House on Whitewater Road

A red brick house positioned on the fresh spring grass with great shadows was irristible on a warmish Wednesday afternoon.   It was such a joy to be out doing some plien air after a few weeks of cold, windy, wet weather.

Spring - LaPasse

I started this painting in the field and finished it in the studio a few days later, after I had time to reflect on what it was that really captivated me. It was the stillness of the water and the quality of the light which was reflected from the water that really got me going. I also love the greyed yellows of the leafless trees against the true saturated blues of the water and the sky.

LaPasse - sketch

Last Wednesday when the temperature was an unbelivable 88 degrees Farenheit Marina and I drove to LaPasse looking for pools of melt water to paint. There was very little melt water this year which is very unusual. We ended up on the dock/boat launch at LaPasse. It was almost too hot to paint but at the end of the dock a cool breeze from the cold Ottawa River kept us comfortable enough to paint. This is my first sketch of the afternoon, done very quickly to get a sense of the design, colour, etc.

Blue Sky

The Bue Sky in the title refers to the name of the dishes pattern. I remember Phil and I bought these dishes in Ottawa before we moved to Parry Sound where I had my first full time position as a nurse many, many years ago. We were so happy to move to a beautiful town in the north on Georgian Bay where Phil could paint and I could have a beautiful, quiet enviroment to live. I spent quite a bit of time on the arranging and drawing of this piece and unfortunately very little on the actual painting. I was pleased with the colour harmony and the composition but the brushwork needs to have had a little less hurry.

Sugar Bowl with Clementines

Yesterday Marina and I painted again together after a pretty long hiatus,  we had a wonderful afternoon.  She is back from Costa Rica with wonderful stories of warm climate, monkeys and all kinds of wild critters visiting their digs.  I was really attracted to a still life set up she was working on and so joined in and painted her set up.

Green Bottle with Plums

I have spent the past few days working with these objects and have done several variations of this painting.  I love the colour of the bottle and have enjoyed so much moving the objects around experimenting with different viewpoints and different compositions.  I admit that this is a pretty traditional view and hope to post some more daring designs in the future.

Ginger Jar and Bamboo

I have been continuing to work on my drawing skills.  This painting was done with Burnt Umber and Titanium White on my palette.  The angles of the sides of the jar were tricky and I found it was a great piece to improve my ability to see properly what was there and not just aimlessly paint what I thought I should be seeing.

Cup and Bottle

Another Value study using Ultramarine Blue and Orange. 

Value Study - Cup and Bottle

I enjoyed painting this small study very much.  I was really trying to be as accurate with the values and the drawing as I could.  I have much to learn!

Arrangements of Ginger Jar and small vessels

Two studies of a favourite ginger jar that I have.  The top one uses a palatte of Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Orange and white, while the bottom one is painted with Ivory Black and Titianium White. 

Value Studies - White Cups

For the dark value in this and the previous study I used burnt umber, which is a nice warm dark.  It is fast drying so don't leave it on your palatte over night or you will be like me and scraping it off  the next day.

Value Studdies

I'm continuing with my work emphasising values and improving my drawing.

Value Studies

A couple of more views of the same white cup.  I am realizing how important is brushwork and accuracy.  I also realise now how the loose brushwork and casual look of many of the paintings of artists that I so admire look that way because the artists have great drawing skills and the ability to make their works look simple and easy.  Behind that loose, easy facade is a firm, hard body of knowledge and technical skill.  Kudos to all those who have spent hours, and hours on learning how to render simple, true objects.
Thank you to readers of my blog who  have returned and continued to follow me after my hiatus through my internet troubles and through the busy holiday season when I didn't post for a while.  I was so happy to see a comment, I can't tell you.

Value Study Series - 2

This small white cup is a favourite of mine.  Marina and I were in New York State at a workshop given by Carol Marine, when we found these sweet little cups plus some other things to paint in one of the stores in the local mall in Greenville.  I have been using the cup in quite a few of my value studies exercises in the past couple of weeks.  I felt that the cup handle came out pretty well in this painting. I find that the handles are tricky to paint, to get the orientation right and the thickness of the various sections of the handle correct.

White Cup

It is great to be back on my blog again!  Ever since my email got hacked I have been experiencing lots of techical problems, including not being able to post any pictures to my blog.  I have been continuing to paint though, and have spent the past few weeks working through some exercises suggested by Liz Wiltzen, specifically painting value studies. It has been really useful, I have learned a lot and have enjoyed the process.

Lily Pond-October

On Barron Canyon Road are many beautiful spots along the way to Algonquin Park, and this is one of my favorites.  I have stopped here and painted several times and photographed the scene at many times of the year.

Late Afternoon, November

This has been an interesting week, I had my email hacked into and then received all sorts of phone calls from friends asking me if I needed money.  The hacker used my email address, changed the user name slightly and solicited money from people on the contact list from my email.  I hope no one has fallen for the scheme, and have recognized it was not me who wrote the request.  Now I have the challenging task of notifying people of my new email address.  Oh well, all in a day, in this techno world in which we live.
The sketch is from a trip up the Ottawa River a few weeks ago, I seemed not to have time to post it until tonight.  The light was extremely warm, as it was late in the day just before sunset.  It got really cold moments after the sunset and hot sweet tea brought by Marina was so appreciated.

Near Tofino

This is a much larger piece than I usually paint.  The inspiration was from a photograph that Marina took near Tofino this summer.   We decided to do the challenge of Gloria Zucaro this week, to paint in the style of a famous artist and since we both admire Lawren Harris we chose the same reference to see how we each would be influenced.  It was really fun to try to paint like you "think" somebody else would have done.  We both learned a lot and and had a wonderful afternoon.  To see Marina's painting of the same subject go to her website from the link of my blog list.

Toaster

And now for something completely different.  Shelly Ross suggested painting your toaster for this weeks Daily Paintworks Challenge.  It is a great idea, the really reflective surface of the metal was exciting to paint.  I was surprized when I looked at the toaster at all of things in the room I could see including the pink stripe on the corner which is me.

Birches at Crooked Slide

I painted this and had some trouble again with photographing.  When I have a lot of blue in the picture the camera seems to add even more blue to places where it really dosen't belong.  Despite the slight squew to blue the colours are fairly accurate.  I love painting the landscape in Ontario, it is so unbeliveably beautiful here.

East of Meath Hill

This sketch is from the same painting day as the Snake River sketch.  Marina and I drove down some back roads looking for interesting compositions.  It was the beautiful yellow poplars against the dark forest interior that caught our eye on this one.

Grey Day on the Snake River

This post has been a long time in coming, we have had a lot of cloudy weather and I have had difficulty in having enough sunny days to photograph my paintings.  I admire those painters who have solved their photographing difficulties and who consistently post great shots of their work on their blogs and Daily Paintworks and other internet sites.   Enough with the woes!  Marina and I went to the Snake River east of Pembroke and I very bravely drove our old Dodge Caravan down the railway line where the tracks had been lifted a few months ago.  We stood on the old railway bridge and got these great shots up and down the river.  It was a very atmospheric day, gloomy and haunting.  When it was time to leave Marina said to me where are you going to turn around, knowing there was no place I said I'm a great backerupper, and we backed up down the old railway line at least a half a mile. I know she was very glad when we finally reached the gravel sideroad. Another wonderful painting experience!

Dusk - Variation 1

This sketch like the one before it was painted very quickly from the photo that I took on the way home from Crooked Slide Park,  I really like the image and have enjoyed exploring different ways of portraying the sky and water at this time of day.  I would like to take more time and do several large paintings using the ideas from these sketches.

Dusk

The sun had gone down and Sue, Marina, and I were on the way to the Wilno Tavern on a Tuesday evening when we saw this beautiful sunset.  The sun was already below the hills and although the sky and water were still very bright the trees and land in the foreground were dark,dark, dark.We stopped and aahed, unable to paint anymore that day being cold and tired.  I took some photos to remind me of the scene with the intention of working up a sketch and maybe a larger painting during the winter.

On the way to Crooked Slide

Today my painting buddies Marina and Sue are on a workshop in South Carolina given by Ian Robarts.  I am missing them and am posting a small landscape I painted from a photo that I took when we all went to Crooked Slide Park together just after Thanksgiving.  I know that they are having a wonderful time out all day painting and learning valuable lessons from Ian.  Painting is such a joy, and to have friends to share this joy with is truly a blessing.