Forest Lime Light

Used to be, before books, magazines and the internet, you had to trek to a location to capture a landscape to paint. And before photography, you either had to sketch, remember or paint it right on the spot, plein air.

Now you can go virtually anywhere in the world from your armchair. See the sights and vicariously experience the scene. Of course the purists will argue photos do not capture the real colour and neither can Youtube give you a sense of the sounds, smell and presence that being there can give. All true but when you can’t be there, you can be transported there with imagination, images and video. 

This piece is based on a photo on pixabay by Antonios Ntoumas, a photographer living in Greece (https://pixabay.com/users/atlantios-4957810/) . He produces beautiful work, I recommend you check him out.

I usually use my own reference photos, but in this case I could not. I loved the composition and felt the peace and solitude of that place. Using this as a starting point I edited the colours to reflect my reaction to the scene and my experiences in places similar. The end result is as much my work as Antonios’. Hope you like it too.

Acrylic, 18×24 on gallery wrap canvas – $525

Gatineau Gold

From time to time, I’ll look at work that hasn’t moved and assess whether I am still happy with it or does it need a little adjustment or is it a “learning opportunity” best retired. If the latter, it is removed from the stretchers and rolled up or horror of horrors deemed beyond help and destroyed. This is a sad time because despite their shortcomings there’s a part of me that went into their making which makes it hard to let go. We have to recognize our mistakes if we are to get better.

Happily that is not the case with this piece. It was a beautiful stunning fall day in Gatineau Park. I loved the brilliant angular light that streaked the shallows in Lac Fortune that day. I tried to depict the warm and calm atmosphere of the place – that fall quiet. There was some dead pines in the scene which just didn’t add to the scene and removing them didn’t detract from the truthfulness of the image. So after humming and hawing many times, I finally decided to remove them and am glad with the result. I hope you think so too.

It is drying now and will be varnished in due course.

Oil, 30×40 on gallery wrap canvas – $1,320