Painting from a sketch

The Dory

18 x 24

oil on canvas

I usually like to plunge right into a painting hoping it will be a keeper but this was done from a sketch and photo from December and I can say that it was crucial to have the sketch to refer to knowing that the mood and composition will work for me. I do love painting boats and buildings but am starting back to Okanagan landscapes as spring is coming and I'm itching to get back to plein air painting. In the meantime I'm totally obsessed with the bird photography and am up to 70 species on my list. It has opened up a whole world of life I was oblivious to before and in fact walked or ran by each day without knowing it existed. Below is a little Golden-crowned Kinglet that hovers like a hummingbird looking for bugs in the bark, too small for me to have noticed before but living right out my front door.

Oiling Out

Reifel Reserve

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

I've been spending quite a bit of time birding, photographing and cataloging images lately but am also doing some maintenance on some recent paintings.  This involves checking the surfaces for dull areas and bringing back the luster with a little walnut oil.  It is as far as I'm concerned the only way to even out the surface properly and the bonus is that it shows up the brush strokes of paint instead of varnish brush strokes which can be distracting.  The oil when dry creates a tough protective surface but one has to watch for drips and it may require more than one oiling out to get a good finish.  

The painting above is of a Green-winged Teal that I spotted at the Reifel bird Reserve.  I loved the reflections and the limited palette needed to paint this.

Apex Guest Ranch

the  Ranch

12 x 16

oil on canvas board

Winter is the time to head up to the mountains for some skiing or snowshoeing and we pass this guest ranch on the way up.  In the summer we ride up here on our road bikes as a 20 k time trial or as part of a circle route around the Okanagan Valley.  It's a great landmark but unfortunately won't last forever.  This painting was done from an older photo and I believe part of the roof has now come down and the horses are a different breed so I will have to take some new reference photos and give it a go again next year.

More birding

Female Hooded Merganser

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

So far this year I've photographed over thirty varieties of birds, not bad for January and all walking distance from home.  I've seen some pretty funny antics and even caught a beaver in action bringing home his dinner.  I think the bird watching is going to be a great new hobby once I figure out how to cope with a Yorkie and a Spitz on leashes and my camera all at once.  I fear one of the dogs will take off with the camera some day.  I couldn't resist painting this little merganser with all the colorful reflections on the water.  I won't post my photos here but they can be found on my Flickr page for anyone who is interested in bird photography.

A favorite restaurant and a bird

Hooded Mergansers in progress

14 x 18

oil on canvas

For several years now we've enjoyed dining at a local restaurant that sits out on the lake and calls itself the Hooded Merganser.  I never really knew what this bird was supposed to look like until I was able to see one little better with my zoom lense.  This pair was floating near the restaurant last week and I couldn't wait to paint them.  Although the female to the naked eye looks a little drab and basically brownish I think the beauty is there but very subtle.  I took some artistic license and pushed the colors a bit.  Funny enough one year we were at another local restaurant called The Lost Moose and upon driving away after lunch I had no sooner remarked on why they would call themselves that when a moose came out of the bush and walked across the road in front of us!  Weird experience and I haven't seen one since though I'm told they are around sometimes.

Bird Watching

Wood Ducks in progress or maybe not

12 x 16

oil on canvas board

Christmas arrived and so did a zoom lens for my camera enabling me to get up close and personal with the huge bird population frequenting the marshes along the Fraser River or for that matter anywhere!  This pair live on a slough just behind our home along with Hooded Mergansers, Herons and numerous other species.  I could zoom in so close to these birds that I was able to see the reflections on their eyes and felt that I could see so much personality in their facial expressions.  Hearing that there was a rare Northern Hawk Owl in the area I joined throngs of photographers and bird watchers and was able to get a some really nice shots of it.  I'm now hooked on bird watching! 

Steveston Britannia Cannery

Boat Study

8 x 10

oil

Since I'm enjoying rather rainy damp weather here on the coast I thought I'd do a small study of a retired boat and cannery turned into a historical park.   A possible candidate for a larger piece.  I enjoyed doing this quick little painting but discovered that the canvas sketch pad that I was using is student grade and the oil and medium has soaked through.  Another lesson on why it pays to use the best quality materials possible without exceptions.

Earthquakes and rogue waves

orchard study

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

The last time we were in Hawaii was in 2006 and just as I was was about to step through the magnetometer at the Honolulu Airport the alarms starting going off throwing me into a panic!  I've always been nervous about the whole security procedure and when everyone assured me that it wasn't me and in fact there had been an earthquake my next thought was the realization that my husband had already cleared security and I didn't want us to be separated so I jumped thru and thankfully we were into the waiting area with a Starbucks coffee in our hands before the entire island of Oahu lost power and everything ground to a halt.  This all happened in mere minutes and we were very lucky to catch the only flight out that day to the Big Island which was the epicenter and had received most of the damage.  One of the largest quakes in years for the Hawaiian Islands.  So we arrive on the island of Maui a couple of weeks ago and what happens - the biggest quake since 2006, not one but 3 - well we didn't feel the 2nd and 3rd one but one of our neighbors also reported on a rogue wave that had come in the middle of the night.  Our travels are never dull!   Anyway while on holidays I only sketched a little with watercolors so I have posted above an oil study done just before I left.  The fall colors were so vivid as to be almost overwhelming.  Now it is very grey here and the colors are much more muted.

My Neighbors Garden

Chesapeake Garden

12 x 16

oil on canvas board

Fortunately my neighbors are great gardeners!  This garden is near our coast home and is a delight to walk by.  I sadly don't have much of a green thumb and restrict my gardening efforts to our desert home where I don't have to worry so much about watering.  Cactus and sage survive my efforts.  As usual I tried to put way too much detail in and spent over half the time on this painting taking out unnecessary information that was very distracting.  Still a lot going on here but I'm happy to leave it for now.

An Unusual Plein Air Painting Location

Fraser River Log Booms

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

Where else would one go to enjoy peace and quiet, natural beauty and timeless moments but the local sewage treatment plant!  A park has been created around it and it has become a popular destination for picnickers, walkers and cyclists and though it is only 20 minutes or so from downtown Vancouver it is possible to find a spot on a sand dune with no one in sight, only birds, boats on the river and the occasional plane taking off from the nearby airport.  The only downside is a whiff of nasty odor every now and then but I managed to find a nice place upwind with a good view of the river.  The next time I paint this scene it will be of the tug that went by as I was painting in the log booms.

Dangling off a bridge

Harbour study

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

I drove back and forth over the bridge and finally parked the car, jumped over the railing and sat on a chunk of concrete hanging out over the little inlet.  My goal was to pay attention to the values and simplify as it was quite a busy scene in front of me.  It was so restful though to sit there with my pochade box on my lap listening to the birds and the occasional dog walker passing by.  I've often seen fishermen standing on this bridge, what a wonderful place to spend some time.  No fishing this time I guess because I had it all to myself!

Simplifying

Fall Colors

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

I've been posting little but painting lots, not for the purpose of producing a finished painting but instead to play and experiment with some of the concepts that I have been learning from Stapleton Kearns blog. He is so very generous with his knowledge and there is much to learn. At the same time I want to take a far looser and more colorful approach to painting but the basic rules of landscape painting can still be applied. The little painting above is based on a scene I photographed as I was pulling out of a park after a plein air session. The sun had momentarily come out from behind the clouds and I quickly parked the car again and got some great photos. Now I see what painters mean when they say one has to catch the scene quickly or the light changes. The hard part was to try not to put too much detail in and I finally had to put down the small brushes and stick to the big ones.

Underpaintings

View to Skaha Lake

12 x 12

oil on wrapped canvas

SOLD

I've been doing an enormous amount of reading various artists' blogs and have picked up so many tips and ideas and sometimes wish I could go back and find out where some of these came from. I should really document as I go. This painting above was from a photo taken during a plein air outing and the method I used was to do a fairly detailed underpainting in one hue that being iron oxide. I found this helped me get a better range of values and an idea of whether the design was going to work. It also helped to cover all the white right away as I hate those little specks showing through. Then it was just pure fun adding in the colors!

Between Races

Ladner Marina Pochade

8 x 10

oil on canvas board

This little piece was a plein air painted a few blocks from my home on the coast.  A few buildings were taken out as with landscape pieces I find that I have problems with design if I don't change things around a little.  And although I was trying to be on the realistic side regarding hue I'm now thinking I should have used my artistic license and changed the color scheme.  I'm loving how much I'm learning by getting outside to paint.  In the meantime I've now finished my last big event - riding my bicycle from Vancouver to Whistler and have also found out that I've sold some more paintings so now I'm going to have to put the bike away and get back to some serious painting!

Ironman Week

Village Gateway

12 x 16

oil on canvas board

This lovely little village main street was one of many that we road our bikes through last summer in the Pyrenees. I often wondered where the cars and people were till someone told me that many villagers have moved to the big cities. It's so sad to see such beautiful places abandoned but I guess we have that problem here too. Well the summer is almost over, we've felt the shift in temperature with the evenings cooling off. I've had a great time with lots of family and friends to play with, sold a few paintings, didn't paint enough but will soon and this weekend will finish it off with the Penticton Ironman Canada Triathlon. I've spent much of the summer swimming, biking and running in preparation for it and though I've enjoyed it immensely I'm ready for a break. I'll have one more event to do, a ride from Vancouver to Whistler and then I plan to take advantage of the last warm days to do some plein air painting. I've spent the last week building a pochade box and can't wait to try it out!

Something different

Looking out to Sea NFS
8 x 8
oil on doorskin

My first portrait magically evolved yesterday over top of piece of board that I had been using as a practice area for testing colors. It felt very much like when one finally decides to commit and plunge into a freezing sea, very scary and yet exhilarating at the same time! Done quickly and loosely it was a lot of fun, many of the test colors left to show through. Haven't been painting much lately as I've been spending far too much time floating away the hot summer days on the lake. Today we are suffering from the smoke of over 400 hundred forest fires burning in this province and we can't even see the sun so I'm back to the easel for a while.

Breaking the second brush stroke habit

Skaha Bluff Trail SOLD
8 x 10
oil on canvas panel

This scene is of a conservation area overlooking Skaha Lake and it is absolutely stunning with sage brush, wildflowers and beautiful rock formations. If you get lucky you may see some mountain sheep. Sitting out in the sun in the middle of a 35 degree day made it necessary to just block in some values and hues and head home for the finishing up but this was basically just an exercise in putting down one brushstroke and then reloading the brush and planning before putting down the next. I often find that I dab away and have to wipe off brush strokes that pick up unwanted paint and most often it is the second brushstroke that does it so I am determined to quit that habit. Something else to work on is deciding whether the shadows will be cool or warm and I battled back and forth on this. Another challenge was pushing the distant trees back. So much learning from one little plein air piece.

Plein Air Dangers

Kaleden SOLD
12 x 16
oil on board

This should have been a plein air painting but as the original suffered a 'wipe down' fate and I still felt the need to paint this scene I did it at home. Much as I love taking my loyal little Yorkie I was worried the whole time he'd end up in a bunch of cactus or worse being bitten by a snake so I wasn't able to concentrate with him under my feet. Today he did everything in his power to get out that gate and into the car but I got away without him. I think the guilt was worse than the worry so next time he comes with me...

rain, rain, go away

in progress
10 x 8
oil on board

We live in a desert though you wouldn't know with all the greenery carpeting the hills and it's raining relentlessly so I'm working on an image that I caught at a local market last year back when it was sunny. This fellow was under a tent and I had to crop his head for the composition but I really just wanted to catch his enthusiasm with his feet kicking up to the music. Funny how little things make a difference. Had he been just standing no matter how lively the music I would have walked by. I love painting people in motion and will eventually work on dance if I can get some good resource photos.

Eye Candy

Tucelnuit Lake

8 x 10
oil on board

Saturday I rode my bike 60 kilometers down our beautiful Okanagan valley and every direction I looked was so incredibly beautiful, truly a treat for the eyes. I'm often brought to tears while I'm out there drifting silently past vineyards, climbing valleys, descending down mountain sides. The next day I gathered up my paints and along with my plein air partner Iggy the Yorkie off I went to capture some of the scenes. The one above was one of the many lakes in the area and the blue of the water was absolutely electric. I didn't quite catch it but am close I think. Today I finished it up at home but poor Iggy slept all day on my supply bag waiting to head out.