Category Archives: general

I’m not sure what category this painting fits in.  I was just playing with a photo I took of a pond along the Sibbald Trail.  I was also trying to keep painting rather than to let things dry.  I also used a little scrapper to dig in to the paper.  I put the final result in the category that says, ‘interesting’.

This is the plein air sketch I did the other day.  It’s the front of the same building that I’ve done 3 times already.  I like this view and think it has compositional strengths.  I always wonder about having a big tree right in front of  the building but that’s the beauty of these sketches.  The are a relatively quick way to find out if something works or doesn’t.  The other issue that I wonder about is the value pattern.  In this image I’m directing your eye to the side with the white paper and the colourful shadows but the drawing sets up the front to be the star of the show.

I think some more practice will help me resolve these issues.

I’ve really enjoyed working on these paintings from Currie Barracks.  It seems like it’s becoming a bit of a series.

This has always been one of my favourite buildings.  I believe it was originally an officer’s quarters.  Now it is the home of some business.  There are actually 3 of these officer’s quarters.

Again I like the shadow and the colours in the shadow.  Unfortunately, I felt I had to go over it twice.  The first time it just seemed too light.  I prefer this value but with watercolour you lose something important when ever you re-do a wash.  The hallmark freshness and spontaneity of watercolour requires we get the right value in the first wash.

Another challenge was to get the right composition.  This one is OK but there is an issue with the tree on the left.  I think it would be a stronger composition if it was cropped closer to the centre of the tree.  Seeing little bits of background through the branches on the left edge don’t add anything and in fact probably detract from the composition.

This is version 3 of this particular building at Currie Barracks.  It’s actually the sales office for all the new development of the area.  The development that will probably at some point be the end of all these lovely original buildings.

This painting has some interesting points but I think I may have gone a little too far.  I was interested in trying to make the blue to red large shadow even more dramatic so I began with a full strength wash of ultramarine blue.  I did this on dry paper and I think that was the issue.  When I added the red to the shadow it didn’t blend as much as I hoped.  I think if I had pre-wet it the colours would have blended in a more natural way.

I also think that I might have gone a little heavy in the use of red in the roof.  It’s a little bright for a peripheral area.

Mostly this image is what it is and I think I’ll leave it at that.

This is actually an older painting.  It’s an image that I’ve always liked.  The original photo that I took is an example of photograph that to my eyes didn’t need any changes.  It seemed to have a great composition just as it is.  The painting has evolved quite a bit over  time.  Particularly in the foreground.  The smaller puddles in the photograph have become a little river.  I’m still not sure about the foreground in terms of whether it’s too busy.  The painting is about following that line to get to the buildings.  This foreground, much as I like it may be too much and tend to stop the eye from moving forward.

This painting had been out of mind for quite a while and it was nice to revisit it.

This is the demo I did for my watercolour class last night.  It’s an easy painting but offers a few nice painting techniques including lettering a sign and adding people.  I like the out of focus character of the roof which I think accentuates the centre of interest.  The rhythmic pattern in the foreground likewise let’s us know where to look.

The one area that I think can be improved is the bright colours surrounding the figures.  They are indeed bright but I think they are a little simplistic.  They need to be broken up a little.  I find quite a lot that when you want a colour to really pop (whether a strong colour or the white of the paper), by taking away some of it what’s left works even harder.  An example of this is the large white shape towards the left of the painting.  By adding a light yellow wash to part of it the rest of the pure white seems even brighter.  Before I added the yellow, when that entire shape was white it seemed cut out or unreal.  It’s much more organized and effective now.  So I think that by making the area of almost straight from the tube cad red light a little smaller and adding more transition colours the image would be less simplistic and it would have more depth.

I’m so pleased with this particular image or rather series of images (see the previous post).  I learned or came to understand something new about value and plein air painting.  I tried not too successfully in the last post to explain what this insight was and now I think it’s clearer to me.  Traditionally I would see the windows as an object and then the shadow over it as a separate thing.  What this study taught me is to see the shadow (including where the window melts into the shadow) as one shape.  A shadow shape.

The end result of seeing things this way is that there is a greater cohesiveness to the painting.

Also, compositionally, I thought that having a second wall intersecting would be more interesting than the straight wall from the previous image.

I love the architecture of  the military base at Currie Barracks.  I think the buildings look great from the outside.  I like to go there frequently because I imagine they won’t be around too much longer.

In my painting lately I’ve spent a lot of time considering  the element of value in painting.  As I’ve mentioned before the book, Watercolor Solutions by Charles Reid has been quite an inspiration.  So each time I’ve gone plein air painting lately I’ve tried to judge the values before I start painting.  It has paid dividends as I think I’m getting better at it.  The  plein air sketch above is actually not bad except that I thought the main shadow areas were too light so after it was dry I added a  second wash over the all of the shadow and I don’t really like the look of that.

However, when I got home and had a chance to critique it I tried it again with a much stronger concept of what I wanted to do value-wise.  This time I actually thought of the shadows as just a large value shape and I painted the shadows in before I painted the windows and other details.  Traditionally I would do what Charles Reid advises against namely think of the various things as objects, this is a window etc.  He says see things as value areas that have a certain colour and a certain shape.

After saying all that I think I love this image.

This is from a photo I took along Sibbald Trail a few months ago.  My concern was to get a good value pattern and to create some sense of the tree detail without actually painting a lot of trees.  This is a quick study but it has much to recommend it.  I like the directional feel of the reflections in the water.  I lifted out 5 of the main tree trunks after the painting was dry and they add a nice element.

I’ve included the 6 little thumbnails I did to get a composition that worked.  It’s interesting to me when I do these thumbnails for a new scene.  It takes me 3 or 4 before I can break away significantly from the actual scene.   During this initial stage I find that I make minor adjustments to the shapes and it’s not until I’ve worked on it a bit that I can take it in an original direction.  That happened only in the last sketch.

P.S.  After a day of looking at the painting I thought a few changes would make it better.  In the top image I added some touches of gouache bringing back some light.   I also added some details and like it much better.

Last Thursday I did a demo for the Calgary Sketch Club.  I had about 90 minutes of painting time and basically finished this image.  It is one I’ve done before but I feel this is one the better versions.  It’s nice to do well in the pressure situation of a demo.  The demo was very well received and a lot of people told me that they got a lot out of it.  A number of people also said that they were impressed that I could paint and at the same time keep up a running commentary of what I was doing and thinking.  That comment made me realized another aspect of my public school teaching career that I am grateful for.  The ability to establish and verbalize goals and to try to communicate clearly and simply.

I really enjoy teaching.  Actually it’s much deeper than enjoying it.  I  love it.

If you  are interested in having me do a  demo or a workshop with your group contact me.