Elbow River Jam [oil, 10”x8”]

I spent a few minutes finishing up this one today…  it’s all done now but, as usual, I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow ;-).  I feel like I captured the peaceful, yet uncontrollable, essence of the scene and I even like my foreground rocks! That’s a first as I usually struggle mightily with them.  It helps to squint down and not think of rocks at all.  There are lots of colors in those Elbow River rocks!

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Lloyd Leaner [oil, 10”x8”]

There are so many scenes available to paint at Lloyd Park [SW of Calgary].  None are quite as tempting as this gnarly spruce tree which imposes itself in the foreground of many views.  It’s an interesting contrast to all the horizontals in the rest of the land/lakescape.  I struggled with the shapes in the background and although this was painted 90% on site last Saturday, I puttered a bit with it at home as well.  I can see that it’s important not to overdo the studio putzing…  the freshness needs to be retained.  Looking forward to more plein air this weekend at Leighton Centre!  Have a great day!

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Little Falls at Big Hill Springs [oil, 6”x8”]

This little painting was also done at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park yesterday.  After a morning of chatting with passersby at the main falls, I took a rest break and then set up in a more secluded spot.  This little scene was so peaceful and calm.  Relative to some of the views it was quite boring.  However, sometimes “boring” is just restful… except we’ve lost our capacity to rest!  The sound of the waterfall was peaceful in the morning so I didn’t want to go too far away from it.  Consequently, I stood with a smaller waterfall spraying just a bit onto my left foot when I painted this scene.  Refreshing indeed - plein air painting was made for such a day a this! 

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C’mon In! [12”x9”, acrylic on birch panel]

Vicky loves the water… I used a photo taken July 2009 as the basis for this painting.  In that photo, her left arm was waving around like a cowboy’s so I had to do some adlibbing and decided I didn’t need to do much, just suggest that her arm is behind her.  I think it’s fairly convincing.  I really, really struggled with her facial features, particularly her mouth.  I found myself smiling while doing this painting…  the expression on her face is so cute and she’s a bold little gal.  What fun!

For those of you that paint, I thought I would share a few “in process” photos.  The support is a birch panel [1/4” prepared with GAC100 isolation coat].  You can see the warmth of the natural birch glowing through the painting and it pulls the whole thing together with a “warm day” look.

1.  Drawing and highlights…  Left photo below: I increased the contrast on my photo reference and collaged over her left arm as a test.  Right photo below:  After sketching her features on the panel, I painted the lights in her features and reflection with titanium white. 

   

2.  After glazing some hair [quin gold] and skin tones [yellow/red] as a base, I struggled to find the right colors for her facial shadows. The reflections from the water looked to be blue.  Blue, yellow, and red…  all side by side.  At times she looked like she’d been given a serious beating – bruised!  I persisted with what I saw rather than what I think her skin color should be.  Difficult and patchy!

Again, I found the acrylic paint [both fluid and heavy body Golden] dried very, very quickly.  That left brush strokes and bit’s of paint raised.  In this shot I was still struggling with the shape her mouth and just that one little issue and she looked like…  a blonde Rachel [a cousin].

3.  I’ve darkened the water, puttered a bit with her mouth/chin shape,and darkened highlights in her hair.  I’m happier with her facial expression now.  I mixed up a very light skin tone [zinc white, yellow, and red] with glazing fluid.  I glazed all of her skin with this mixture.  The glazing fluid extends drying time, thus giving me more time to change the color up a bit and time for the brush strokes to flatten out.  I think it worked well to unify all her skin tones!   

Onward to the next painting…  Cheers!

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Rock Isle Lake (20x14, watercolor)

A year ago I attended the Sunshine Meadows Plein Air PaintOut near Banff, Alberta.  The area is spectacular – what a gift our beautiful mountain parks are!  I nearly froze solid up there on a day that couldn’t make up it’s mind whether to snow, sleet, rain, or shine.  The overcast conditions made for the most spectacular photography though.  The purpley mountains set off the new, yellowish green growth perfectly.  My favorite spot is the basis for this watercolor painting – Rock Isle Lake.  Spectacular views and the cleanest, purest air I’ve ever breathed.  This year the PaintOut is August 5th so hopefully the weather will be more cooperative.  Regardless, it will be a day of fun and fellowship with other artists and enough photo reference material to last a lifetime! 

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North Glenmore Park - work in progress

I began this today and I have some bits to complete. However, I want to share it with you here tonight. I'm very excited about the mixed media class that I started today. It's quite freeing to be able to get back lights and whites in a variety of ways. I'm still waiting for the remainder of my supplies to arrive soon from Curry's. Have a look at this painting in progress and check back for future updates. Have a great Tuesday! Retweet this

Tia's Wedding Day (10"x14")

September 20th was a beautiful day here in Alberta. I enjoyed Tia and Matt Hand's wedding out at Crystal Ridge Golf Club. I thought an outdoor wedding was pretty risky any day in Alberta... but Matt and Tia got a stunner - 26 degrees Celsius and sunny. Just before the sun set I caught this photo looking out over the golf course from the clubhouse. My first painting class was yesterday and we were asked to bring a landscape reference photo and I took this one. What a struggle! I think I had performance anxiety painting in a group after so much painting alone time over the summer. It started to come around towards the end of class and I worked at it a couple more hours today. It's not a favourite but I hope you can see the beautiful fall scene. Enjoy! Retweet this

Dolphin Sunset (10"x14")

The circular patterns that came out of one of my recent "starts" immediately reminded me of jumping dolphins. So, I developed it along those lines. I've never seen this particular green in a sunset but it works in my imagination and that's all that counts here. The dolphins looks like they're having fun! Enjoy!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers! Tomorrow is election day in Canada - VOTE! Retweet this

River Bank Strummer (10"x7")

I spent a couple of hours down by the riverside today. Just 5 minutes from my house there's a lovely park that borders the Bow River on the north. For those of you in Calgary I was painting at Bowmont Park. This gorgeous park runs 4 kms along the north side of the Bow from Home Road to Nose Hill Drive. I can drive right down to the river and park near the railroad bridge. There's a little island in the river and a ped bridge hops over to the island and then crosses the main part of the Bow into Bowness.

I set up right on the rocks across the river from a huge retaining wall. I liked the patterns of light that were happening along the steep back yards of the homes to the south. The light was streaming in on an alarmingly sharp angle for 2pm... it is definitely fall. The shadows of the tall blue spruce trees threw some nice long shadows. A red roof with a white chimney poked through and caught my eye... and I began to draw. Just as I finished up my value sketch, a fellow in a red shirt came along and sat down on the retaining wall... I thought he was reading but now that I'm home and I look at my photos I can clearly see he is playing a guitar!

I enjoyed the 2 hours I spent painting and puttering so much. Children were laughing and throwing sticks for their dogs (it's an off-leash area), and LOTS of folks drifted by in their dinghies, kayaks, and canoes. I took quite a few photos and had some laughs with dog owners when their pets show a strong interest in sniffing my paints (honey based!).

I came home at 5 with a painting I did not like at all. I struggled with water control due to the warm, very dry air and I missed my 1" flat which I left at home. In warm dry air there's no time to fiddle with paint... it should be stroked on and left alone shortly thereafter until completely dry. Well, that didn't happen. Here's what my painting looked like when I got home:

As you can see it's dark, very dark. Before I took this photo I'd run some sandpaper across the river to get some sparkle back. That helped but I felt I should use some scrubbing out to get me back some lighter values. At this point I had a failed painting so why not practice some of these other "disaster recovery" skills, right?

Here's the photo after I lifted out sunny areas in the backyards, lighter areas in the trees, some gouache "sparkle" cheat, etc.:
When I looked at this version on my computer screen I felt there was still something obvious missing and I realized that the mesh of the fence needed to be shown, at least in places. I managed to indicate some light fence mesh by applying clean water in tiny lines in a few places... after it sat a few seconds I blotted up the paint. In some places I painted mesh in lightly with a blue-grey mix. I think that helped some.

After that was done I took this photo: Although I can't call this a successful painting, I got the following benefits from this painting experience:

• Practiced just about every watercolor technique I've learned thus far...
• Enjoyed 2 hours outside on a beautiful day with happy people all around me...
• Compiled quite a detailed study (value, color, etc) of this scene for future work
• Honed my observation skills
• and, I blogged about it!

My goal this week is to execute a larger painting... Stay tuned and - Happy Monday everybody!

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Middle Lake Kettle (4"x6" ink & watercolor sketch)

Ron & I have decided to see some of the nearby sites after living here for 14 years. There are so many treasures within one hour drive of our home it's a new goal to see as many as we can now while the weather holds. It was a lovely day... bit windy but that was fine. We wandered around today and ended up in Bow Island Provincial Park in the northern part of Kananaskis Country. Featuring in this sketch are the Middle Lake Kettle, Mount Lawrence Grassi (far top right) and I'm working on names for the rest of the mountains... Google Earth, be good to me!
What a beautiful place to stay with a trailer or tent. The day facilities are very nice too. We parked and walked in about 100 yards where we found a bench just waiting for us. Ron wandered about with the camera taking photos of interesting flora and fauna and mountains, while I set up to sketch the beautiful little lake and the spectacular backdrop Rocky Mountains. About the time I began to add the watercolor to my sketch the wind picked up and it was a challenge to get the job done before the entire set blew away. Hurry doesn't generally improve these sketches... and the wind blew away the overhead clouds, changing the lighting. So, I made adjustments as best I could and we packed up and moved along. What a fun thing to look forward to on a Sunday afternoon drive! The sense of adventure, meandering along with no firm thought as to where we would land up... lovely and relaxing. I KNOW I could enjoy camping if I had a good mattress. That's all I'd ask.... But, my honey requires a few more bells and whistles... we're dreaming. Retweet this

So Glad We Came (6"x6")

... and I'd be glad to go back anytime! The sketch for this little painting is based on a couple of photos I took when I was in Nuevo Vallarta. This couple was standing just in front of us as we watched this astonishing sunset. They seemed to be reveling in each other and the memories of the week - a great week. It was such an awesome sight over the ocean and it lasted a long time. The reflections on the sand were more colorful than I've been able to capture here. Perhaps on a larger surface I'll have enough space to explore that more fully. It's on my list.

Folks talk about Hawaiian sunsets but Nuevo Vallarta served up gorgeous sunsets almost every night - any of which were more beautiful than what I saw during 14 days on the big island, 8 nights on Maui and 3 nights on Oahu. Don't get me wrong - I'd be quite happy to return to the Islands at any time... August is a particularly beautiful time there with the ocean SO warm for snorkeling.

Now, back to beach volleyball... until tomorrow!

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Sheep River Falls (6"x6")

Ron and I visited Sheep River Falls on August 2 during the golden hour - what an amazing view. The western sun, still warm amazingly, was catching the tops of the largest trees across the river. It was gloriously beautiful. I hope to revisit this site and do some plein air painting... maybe even yet this summer.
For those of you that are purists, I intentionally left out the little tree that currently grows out over the view - artistic license, etc. I'm sure it was like this at some point... and I like it better without that little scrubber getting in the way of the falls. Another time I might make it all about that little tree, but not today.
Views like this abound in the Canadian Rockies and in Kananaskis Country where this scene is found. I'm living 45 miles from this view and I've just seen it for the first time. Both Ron and I vowed we'd get out more - he with his camera and I with my paints. Enjoy! Retweet this

Still Standing II (6"x6")

It seems that both my dd Kim and sil Stephanie each left a bit of her heart on the West Coast of the West Coast. So, to keep the family peace, I agreed to paint another little scraggly tree as viewed from Pacific Rim National Park. Kim gets to pick which she wants.... She was, as she pointed out, with me when we spotted this tree. The other I will mail to Stephanie in Wausau, Wisconsin (home of the Woodson Art Museum).
Here's my second try at the little twisted pine. This time I toned down the sky by using warm ultramarine blue instead of cool pthalo blue. The tree has just a bit less foliage and I like that. However, my first attempt is, in my opinion, wilder and reflects the mood I was in when I painted it (see July 23rd post). Six of one, half dozen of the other.... Enjoy! Retweet this

Sandy McNabb Park (4x6 sketch)

My brother Harvey, his wife Stephanie, and their two children Ole and Larissa are here for a visit from their home in Wisconsin. Today my family gathered to visit with them at Sandy McNabb Park, which is west of Turner Valley in Kananaskis Country. WOW - I've never been there before and it is so beautiful. And quiet... nice and quiet. We had a great visit and I took lots of photos. Ron took lots of photos too. His are really amazing - he has a gift with cameras. We really need to get him an SLR... but I digress.

While there I sketched up a view of the Sheep River and I added the watercolor just now. I hope you like it... I think I would have been able to get the color better had I done it on site... plein air.

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Spirit Island, Jasper National Park (18"w x 14"h)

It's been a busy day today so I'm opting to post a painting "new" to my blog but painted late last fall.

I visited Spirit Island in Jasper National Park (Alberta, Canada) last September and I highly recommend the experience! Spirit Island lies toward the north end of beautiful Maligne Lake and is accessible only by boat. 90-minute interpretive tours run frequently and are very informative. Although old, the boats are safe, comfortable (with room to stand if you need/want) and most importantly they are heated!

The day we visited, the fog lifted slowly to reveal a gorgeous mountain landscape... in this view the fog is still gentling the rocky slopes and it set Spirit Island off just beautifully. I used artistic license with my choice of colors, particularly in the mountains, but I rather like how this piece turned out.

Funny story related to Spirit Island - I have it on good authority that the Canadian Government erected the new, small public restrooms a few years ago for the astonishing sum of about $250,000. The need for solar power, remoteness and need for near-zero servicing (honey trucks not an option), and the cost of getting building supplies and workers to/from the site were cost factors. I was happy to utilize the facilities if for no other reason than to get some use out of my tax dollars. I recommend all Canadians attend at least once in your lifetime if for no other reason than putting your tax dollars to work! Enjoy! Retweet this

Still Standing (6"x6")

Late this afternoon I was driving home from a meeting that I found very... long. For some reason the memory of this "survivor" tree came to mind and I decided to make a quick painting of it for a bit of an outlet tonight. This particular tree grew way up high on the west coast of the west coast... Ucluelet, British Columbia to be exact. The winds howl, the rain beats down, and this little tree just goes about the business of growing. It's growing where it's planted... which is all we're asked to do. Often we don't chose the place and circumstances that we find ourselves in and we just have to do the best we can and keep growing. Painting this was a good little exercise for me tonight.

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