So, I’m still putting ‘miles on the paintbrush’ and cabin fever took me out on a rare sunny day recently to look for signs of spring. The wind was strong and bitter so I grabbed this quick photo and retreated back to the warmth of the studio to interpret and paint.
The title could be ‘The March of the Saugeen’. I don’t think ‘flow’ when I see this river but rather a relentless presence that has at times carried me, dumped me, flooded me out, fed me and always reminded me to ‘march on’.
24in x 36 in, oil on canvas pear
So, I’m told a ‘change is as good as a rest’, and this is definitely a change from painting small. The canvas is 24in x 36in (don’t know what that is in metric offhand) but it makes a great space filler in my kitchen. I painted it quickly and altho’ the photo has intensified the blues (my camera seems to do this a lot), I like it.
I will make the small adjustments before I put it up for sale at the studio tour this summer but in the meantime, it is a great ‘decorator’ piece and I am going to enjoy it. I have a true affinity for pears; eating them and painting them. The colours on this little specimen were so luscious that I had to paint it quickly before I devoured it. Mmmmm…mmmm..tasted as good as it looked.
Another study.I watched a pair of these birds almost every day this past summer.They flew between two trees above the Saugeen River and announced their arrival twice a day with a loud, rattling call. Always successful at fishing, they seemed very businesslike, more like organized shoppers than hunters. I took pictures but never caught the detail necessary–needing a better lens than what I have I suppose. So, bird books out and perusing terrific birding sites has me trying to understand the feather patterns, colours and just plain attitude of these feisty little dudes. Seems only fitting to dust off the watercolour media for these water ‘kings’.
(watermedia on toned paper)
Herring gull on 6×8 in canvas. I took a break from landscape and tried some alla prima on canvas taped to a support. Gulls are not very popular with a lot of people. Anyway…I can’t seem to stop admiring them and being inspired by the challenge of modelling soft white and grey against black. This is not a scientific illustration (the camera has done some weird things with the shadow colour above the belly which I kinda like) but sure was a great way to spend an afternoon. One more for the 100 days project which I started several hundred days ago…
