After a Retouch

I was pretty happy with the way Monday's painting turned out however I saw some things that I thought could be improved.  This painting was just an experiment and not one that I would put up for sale so I decided to play with it.  In the process I learned a few things.  It is indeed hard for me to mentally go back to where I was when I first painted it.  I thought that the sky needed darkening at the top to give it more depth and I was right.  I was also right in my decision to cool the far escarpment again to give it more depth.  The field did indeed need to have more golden glow and less purple but glazing with opaque colours does not work very well.

The fact that I cannot get the freshness in my studio that comes so easily outdoors was strongly reinforced.  I find painting outdoors joyful even when I fail but painting in my studio is drudgery for the most part.  I need to spend more time in my studio to increase my comfort zone there.

All in all it was a lesson well learned.  I like the composition of the touched up version better but I did lose a lot of the freshness.

Still Playing

We gathered at Dyments Market at the top of Sydenham Rd. to paint today.  It was a fantastic day to paint.  When we got there the sky was clear blue and created amazing lighting on the warm yellow fields with the escarpment across the valley as the very distant background.  The clouds began to slowly roll in almost as soon as we started painting and kept coming until the sky was stormy and grey.  Everyone had a very different sky depending on when they happened to paint it.

I decided that with a stormy sky and the warm yellow in the fields it would be a perfect time to take another stab at using the purple and yellow primaries to paint.  This painting was done with a warm purple and a warm yellow with just a little ultramarine blue to get dark shadows.  And of course white.  I had fun with this but I may play with it a little tomorrow.  Looking at it with a fresh mind I see that the top of the sky should be darker, the fields should be more yellow and the distant hills should be cooler.  Yellow in the clouds should be less intense and everything could be softened a bit.  I am excited about this though.  It may be good to create a painting with the primaries and then add some other hues to make it a bit more realistic.

Hmmmmm.

A Day at the Beach

Has it really been almost three weeks since I used my oils?  I spent a busy week getting ready for our canoe trip and then paddled for five awesome days.  When we got home we were exhausted and had house chores to get caught up on.

Today six of us met on Burlington Beach to paint.  It is a fantastic place to relax and stare out over the water but I find it rather uninspiring to paint.  Lots of sand, water and very distant vistas. I decided to paint the beach and the lift bridge towers leaving out all the ugly hydro towers.    This was painted with blue and orange with just enough yellow to make a green.  I maybe should have left out the yellow and used blue and orange to make a muted green for the trees.

It was wonderful weather wise.  The lake was calm and it would have been quite hot except for a cool breeze off the water.

Struggling Again

I am struggling with my landscapes again but it is intentional.  I am playing with what I learned from John Anderson but not very successfully.  I have been painting a lot but so far outside my comfort zone that I have produced nothing that I could post without being embarrassed.  I will keep at it and post when I feel that it won't damage my ego too much.

Every once in a while I complete a portrait that I am really excited about.  When a portrait is successful I can actually see the person when I look at the sketch or painting.  I don't see the artwork but the actual person. When it happens I feel like I must have captured something more of that person than just a likeness and it works with this sketch of Philip.  He has a very intense but warm look in his eyes and is obviously very comfortable with who he is.  I liked him immediately and maybe that is what helps produce a good portrait.

This one excites me.

Oh What a Week!

I spent last week at the Haliburton School of the Arts in Haliburton Ontario.  I took a beginners plein air oil painting course with John Anderson.  I love John's work and hoped that I could learn a little about how he paints.  I was in mental overload by about Tuesday.  We painted ten paintings in five days and learned far more than I could process at the time.  I will have to work with it and hope that I can remember at least some of what he taught.

We spent a good part of the week working with two colours.  He would give us a pair of complimentary colours and demo a painting with them.  We would then emulate his painting.  This was painted on Tuesday with Blue and orange  with just a little orange-yellow to create the greens.





This painting was painted on Wednesday morning using purple and yellow.  It was a huge pine tree with the top missing in the middle of a field.




This one was done Wednesday afternoon using only red and green.  I have the tree trunks too thick and the house too large but it was a fun exercise.





On Thursday we went to a farm that had been in the same family since 1912.  At this point we were allowed to open up our pallets and use whatever colours we wanted and we could wander the farm an decide what we wanted to paint.  I tried red/green with this field but just had to pull out the yellow to catch the glow on the top of the hill.  The clouds are a bit too white but I like this.

On Friday we went to Ritchie Falls and again chose our own subject and palette.  Most artists went to the lower falls but three of us chose to paint the falls under the bridge.  I have the rocks on the left too close in hue to the water.  I should have cooled the rocks a bit more.  This isn't a great painting but I was exhausted by this point in the week so I am pretty happy with it.


I am already looking forward to taking John Anderson's advanced plein air class next summer.  It was a very intense painting experience.  I can't wait to get out with the Monday Painters today.

Finally Some Time

In the last three weeks Debbie and I have co-hosted a meet of about two dozen watercolour artists and some of their spouses from as far away as England and Australia and I have curated an exhibit of 53 paintings by fourteen artists at the Dundas Museum and Archives.  I have had little time to paint and even less time to post.  Both were huge successes so I can relax and get down to some serious painting now.  Once I find the leak in the pool that is.




This first painting is of Paletta Mansion in Burlington Ontario.  It has a huge porch on the front with a cupola on top of it.  The house is stone but the trim and cupola are a warm tan colour that glowed in the warm sun.  I was pressed for time and rushed the windows and trees at the end.




This second painting was painted yesterday at Sherman Falls.  We had about twenty Monday Painters out.  I think that just maybe the group show has inspired everyone.  I am pleased with this painting.





A small group of the watercolour painters went out to paint the town of Dundas.  We sat in the hot sun across from the Carnegie Gallery and sketched. This is my journal sketch.




This last sketch was done on Saturday.  We went to Sarnia to visit friends who gave us the grand tour.  We needed a break so I sat and sketched under the Bluewater Bridge.  It is unbelievable how turquoise the water in the St Clair River is.

Monday Painters Show

About fifteen years ago a group of eager students in Catherine Gibbon's outdoor landscape class at the Dundas Valley School of art decided to get together once a week, outside of class, to paint.  The group is very informal (a mailing list ) with one member sending out an email each week to let everyone know where we are painting.  We paint outdoors all year and I have been painting with them for a couple of years now.

I am excited to say that fourteen of us are having a group show, in which I will have four paintings.  It is titled "Plein Air Painters at Large" and will be hanging at the Dundas Museum and Archives from June 16th until August 18th with the artist reception on June 19th from 5:30 pm until 8:30 pm.  It will be a good selection of contemporary landscapes by local artists and everyone reading this is invited to come join us.