Village Scene

Village Scene is an exercise in doing a variegated wash which means that you start with one colour at the top of your paper and slowly change or blend colours as you go to the bottom. I copied this scene from my DVD Watercolor course. I am very pleased with it. I really like the colours and how they blend so well. The painting was done with only three colours therefore it is kind of hard to go wrong. I also like the 'glow' of the sky just behind the church and houses.

Little White Church in the Snow 2

Little White Church in the Snow 2 is similar to the other snow scene I did however, again, I wanted to try out some different techniques such getting the snow to look more random and adding a moon. I really like the atmosphere I achieved in this little painting.

Little White Church at Night

Little White Church at Night was a painting exercise in practicing a flat wash. For this technique the painter tries to get a uniform layer of colour (in this case, blue) on the paper. Once it dried I painted the scene with the church. The wash was done as part of an instructional DVD course that I bought this fall. However I chose to do my own scene rather than copy the one given on the DVD since the flat wash was something that I already knew so I decided to play a little.

Little White Church at Sunrise

Little White Church at Sunrise is a painting exercise in doing a gradated wash which means that you start with a dark colour (blue in this case) and as you advance down the paper you gradually add more water to the paint until it almost fades out at the bottom. After the blue wash dried I painted the church and bushes etc. This gives a totally different feel to the painting than the flat wash did.

Little White Church in the Snow

My inspiration for the atmosphere of Little White Church in the Snow came from looking out my back window at dusk. I had already done my first two paintings of the Little White Church so when I looked out and saw that the white of the snow was just a blue glow when the sun has set I decided I should try yet another Little White Church painting. I achieved the 'glowing' snow by 'scrubbing' out the blue from the flat wash once everything else was dry.

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels is an experimental watercolour painting done on a textured Gessoed canvas. Normally you would use Gesso to prepare a surface for an acrylic or oil painting. The watercolour paints do not absorb into the surface therefore makes it a bit different to apply. I saw someone use this technique at an art show in Perth Ontario this past summer and thought that it would be a neat thing to try. The ridges in the Gesso help to convey the idea of veins in the leaves and texture in the stones.
My husband, Matthew, thought that this painting was a test for colour blindness! Since he is somewhat colour blind, the leaves on the pebbly background do not jump out at him.
This experimental painting has been an interesting learning experience for me.

Dry - Docked Boats

Dry - Docked Boats is an acrylic painting done on five separate canvases. I do not have a lot of experience with acrylic painting so this work was a major learning experience for me. I must say there are many advantages to using acrylics. This painting was completed over almost a year with much encouragement and urging from my kids and husband. I found it very difficult to paint since the photo that I used was not the most vibrant and inspiring photo and also I wanted to change some elements of the photo to make it a nicer (at least I think so) painting. My real inspiration came from seeing these boats in 'real life' in Shippigan, New Brunswick and immediately thinking that they would make a great painting. I was so happy that this painting was finally completed that I held an official 'unveiling' party to celebrate.

Sparrow at Feeder

Finch at Feeder

Now that the cooler weather is setting in we have set up our bird feeder outside our kitchen windows. I always enjoy watching the different types of birds which come to dine.

Child at Play

Nuthatch

Amos

Nathaniel 2

Nathaniel 2 is a miniature version of a painting that I did last year. See October 2008.