562 January Afternoon

Although I typically include paintings on this blog as soon as they come off the easel, I have also been blogging art that has been drying for a decade or two. I think they are fully dry now.

This is another memory from Thursday, January 17th, 2002...  It was a brutally windy day. Although it wasn't cold, the wind blew me off the hill. I painted this toward the northwest. There were strong snow squalls both to the northeast and to the southwest. At times, these squalls crossed the farm and I could barely make out the hills.

The painting is the average type conditions between the squalls. I tried a dry brush technique on the rough canvas. The canvas had been primed with a dark coat of raw sienna.

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573 Rolling Hills

Although I typically include paintings on this blog as soon as they come off the easel, I have also been blogging art that has been drying for a decade or two. I think they are fully dry now.

Every painting brings back a memory... Publishing these older works on Fine Art America and this Blog is like visiting old friends. Very few people have actually seen these paintings. The pigments bring back fine memories of time well spent - and even time well wasted! This is why I paint and my only goal is to try to get better. I feel that everyday should be filled with making memories... life is very good!

"Saturday afternoon, February 23rd, 2002.... I returned to the second hill behind (west of) the house on the very crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine  west of Schomberg, Ontario. I had a fine lunch and was rested for another go at the landscape. I was eager to paint without traveling very much further than I had to. My attention was attracted to the series of hills to the northwest. It was getting fairly late in the afternoon and the sky was changing to the green-blue on the horizon. The cedar trees in the foreground were almost orange and had reached their late winter colours, which I like so much. The stand of birch to the right were also quite striking. I laid in the colours and idea of the sketch as fast as I could before things changed too much.
I painted until 4 pm and then had to bail to do my chores."

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572 Tractor Track Horizon

Early on Saturday morning, I packed up my canvas bag and headed to the second hill behind(west of) the house. This painting is looking west at the distant escarpment and some gray stratocumulus on the horizon. I was on the very top of the hill and the Oak Ridges Moraine. Although it was sunny, the wind chill grabbed my attention and I worked for a time with my gloves on.
Of special note to me, are the tractor tracks through the grass from a tree-planting trip I made in the fall. The tall grasses were pushed down and the snow was trapped in the tracks. The shadows were very long and multicoloured and I guess that is what caught my eye. The pond in the right foreground drains to the lower left and ultimately the Humber River and eventually, Lake Ontario.

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571 In the Forest

This is the white pine forest immediately to the south of the barn. It was Sunday morning around 10.30 am. My wife let me go outside to play while she did her part of the house cleaning. I didn't have to go far and it was a good thing. The temperature was minus 7 Celsius and the wind was out of the north at 30 km/h or so. That combination of temperature and wind made it feel more like minus 15. It was cold. The paint froze quickly but I refrained from using the kerosene, as the thick paint effect was pleasant.
There is a line of poplars in this pine forest and that is what is casting the dark shadows that fanned out in front of me. The play of light on the snow and through the trees beyond the top of the hill was what caught my eye. As I painted, the shadows of the trees moved like a sundial so I had to work fairly fast.
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565 The Snow Plow

This is the plow that I hook up to my tractor. It has been snowed in on its palette support in the corner of the yard by the fence. The snow had ended and I was warmed up again after lunch so I decided to make the most of the day.
When I headed across the yard, the sun was shining and the light was really good on the plow and the fence line. The shadows were colorful as well. Within a half hour, after I had the sketch laid in, we were back in blizzard conditions. I settled for something in between for lighting.
The wind was really strong from the west. I had to fill a pail with snow and use that as an anchor for the tie down rope from the easel. It worked so well that I think I will include a pail with my plein air kit.
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564 Farm in the Snow

This is the farm on the north side of the 19th Sideroad of King Township. It is actually on the Caledon side of the town line on the northeast corner of the King-Caledon Town line and the 19th Sideroad of King.
I had blocked off Monday morning to paint this scene. The forecast was for a mix of sun and cloud and the chance of a flurry. Well, it snowed pretty hard all of the time. Snowflakes mixed in with the paint and covered me with white. The paint froze and that combined with the wind made the plein air painting a bit of a challenge. At the time of the heaviest flurries, it was like painting with oatmeal. I liked the way the paint was going on the canvas though so I persevered. I actually like the way it turned out.

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My favourite part of this painting is the few subtle strokes that make up the snow-covered car looking out of the carport. I was done by noon - both me and the painting!

569 Farm on the 19th

Mid morning, I revisited the "Farm in the Snow". The sun was shining and the effect was entirely different from the other day with strong shadows across the snow and good visibility. I parked in exactly the same place and let the paint fly. I shrunk the barn a bit to make everything fit on the canvas.
The old car was still in the same place and I enjoyed trying to make it come alive with just a few rather crude strokes. There was a mixed herd of Holsteins and Herefords to the east of the barn and I put many of them in the painting. There was also a manure spreader parked in the field in front of the house so I put that in too. Around noon, it clouded in for good and the lighting changed. I had already laid in all of the values so it was still OK. I took the painting home and signed it on my studio easel.
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568 Bill's Barns

Midday on Saturday, I checked in to see Bill Perry who lives on the north side of 17th Sideroad just to the east of the 12 Concession of King Township. I set up my easel overlooking his barnyard. The yard was a mixture of snow, ice, mud and manure and it was too much to put it but I hoped I caught the effect. His barns are in pretty good shape. Some beef cattle were poking their noses around the corner of the barn but none hung around long enough for me to be satisfied with the way they looked. The barn cats that prowled by were the same way.

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567 The Neighbour's

In the late afternoon, I was set up my easel just to the east of the abandoned farm house across the 12th Concession from the farm. I laid in the drawing quick enough but found myself tangled in the trees. The farmhouse has been abandoned for as long as we could remember. It's too bad as well as it is a beautiful piece of land and would make a great homestead. The house, however, is too far-gone to be recovered.
The story is well known who owned this home prior to the 1970's. They had no kids and sold to a pair of lawyers. The land was sold again and an estate home of probably 60,000 square feet occupies the land. It is quite the estate on a beautiful piece of land.
I was standing right in a deer runway and there were numerous very large deer tracks in the patchy snow. I haven't seen it but it is probably a large buck with hooves like that of a calf.
The canvas had been primed with a dark coat of raw sienna.
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