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!

The holiday season has run its course, and Tom and I have spent some time tidying the studio in preparation for the winter season at Cedar Lane. Tom built a great new storage space with a leaner footprint - and out of recycled materials too. Still a bit more to do (this afternoon, I promise!). Paints are lined up ready to go, lists are being made, so time to get thinking of some fresh ideas for us all to explore.

Prompting my first project idea was a little painting image I spied on the web. I was not quick enough to remember to gather the artist's information (oops) but it is a lovely little piece shown at left. Now, in my work as a designer, creating logos and designs from text is something I do all the time; however, I have not yet really created a painting using a word or words and the idea intrigues me. I do have calligrapher friends who excel at creating designs from words, but I have in mind something simpler as in this painting.

I was also prompted today by a conversation thread on a website I frequent for its insight (The Painter's Keys), and was lead to a site created by Ali Edwards called One Little Word. I will let you listen to her video and ideas,but suffice to say I found it an appropriate challenge for my students and me.

So, next Wednesday, January 13, weather permitting, I will have materials and ideas ready to share. I will have them ready for my Monday group too, starting next Monday, January 11. That being said the Monday group often like to bring individual projects, always welcome.

My children's classes are always a little more challenging recruitment-wise, so I plan to start Saturday, January 24 from 10 am to noon.

For more details <click here>. Classes are run on a drop-in basis, but it is great if you can let me know in advance.

Although the weather has been mild, we thought we would paint a beach scene to put up when winter finally rears its ugly head. I like to propose creating the possibility of 'surprises' in every painting. This time. once the simple layout was roughed in with charcoal, a palette knife loaded with gel medium was scudded over the ocean portion of the scene. In addition, natural sand was affixed to the beach area using the gel. While waiting for that to dry, the sky was painted in, then the beach area. Paint thinned with water was applied to the water area in successive layers until the level of final tone was almost reached. The gel resists the paint, and the area shows up as a lighter value. Finally, more brighter paint is scudded over the surface in successive value and colour layers, and light is added to the beach area. Voila!

While it has been a busy time here, I have had fun painting along with my students. Last week we painted 'surfaces' - forest floor, beach sand, pebbles. I completed (more or less) my pebble painting, adding a sense of water and a leaf for contrast.

Watching one of the Monday students paint a beach with waves got me thinking that would be a nice subject for us to explore this week.  At left is the Ottawa river beach scene I painted last summer. I used a palette knife to scumble in the waves, lots of paint layers to enrich the surface.

So, let's go to the beach together. Add a sunset. Maybe a beached wine bottle... Hope you can come!