Falls at Fort Coulonge

This tonal study was done from a photo that I took on a recent day trip to Quebec. It was quickly executed using Cadmium Orange, Ultramarine Blue and White. I love that palatte.

Canola Fields

On our Meaford workshop Marina and I found this lovely composition that at eight in the morning was misted over and very atmospheric. As the morning passed we were soon painting a brilliant sunlight day with only a few wispy clouds. Trying to remember the colours and values of the original scene was impossible so I opted to paint the sunlight scene. This is a blocked in exercise using the rectangles that Ian introduced us to.

Fields near Meaford

This sketch was from the second day of Ian's workshop.

Fields

I am just returned from a wonderful five day plien aire workshop with painter Ian Roberts. We spent the week learning from inventive exercises and painting outdoors at many beautiful locations. The above painting was an exercise done in the field simplifing all shapes to appropriate sized rectangles and matching the colours as accurately as possible, much harder than it sounds or looks, but a fabulous way to zone in on the important aspects of a landscape. The group was fantastic, thank you all so much for contributing to such a blissful experience.

Beaver Pond on Barron Canyon Road

On Tuesday I drove up Barron Canyon Road and stopped by a beaver pond and did several sketches of the trees and water. There were still a few black flies and deer flies around to contend with. Despite the aggravation of the insects I hung in and had a great day painting.

Driftwood Revisited

After spending time with Ian Roberts at his workshop in Goderich, focusing on colour shapes and design, I felt that I would like to try repainting the scene from the boat launch at Driftwood Park. Yesterday I spent some time on a value study of the sketch using my previous sketch and a photograph as a preliminary step off point. Today's painting is very simple in terms of colour and values with very little detail but I am happy with the new direction that I have taken.

Oriental Teapot and Apples

I was pretty happy with the painting of this piece, except I noticed a very hard edge on the main apple after I had taken the photo. I need to go back into the piece and soften this edge, I also might extend the value range by deepening the cast shadow behind the teapot. Photographing your paintings is a great tool for learning, it separates you enough from the work to be able to be more sensitive to minor flaws.
I have posted a new image after working on the painting a little more.

3 apples

After having a lot of difficulty uploading the pictures of my paintings I have finally succeded in uploading this image. The problem was that my pictures contain so much data that the webpage timed out before the image finished loading and I lost internet connection. The fix for the problem was to go into the Paint program and resize the image down.

From my studio Window

This is a view from my studio window. We have many beautiful trees in the front yard which are made even more wonderful by the recent heavy snowfall.