Floating over Kingston harbour, summer, sailing, oil painting

Summer Harbour – oil on linen – 18″x14″  When our girls were younger, we often would go down to the harbour, buy ice-creams and spend idle early evening hours playing tourist, walking the floating docks oogling the boats.  The coming and going of sailboats, cabin cruisers were great entertainment.  That’s what i was thinking about while ‘floating around’ painting this scene…that, and balancing the colours, finding a harmony.

Thousand Islands gateway, flying over Kingston, oil painting

‘Gateway’ – oil on linen – 18″x 14″
If you float over Kingston in a balloon at 5 o’clock on a summer’s afternoon, sipping your gin and tonic, you might get a birdseye view something like this…well maybe, ha ha… although i’ve never been in a balloon. i think i’d find it too scary to notice the view if I did go in one. heh. Did you know that the martello tower on Cedar Island and the one on the RMC peninsula form a perfectly straight line as the crow flies from the martello tower that sits in the water at Confederation Basin?  I hadn’t noticed that before, but on Monday i went for lunch in town with my friend Susan, and when we were strolling along the waterfront just beneath the Radisson hotel, i noticed for the very first time, that all 3 towers were in a perfectly straight line.  I suppose it had something to do with a stretegic plan back in the day when they were built to defend Upper Canada from the American invasion…a little Kingston trivia.

Step into my gallery…

I haven’t posted for a while because truthfully i didn’t have much to share…I had begun a new direction/theme that i was excited about when I began it 3 months ago, but lost my mojo somewhere along the way …ending up painting over 4 large canvas’s that I had started, throwing in the towell on the whole blasted thing.  The feeling of release after struggling with something, then finally letting it go was really delicious.  After taking a 2 1/2 week break to recover from a nasty flu virus, then throwing out my back while making a bed, I am truly very happy to be in the studio and painting again.  Hopefully soon I will have some  new work that I am happy with.  In the meantime, I have opened my Gallery at the Porch Door for the season.  This morning I took a little video, please excuse the morning sun shining in and distorting things a little.

Flower shop, Queen St. E, oil painting

Flower Shop on Queen St.E – oil on gessobord 12″x9″   My goal was  the light and shadows here; as well as receding colours/ shapes.  Instead of a warm base colour to start with, i tried a blue-green, a foil for the warm autumn colours.

Studying this painting yesterday, i decided it was all a little too ‘hot’ for my tastes, so i decided to add a glaze over the tree and background, to neutralize it and create the effect of distance that i was looking for going down the sidewalk. I think it was a good choice, it has really cooled the whole painting down, but i dont mind that at all, what do you think?  The glaze was a combo created from a blend of winsor blue and perm rose. Usually i dont mix 2 colours for a glaze, it can get muddy, but i’m happy with this result. i think it worked because both of these pigments are super transparent.

Cottage Life oil painting

Cottage Life – oil on gessobord – 12″ x 9″   I’m not sure this will be the title of this piece because it’s the name of a popular magazine, and i dont want to copycat  …but i am confounded; titles are sometimes difficult, and can really stump me.  Something corny or sentimental  are big no-nos, especially when the work is narrative as this is.  Maybe ‘untitled’ would be better?  I dont know. Anyway this was nearly done at the first drying stage last week, and i have kept it very loose and gestural, but added a little more depth in colour and light.

kiteboarding, oil painting, The Beach boardwalk

Riding the Wind – oil on gessobord – 12″x9″   While in Toronto settling Jane into an apartment last year, I took a brief stroll along the boardwalk by Lake Ontario in the sunshine. I loved the holiday atmosphere of  that experience. Some quick sketches and photos preserved the fleeting moments until this Thursday i began to paint it.  This is my working sketch/painting…i’m happy because i captured the sensations I felt that day.  I have begun a larger version too, 24″x24″ on canvas… still in the works.  It’s a joyful thing, air; gravity.

Thousand Islands, oil painting, and workshops

Fall Paddle, Thousand Islands – oil on board -12″x9″
I added a little finishing touches to this one yesterday.  I already had the feeling of a tranquil autumn day in the Thousand Islands, simply stated, but needed to sharpen a few edges, add a little depth of colour in places. I considered putting in a kayaker, but decided against it. I wanted the viewer to feel like they own the solitude.

I was asked to teach a weekend workshop in the fall in Westport. I responded that i would do so.  I have yet to decide on the premise for the workshop.  I thought it would be a watercolour workshop, because that is what I have taught in the past…but I’m considering a more general theme,  such as ‘Painting with harmony, simplicity & life’  or something like that,  which would open the course to the medium of choice for the people who attend… I could do a short demo; one day in watercolour, the next day in oils.  I think it would be more fun to teach because it’s less about technique and more about drawing expression from within the artist, and that is a goal for many artists.  I think it would have appeal to a broader range of participants.  Eureka! the good thing about blogging…it can make tangible the thoughts that I noodle around with for a while, somehow solidifying intentions…before i sat down to blog, i had no idea this was in the back of my mind.  heh.