WIP – Twilight – Stage II
It’s funny how we humans seem to be so afraid of fear. Every time we try something new, we are bound to feel it. We approach things with a set of expectations and wishes that we are certain when the idea first comes that we will fulfill. Then the reality hits…..! This painting has certainly [...]
WIP – Twilight
Well – I have been juggling projects this week, but, as I promised, here is the block in for my new painting “Twilight”. The canvas is 36″x24″. That is the largest canvas that I have worked with in a little while. I am very excited to see how this one progresses. (WIP is work in [...]
Winter's Return
Winter’s Return, 24×36, acrylic Winter has returned with a vengeance around here and as I struggle in the studio with new pieces, I tend to look back at some of my favourite paintings. I can get frustrated with what I am doing and ask myself, why do I keep trying? That is usually a good [...]
Making a Field Colour Chart
I thought it might be a good idea for those of you interested in using field colour to explain how I painted my charts. It is a valuable exercise, even if you use a more direct method of painting and don’t use a variety of colours in your underpaintings. In this post I will explain [...]
More Painting with Field Colour
Before I go into my post for today… A note to my e-mail subscribers! Posts coming into your e-mail boxes are now abbreviated (as of January 18, 2008). It is an unfortunate side effect to changing it on my feeds. To see the full post click on the post title and it will take you [...]
Field Colour
Early in 2007, I took a course with contemporary realist painter Scott Owles. Scott is an affable guy with a great sense of humour and, what’s more, a fantastic teacher and artist. I had no practical training in fine art previous to this as my art education is in graphic design. Many of the principles [...]
Painting from Photographs – III
Here is the final painting from the photograph I have been working with: Winter at Muskoka Beach, 16×20 Colour is always an issue when painting from photographs. With this one, the challenges were in how to decide how much I should saturate the colours that were not in the blue field. I didn’t want the [...]
Painting from Photographs – II
So we have been out taking reference photographs….. One thing I forgot to mention is that your photographs need not only be of complete compositions. Your photos can be of particular skies, trees, water, a field, whatever, because the great thing about painting is that you can mix and match different photographs to make a [...]
Painting from Photographs – I
I am currently working on a painting of a cold day at South Bay, Lake Muskoka from some photographs I shot on Wednesday. (I have attached one photo below) Over the next few posts, we will look at the process of why and how I get my photographs and how I use my them in [...]
Art of Observation – A Creative Exercise
Winter has arrived in Muskoka… For some this means snowmobiling, winter cottaging, ice fishing – the staples of our winter sports are around the corner. For many artists, it means time in the studio. I love painting winter, but, I paint from photographs. My blood does not suit setting up a tent and painting plein [...]
