The View at Brown's Bay

"Brown's Bay" 9X12 alkyd oil on panel

This is one of my favourite views as you drive along the Thousand Islands Parkway between Brockville and Rockport, Ontario.  The parkway follows the North shore of the St. Lawrence River for about thirty miles from Brockville on the east to Gananoque on the west.  The river views are spectacular and there are many places that travellers can park their car and enjoy the view.  I grew up in a house right on the water near the village of Rockport and I never tire of looking at the mighty St. Lawrence River.

Brown's Bay is a broad, shallow bay with a sandy bottom that makes the water appear pastel blue on sunny days.  The very distant shore, beyond the headland in this painting is New York state, directly across the river.  For years I have planned on creating a painting of this spot and I finally got around to it last fall.  I like the way this small canvas panel turned out and I plan on creating a much larger work from it in the future.  There always seems to be an endless supply of subjects to paint but not enough time to paint them all.

Madawaska Sunset

18 X 24     Madawaska Sunset    $950.00

We used to own a cottage that we built ourselves near Algonquin Park in Ontario. It was tucked away on a beautiful, quiet bay below the fast water at Bell’s Rapids on the Madawaska River. This was the view in front of our chalet. In the winter, the quiet was almost deafening, only broken by the soft and distant sound of the rapids and an occasional raucous ‘cawing’ of a raven. It was a wonderful place that I think of often.

Hinterland Beach

$150.00      Hinterland Beach      12 X 16

I originally painted this plein air piece quite a few years ago.  Recently, I came across it in a stack of canvases leaning against the wall in my studio.   I have always liked the simplicity of the painting and it struck me that it really has a spiritual quality.   The serenity of the tree raising bare limbs to the wilderness sky and the light breaking on the calm waters suggest this theme to me.  Probably the colour that most often dominates in my paintings is blue and I have a great afinity for water.  This picture has it all!   I decided to touch it up a little and offer it for sale once more.  If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, go here.

12 Day Carnival Mediterranean Cruise

It was quite a shock to witness the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off of the west coast of Italy at Giglio Island on Friday, January 13th, 2012.    It makes me think that 'but for the Grace of God, there go I'.  Just three months ago, my wife and I had the trip of a lifetime on Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Magic, that took us on a 12 day trip, primarily centered around Italy.  At that time we were also visitors to the port of Civitavecchia, where the Costa Concordia had departed before it's sudden demise at Giglio Island.

 Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

Fortunately, our cruise left us with nothing but fond memories and high respect for the level of professionalism of the staff and crew aboard ship.   My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the passengers of the stricken Costa Concordia, who are still missing, together with the families that are awaiting their safe return.

Jones's Creek

I painted this little picture about a week ago.  I worked from photos that I took several years ago while driving around the countryside north east of Kingston Ontario.  The location is a place called Jones's Falls.  I liked the look of the winding river as it flows through the granite outcroppings of the Canadian Shield.  The trees in the middle and foreground  frame the animated water flowing toward the viewer, while the distant blue trees in the background give the painting a sense of depth.

I don't know what kind of flowers grow in the marsh along the river, but they make a wonderful counterpoint to the deep green of the trees that make up a large portion of the picture.  The whole thing makes me long for summer, which is still about six months away!

This painting measures just 8 inches high by 10 inches wide.  It is painted on a canvas panel support using alkyd oil, my medium of choice.  You can find the painting for sale at www.dailypaintworks .com or www.rdewolfe.com, along with a wide selection of other paintings I have created.

The Art of Richard De Wolfe: Sailing

The Art of Richard De Wolfe: Sailing: Sailing It is early January in Canada. This winter has been the warmest I have ever experienced here. We still have no snow and the groun...

Sailing

Sailing

It is early January in Canada.  This winter has been the warmest I have ever experienced here.  We still have no snow and the ground has only just become frozen.  The last two days were very cold and it has quickly reminded me how much I miss warm summer weather and boating.  It would be nice to just sail away to a tropical island.....

This small sailboat is actually one that I viewed from the upper decks of a cruise ship as we slowly entered the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy in October.  The painting is just 6 inches by 8 inches, painted in oil on a canvas panel.  I am offering it by auction at dailypaintworks.com.

I Saw the Light

I Saw the Light

Here it is, Day 2 and I have another small painting to post!  This one also measures 5 inches high by 7 inches wide.  It is painted in oil on canvas panel.  Painting at this size is not as easy as it may look.  You have to be spontaneous but accurate with your brush stokes on a support that is not much larger than your hand.  I am having fun though!

This painting is for sale by auction at Daily Paintworks.com.  If you would like to bid click here.

I love to paint pictures with water in them.  This spot is near my former home just south of Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada.  The sky was rather tepid so I decided to create some drama by painting a defined cloud base with a strong sunrise over the horizon.  I was pleased with the result.....did it work for you?  Post your comments, I would love to hear from you!

North Shore

North Shore  SOLD

This little painting represents a new direction for me.  It is very small, measuring 5 inches high by 7 inches wide.  I have become interested in the 'Daily Painting' movement that promotes painting a picture every day (or as close to that goal as possible).  It sounds rather daunting to me!  In the coming days I will post more of these small paintings as I create them, along with a few older pieces that fit the genre reasonably well.  You will find these paintings for sale  at Daily Paint Works.  I hope to add a new one every day or so and I hope you will check them out there and return often.  Please don't be shy, leave me a comment on what you think of this little painting and whether you think small daily paintings are a good idea.

The Stone Arch

I grew up on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario.  One of the places that I loved to explore in those days was Boldt's Castle, near Alexandria Bay, New York.  It is located on an island just off the main shipping channel of the river.

The stone arch that I have painted here was to be the formal entrance to the castle for launches delivering guests from larger yachts anchored in deep water.  A drawbridge within the opening was to provide a prominade on the embankment of the Swan Pond.  Alas, tragedy struck and Mrs. Boldt passed away.   Her husband, Geroge Boldt, was grief stricken and all work on the castle ceased and the entire project was never completed.

This painting measures 9.5 inches high by 13.5 inches wide.  It is painted in alkyd on stretched canvas.  Prints are available at Richard De Wolfe Fine Art.

Freighter Inviken-Step 6

The final phase of the painting is a matter of going back and refining areas as needed.   The clouds are softened a little and white highlights are added to indicated the direction of the sunlight filtering through them.  The trees and bridge are painted in and if you look close, you will see a tiny tractor-trailer truck at mid-span.  Small details are added over the superstructure of the ship and the hull is embellished to make it look powerful.  I add layers of colour over the small waves and reflect the sunlight with an impressionistic application of white highlights.

The last thing I do is add my signature to the lower right hand corner.  This last image is a professional scan of the finished painting and is a better representation of the true colours in the painting.  As I work, I take digital photos on my easel where the light is not as balanced as it should be, so the initial images can be less acurate.

I wanted to create a painting that suggests power and industry, while at the same time indicating the power and majesty of the natural world.  When I finished, I was pleased with this result.  The painting measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide, painted on stretched canvas.  If you are interested in purchasing this original work of art or a fine art print on archival paper or canvas, please visit my website at www.richarddewolfe.com.

Freighter Inviken-Step 5

It is finally time to start blocking in the ship itself.  This is a complex shape with many small details.  I take my time, painting in sections simply and as clearly as I can.  The mass of the hull is mostly black with only slight suggestions of form and contour at the rear and away from the sunlight.  On the right side of the ship, where the light is strong, I try to suggest heavy steel plates that are streaked with rust.

The superstructure of the freighter is much more complicated and each area requires careful consideration.  I keep the surfaces that are away from the sunlight cool and subdued and begin playing up the surfaces that face the sun.  This creates the center of interest in the painting.  Everything is now more or less in place and working together.

Freighter Inviken-Step 4

I begin blocking in the clouds now.  I start with the darks, establishing the weight and mass of the cumulus formations.  When I placed the general cloud masses in the sky, I drew them in perspective,  going from large shapes in the foreground above the ship and progressively getting smaller as you look further back and down towards the distant horizon.

Now I begin refining the darks in the clouds and adding mid tones to soften and mold these areas.  I work progressively lighter, leaving the brightest highlights until last.  Now I have established the general look of the sky, with only the ship itself to be blocked in.  The overall look of the painting is beginning to make me want to get back out on the water myself!

Freighter Inviken-Step 3

I continue to build simple colours in the water, the headlands and the bridge that is back near the horizon.  Already the ship seems to be sitting on the surface of the water and moving towards the bridge.

I add more detail to the trees and then spend more time building subtle colour shifts in the surface of the water.  Each wave is a separate surface.  Each of these surfaces is concave in shape, so light is reflecting off of them in a multitude of angles and intensities.  Everything is in continuous motion, so I find the best way to paint water is to recreate the impression it gives you rather than trying to sort out specific details.  I work over this surface a number of times, occasionally adding a thin glaze with one colour to unify everything if it gets too busy.

Freighter Inviken-Step 2

Now I create a tonal image on the canvas, using progressively darker mixtures of my ground colour.  This gives me a feel for the tonal balance in the painting.  In other words, I can assess where the lights and darks will fall and what sort of positive/negative design this will create in the finished work.

Now it is time to switch from acrylic paint to alkyd.  I usually block in the sky first, working from dark to light and distance to forground throughout the painting.  I have painted the sky a darker shade towards the zenith and becoming progressively lighter towards the horizon.  I also keep the sky lighter on the side towards the light of the sun and darker on the opposite side.  As you can see by the light side of the ship, the sunlight will be on the right side of the painting.  I avoid getting to fussy or detailed at this stage.

Freighter Inviken

It is the beginning of boating season here in the Thousand Islands area on the St. Lawrence River.  I love the water and boating, and soon I will be launching my own craft once again.  The St. Lawrence Seaway has been open to shipping for several months now and will remain open until late autumn, alllowing ships from all over the world to reach ports all around the Great Lakes, deep in the interior of Canada and the United States .

This is a freighter from Europe that I saw several years ago as it was approaching the Thousand Island Bridge, between the U.S. mianland and Wellesley Island, N.Y.  I loved the powerful mass of the ship, rising off of the water like some displaced, highrise architecture.  I found the persepective leading to the arch span of the bridge in the distance to be an interesting design that appealed to me.  The rolling clouds overhead seemed to enforce the energy and power of the massive ship churning upstream to Toronto, Detroit  and perhaps  many ports beyond.

Once I had worked out the composition to my satisfaction, I transferred the drawing to a 16" X 20" stretched canvas.  The next step was to spray the drawing with fixative to prevent smearing when I started to paint.

After fixing the canvas, I applied a mixture of matt medium, burnt umber and cadmium red, to create a warm, earthy ground.  This acrylic mixture is mostly matt medium to maintain a high degree of transparency so that my pencil drawing remains very visible.  The warm colours will be complimentary to the cool blues of this waterscape.  At this stage I am always eager to see some local colours applied to this ground.

Weather's Changing

I don't paint much wildlife anymore, but at one time, the genre represented a large percentage of the paintings that I produced. When I was a child, birds were my passion, especially the ducks and geese that frequented the Thousand Islands region. I learned much about drawing and painting by observing them and then trying to capture their likenesses on paper or canvas.

The Lesser Scaup or ‘Blue Bill’, as many locals know it, is a diving duck that will feed and rest in the thousands along the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River districts during the migration south each autumn. They nest in the Arctic but they will spend the winter anywhere from the US/Canadian border to as far south as Central America.

This painting shows both male (purple/black heads) and female (brown heads) of the species, on a beautiful autumn day, but ominous clouds are building, suggesting a change in the weather is coming.

This painting measures 16 inches by 20 inches and it is painted in alkyd on stretched canvas.

Golden Lake

I want to stay with the autumn colours for a while longer. This is a great time of year in the northern hemisphere. A day like the one in this painting is something to be savoured against the cold, barren days to come.

This scene is typical of lake and river country throughout Southern and Central Ontario, Quebec, and the North Eastern United States. The reds and golds of hard and soft maple, white birch, oak, beech and ash trees contrast beautifully with the deep greens of white and red pine, spruce and cedar.

I wanted to play up the crystal blue sky and fluffy white clouds against the strong yellow and gold of the birch and maple trees in the foreground. This is echoed in the shoreline foliage in the middle ground and again in the hazy distant trees in the background. The composition is designed so that the trees in the foreground lead the viewer's eye into the picture to the pines on the opposite shore in the middle ground. These trees, in turn, guide the eye back into the upper foliage of the foreground trees and back around once more. The ripples and abstractions in the water reflections give the painting a feeling of life and movement.

The painting is done in acrylic paint on stretched canvas. It measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide.

Geraldine

I decided to stick with the boating theme once more, but this time it is an autumn scene, in keeping with the change of seasons. I am always amazed by how quickly summer seems to end and autumn begins with cool nights, changing leaves and shorter days. It is one of the nicest times of the year to be on the water provided the sun is shining and the winds are calm.

The Geraldine is a restored steam yacht, that is now on permanent display at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. At one time, boats like this were common on the St. Lawrence River. In the background is a 1000 Island landmark, St. Brendan's Church, at Rockport, Ontario.

I started this painting as a demonstration at an art show. The painting measures 16 inches by 20 inches high. It is painted in alkyd on canvas panel. Prints are available.

Elusive

Every year, about mid-summer, there is a show and auction sale of antique boats at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. I caught this wonderful mahogany speed boat, a fore runner of the modern 'cigarette boat', as it left the Alexandria Bay boat basin during the Antique Boat Show several years ago. She has just passed the Sunken Rock lighthouse, at Alexandria Bay, New York, heading back upriver toward Clayton. When the captain opened the throttle, she was gone in a flash.

I loved the way the cumulus clouds were building in the sky and the way the sun shone on the highly polished varnish finish on the hull of the boat. The long, narrow shape of the canvas adds thrust to this composition, and the bow-view accentuates the length of the boat in relation to the size of the figures in the cockpit. The original painting is done in alkyd on a canvas panel. It measures 12 inches by 24 inches. It now hangs in one of the beautiful old summer homes on an island on the Canadian side of the river.