Cathedral

Cathedral is a painting of a location along a trail that I walk my dog several times a week. It is my favourite section of trail especially when the sun is low.

This painting did not come easily. It went through many transitions before it finally captured the mood that I was aiming for. I was about to give up and paint over it but thanks to one of my artist friends who encouraged me, challenged me, made many suggestions and taught me a lot along the way, I was able to bring this painting to the place where I am satisfied with the result. Sometimes it takes a community to create a painting. Thanks Mike!

Winter Blues

Winter Blues is a painting that I started several years ago and never finished. My son actually had the unfinished painting hanging on his wall for a year or so until I decided that it was time to finish it. 
I challenged myself with a limited palette for  this one. I wanted to do a relatively monochromatic painting so to this end I used a blue, a complimentary orange and white. The orange was used mainly to darken and neutralize the blue.
This is a scene that I photographed at Mer Bleue in Ottawa during late afternoon a day or so after we had some freezing rain. With the low sun and the ice on the trees it was a magical moment. Unfortunately, I was not able to capture the glittering ice in my painting but I am still pleased with the lighting and the painting as a whole. I feel that there is still something magical about the scene.

Painting Workshop

This past summer I had the opportunity to participate in a four-day outdoor painting workshop at one of  my all time  favourite places - Killbear Provincial Park - on the Georgian Bay. One thing that made this workshop extra special was that I was able to introduce one of my good painting friends to the park.
Each morning we would leave the lodge in which we were staying to spend the day painting on location. In the evenings, after our day of painting, in which we usually completed two paintings, we would have a time of group critique. Our instructors of the week encouraged us to try painting in this 'group of seven / folk art' style of painting. I really enjoyed this since I had been trying to push my boundaries in painting this summer.  Included here are what I consider three of my more successful paintings of the week.
This workshop was a very enjoyable and inspiring experience.

The Wild Side

The Wild Side is an example of a plein air painting that did not work on location but I saw some good elements happening that inspired me to do a painting in the studio.
There were several things that happened with this painting that are so 'not me'. First, I decided that I wanted to go big! All that I had when the urge came upon me to paint this painting was several 16" X 20" canvases so I decided to use two of them side by side. The other thing that I decided was that I wanted to deviate from actual colours and that I wanted a yellow sky. I also experimented with mixing the colours directly on the canvas which I feel gives it more depth. The original plein air painting was done in early June but I ended up with fall colours instead and I like it!!!
So why the deviations? I think that I was influenced by a couple of factors: This painting was done soon after participating in an art show where several people suggested that I do some bigger paintings. Also, at the time I had been looking at other artist's blogs and books which were a great inspiration to me to do something different from my usual.

North Channel - Geogian Bay

These are three paintings done while sailing in the North Channel this past summer. The two 'tree-ones' are watercolour and ink while the one with the boats is an Acrylic. They are all rather small - approx 5" X 7" since I don't want to take large canvases on our 25' - sailboat and I don't have much time in which to paint. The North Channel - Georgian Bay is definitely worthy of painting; I am sure the Group of Seven did some of their paintings in this area.

Into the Light

Into the Light is a painting done from a photo I took while sailing in the Channel Islands in BC. I was drawn to the early morning sunlight coming through the trees.
While painting this composition I learned a lot about colours - especially about using warm and cool colours. I was able to learn these things through the valuable critiques of fellow artists at my weekly drop in group painting sessions.

Sunbeams

Preliminary Painting

Sunbeams was inspired by a photo I took one morning in September while we were camping at Sauble Falls in the Bruce Peninsula. The mornings were quite cold so people down the road from us had a very smoky fire going which really accentuated the early morning sun coming through the trees. I love being able to see sunbeams.

Finished Painting

I wasn't sure if I would post this painting quite yet since it is in the spirit of what I learned at a workshop back in November given by Charlie Spratt about being loose in Acrylic painting. Really, I should have first posted the paintings done during that workshop but both of those still need a bit of work before posting and who knows when I will do the required work. I describe the techniques used to paint Sunbeams as being a painting 'a la Charlie Spratt'. I did the preliminary monochromatic painting on the canvas without a prior pencil sketch. When this was dry I painted the colours over top. in one sense I found this difficult since I really liked my preliminary painting and was afraid of ruining the effects that I had captured. On the other hand it is a really good way of laying in a painting without worrying about getting it exactly right - that is really freeing!

This past winter I bought a book featuring the paintings of The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson and also a book featuring a painter named Bruno Cote who paints with a similar style. My purpose for buying these books was to be inspired by the style since I would like to be able to paint using a similar style. I feel that I may have approached a Group of Sevenish style in my foreground trees in Sunbeams.

Walk in the Woods

Walk in the Woods is an acrylic painting that I did from a photo that I took while doing a hike in Hamilton while visiting my parents. I used a black canvas as a starting point since I wanted to see how this would affect the colours of the paints. Also I was watching a video on YouTube which talks about being able to achieve more depth by leaving some of the canvas exposed. Finally I was hoping that by starting with a dark canvas I could really accent the light in this painting. I am not sure that I achieved all my goals but I am pleased with the outcome of the painting and did learn a few things in the process such as getting the rocks to look textured. Every painting is an adventure and a learning experience.

Two Trees

Two Trees is a painting which I attempted to do in the impressionistic / Group of Seven style. This one was done on a piece of Masonite board rather than canvas. I struggled with this since it was a much smoother surface than what I am used to.