A friend told me that the "Weather of Ontario" is now in stores. They even bought a copy. I have yet to see a copy but am hopeful it is what I have envisioned.A friend told me that the "Weather of Ontario" is now in stores. They even bought a copy. I have yet to see a copy but am hopeful it is what I have envisioned.
The bay was calm like glass and the tide was really out when I started. During the painting, a brisk onshore breeze set up and the tide came roaring back in. The gentle swell from the ocean met the equally gentle outflow from the harbour. The odd fishing boat came back into port and the black ducks and gulls kept me company. I will paint here again.
Water mixable oil is not a great medium for plein air painting. The paint changed from buttery to gluey as I worked. Whether this was the result of the sun and the wind or the humidity, it is difficult to tell without further exploration – something that I don’t care to do. The work was successful but I don’t enjoy painting with glue.
When I was virtually finished, the painting blew off the easel. Water splashed on the canvas and I got gravel from the wharf into the paint. I grinned and packed it up and left my supplies on Eleanor’s back porch. I started back to Shad Bay by following the 5 or 6 kilometre path along the ocean through the Barrens. It was a wonderful hike. The shoreline was littered with the remains of lobster pots, wood and ropes. 16x20
A stable layer aloft and high altocumulus created gravity wave lines in the sky. The incoming tide and an island well to the left created elongated swirls and deformation zone “calm bands” in Shad Bay. The tides and storm cleaning the rocks on the far shore of Shad Bay created another set of line. The rust colour sea weed clinging to the rocks below this tide line created yet another line. The bands of spruce and deciduous trees on the far shore created a patchwork of lines. The home on the far shore with its paved, black top drive headed down to the ocean’s edge, created unnatural lines. I put them all in. 11x14 inches Water Mixable Oils
Two week old Olivia seldom opened her eyes at the start of the week. This changed rapidly day by day as she became more in tune with her surroundings. By November 14th, Olivia spent much more time alert! I have a happy face in every sun … and “Olivia” subtlety included in the painting as well.!
A cold front passed by Watershed Farm near dawn. There were a few hours of showers and then the typical clearing with brisk northwesterly winds. The air was cooler and drier. The gusty winds lifted the moisture to condensation and streets of turbulent stratocumulus parallel to the mean wind direction in the planetary boundary layer results. As I was painting, the clouds became flatter topped and more blue sky appeared between the cloud streets. The air was almost cool and the geese and blue jays were talking like fall had already arrived. I think this is a powerful painting inspired by the moment.
I stood on the front hill of Watershed Farm looking northeastward almost perpendicular to the cloud streets. I had to stake down my easel with my tent cord and a spare brush.
Outstanding in front of the barn again just after 8 am. The types and colours of the perennial flowers and weeds have changed since the last time I stood here. The title is intended to be a bit of a humourous alliteration. Linda mentioned that she wanted another painting of flowers and this is it. Oils on cobalt blue tinted acrylic foundation on commercial canvas - 16 X 20
This is a decorative piece in which I wanted to have fun with positive and negative shapes without getting into the details of leaves and twigs and the tiny bugs on those twigs. The feeling of the forest can be captured without laying in all of the deadening details. At the same time, the character of the trees within the forest can be captured without including each tree. The saying goes that often, one cannot see the forest for the trees. I see the trees but wanted to paint the forest in a decorative way. My hope is that anyone seeing this will subconsciously appreciate the beauty in the individual trees that make up the forest. Moreover, I want them to come away appreciating the simplified overall beauty of the forest which is a complete and healthy ecosystem composed of trees that man should not mess with.
I still paint what I see but it is getting easier as I need glasses more often. I just wanted to have some fun!
This is the view to the east from the front yard of Watershed Farm. It is mid afternoon and fair weather cumuli have developed in the northwesterly flow. These cells are slightly capped by a layer but some cumulus clouds like the main subject and the one in the right background, have erupted through this cap. The clouds are sheared toward the southeast indicating strong northwesterly winds above the cap. Nothing bad was going to happen with these particular cumuli. It was a fair weather day ahead of an upper ridge. My main goal was to have fun with the colours and to try to capture the cloud and its texture without making the hard cumulus appear like a boulder in the sky. Clouds can be like "ink blots" to fathom the inner workings of the mind. Everyone sees something different - sometimes very different! I was just painting what I saw...
This is the campsite on the south shore of the big island in McCrae Lake on one of the first voyages of my Kevlar canoe "Margaritaville". It is early on a cool August morning. There was some Arctic sea smoke wafting off the warm summer water of the lake. I had Margaritaville pulled up on a patch of weed in a natural crevice in the granite. One would not want to scratch the finish just like one wouldn\'t want to dent a new car. Those fears are long gone but the memories linger. I was loading up the canoe with our fishing equipment. The little yellow, plastic box held surface lures - my favourite. Oils on medium burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 16 X 20 (inches)
I was standing on the front hill at 8 am looking toward the east. The deck of low stratocumulus was pushing in from the south while higher altocumulus was nearly stationary awaiting the sun to burn through it. It was a dark morning after the supercells of the previous day but it promised to be hot and muggy and much sunnier by noon. The energy was still around for more thunderstorms and there was still a lot of veering wind shear associated with the upper low to the northwest. I only had a couple of hours to paint this rather dark dawn to a new day which promised to be full of thunderstorms again. It was sunny by the time I finished.
