"Fall Fountain"

"Fountain" oil on 11x14 board

Barry Wallace is one of The King Township's best Photographers he  has the ability to see landscapes in a different way bringing lots of colour and interest into the pictures he takes.

September 28 th Barry took this picture Keele Street - South of the 17 th

I couldn't resist doing a study of this one, among a lot of the others he has taken during the last few weeks.

It was a challenge but fun to let the paint go it's own way!

Babs

Barries website is here; http://cameraonking.blogspot.ca/

"Flour Child"

"Flour Child" oil on 11x14 board

A floury bake day!     

This photo is on display in Sheena's Kitchen, a cafe in Schomberg. Sometime ago Sheena went to Scotland her country of Origin to meet her relatives. I don't know the whole story,but, the photo is to me a classic of a little girl trying hard to copy Mum.

I don't think many mothers today would let her kitchen be taken over by her little one. The abundance of flour and her look of concentration on her face you can tell she's another world of play and taking it seriously. The wooden spoon is almost as big as she is!

At first painting the picture was more than a little crazy I had so many strong colours to compete with. I was concerned painting wet on wet as the picture started to come through I felt more confident and I hope captured her moment of joy.

I think She has a lot of Sheena's knowledge and will become a great pastry and cake maker to carry on a tradition as Sheena says "you have to be consistent, baking is something special'!

Babs

Loose Tulips!

Tulips, oil on 8x10 board

Warning step back  when looking at this picture! Squinting is Better!

Another week of freezing cold temperatures ! I didn't realize how much I missed colour ! I did have a lovely pot of Azaleas bright pinky red which are sort of struggling to keep going, they were good to look at and cheered up the Parlour a lot.

But somehow I didn't think about painting them, looking through photo's I found some tulips a small crowd of them different colours, they looked bright and cheery I used 8 x 10 board and got down to painting in a loose style, trying to see the different colours in each one, my suggestion is not to look at it too close as the subject looks all over the place. 

I just had fun with a lot of paint on the pallet to see how it turned out! and here it is,

It took about a couple of hours. I guess you could say it looked like I was going to catch a train and had to finish it in a hurry!

Hey it's all  good practice.

Babs

Between Events

"Between Events" oil on 18x24 inch canvas

This is a painting from a photo I took in summer at Palgrave, There are a lot more people and horses in the photo, but I wanted to simplify to create a peaceful feeling.

This painting has been quite a challenge, and I've had doubts about it a few times, earlier the horses were a lot lighter showing their lovely orangey brown hair, but that didn't work overall, the trees didn't fit, so I repainted the horses darker.

Whether it is finished depends on how I can live with it over the next few days.

Every painting is a lesson!

John

A Busy Life! - but Inspiring!

We are so inspired by the Equine world that we have taken on too many paintings plus a couple of commissions and we need to prioritise!
Babs' easel is on the right and mine on the left and we are both working on horse pictures plus one old house for me.
And on top of that we are spending our weekends at the Equine centre looking for more inspiration, and it keeps on coming!

So today it will be the Old House for me and for her the "Grazing Hunter".

And then we have to weed out the mint patch and take down the canopy over the deck, Fall is with us, slight frost in some places this morning.

John

Gluttons for Punishment

Caledon Equine Park, Palgrave

The last few weekends have been spent watching horses being put through their paces from jumps to dressage has been interesting. It is a such a large amount of young people all enthusiastic and horses doing their best to please.

The more we visit the less we understand ! However we do  enjoy the whole thing watching many riders,some professional and some amateurs. The atmosphere on the days we have been are relaxed between sessions so it gives us a chance to take photographs for painting and a wander round at the eventing picking out interesting scenes that we like hopefully to become paintings eventually.

My practice painting is horse and rider doing dressage I like to torture myself attempting to make the picture look right, horses feet are a true test of patience along with the gear of straps and saddle with rider on top!
This one was on a sunny day with dark trees and bright earth, colour coming from the sunny day.

John has caught the bug too but likes to include the  scenery! 

The paintings will be ready for vewing in a few days.

Babs

"At the Equine Workshop"

"Concentration at the Workshop" oil on 11x14 board

Granddaughter  Katie at a Equine workshop, which she enjoyed a lot, Jazz her horse has been with her since Christmas and it looks like they have bonded and are very happy with their  partnership.

This is a first painting I have done that includes the rider, so I hope Katie doesn't mind the less than perfect likeness! But with more practice as I will improve!

Happy Birthday, the painting will be delivered ASAP!


Love Babs

The Big Red, a Big Picture

 "The Big Red" Oil on 16x20 canvas

At the beginning of this week I made a decision to go beyond an 11x14 to a 16 x20 I had a photo from Stuart when he took a trip to see an enactment of the 1812 war. It was a boiling hot day with a lot going on especially many horses being used in a lot of the scenes. A lot of cavalry dressed in splendid uniforms. This is a close up of one of those horses I was able to use as a practice with 16 x 20 Canvas.

I must admit that size on an easel looked positively huge in comparison to an 11x14!

With encouragement from John and Stuart to 'go big' and do it.a good experience and practice. So in front of a sketch on the canvas and some music in the background I took the brush paint on and reached out and said to myself  'DO IT'!

I am sure any equestrians look at 'Big Red' (my name for him) will see mistakes, love of horses go deep and owners know every inch of the precious animal ,but,on the whole I believe my interest is becoming avid I enjoyed working with him and hopefully it shows a 16 x 20 was worth the while.
Babs

Watercolor - Painting or Paining?

For Christmas we were given an unexpected gift, a set of watercolour paint!

We have both talked about water colour painting on an off for a while, and here we were with no excuses and decided to try them as soon as we could..

Having all the equipment necessary to start a few days ago we got down to business and worked on our first project I picked some roses. and came up with this:

I am so used to painting with oil paint and realized trying this new medium is certainly a very different technique from what I am used to. I found the paint thinning to hardly a colour and building the petals slowly hardly using the brush and waiting for parts to almost dry before applying similar colour to mix into the petal.

Next my favourite subject, a doggy:

I realized you have to have a different mind set from painting with oil. I managed after a fashion to complete the picture but knew by the end of it my patience had been slowly draining and concentration certainly giving me a hard time. I thought it would be a good idea to show the work I did, but, now at least if I decide to continue, like anything you want to do when it comes to creativity is practice,
Practice ,practice so hopefully watch this space !!

Babs




I tried using watercolours about 8 years ago and after much splashing came up with this:

Last week I used a photo of some hollyhocks resulting in this:













And today a photo of a water-lily led to this:

Watercolour paints are so different than oils it is like learning another language, You have to rely on the paper colour to capture white, it is impossible to predict the results when painting wet on wet. But somehow the process is quite relaxing.
I suggest if you meet anyone who paints with watercolour bow your head and give due respect.

John