Tag Archives: winter

February Landscape Abstract

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14"X11" oil on canvas

It is fun to work on a slightly larger scale, still not very big but four times the size of my usual. I also worked entirely from memory here. I tried to soak up the colours as I was driving and remember them.

I am not sure that this one is finished yet. I got a lot more texture into this than I am usually able to. I wanted to add texture into the foreground but it was getting too muddy, that's why I think I will come back later, when it has had a chance to dry. As usual, this was a lot more abstract to start with, but I found myself adding detail.
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Snow Day

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5"X7" Oil on card

Well the "blizzard" wasn't nearly as bad around here as forecast, but I decided that I didn't want to risk the rural roads to work anyway. I did some work at home and spent about an hour shovelling. I got off lightly because my sainted neighbour wanted to try out her new snow-blower and my sidewalk (150') provided ample practice! It is still snowing so I will have to get out there again shortly.

These orchids aren't quite in bloom yet, any day now. I did something I have never done before and painted on plain card, I am not sure of the archival quality so I probably won't offer this one for sale. It just started out as a sketch but I rather liked the composition.
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January Sunset Abstract

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12"X9" Watercolour on paper

OK, bear with me. I know it has been a long time, I stopped calling myself a "Daily Painter" some time ago but I have really fallen off the waggon recently.

Life has kinda gotten in the way of my painting and I have also been feeling very dissatisfied with my "style", such as it is. I plan to ease myself back into it gently. First of all, I will try to post at least once per week. Secondly, I will be doing much more experimenting.

I have always wanted to be an abstract expressionist but I am pretty hopeless at it. I cheated shamelessly with this one, starting with a fuzzy photograph, taken from a moving vehicle, I blurred it further in Photoshop and cropped a bit that I liked. I then used this as my reference. I should have used better paper but I am too cheap to waste good paper on an experiment

I have doctored a few more photos that I will use the same way. I am hoping that this will get me back into the groove, because the thought of sitting down and painting another bowl of fruit is leaving me cold right now.
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Tree Study

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5.5″X7″ Marker on paper

I love drawing winter trees, they are both a challenging and a forgiving study. It is easy to get lost in the detail, but it doesn’t really matter too much if you do.

Today is Groundhog Day, a quaint North American tradition that holds that if the groundhog sees his shadow when he comes out of his hole on Groundhog Day we are in for 6 more weeks of winter. There are actually official groundhogs all over the continent with names like Wiareton Willy and Punxsutawney Phil. I think it is all a bit of a moot point in Ontario where Spring is unlikely to show itself until the end of March no matter what Willy does.

This day is also Candlemas in the Christan calender and Imbolc in the pagan Celtic calendar. Whichever way you cut it we are at the very midpoint of winter, halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Things have to get better from here.

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12 Mile Creek River