This week and last Wednesday students enjoyed painting little scenes in the round. The small round canvases were a delight to work with (I got them at the Dollar Tree). We used a scrubbing technique that allows for smooth transitions of colour, causing the acrylic paint to break up over the textured canvas surface. We chose a limited palette and created small scenes. Fun (as always!).

This week I purchased some long narrow canvases. Using the same technique, I thought we could paint a single flower or herb with healing powers in a delicate style of the botanist. Thinking about the winter colds and flues....

A quick little post here - fun with circular canvases I purchased from the Dollar Tree in Kemptville. My young people class decided to do mandalas. Very nice!

Monday, February 1, 2016 came in mild and spring-like. Too bad for Winterlude in Ottawa, but lovely for a walk on our woodland trails at Cedar Lane. Water run-off, combined with snow patches and dazzling sunlight made for some beautiful scenes for capturing on canvas.
   In Monday's class I was able to work on a small piece myself, while still giving guidance and making suggestions to my little group. We relaxed to serene classical music, and had a nice time painting our chosen scenes.
   One of the challenges of painting from photos is the range of available colour - much lower than the human eye sees. The chart at right demonstrates the human eye's range of visible colour, compared to devices by which we can reproduce images. So printed, and even digital, photos just cannot display the range of colour you see when you are right there. Shadows in the snow, in this case, are much grayer, rather than the lovely cool blue you will see when you are standing there.

The next challenge is simplifying detail. In the image at right I have used Photoshop to filter the image (original below) I used for my painting to show you how you might learn to see image in a simplified way, and build up from there.

My painting is shown at left - not too badly proportioned, I am surprised, actually, as I can't concentrate 100%. Below, for fun, I used an oil painting filter in Photoshop. wow!