Summer of 2011

Here I am again, Post 2. The nice thing or bad thing about blogs is that no one on the interweb will ever find them, so I can just ramble on about art and stuff to my heart’s content.  If there is anyone out there, Hi.

Sept.19 today. It is raining outside, that cold autumn rain, I hate to use the W word but it is coming and we are going, south that is. What I don’t like is that I have to wear long pants and the Peter Pan in me says NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Spring, summer and fall all OK, but winter, not if I can help it.

That being said I love the fall, I think it is God’s gift to those who have to endure a northern winter. The big guy’s palette cannot even come close to being copied, and I love using colour but he (or she) invented it. The northern Maples are just starting to redden and the Birches are turning that lovely apple green then into cadmium Yellow light. 

The summer was great being surrounded by the forests, streams and lakes I love here in the Muskokas, (Ontario Canada for my American friends). This was an eye opening experience to say the least. I only did 6 canvases but it was some of my best work ever. Studying the light, colours and contrast on a daily basis is priceless. Use to run up north here for a couple of weeks on vacation, take lots of pic’s then go home and try to remember all the little nuances of the scenes but now I live here well for the summers anyway.  The only other time my creative juices were like this is when I went to a Painting work shop for 5 days, where the studio was open 24hrs. a day and all we did was paint. I have never liked painting summer forests before, it’s is like my friend Jean once said “ too much F---ing green” but I like the new mix of blue and yellow that I am using now and the contrast is what I have been striving for.

My thanks to my wife Louise who encourages me to paint sometimes with a cattle prod. I use to try and paint Plein Air when we were out and about but I am not a Plein Air painter. I like to take photos and then work at my own speed back at the camp site. This works for us, yesterday we went on a bicycle ride in Algonquin Park on an old railway bed that has been converted for cycling (29K)and I can stop along the way for all the Pic’s I want. I pretty well know the ones that will turn into painting, but sometimes I am surprised by a small scene that I see then editing later. It works for me and Louise is happy because we do more Kayaking, hiking and biking to find the perfect scene.

Well that’s it for this post, no more painting until we get to Colorado and New Mexico. Have to get ready for travel. I tried to paint last winter in Rockport Tx. where we spent most of the winter, but I made the mistake of reverting back to using brushes because of the soft lighting do to humidity in the atmosphere. This does not work for me, I like the texture and purity of the oil applied with painting knives. I think that New Mexico will be more to my liking.

Here are some more of the summer paintings.

Brian