A Still Life

I accept that painting "still lifes" is a great exercise and good practice but I love people and being outdoors so I get no great joy out of painting a still life.  The second Wednesday of every month the BFAA sets up a still life in the studio.  I am not very good at painting them probably because it is work for me but they do help me to practice looking more and painting less.

Grindstone Marsh

I haven't been down here in years.  It is another very quiet valley leading into Burlington Bay.  It was about 8 C with only a bit of wind so I was quite comfortable.  The clouds were thick with only occasionally a hole where the sun could peek through. The scene presented a bit of a challenge because the marsh was almost devoid of water and I had no idea how to make it read as mud.  I scraped the foreground off more than a couple of times before I finally managed one that I was okay with.  We have a lot of marshes and mud flats in this area so I really need to work on painting them.

It was another great day to paint.

About eight of us met to paint at Princess Point today.  It was cool (about 3 C) and mostly cloudy. My hands got cold but not so cold that they affected my painting.  I am pleased with this.  I think that I managed to capture the mood of the day towards the end of the painting period.  The light was starting to get low and had a nice warm glow.

Wind what wind?

A major wind storm came through southern Ontario and we were down by Cootes Paradise painting with the wind howling over our heads.  We had arranges to meet Martha Laverty Allan , another Ontario Plein Air Society member who is visiting from the Ottawa area, and we were determined to paint.  The clouds were billowing in the wind and every once in a while the sun would come out and light up a section of the landscape.

I was pleased with this painting and it is starting to grow on me.

I had a blogspot blog before I started my blog on my website so I kept copying from one to the other and kept them both going as mirrors of each other.  As I got busy the Blogspot one fell behind.  I have updated the Blogspot blog and I have linked it to my website so from now on there will only be the one blog.

Stress? What stress?

I didn't like this at all when I finished it but it is starting to grow on me. I am still not especially happy with it but I have been struggling lately so I am okay with it.  It was a gorgeous fall day and I was down by the water at Cootes Paradise looking back into Westdale Inlet.


I have been very busy getting ready for shows lately and I haven't been very focused when painting. Usually when I get outside with my paints nothing interferes but shows are always stressful and I guess four at once is just too much.


I found another jurried show but I think that I might just pass on this one.

It is great to be busy

Lots of great things happening but I am starting to get a bit overwhelmed.  I was at a reception on Friday at the Capital One offices in Toronto.  The Ontario Plein Air Society currently has a jurried show in their offices and I have two paintings hanging in it.
This Saturday I am headed back to Toronto for a reception at the Hangman Gallery.  OPAS is having a members group show there and I have four paintings hanging in it.
The Burlington Fine Arts Association juried show is coming up and I need to get two paintings framed and ready to submit to it by November 3rd.  It will be tough to get juried into that one because there is limited space and some very talented artists vying for it.
Finally the biggie.  I have a solo show at St James Anglican Church in Dundas for the month of December.  I need to get thirty paintings framed and ready in the next couple of weeks.  I am going to make the frames so I have a bit of work to do. I am really excited about this one,  It is a great venue and the curator was my art teacher in grades 7 and 8.

I very rarely work on a plein air painting after the session because they can very quickly lose their freshness.   However, this painting had a glaring problem.  I didn't like it at all before but I am actually quite pleased with it now.  The difference in colour between versions is my poor photography.  The original posting is closer to the correct hues.

I am looking forward to painting tomorrow.