Snow and Wind

The wind combined with the cold creates conditions that I really can't paint out in! I froze my hands painting and now they freeze much quicker. So as a result I continued to sketch from inside the studio looking southward. The wind and moderate snow created a very different scene. How does one paint the wind? I tried...

January Snow

Does looking out the studio window count as a plein air painting? That is what I did because the weather behind the cold front was way too nasty. Heavy wet snow quickly added a thick layer of white to the ice that never melted from the trees. I would have needed some kind of umbrella to keep the very heavy and wet snow off my canvas. As I result I painted in the comfort of the studio looking out the south window. Both the wood stove and stereo were on. If plein air painting requires one to be out in the elements, then this certainly doesn't apply...

Fire and Ice

Freezing rain again ... but a warm fire in the wood stove. No one is moving anywhere. About 4 mm of ice coats all surfaces – especially the smaller branches which are very efficient as ice collectors.  The priority was to stand outside and experience the freezing rain first hand – then go back inside to paint in front of the fire. Three doe bounded across the field while I painted. By the time I finished the atmosphere had lost the above freezing layer aloft and large flakes of snow had replaced the freezing rain... I won’t bore you with the atmospheric details of what this means...

Late Afternoon Light - Gray

I wanted to loosen up... Light rain showers from embedded altocumulus castellanus drifted across Singleton Lake all day. The dark bases of the castellanus provided the leaden gray colours I was looking for while the breaks between showers gave me the rosy and yellow bright parts of the skies. The clouds were aligned parallel to the deformation zone associated with a minor low crossing eastern Ontario. Notice that the clues to diagnose the weather pattern were all clearly written in the clouds... and thank you to those who comment... I read them all!

Ragged Waters

The rocks of Ragged Falls are an effective set of teeth to chew up the waters of Algonquin Park. The water flowing off the highlands has to plummet through the tumble of Canadian Shield on it ways to the ocean. The result is the colourful splish and splash of water as it stumbles over Ragged Falls. I painted this from the 22x28 inch painting "Ragged Falls" which I completed in 2009. Normally I wouldn't recreate another painting based on a fairly large work. In this exception I wanted to make a match for "Oxtongue Rapids Revisited" while using the same palette of colours. These paintings are both 3x4 footers and I hope they are equally turbulent in their brush strokes.

Oxtongue Rapids Revisited

I am finally painting full time and getting to projects that have been on the back burner too long. This revisits #1069 "Oxtongue Rapids". I felt it needed a bigger format. The sketch was very powerful possibly because the voracious black flies prevented me from overworking any of the brushwork. I barely had time to grab some paint and stroke it on before swatting off a black fly. Blood stained the brim of my hat ... The bugs got hungrier as the morning progressed and that certainly saved me from labouring on the brush strokes and leaving the vitality in the paint. The black flies deserve the credit if any is due.

My goal in revisiting the Oxtongue Rapids was to maybe increase the motion in the water and trees. If I could achieve that inch for inch then the 3 by 4 footer would be powerful indeed in any room. It is not done yet but there is enough paint on the canvas to get the idea...