Happy Holidays

I think that I am going through withdrawal again.  I haven't held a paintbrush in over two weeks because of a nasty cold, poor weather and then Christmas.  I did have a great Christmas with family and friends and am healthy again so I am itching to get out painting.

This is a painting of our youngest grandson Max and the gift that I was working on.  I painted this as a demo during the Art Gallery of Burlington Christmas show and sale.  I was working in the hallway and at least a couple of hundred people watched and/or chatted with me at various times.  I wasn't at all happy with it but I lightened and blued the dark green background, warmed up his sweater a bit and softened some edges.  I am very happy with it now and am thinking that it is time that I did more portraits in oils.

We are thinking of heading up to Paudash Lake for New Years and I can't wait to get out painting up there again.

I Love my Job

Creativity for me is so unpredictable. Today was 4 C and cloudy and on top of that I was painting an urban scene which is not one of my favourite things to do.  All that should have conspired against me but I ended up having a good day.

This is not one of my best paintings however it is probably the first urban scene that I have ever been close to happy with.  Picone's grocery store in Dundas is getting ready to celebrate its hundredth anniversary and it has been in the same family the whole time.  I have often thought of painting it and I will likely do it again at some point.


This took me three hours and at the end my fingers were so cold and stiff that I could hardly control the brush.  It is usually tough to decide when a painting is finished but winter makes it easier.

I am Delighted

Tuesday was a great day.  It was about -2 C and cloudy.  It was the last Catherine Gibbon class this semester and since Debbie and I live about a hundred metres from the park I invited everyone back for an after class social.  It was delightful doing the critique with wine in hand.

This is my painting.  It is another of the many black willows down in Warren Park.  The light was very flat and I wanted to capture the visually warm feeling on a cold day.  I am not sure how I feel about this painting.  It is one that I will have to look at for a while to decide.

Now for the reason that I am delighted.  I had four paintings hanging in the Ontario Plein Air Society annual show in the Project Gallery in the art district on Queen Street East in Toronto.  Twenty-eight very accomplished artists were showing well over a hundred pieces and I was proud to be included.  Eight or so paintings sold and when I went to pick up my paintings yesterday I was delighted to discover a red dot beside one of mine.


This is "Coming This Way" the painting that sold.  We were camping in Wilberforce and the forecast was for severe thunderstorms and gale force winds.  This was painted in a hurry with an eye to the sky.

Gone South

It was about 2 C and very windy today but eight of us braved the elements to paint at Princess Point again.  It was one of those days where the light was constantly changing and the wind was rattling my board around but it was great to be out there with brush in hand,  It always is.

I noticed this bird box framed by the willow and sticking up out of the weeds and grasses last week but it was too exposed and windy to paint them.  It was even colder and windier this week but I was determined to paint them.  I am not sure if I am happy with this or not.  I will have to look at it for a while.

Next week we are supposed to be in downtown Dundas.  I really struggle with buildings and I am rarely successful but I love a challenge.  Especially in locations with lots of pedestrian traffic. Not!

Of Trees and People

Catherine Gibbon has me thinking more and more about developing a vision to direct my work.  She also suggested that I find a place that I have a strong attachment to and start painting there regularly.  I have been pondering both.  Last week our class painted in Warren Park which is right at the end of our street and was a childhood haunt. I had an epiphany.  I have many fond memories of that park and I love trees with all their distinctive personalities so why not do a series of paintings of trees in Warren Park.



This painting was painted Monday at Princess Point.  It was pouring rain when we got there and only three of us stuck around.  The rain did stop and we even got moments of sunshine which lit up this sycamore tree in front of a very dark and angry sky.  If I had used my brush strokes to show the contours of the ground this would have been much better.



This tree was a huge old willow painted in Catherine's class on Tuesday.  It was very cool in hue and the background was very warm.  I struggled to make this work to no avail and actually scraped off more paint than I put on this board.  I realized with this painting that I need to paint portraits of trees and not just trees.  I hear Catherine saying "Don't paint a tree.  Paint that tree."

I felt that I need a change so on Wednesday I took my watercolours to the sketch group.  The model was Melissa with her three month old daughter Ellie.  She was looking down with a look of pure adoration and I wanted to capture that feeling.  It has been quite a while since I painted a portrait in watercolour and I wasn't very successful but it was fun I plan on using them more when we have portrait models.  Yes the baby's head is much bigger that I made it.



I was always concerned that I would paint too much and burn out but the opposite is proving to be true. I have become addicted to painting.

It's Woolies Time

Four of us painted outside today.  Oh what fun.  It was -10 C with a gusting wind that drove the temperature with the wind chill to -23 C.  My oil paints got thicker and thicker until they finally froze solid enough that I could no longer work with them.  This will be my third winter painting outside with oil paints and this is the first time ever that I  couldn't paint.

This is what my palette looked like while I was working.  The problem may have been more the blowing snow mixing with the paint than the actual cold.  When I could work it the paint was more like wet sand than paint.




This is my painting on my easel.  It is far from finished but it is as far as I could go with it and there is so much snow mixed in with the paint that it will be a mess when it thaws.  I would love to carry this farther and especially darken and grey the tree which is way to brown but the whole thing is far to unstable to even think about it.




This is the view that I was attempting.  It is just outside an artist friends back door so I was tempted to duck inside but it is better to just get used to the cold.

It sounds as if it was a miserable experience but I had a blast.  I was outside surrounded with snow holding a paintbrush.  I still love my job.

What a Fall

Most of the reds and oranges are long gone but the yellows and golds just keep hanging on.  We didn't have much of a summer but this fall is fantastic for those of us who paint outside.

Monday we were at La Salle Park and I forgot my non darkening glasses so I struggled with the colour and values in this one.  I tried a new method of painting and rubbing out and I am sure it will work quite well with practice.  I thinned the paint too much when I started the sky so it is a bit muddy but I will keep working this way because it is fun and different.

Tuesday we went to Tew's Falls and the Spencer Gorge for Catherine Gibbon's class.  It was very windy and started raining a bit towards the end.  I am not at all happy with this painting. I couldn't decide on a good composition and instead of sorting it out I just started painting.  I know better than to start a painting with important issues unresolved.  A long narrow board would have been better too.

I was at Princess Point at eight thirty this morning and glad that I was.  It was very damp and misty and about 6 C but the view was to die for.  There was still some colour in the distant hills and Coote's Paradise was like glass so everything was reflected in it.  I kept the horizon low so that I could keep the damp hazy feel to the painting and I think that it worked okay.  I would rather the sky was a bit warmer but other than that and the lollipop trees on the left I am very happy with this.  I can and may fix those in my studio.

I was always concerned that if I started painting too much it would become work and I would lose interest in it but the exact opposite seems to be happening.  The more that I get out and paint the more I want to get out.