Landscape Theme and Variation 1, 2 &3

I spent most of July at a cottage 'up north'. I only had minimal art supplies because I knew that I wouldn't really have anywhere to set up an easel and spread out, as I am want to do. I have already posted some abstracts that I painted then but I also did these 'variations on a landscape theme'. I was really happy with the way they turned out and the range of interpretation. Two of them have found their forever homes, however #1 is still available! Cheers.

#1 - 11" x 11" - acrylic on paper - $45

#2 - 11" x 11" acrylic on paper - SOLD

#3 - 11" X 11" acrylic on paper - SOLD

Hot Flash

Hot Flash

12" x 12" - acrylic on canvas - $65

This is the second panel of what I thought was going to be a landscape triptych, but is now a stand alone work. I settled on this composition and colour scheme quite quickly and really liked the mass of trees and tree canopy, suggested through lots of blacks lines, more easily seen in the detail below.... 

 And I have to add here that it was difficult adjust the reds, oranges and pinks in the photo of this painting. I did my best to get something that was accurate, but I have to say, that the actual painting in life, is much better!

Turning Up the Heat

Turning Up the Heat

12" x 12" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

Last week I decided to work on a triptych and 'create' a landscape, rather than base it on any particular place. My initial loose and crazy drawing across all three panels was exciting as was the colour scheme - reds, pink, oranges and yellows. At different points, parts of each panel were great, but as I continued to paint (overpaint) one of them became more problematic. (Note that I am not even showing these panels!) Eventually, I saw that the three compositions did not work together, and one was a write-off. This is one of the two, now individual paintings, I completed and am pretty happy with. 

Nova Scotia South Shore

Nova Scotia South Shore

30" x 40" - (mostly) acrylic on canvas - $600

This has been kicking around my studio since 2016. The year before that I spent a couple of weeks in the Maritimes including Nova Scotia. As we drove along the South Shore (of the Atlantic, south of Halifax, near Lunenburg) I snapped this photo, liking the composition and seeing 'painting possibilities'.

A year later I finally got around to working with it and started this way...

....but then the painting languished, against a wall, though I am not sure why. A year later in 2017, I changed the palette entirely.  And in the interim between then and now I painted an abstracted version of it.

Recently, I picked it up again and decided to finish it 'once and for all'. I felt it just really needed some more variation in the colour values and blue hues and that's what I did. NOW I am very happy with it: love the palette, loose brushwork, and addition of pastel and ink linear marks. Some details are below. Thanks for looking!

Nature's Gift

Nature's Gift

14" x18" - acrylic on canvas - sold

In June a friend commissioned a smallish landscape painting for a mutual friend who was retiring from teaching. This is the finished work.  I didn't set out to use such a warm and predominantly pink palette. It resulted from starting with a magenta coloured ground, and as I painted I realized how much I was liking the base colour, so began to vary it but maintain it too. My friend who commissioned the painting was very happy with it, and our friend who received it was thrilled. And so am I that it worked out so well.

better days ahead

better days ahead

12" x12" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

It's now five weeks since my fall and I recently decided to try to paint with acrylic on small canvases propped on the table and therefore using my wrists more than large shoulder and arm movements. And of course I worked carefully and for not long periods of time. So over the course of several days this is what I finished. I was quite please with the result and I had a good time too! It's based on a portion of a photo I took many years ago while traveling on Prince Edward Island. The colour palette is my own. Cheers! 

Uncharted Waters

Uncharted Waters

acrylic & inktense pencils on heavy archival paper - 11" x 13" - $50

This painting was inspired by another that I finished recently - a larger (24" x 30") acrylic work on canvas. I have painted this subject (reflections in water of shoreline, trees and rocks) many times, in a variety of ways ranging from somewhat naturalistic to fairly stylized and abstract. Once I finished the larger painting, I continued to think about extending it into another and because working on paper gives one a sense of a freedom and allows mixing of media more easily, it was the surface of choice. I am quite happy with the results. Unfortunately the surface qualities and transparency of the colour layers does not come through on the screen as well as in life, but that's life in the digital age, I guess. 

Below is the first painting, which I am still contemplating. Now, not so sure it is finished.....any comments?

30 in 30 - Day 26 - Candyland

Candyland

8" x 11" - pastel over acrylic - SOLD

It's day 26 in the Challenge!

30 in 30: Day 15 - Summertime Memory

Summertime Memory

6" x 8"  - watercolour, gouache & charcoal on watercolour paper - $30

Trees, rocks and sky in summer, rendered in brilliant colour,  a good antidote for the winter greys. This little watercolour is day 15's offering in the 30 in 30 challenge. Getting there, day by day.....

Goult Topiary Trees Abstracted

Goult Topiary Trees

10.5" x 13"  - acrylic on Canson canva paper

On the final painting day of my two week sojourn at Les Bassacs in September, we went to the village of Goult. There are probably many views one could paint there, but once again I returned to the cemetery because of the fantastic topiary trees that are scattered throughout. See for yourself below - how could anyone resist painting them?

The third photo(above) shows the view I chose to paint. I knew right away I wanted to really simplify and push the forms of the trees to their geometric limits so that's how I began, but I also allowed the contour lines of the shapes to extend and overlap and intersect with the shapes next to them, and these lines then created an interesting overall composition of geometric shapes. 

Then I began to paint using a blue, green, yellow palette.

It was another great day of plein air painting, and a great end to a very rewarding and creatively re-juvenating two weeks. I flew home on September 25th, and since have been enjoying re-living my painting experiences there. Of course I have been painting since then, and will write about that tomorrow! Cheers. 

Lollipop Trees

Lollipop Trees 

  10" x 20"  -  acrylic on canvas  - SOLD

This little painting is based on a detail from another painting I did in May (or June?). I particularly liked the top part of that painting and the orange trees set against the blue sky. As this one evolved it became more whimsical....and the trees reminded me of lollipops. 

Terra Firma - a new direction

Terra Firma
36" x 48"  - acrylic on canvas  - $1150

A few weeks ago while I was at my cottage and trapped inside by the black flies, I did some quick watercolour landscapes. Once home and with access to all my painting materials and some larger canvases, I used two of these studies as starting points for this new painting. Some paintings come together quite fast, and this was one of them. After painting for several hours I realized that I should start another one in order to not over-work this canvas. So I did and as I continued to work on Terra Firma over the next few days, I was able to maintain what I liked - the stylistic energy, created by the brush marks, varied shapes and dramatic value contrast.  I have to say that I am quite excited with what feels like a new direction for me - and will have more to show like this in the newt few weeks - so stay tuned!

                                 

Arcadia Abstract

Arcadia Abstract

24" x 30"  - acrylic on canvas - $450

I started the work shown here, back in November, and it changed a lot over time. The subject was inspired by this photo I took while walking through a conservation area near to where I live in S-W Ontario.

Even though it was quite a dull day and there was little colour in the landscape, I liked the arrangement of trees across the picture plane contrasting with the three horizontal bands of fore, middle and background.

stage 1

In stage one I established the colour palette and the division of space - and really liked the Wolf-Kahn-esque appearance and considered stopping........but decided to proceed with my original idea, for better or worse. With each successive stage the tree forms took shape, and the grounds became more distinct and detailed.

stage 2

stage 3

 I wasn't crazy with it at this point and decided to define some abstract areas with an acrylic marker, and then obliterated the lines with more paint......

stage 4

By stage 4 I realized that the composition needed a more distinct focal point - something that would break up the horizontality of the composition. I also wanted to create a better visual path through the compositional space, and that became the actual path too once I opened up a 'space' through the trees which you can see in the finished work at the top of the post.  I am quite happy with the finished painting and love the whimsical, magical feeling of the scene - hence the title. Cheers!

Lake Reflections and the End of Summer

Lake Reflections

16" x 16"  -  acrylic on canvas  - SOLD

I actually finished this painting at the end of August, but never got around to posting it - so here it is - a reminder of summer, being near water, rocks and trees, of warm air and summer sounds. It's already feeling like long ago! 

Catching Up

It has been awhile indeed. Life has been busy with travel, socializing, visiting and just stuff.  I finally got back to the studio and painting about 2 weeks ago after a 4 week hiatus - and started some new paintings, and tinkered with some old ones too.

Island Retreat  

(formerly called 'Blue Pines')

24" x 24"  -  acrylic on canvas - SOLD

I first posted this painting last September and called it Blue Pines . At the time I felt it was finished but more recently I began to feel that the palette was not quite right, particularly in the foreground rocks. I experimented with the image and colour in photoshop and decided on the changes that you see here - pushing the blues and yellows towards green, adding complementary reds, and giving the rocks more definition - and I was quite happy with how it turned out. 

Sunny Provence Painting, Soleil

Soleil

16" x 16"  acrylic on canvas  

This painting was inspired  by my recent experience plein air landscape painting experience in the south of France, and is based on a photo I took after painting at this spot one morning. My photo does not do the setting justice, but I hope that my colourful palette does!

Fauvism in Rustrel

                                  

There was a warm mistral leger blowing on Tuesday this week, so we painted in the small village of Rustrel where there were streets that afforded some shelter from the wind. This is the view I chose on a quiet side street; it had an interesting combination of building shapes, rooflines and angles, as well as some green trees.  I have really been trying on this trip, to paint the local colours of what I am looking at, but today, despite the lovely subtle ochres, grey violets and greens, I decided to embrace fauvism and work with an intense colour palette and flat, lightly modelled color shapes. Et voila.......

                                                   

Back in the studio after lunch I worked on a small abstracted version of a landscape I posted yesterday, and thought I think that I probably overworked it, I am still quite pleased with it, and see some potential for a much larger version when I get home.

                                                   

     

On My Easel.....

This is the second of the two landscapes that I 'left', just before Christmas. I finally took it off the wall earlier this week and decided to get back to work and loosen up all those stick-like tree shapes and the horizontal lines that were masquerading as branches. This is how it evolved over a few hours.......

Not huge changes, but I am feeling better about it, liking the looseness. Next step will be to tone down some of the colour! It's even a little wild for me.

More Watercolour Play

I am really enjoying this recent dabbling with watercolour - in fact it has become rather addictive. Though I will soon be getting back to my regular studio and the "landscapes" that still need work, I think that this diversion with another medium has been a good tonic, and I will endeavour to continue with it in the new year.

The small paintings below are both based on the same photo/scene taken a few years back.

Pathways 1

9" x 5" - watercolour on arches - $25

Pathways 2

6.5" x 5.5" - watercolour on arches - $25