Newest Painting (July 13th)

This is my newest watercolour. The scene is the Leamington Marina in Southwestern Ontario. The time is the end of the day with the hot southern sun going down and this brother and sister sharing a moment fishing. In the background is the familiar Pelee Islander ferry. It is one a a series of local scenes I am working on and plan to exhibit in our annual lakeside yard exhibit. This year it is planned for September 26th.

Online With Busacca Gallery

You can now find my watercolours online at Busacca Gallery Online. This is the start of what I hope will become a terrific relationship. Mark the owner and curator at Busacca Gallery in San Francisco, has developed a great model for making quality art available to a discerning art market.

Besides my work there is a vast collection of other professional art and interesting objects. The items shown are juried, guaranteeing a level of quality at the site. If you are in San Francisco, drop by their gallery.

St. Ives in England: Superb Location

I just finished this scene from St. Ives in the south of England. It happens to be my favorite location in England for painting. It inspired me very much. In this particular scene the harbour is obviously at low tide.

The two fishing boats await their return to high water. I placed the gull higher in the scene. Painting this location immediately took me back there. The image size is 28" X 40"

My 2010 Watercolor Calendar is Available!

I have produced a high quality calendar and have made it available for sale over at LuLu.com. Each Month features one of my paintings and has coupled to it an motivational message. You are able to view a preview of each month. A great gift idea that inspires all year long.

Four Friends

This painting was completed this week. The setting is a lake near Huntsville Ontario. Four chairs, the end of summer and fall colours flourishing. It is a contemplative scene, that drew me immediately. The watercolour is about 26" X 38".

Painting A New Watercolour

Step One: The Planning and Drawing

Once I have the paper ready, I sketch out the scene and apply liquid frisket to areas that I want to stay free of paint at this stage. In this case study the three lilies and some of the leaves of the cattails are isolated in this way. This is crutial in the planning stage. To get this wrong, you can't simply go back and correct it. You'd have to start over. Everything is planning in watercolour.


Step Two: Base Colour

Once I have the paper ready, I sketch out the scene and apply liquid frisket to areas that I want to stay free of paint at this stage. In this case study the three lilies and some of the leaves of the cattails are isolated in this way. This is crutial in the planning stage. To get this wrong, you can't simply go back and correct it. You'd have to start over. Everything is planning in watercolour


Step Three: Flushing Out The Main Features


Of course these photos are a little deceiving because the painting appears to be almost done. But, the frisket is still in place. The under water areas are taking shape. The darkness of this area, is applied very wet so that the colour moves around freely. I cann also drop in some raw colour to facilitate algae etc. I also stopped short of the right to replicate the strong light washing out that area.


Step Four: Finishing


With the frisket removed I am now able to finish the lilies, add some tone to some of the over-hanging leaves and leavind some pure white (or exposed papaer) this helps with the strong light effect. I pull back some of the lily pad stem from the dark area to help with a sense of depth. It is at this stage that I also splatter different colours into the composition. I feel this loosens up the scene.

From here I crop the painting and prepare for matting.







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Living Large Outdoor Show Best Ever!

Well my 3rd annual outdoor show was a great success. Traffic was steady all afternoon and in total we sold six originals and one print. One of the paintings sold was "Bold Light Lilies" pictured two posts below. All of our guests commented on the new work, creative snacks and beverages. We had two classic cars on display to distract the kids and husbands.

Our most distant guests came from Winnipeg, Manitoba. They were vacationing in the area and saw our promotional postcard at a tourism booth. Our free print draw went to a guest from London, Ontario. It was great how everybody took the time to sit and admire their favorite paintings. The day was essentially cut two hours short due to a sudden vigorous cloud burst. Thankfully the yard was full enough so that people could grab a painting and rush into the house. From past experience, the end of the day usually brings out regulars, but I think the rain made them believe that it would be cancelled at that point. Regardless, about thirty guests stayed for the barbeque and socializing.



As I said all the effort paid off and resulted in the best sales to date at a single event. We are looking forward to the 4th edition of the event next summer. My next show is a joint one in Windsor Ontario. It will be at a new gallery called, "Fresh Meet."

Maybe we'll see you there.