Lempke Lake in Winter

This little study was painted on Boxing Day, a cold, clear winter's afternoon. The photograph does not show the colour of the sunlight on the snow as well as I hoped it would. I may try to rephotograph and repost, but until then this small study can stand and represent a most glorious winter's day.

Snow on Sunflowers Revisited - a Study - SOLD

The snow in the garden is much deeper now covering the bottoms of the sunflower stems. In this study I was attempting to simplify the scene, while showing the foreground, midground, and background as large colour shapes.

Pines - a Study

This is a view from my kitchen window of three magnificent white pine trees that grow in a clump at the fence line between our property and our neighbour's. The sunlight reflecting off the snow and the blue snow shadows were my inspiration for this study.

Two Cedars

Another opportunity to paint blue snow shadows. This was painted yesterday from my studio window before I went to the hospital for my evening shift in ICU. The days are very short this time of year as it gets dark by five in the afternoon, which is, of course not good for painting, but what is good for painting is the low raking sunlight which lights the winter mornings and afternoons.

Winter - SOLD

What a gorgeous day! Blue sky and sunshine everwhere, the snow is so beautiful when the trees cast blue snow shadows everywhere. This little sketch was painted looking out of our music room window towards the road.

The Hardwood Forest

This was a particularily grey day last week but Marina and I were determined to paint an outdoor motif. We happily sat at her kitchen table drinking tea and painting, despite not having any brilliant colours to paint.

Perched Pear

I found this glass bowl at Walmart last week when I went to finish my Christmas shopping after my evening shift at the hospital. My friend Marina bought a similiar bowl when we went to Walmart in Ogdensburg on our way home from our Carol Marine painting course in New York this summer, and I have been wanting one ever since. The pears were fun to do and I love to use red. The top pear is resting on the rim of the bowl but I thought it looked like it was precarioulsy pearched on the bottom pear.

The Little Spruce

This is a view of our back lawn from the kitchen window. I waited all day for some sunshine so that I could paint some blue shadows on the snow. The sun shone briefly, about 2 minutes, so I painted the long tree shadows first and then extrapolated some of the background shadows to the best of my knowledge. I love this time of year when the snow is fresh and pristine, forms become simpler and designs more apparent making composition easier.

Early December

This small oil sketch was done this afternoon from my back deck. It was below freezing but with the sun shining it was warm enough for Phil and I to sit on our back steps and drink our tea after lunch. I figured if it is warm enough to sit and drink tea it surely is warm enough to do a small painting. Unfortunately, the clouds started to roll in from the east and south and just as I was ready to start painting, the clouds covered the sun and I lost all the beautiful blue shadows on the snow. I persevered even though it got very cold without the sunshine and was pretty happy with this little piece.

Snow on Sunflowers

The first snow was fairly light but covered the garden and the lawn. The tall stalks of the sunflowers and hollyhocks looked so elegant with tufts of snow clinging to their heads. Marina came over and we sat at my kitchen table and painted these looking through the windows.