Painting in Gaspe

I spent a few days earlier in the summer on a tour through Quebec City and then on to Tadoussac. Tadoussac is the place where the Saguenay River joins the St. Lawrence River. It is a paradise for a painter - every direction is a painting to be done. Deep blue water, rocky cliffs and big, big skies. The town itself has it's charm - specifically the white clapboards and red roofs of the hotels and churches perched up above the cove.

The surrounding bluish green hills, and sparkling water created many opportunities to work on  landscapes full of light and atmosphere. Of particular interest to me on this trip was the rendering of distance - far shoreline, distant mountains, clouds. With these paintings I hoped to work on the effects of light and colour seen across a distance. Using similar motifs but changing the tone I was able to practice these effects. Here are some of the results.

In the Fields

I was talking with a friend last night about painting outside. His view was it was a challenging process that many would not want to tackle. I have painted out of doors for years and I would recommend it to any artist. One of the ways to make it easier is to be as portable as possible - small paint box with paint already squeezed out. I don't take tubes into the field. Small boards or canvas at the ready, a section of 2 or 3 brushes. I bring a couple of dry  cloths to wipe brushes between colour. I don't use any mediums so that minimizes things to carry - I have a really light easel and a small fold up stool. All of this fits into one shoulder bag. I can walk for miles with it.

A few weeks ago I was painting a farm from the side of the road, the owner walked up and asked me if I wanted to come in and paint. He gave me a free run of the property and I have returned to spend some pleasant hours in his fields.

My first paintings out of doors were as unsuccessful as my first paintings indoors - but keep at it, good things will happen if you stick with it.

 

Algonquin Time

Trout Fishing at Kiosk

I had a request to paint a number of sketches of places up in the park earlier this month. I have been up there countless times and have a trip planned for the first week in May. I go up there every year for the opening of trout season to spend a few days fishing and painting. I usually head to the northern edge of the park in early May – there is often still snow on the ground. There are no leaves out yet and the fiddleheads are just poking through the leaf litter.

This year we are going to Kiosk. I have been in there before and there is lots of good fishing to be done. We troll for lake trout in the big lakes using copper lines and William’s wobblers tipped with minnow heads. On the creeks we’re using light tackle and small spinners for brook trout. The painting is pretty good too. There are lots of creeks and little lakes that are close by, providing great views.

High Falls, Barron River

If the weather cooperates, I paint in the morning and early afternoon and then gear up to fish for a few hours till dusk, hopefully catching something for the pan.

Check out my next post in a couple of weeks for the results of the trip.

Painting plein air – spring comes to the mountain.

I was in Ellicotville NY last weekend and spent some time painting in the mountains. Armed with a stack of small panels I headed into the countryside from the inn that we were staying at. Every direction I looked wanted to be a sketch. The snow was leaving the woods revealing orange leaves, red mud and dark green streams of snow melt. The low mountains were purple and blue against a bright sky. The mornings were cold but the afternoons warmed to above freezing and I was able to paint until the light left. I find that a painting done outdoors has a quickness and freshness that is sometimes a challenge to find in the studio. I was working small (6 x 5) - a great size to capture the moment quickly with not a lot of room for detail.

Following our return I had paint left on my pallete so I spent a morning at Heber Downs painting the last of the deep snow in the woods. But as so often it happens, it is snowing again. Perhaps we are not through with the snow.

Back after being north.

 
Back after a busy time – It’s been a hectic 8 weeks. I have been absent getting ready for a book launch as well as completing a number of paintings for a big show at Artworld of Sherway. The event was a great success and the paintings looked great on the wall. I was really pleased how Donna, and the gallery team organized the show (and book) by seasons.

All of the work revolved around the theme, “Northward”. All images of Ontario, and Quebec, all rural or the wildness. These are classic Canadian landscape motifs and I was happy to focus my attention there for a number of months in preparation.

My hope is that I was able to produce work that was fresh, original, and at the same time familiar to all who live here.

I completed about 20 sketches in preparation for the larger pieces – I was primarily gaining practice at painting trees in various light, specific snow effects, and sunlight on rocks and water.

Of special interest during this series of paintings was the effect of bright sunlight. I have found that this can be a challenge. I wanted to do paintings that conveyed the feeling you get on sunny summer and fall days out of doors. This light can vary through a range from hazy to sharp and I really wanted to see if I could capture it.

As the subject was the North, I also wanted to really to work with greens, using various tones to convey shadow and light. And, as with all of my work - keep it loose and spontaneous.

The opening night was terrific and as always great to meet the people who purchase and enjoy the work that I do. It is really a pleasure to meet with you all and talk about art over a glass of wine. 

I am working right know on a number of views of the Toronto harbour using some of the ideas I developed in the Northward series. And I am off to New York this weekend to paint in the mountains for a couple of days - I will post them next week as a preview.

The transience of light is sometimes captured.

 

“Transience of light” - this is a great phrase and really was the goal of the impressionists: to capture the effect of true light in paint. Painting the quality of light in winter is my challenge for the next few months and I am jumping into my experiments with excitement. I use this term because all my work is experimental. Each picture is an infinite number of decisions and combinations never to be reformulated in the exact same way.

Composition may be copied – but tone, contrast and colour cannot be exactly duplicated. So each painting is a unique interpretation of an original idea. If somewhat successful, an impressionist style painting is a wonderful reflection of the transience of light that you can put on your wall. You and no one else possesses it. This, I think, is one of the great the allures of art. It is the allure for me as a painter, to make pictures, hopefully good ones, that have never been seen before, and can never be duplicated.

Painting light and shadow on snow – there is no guidebook to follow. Snow can be purple, pink, green, blue, yellow, orange - it does not matter and I have seen it painted successfully in all of these colours. It can be subtle, or it can be stark - it can be painted warm or cool.

The interpretations are limitless and so are the historical examples. I also have the benefit of photography - which also provides other clues and reference for the way light travels across the white surface. And I have the benefit of snow out my back door – I am looking at the sun weakly shinning through a silvery haze of fine snow. The ground is covered with a blanket of mauve and the trees in the distance the palest purple blue.

The snow is falling - it’s a great day to paint! 

It snowed yesterday - and that's good news.

A strange thing happens to us after the first snow - even if that's on Oct.30  - fall is over, winter begins. For me the requests for winter paintings start on the same day. Not that I don't like fall, but I have had a long a couple of months painting fall pictures and it's time for a change. I wanted to show one painting in particular - a picture of a windy fall day on Lake Superior. I tried to capture the scudding clouds and the bold white caps and deep blue water that you always see on these types of days. There is just a hint of orange in the cedar trees along the shore.

All of my fall canvases were the result of many sketches and here is a small portion of them. The subject matter comes from various travels - Kawarthas, Superior, Killarney.

And so, winter is now on the go... here are the first 2 paintings. Both are interesting in that they are of winter but the pallet is intentionally all very warm - pinks, purples, reds, and oranges. It is the management of the colour and of course the subject that provides the "cool" in these paintings.