GuessWho?

Well, what do you think? Could it be a newly discovered Renoir?  Come on Saturday and decide for yourself.- over 128 paintings to choose from and all only $100 each - and you get to help out the Food Bank!

Into Fall...

As we move into Fall - and all that garden cleanup (!)- colours soften and change and I find it is often a nicer time for landscape painting. The excessive greens of summer can be difficult to deal with.  Sometimes a  summer painting can be almost harsh. Grasses fading and leaves changing  colour and revealing more of the tree's structure can lead to more interesting paintings. These trees grow along the Sturgeon Banks trail and especially appealed to  me because the day was a little misty. This painting is 30 x 20 so is not something that I would paint outdoors. I settled for a sketch and a photograph and worked on it for a much longer haul than three hours plein air. As for plein air, we are mostly indoors in the studio in this cooler weather. However, last Tuesday, we had a bit of outdoors as it was warm and sheltered on the garden deck at the Art centre and we ate lunch outdoors.

Standing Knight

On the 29th of September, we had Michael Ward posing in his suit of armour as our contribution to Cultural Days. Since we last had him seated (see my June 2018 blog with the multimedia version), we had him stand this time. This is pretty impressive- posing for three hours in 300 pounds of armour! Since I did not have easy access to water or electrical power as we were  working outside under a canopy in the plaza, this time I worked in pastels on pastel paper. You will see that I am wearing gloves." Pastels" sounds so "safe" but, because they are very concentrated pigments, they can actually be toxic, No blowing so as not to inhale particles and the gloves are to prevent skin ingestion. You might recognize that they are gardening gloves with a nice breathable back so that they are much more comfortable to wear than latex gloves. Latex gloves can be problematic too as particles from them can go into the air when they are snapped on and off. Art is enjoyable but it is well to be cautious about how you handle materials.
     Michael enjoyed watching the reaction of little kids passing by - they could hardly believe what they were seeing! ...and then the parents were trying to explain it to them... I could, with the pastel that I did and the reference photo I took, make a finished painting- but it is not likely I'll do one unless someone commissions one. This pastel will take up less room than a canvas!