Clouds over Blomidon

The group started our plein air sessions for 2024 last week but I was away, so for me, today was the start. Usually my sketches and paintings are fairly tight after the winter break but I decided to go with a familiar subject with the goal of keeping it loose. It was a challenge to give the mountain some depth as it looked pretty solid from the distance but there are three or four distinct closer and farther aspects in the line. I think with another attempt could get the chunks in proper perspective and straighten out the field edge in the foreground. I wasn’t entirely happy with the loose brushwork but I do see some sense of distance and everyone liked the clouds.

Scots Bay

Scots Bay watercolour

Plein Air starts again on the 25th of this month. I may get a few more “studio” paintings in before then. This was done over the last two sessions at the rec centre in Wolfville during our Artists’ cooperative get togethers. We meet Monday mornings. It was from a reference photo taken during an exceptionally high tide last summer that covered the lower end of the road access to the beach. Watching a few shows of Landscape Artist of the Year on BBC inspired me to try some watery reflections. The trick was to not overdo it.

Cleveland United Church on Riverside Road CB

At the cross roads between Port Hawkesbury, West Bay, Louisdale and River Denys in Cape Breton, sits the Cleveland United Church. Originally built in 1874 near Grantville on Lower River Road, the once Presbyterian church was moved to its Cleveland location in 1898 and given its new name in 1925. Deconsecrated in 2006, it had been slated for various improvements such as a steel roof and new siding according to the Basin River and Inhabitants Historical Society. The last entry on the Historical Society’s website indicates that it was opened for summer tours then closed in 2019 due to Covid-19 with a promise of a 2021 Fund drive. It’s unclear if that has happened. It seems it’s in its twilight years but perhaps it just looked like that. The weather was bleak when I took the reference photo. I don’t do a lot of winter paintings but I was taken by the ghostly appearance and the silence in this wintery setting.

Hunting

Hunting 11×22 watercolour

This watercolour is of a young eagle looking for a seafood supper near Delhaven NS. Paddy’s Island is in the distance with the cliffs of Medford as a backdrop. It was compiled and painted from two separate reference photos I took at different times. This is one of my favourite spots in the valley. Sorry there’s no rainbow like in my previous post.

Serendipity

Yesterday morning, I entered the studio to continue working on an 11×22 watercolour to find a rainbow happening in the sky behind the focal point. It was sunlight refracted through a prism hanging in the studio window. By chance, it was timed perfectly for the start of the day’s practice. A short lived but delightful surprise.

Untitled

Untitled 24×36 oil on canvas

I started this oil painting in March 2023 and just finished it today. The working title on my previous post was Cheticamp which some of you may remember was my largest canvas to date. I’ve had lots of time to think about it and what I would eventually call it. I’ve gone through a few titles but every time I come back to it another name suggests itself. For now I’m leaving it up to the viewer. I hope it speaks to you as much as it does to me.

Apple blossoms

Apple Blossoms – 7×11 watercolour on arches CP – in anticipation of spring. Though the apple blossoms are several weeks away, I felt a flower painting would be a good project to work on. What do you think?

The Boat Shed

Watercolour and Ink sketch

I started painting in watercolours ten years ago. Every time I pick up a brush I learn something. Today while visiting friends it was focusing on a limited colour palette. I debated adding tone to the sky because it’s nearly white out conditions here but I still need the colour however grey. I need to think about why. While everyone is out plowing and shovelling I got to sketch. Feeling lucky and slightly guilty but also more slightly content.

New Colours

Yesterday, I played with some new to me colours I picked up on marketplace: dioxazine purple, sepia, and hooker’s green. Combined with a little lemon yellow, quinacradone gold, payne’s grey, and ultramarine blue, it made a nice little evening marsh scene. Okay, I may have gotten a little carried away with the purple ❤️ 😁

By the Aboiteau

By the time fall arrived in our plein air season, I was pushing myself more and more towards painting loosely. I spent some time this morning cleaning up a few too many loose edges. One can get carried away 😉. This is the Habitant River upstream from the Canning Aboiteau. The Aboiteau is a man made gateway (originally built by Acadian settlers) on the Habitant River. It closes when the Bay of Fundy tides rise in the Minas Basin and reopens when they ebb to let the river flow once again. It keeps the farm fields from flooding with salt water and provides more acerage for farming. The village of Canning runs to the left of the painting along the river, and North Mountain is in the distance as a natural buffer to the weather coming up from the Bay of Fundy to the North. It took a while for the leaves to turn this year but it made for a gorgeous morning of painting under overcast skies.