McGill Farm

18" x 24" oil on canvas
Another damp, rainy morning in the hills. Everything is growing madly, it looks like a jungle. This morning I was awakened at 4:30am by coyotes playing close to the house. We think there is a litter being raised up behind our place. We can hear them at times, especially night. In the winter we hear them howling and yipping. The sounds this am were yipping and snuffling. As soon as I got up to the window, they stopped. I did see one once a few years ago. Mostly we just hear them.
Good thing the chickens are all securely locked up and safe.

This painting is for my July Show. It is the farm up the road. I love the view to it from both sides. Here is early morning late summer.

The Figure Made the Landscape

My new show in the McCarthy Gallery in Truro, Nova Scotia! I am very excited, nervous and finishing stuff up like a fiend. Since I have begun to do oils again, I have quite a few in this show, along with some watercolours. The opening is July2 at 7:00 pm and all are welcome!

Oh the piece on the invitation is oil on canvas and is 24" x 36".

Farmy watercolours..

Red Barn in Spring
31/2 x 5" watercolour on paper

Cow Drinking (SOLD)
31/2 x 5" watercolour on paper

I am doing some larger watercolours for my upcoming show. For some sizes, I stretch the paper, but then have a strip on the side. So I had a little fun with these for my Farmers' Market paintings. They are quite small after the other work I have been doing, but fun to do. The paint is so much easier to control. For these, I did base them on photos I took last spring on a visit to Ontario.

Clouds and Watercolour!

Spring Clouds Racing
Watercolour 4 1/2 " x 3"
The above marks my return to plein aire painting! The clouds were irresistible. I almost had stage fright-what if I forgot everything I had learned? The small painting was not intimidating, and well, I did three at the same time so no one of them got too precious. The above sketch is the one I liked.

From the Clearcut.
12 1/2 " x 18 1/2"
Watercolour on 140 lb Arches CP
This is one of my favourite views. (Of course this morning, I found out the blackflies love it too!) It is a view out over the Northumberland Strait to PEI. I love it because you feel like you are on a level with the clouds sometimes when they are racing over your head as they were on this day. The sky was clearing above but still cloudy over the water. This one is for my July show.

Knitting

9" x 7" oil on canvas
I am working to my show for July. This small painting is a study for a larger work called 'The Figure made the Landscape' as adapted from a Milton Acorn Poem. This small painting was fun to do, I like doing hands I am finding. They can be so expressive. My grandmother taught me to knit the 'continental' style, so the position may look funny to some. I just finished the larger work last night. Whew. Once I get a good photo, I will post it.

Single Begonia

6X6 oil on canvas
A variation on the last painting. I should have posted it yesterday, but I was off to Guysborough for the day to take photographs. A day with magnificent clouds and amazing scenery. The coast is so uncluttered. So back to the painting... I used the phaylo blue again, but more muted. I like it. I saw the red reflections of the flower in the shadow and with some misgivings, put them in. Perfect, it balanced out the composition I think!

Red Velvet

6" x 6"
oil on canvas
Red Velvet is the name of this begonia plant. One of my favourite spring outings is to the greenhouse in our village. I love the rows of blooms as they are massed by colour. Of course a planned colour scheme is out the window as I just can't think clearly in all that glory. Okay, I did come home with some sun tolerant begonias (above). I picked up a few and as I made my way to the cash I heard the ohhs and awes. Everyone wanted them. I guess we were all in the greenhouse spell!
I picked a bloom off the plant and put it in a little glass jar. I used Windsor Blue in the background. It is such a pervasive colour, I am usually reluctant to use it, but really loved it in this, it was perfect for the red blooms.

Red's a crowd!

I could not resist picking up a bunch of these luscious red tulips at a local veg stand, they are from the Valley in NS so are local too! I usually just try to do one or two, but the bunch all together was fun too.
6" x 6"
Oil on Canvas(SOLD)

Study for painting of Nest Lined with Horsehair
10" x 8" watercolour pencil on Arches 90lb paper

I just finished, I think, the painting resulting from this study. I had a black horse living with us for awhile, quite lovely and truly black. One day I found on the ground this perfect little nest lined with long hairs from Disa's mane and tail. The hairs were perfectly swirled and woven into the grass and twigs to line the inside with the warm soft hairs. I will try to get an image of the larger painting. I am finding photographing oil paintings to be a challenge. Not like drawings or watercolours. It is difficult to get an image without the little highlights of the ridges from brushstrokes.

Chick Days (SOLD)

It's that time. The day old chicks have arrived. Really it is amazing how they are just in their own little world out there in their house, the light is on, food and water nearby. Doesn't matter the wind or cold. It's chick world, where they run around sleep, play and eat. I spent some time crouched in the shelter doing drawings...maybe I will post one later(I continue to have computer problems so this is not easy!). Anyway then photos helped me do the painting. The photo is a little blurry I think, but the painting is loose too. They do grow pretty fast and don't stay yellow and fluffy long!

Yellow Tomato

A brief break in painting, a visit home by family interceded...so I found these translucent tomatoes and just could not help myself, I had to paint one, at least one...