I spent a few days earlier in the summer on a tour through Quebec City and then on to Tadoussac. Tadoussac is the place where the Saguenay River joins the St. Lawrence River. It is a paradise for a painter – every direction is a painting to be done. Deep blue water, rocky cliffs and big, big skies. The town itself has it’s charm – specifically the white clapboards and red roofs of the hotels and churches perched up above the cove.

The surrounding bluish green hills, and sparkling water created many opportunities to work on landscapes full of light and atmosphere. Of particular interest to me on this trip was the rendering of distance – far shoreline, distant mountains, clouds. With these paintings I hoped to work on the effects of light and colour seen across a distance. Using similar motifs but changing the tone I was able to practice these effects. Here are some of the results.

I had a request to paint a number of sketches of places up in the park earlier this month. I have been up there countless times and have a trip planned for the first week in May. I go up there every year for the opening of trout season to spend a few days fishing and painting. I usually head to the northern edge of the park in early May – there is often still snow on the ground. There are no leaves out yet and the fiddleheads are just poking through the leaf litter.

This year we are going to Kiosk. I have been in there before and there is lots of good fishing to be done. We troll for lake trout in the big lakes using copper lines and William’s wobblers tipped with minnow heads. On the creeks we’re using light tackle and small spinners for brook trout. The painting is pretty good too. There are lots of creeks and little lakes that are close by, providing great views.

If the weather cooperates, I paint in the morning and early afternoon and then gear up to fish for a few hours till dusk, hopefully catching something for the pan.

Check out my next post in a couple of weeks for the results of the trip.

Back after a busy time – It’s been a hectic 8 weeks. I have been absent getting ready for a book launch as well as completing a number of paintings for a big show at Artworld of Sherway. The event was a great success and the paintings looked great on the wall. I was really pleased how Donna, and the gallery team organized the show (and book) by seasons.

All of the work revolved around the theme, “Northward”. All images of Ontario, and Quebec, all rural or the wildness. These are classic Canadian landscape motifs and I was happy to focus my attention there for a number of months in preparation.

My hope is that I was able to produce work that was fresh, original, and at the same time familiar to all who live here.

I completed about 20 sketches in preparation for the larger pieces – I was primarily gaining practice at painting trees in various light, specific snow effects, and sunlight on rocks and water.

Of special interest during this series of paintings was the effect of bright sunlight. I have found that this can be a challenge. I wanted to do paintings that conveyed the feeling you get on sunny summer and fall days out of doors. This light can vary through a range from hazy to sharp and I really wanted to see if I could capture it.

As the subject was the North, I also wanted to really to work with greens, using various tones to convey shadow and light. And, as with all of my work – keep it loose and spontaneous.

The opening night was terrific and as always great to meet the people who purchase and enjoy the work that I do. It is really a pleasure to meet with you all and talk about art over a glass of wine.

I am working right know on a number of views of the Toronto harbour using some of the ideas I developed in the Northward series. And I am off to New York this weekend to paint in the mountains for a couple of days – I will post them next week as a preview.

A strange thing happens to us after the first snow – even if that’s on Oct.30 – fall is over, winter begins. For me the requests for winter paintings start on the same day. Not that I don’t like fall, but I have had a long a couple of months painting fall pictures and it’s time for a change. I wanted to show one painting in particular – a picture of a windy fall day on Lake Superior. I tried to capture the scudding clouds and the bold white caps and deep blue water that you always see on these types of days. There is just a hint of orange in the cedar trees along the shore.

All of my fall canvases were the result of many sketches and here is a small portion of them. The subject matter comes from various travels – Kawarthas, Superior, Killarney.

And so, winter is now on the go… here are the first 2 paintings. Both are interesting in that they are of winter but the pallet is intentionally all very warm – pinks, purples, reds, and oranges. It is the management of the colour and of course the subject that provides the “cool” in these paintings.

A few thoughts about painting fall… As the summer closes and the leaves change, the quality of light is also changing. It is a really interesting time to paint. This season requires a change in approach. I have never been a big fan of pictures of fall leaves – canvases filled with reds, oranges, yellows. Over time I have begun to understand that painting fall is more about blue. That may seem odd but one of the keys to painting good pictures is contrast and that one way to achieve this is through the use of contrasting colours. So the contrast of all the warm colours of fall is the blues. A lot of blue and a little bit of orange – makes the orange glow – just look at some of the impressionists paintings of oranges – they are often placed on big blue backgrounds. And the proportions need to be well thought out as well. Equal amounts of contrasting colour makes for a very unexciting outcome. So in my newest series of fall sketches I am using touches of orange and reds but lots of blues. You can judge the success of painting fall, with blue.