Lessons from Cape Breton

Englishtown Channel, 7 x 10, watercolour, plein air Aug 28 09

So I went to Cape Breton for a week of painting classes with top notch instructors.  All of them are painters famous in their own right as well as being very good at sharing their knowledge.  I really learned a lot.  Then I came home with my head bursting full of new painting techniques and ideas,  and life got in the way of painting for a while.  But now I am back at it and here is some of what came of my trip.  The last day of classes was spent painting out of doors (that's what plein air means, for you non-painting people)  at the Englishtown wharf.  It is a lovely spot.   

I painted the above sketch very quickly, just to get an idea of how to tackle the far shore of the channel and the water.   Owing to the brisk wind and clouds over head the water was a fair bit darker than I am used to painting successfully.  I have always had trouble, making dark water look murky, and this water was crystal clear.  I wanted to do it justice. I was reasonably pleased with this sketch.   I did feel that the composition was a little boring.  The ferry terminal and the power poles leading out to it are a bit hard to understand if one does not know the area, so I wanted to find something more interesting and simpler to make into a painting.  So then I painted the sketch below.  

Englishtown Channel #2, 7 x 10, watercolour, plein air Aug 28 09

In this one (above) I am happy with how the hills in the background fade away, also with the shape of the cloud shadows on the far hills.  The remainder of it could be better.   The instructor, Chris Gorey, suggested to me that I include some purple in the shadows on the hills.  So when I got home to my studio and finally got time to paint, I started experimenting.  I tried using purple shadows a few times and eventually came up with something suitable to share.  (see #5 below)  I think I also fixed some of the compositional problems that were present in #2, above.  I do feel that the contrast between the hills and the sky is a bit too strong.  The hills could be a bit lighter and the undersides of the clouds could be darker.  

Englishtown Channel #5, 10 x 14", studio, Sept 22 2009

As it was the hills and the sky and the marriage of the two that was bothering me,  I decided to focus on the far hillside as I had done in my first sketch.

Englishtown Channel #6, 7 x 10", studio, Sept 25 2009

I really learned something painting the clouds in this one.  I painted the dark underbellies of the clouds first instead of after around the white parts.  I found that this worked really well.  (though the photo I notice is a bit washed out, I will try to come back and fix it with a new photo soon)  In the end, the undersides were still too light, but now I felt like I was making progress!  I incorporated some purple in the hill shadows and it worked okay.  In fact I am more happy with this version of the hills than in the version which follows below.

Englishtown Channel #7, 7 x 10", studio, Sept 27, 2009

It might seem that I am going too far with this subject but every now and then my scientific side speaks up and says "what if I did the same painting but changed this one thing?"   So I tried to repeat #6 but make the clouds darker.  Again, I painted the shadows first, and this time I painted a bit of blue around the white shapes of the clouds.  I am most pleased with this sky of any of the ones in this series.

For now I am going to move on to something new, hopefully applying more lessons from Cape Breton.  Stay tuned for the results!  As always, I welcome comments.

The story of the motorbike

For those of you who are wondering why I painted a picture of a motorbike, here is the story.  The town of Digby is the home of the Wharf Rat Rally, the fastest growing motorcycle rally in North America.  I belong to the Home and School Association for the elementary school in Digby.  Our plan is to build a new playground for the elementary students, and that, like eveything else, takes money.   I painted the motorbike and donated the painting to the Home and School, who in turn, raffled it off during the weekend of the Wharf Rat Rally.  We were able to raise over $800 to go toward the Home and School.  I am grateful to all the volunteers who helped sell tickets.  

We hope to do this again next year.  I wandered around the Rally during the weekend and took lots of pictures of bikes.  Lots of chrome and sun gleaming off shiny enamel paint.  In a few months I hope to get started on another bike picture.  Stay tuned...

In the meantime, I have been doing some plein air painting.  Just a little bit each week since I came back from Cape Breton.  I hope to have something ready to post soon.  

Triumph Bonneville T100, finished!

Triumph Bonneville T100, 20 x 29", watercolour

This painting is not for sale. It is being raffled off at the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby this weekend. The tickets will be sold in downtown Digby this weekend, starting on Friday Sept 4.

Back from Cape Breton

I spent a marvelous week in Cape Breton attending the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour National Symposium.  The instruction offered there was excellent and the scenery offered limitless material to paint.  I could have stayed there for weeks!   I will be posting some of my work from the week , but since I have returned home the focus has been on getting the motorbike painting finished.  A progress report on that will follow soon I hope.

For now I shall leave you with a photo from Cape Breton, where as you can see if you look closely, we spent some time painting in the rain!  It was all a lot of fun, though, even with the rain.

Paint the Town 2009

Work on the motorcycle painting is on hold for the moment while I take part in some out door painting events. 

Here are the paintings that I did today (Saturday) at Paint the Town in Annapolis Royal NS.  

I had planned to paint tomorrow as well but there is this little disturbance brewing offour south east coast called Hurricane Bill which has forced a change of plans.   

These paintings are available for silent auction at the Legion in Annapolis Royal tomorrow, unless they sold today.  If you are near the area, go check it out!

Sparkle, 7 x 10", my favourite from today!

(all are watercolour)

There is more than one way to paint a boat!, 10 x 7"

Private Collection

Scallop Boat, 10 x 14"

Private Collection

Juxtaposition, 10 x 14"

Private Collection

Is it Clearing?, 7 x 10"

Private Collection

Gone Fishin', 7 x 10

Private Collection

Fog on the basin, 7 x 10"

Private Collection

Triumph cycle, spinning my wheels

Work continues on this.  While I am actually painting it seems like I am making little progress.  Each little area that I work on seems so minute compared to the whole thing.  I am encouraged when I step away from it and look back to see how far I have come.  I am making progress. 

My most faithful critic suggests that the tires could be darker and he is right.  But that shall come later, as there is still much I feel needs to be done first.

Triumph Bonneville T100, a work in progress

Here the painting is now that I have started to add darker colours.  

Up until this point I was using only 3 tubes of paint: cobalt blue, hansa yellow medium and quidacrinone coral (red).  With these three, however, it is not possible to create rich dark tones.  I never use black paint because I find it makes things look muddy too quickly.  To make the black above I used ultramarine blue and burnt sienna (a brown).  Mixed together these make a nice deep black and thin out to some really neat greys.  (Artists get excited about greys, go figure!)

As well as painting in the black reflective bits I am also working on the details of the engine and darkening the reflections on the chrome.  Who knew that chrome could be such fun to paint?

One can see that I have put the shadow in behind the bike.  Now that I have done so I can work on the background showing through the spokes of the front wheel.  I was holding off from doing so until I knew exactly what the ground behind was going to look like.  Much easier to match the small areas to the larger area than the other way around.  

Come back again soon, as I hope to get more work done on this tonight.  Please feel welcome to leave a comment as well.