April 11th-12th, 2015
Lake of the Woods, Kenora Ontario
Oil on Canvasboard, 12 x 16 in
(sold)

Painting I guess is my bridge over troubled waters. I latched on to this image from last summer yesterday and today when I needed to paint. The view is of the boat dock at the island, while the floodwaters were rising steadily and I was doing all I could think of to keep the dock from potentially floating away. From what I understand, the island and the dock are still there.

April 7th, 2015
Green Sky Moonlight
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)

On Sunday night I stood outside staring at the moon and trying to remove myself from the context of the evening darkness enough to objectively see the colours in the sky. When it’s night, there’s no way I know of to mix and match night colours – because you can’t see your palette, and if you use a flashlight, it will tint your palette yellow, orange, or purple depending on the type of light you use. So I guess you have to rely on memory. I was amazed the clouds in their centres looked ochre. This is how I remember it to look tonally. I had to throw in a lake and tree from my favorite place – also from memory.

Loon At Sunset
Lake of the Woods
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

I have to fix the spots on the Loon’s back, and probably will toy a little more with the water although I may not. This has been three days worth of frustration. I think I succeeded to some degree in what I was hoping to do (learn,) now I’m just sick of looking at it.

Sunset Thunderhead
(Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada)
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36 in

Again this week Plein Air is a bit of a misnomer, as it was painted in the warmth of a sunny living room while winter cavorted outdoors. I was thinking of the island, and storms I’ve known there. That’s snow on the right hand side – picture was taken outside.

Afterglow on the Canoe Channel
February 2nd, 2015
Sunset, Lake of the Woods
(from a photo)
Oil on Canvas,
24 x 30 in

I hope that bad things can be trusted to happen in threes. I am very sorry to have lost my uncle so suddenly. The blessing is that I will now have time to process all of these losses through the medium most soothing to me – colour. I took this photo in outside daylight. Open Studio this Saturday, February 7th is a go, FYI! Perhaps I’ll see you there.

December 14th & 15th, 2014
Moonrise over Channel Island
Kenora, Ontario
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in

Another painted in studio from a photo / from memory during last week’s Open Studios. Thanks to all who have come out and supported me and my work this year! Happy Holidays to all.

Sunset over Canoe Channel
December 6th, 2014
Kenora, Ontario
Oil on Canvasboard, 12 x 16 in
(sold)

My absence all this while has been due to a sudden and terminal illness in the family. I hope I can get back to painting regularly soon. Recently I had two weekends of Open Studios – the 6th of December and the following weekend, the 13th and 14th. Capitalizing on the hours I got to spend in my studio space, I painted this and the one above from memory & photo while I was there.
PS – if it looks familiar, it’s because I did a painting from the same photo not too long ago. I hadn’t brought any new ones into the studio, just decided on the spot to paint so had to make do with what was there. Also the previous one got ruined by an ill-timed car-door slam. The sky in this one, at least, is better than the previous (Feb. 11th. Wait for the re-take of this in better light to finalize your own conclusions on the matter!)

November 16th, 2014
Stormy Weather, Lake of the Woods
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)

For the past month I’ve been sick, I’m finally on the mend. I didn’t get out this weekend to paint, but I did some studio painting on Sunday. This is from a photo and a memory I have of a very stormy day on the lake this summer. I took this indoors and on a dark day, when the weather is better I’ll get a better photo of it. I should be back up posting regularly from now on.