Creating a Silver Coin for the Royal Canadian Mint

It has been a year since I was commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mint to design and produce a painting for a 20 dollar silver coin.  Now that the official release has finally arrived, I can take the wraps off of the art and tell the story behind the project and the painting that I created!

It all began in October, 2013 when a product manager at the Mint came across one of my hockey paintings on rdewolfe.com and decided that this was something they would like to see on a Canadian collector coin.  I was then contacted and commissioned to come up with a new design featuring Canadian children playing the much loved game of pond hockey.

The production work for a new coin is long and arduous, so it was imperative that I immediately begin working out the design for the new coin.  Country, kids and hockey are favourite subjects of mine, so I eagerly began working on the project.  Sketches were soon approved and painting commenced!

Original sketch for Pond Hockey painting

The first sketch was received with enthusiasm but because it was decided to reproduce the background buildings in bas-relief rather than full colour, it was necessary to separate the figures in the foreground from the objects in the distance.  I submitted a new drawing that was then deemed perfect for the job!

Final sketch for Pond Hockey painting

Once I received final approval for the drawing, I transferred it to canvas to begin the painting.  The next step was to apply a thin blue wash overall to create a 'cool' atmosphere.

Now I begin painting in dark areas using acrylic paint for speedy drying.  This allows me to move forward quickly.

When I begin adding local colour throughout the painting, things start to come together.  At this point I have switched to alkyd oil paint.

Now I add in colour and texture on the ice surface and the background scene.  All the basics are there, so now it is a matter of finishing up by adding more colour and detail to the painting.  Originally, I intended to do a circular painting as indicated by the initial painting of the sky.  In the end, however, I decided it would be more attractive to extend the scene into a square format, resulting in a more complete, square painting.

Finished painting "Pond Hockey" 

And here it is....the finished one ounce silver coin, available for purchase at themint.ca or one of the dealers listed on their web site, including Canada Post Corporation.  One of the really neat features of this limited edition silver coin is the full colour treatment, making it a very unique collectible!

Heading for the Loft

Automotive Art

'84 Corvette' 11X14 Acrylic on board

I seem to have great difficulty in keeping the old blog up.  The last post was  in late January and now it is mid-April already!  Too many distractions I am afraid.  Many days I plan on writing a post but once the day gets started everything changes and I find myself emmersed in something entirely different.  There just never seems to be enough hours in the day!

I used to do a lot of car art for various auto manufactures.  Ford, GM, Nissan, Toyota, Saab and Jeep, to name a few.  This kind of work can be very time consuming and usually requires a great deal of precision and attention to detail since the finished art is closely inspected by engineers.  The trick is to be true to the design but also instill artistic flair at the same time.  This painting was done with a combination of pen and ink and painted and airbrushed acrylic.  The background was painted on a surface roughened with gesso and a stiff brush before the lettering and symbols were painted by hand.  The car and reflection were partly brush painted and then airbrushed with acrylic to create a glowing shine.

This was before computer art and photoshop, so the art is all one piece, painted simultaneously on one piece of illustration board.  Everything was done by hand in those days!

'32 Packard'  11X14 acrylic on canvas 

This one is a very different approach.  I worked on canvas this time and completed almost the entire picture using a brush and acrylic paints.  The background was applied using a very thin and drippy mixture of mat medium, acrylic paint and water.  The ghost image was painted in with monochromatic detail before additional applications of darker and slightly heavier paint were added to the upper section of the canvas.  The feature car was painted in detail and strong colour before a few whispy highlights were applied using an airbrush.

I was quite pleased with the effective colour and contrast of texture and detail in this painting.  To me, it conveyed a feeling of age of the vintage car but a sense of perfection in the restoration being portrayed at the same time.

Both of these auto paintings were originally commissioned as car magazine covers.  These were wonderful assignments and I enjoyed doing a series of similar paintings for more than a year before the publication ultimately folded.

Autumn Colour

This is a wonderful time of year in southern Ontario.  The deciduous trees are transformed from faded green of late summer to a palette of reds, yellows, browns and gold.  Set against the deep green of red pine and spruce, colours 'pop' and the landscape takes on a new and awesome look.   With visual stimulation such as this,  landscape painting is the number one priority for me.  I love to get out on a warm sunny day in fall and either spend a few hours making quick oil sketches or just moving around, recording everything I can with my digital camera.  These images often result in larger works back in the studio.  When the cold winter winds blow heavy through rattling, frozen tree branches, creating a rich autumn landscape painting in a warm studio is high on my list of 'things to do'.

 "A Bend in the Road" available for sale at: http://tinyurl.com/9eey8zl

This little painting measures 6 X 8 inches.  It was done a little earlier in the season when the leaves were just starting to change.  I think if I eventually do this in a large painting, I might add a figure in the distance.  What would you do?

"Dry Marsh"  available for sale at: http://tinyurl.com/9z2uf92

This is another small painting I did this fall.  'Dry Marsh' measures 6 X 9 inches.  I like the depth of field in this one and the distant blue trees against the golden grasses of the marsh.  This type of landscape is common in this area.

Harvesting Hay in Summer

Heading for the Loft 24X36 alkyd on canvas

I know it has been a long time since my last post!  As John Lennon (not the first) once said, 'life is what happens when you are busy making other plans'.  Many things have been keeping me busy lately, not the least of which was bringing in the hay crop to feed our horses through the long cold winter to come.

In the 'good old days' hay was forked up onto an open wagon, then pulled by a team of horses to the barn or hay crib, where it was picked up in large clumps by an articulating claw hook that transferred it by pullies and ropes into the barn loft where it was dumped.  We don't do it that way anymore, but it is still a lot of work, even with tractors and hay elevators to drop the square bales of hay into the hayloft of our barn.

The painting "Heading for the Loft" is a commission that I did a few years ago.  That is me driving the team of clydesdale horses pulling a well loaded hay wagon along a dirt road.  The sheep dogs in the picture belong to a friend of mine who also owns a farm.  The painting is sold but prints are available at: www.rdewolfe.com.

Portrait Commission

I completed this portrait about one week ago.  I don't do a lot of portraits, but occasionally it is fun to take one on and stretch my capabilities....hopefully at least!  This one was a commission for a previous collector of my art.  The painting measures 11 inches wide by 14 inches high.  I painted it on a canvas panel and mounted it in a simple, antique style dark walnut coloured frame that really suited the subject of older folks.  This was actually a portrait of the collector's parents who passed away some years ago, so my patron was delighted to have this painting done as a keepsake and family heirloom for future generations.  If you have a photo that you would like me to use to create a special work of art, please contact me and we can discuss the possibilites.