Finishing One Painting and Starting Another

With Toula and baby well on their way, today I was ready to dive into my next new painting. Yes, I know I still have a few works in progress around, but as I've mentioned before, I like to have a number of paintings on the go, and starting a new one is always a great boost. I had several comments in favour of painting the photo of Bear Now warming up to work on the training track at Woodbine, and despite probably being the most challenging of the references I posted, I decided to start on it next. This one is on 18 x 14 Raphael linen panel, which I've toned with Burnt Sienna. So far I've just worked on the first layer of straight Burnt Umber, establishing tones. I'm probably going to take this umber layer further than I normally do to keep things headed in the right direction!


Last night I put the finishing touches on another painting, signed it and called it done. I'm sure you remember the two boys, Medz and Mute - not that any of us really want to see snow again! This one is 11 x 14 oil on Fredrix linen panel. My title for it is kind of long so may be the last thing that needs some tweaking: "Here, Let Me Help You With That!" I miss the boys! So does Billy, I think!

Well, the best part about working solely in Burnt Umber is cleanup is easy - better go take care of those brushes.

Still There, But Showing Potential

I'm hoping to distract you from the less-than-stellar progress on this painting by posting some shots of the two boys in question. They're such a couple of goofs, they always make me laugh. I'm going to miss them both when they go back to work!


I spent today working on more blocking in of colour, and just a bit of working up the detail. The funniest thing about this painting is that I'm really not enjoying the surface. A couple of years ago, this was my new best favourite ground for oil painting. Now that I've "moved up" and am working with the more recently discovered Raphael panels and luxurious Artfix linen, these Fredrix panels aren't quite so special anymore! I only have a couple left, and I think the others will be reserved for studies.


Anyway, I'm going to cut this short because Swish is suggesting she'd like to go out, and I've learned to believe Swishy when she makes such requests! So off I go, and I expect I'll be back with more on this painting soon in my drive to push it past this prolonged ugly stage!

Making the Best of It

No snow today, just more cold. It's getting kind of repetitious, I know. My days are an ongoing cycle of go out to the barn, freeze, come in, thaw, go out to the barn...and so on. I noted begrudgingly today that it seems as soon as my hands warm up enough that I can actually use them, my feet freeze and I need to come in again!

I started this new painting in one of the "thaw" phases of my day. This is the one I meant to start last Saturday. I had a title for this one before I even took the photo, though I'm not going to reveal it yet. The boys had me laughing and I was glad I caught them with the camera – unlike today, when a very bold/friendly/stupid(?) bird was keeping Gracie and Jubie company. First I saw Gracie following it as it hopped around on the ground, then a bit later it was perched on Jubie's back! By the time I grabbed the camera, of course it had disappeared!


This painting is 11 x 14 oil on Fredrix linen panel. Step one was just starting to work out the drawing with Burnt Umber. Tonight I worked on it some more, still just with Burnt Umber. There are still things that need to be resolved, but I've got the most important stuff worked out. Burnt Umber dries quickly, so I should be able to continue working on it tomorrow.

Now I'm trying to convince myself to take advantage of a bit of an early night! It's only quarter to twelve...that's early for me!

Death of a Scanner

Um...yeah...that doesn't sound good!

I was going to scan one of my smaller, recently completed paintings to show you, but I think my scanner is giving it up. Never fear, I will take a photo of it, but for smaller works I usually scan them for the best print results. Guess I've got some shopping to do...

So now what? My landscape entry for last week is from a photo of a cottage sunset - something it looks like I won't get to see first-hand this summer. This is 8 x 10 oil on Fredrix linen panel. There are still some touches to be done, but as part of my goal with this project is to see how close I can get to a completed painting in a single session, I will dare to post it even though I'm not completely happy with it yet. I guess technically I'm not behind again yet - I do need to get on this week's entry!


I have to admit I've slacked off in the painting department the last couple of nights. Okay, so I bought the second season of Dexter and have been watching that. At least I've only been watching a couple of episodes a day - though to be honest it was probably the broadcast of the Olympic Individual Show Jumping final that kept it to that! If I had any photos of Hickstead you can be sure I'd be posting about that tremendous GOLD he and rider Eric Lamaze captured yesterday.

All right...this could possibly rate as my most boring post ever! Rather than babble on, I'll leave it at this, and catch up with you all when I have a photo of the painting I intended to show you!

Landscape Catchup

I'm determined to meet the landscape challenge, even if it means producing and posting less-than-admirable work. These three little pieces are each experiments in different ways, and what I classify as quick studies. Sometimes these things come off better than others. In the midst of everything else that's been going on around here in the past few weeks, well, let's just say, beggars can't be choosers! I have been working on my more serious pieces, and hopefully in the near future will reveal the results of some of that work.

Just a quick description of these three pieces. The little landscape is just on Fredrix canvas pad, and is using Kevin MacPherson's plein air palette (inside after dark in my studio, however!) of simply Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Thalo Green, Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Yellow Light. I love the colours, though the painting was very simple and quick. The middle piece is a cloud study, done on gessoed birch panel, 8 x 10. The one thing about all this rain, we've had some pretty cool clouds! Again, just a quick study. The third is 5 x 7 oil on shellaced Masonite - the first time I have worked on such a surface. This one isn't done yet, but is done from some of the photos I took on my recent Saratoga trip. This horse and rider are on Clare Court, a sand ring type gallop on the backstretch.

On the farm front, our record rainfall this summer is causing a bit of havoc. Forgive me if I don't really want to talk about it! There's gotta be an ark around here somewhere....