 2 - Two Works in Progress

I didn't have a lot of time to paint as I had a number of appointments to go to today.

However, I wanted to get something done today on a painting even if it was only putting in a sky.

I picked these two paintings as they are very similar having the same autumn theme with maples.

I started by wetting the top of the paper for the sky on both pieces and mixing French ultramarine blue and Antwerp blue.

Autumn Maples 1

I brushed in the sky on each painting, leaving some areas of white for the clouds.

Unfortunately, time waits for no one and I had to get my things together and leave.

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









Autumn Maples 2