ARTFINDER: Getting Aquainted by Richard De Wolfe - When I was a very young boy, my father kept a f...

ARTFINDER: Getting Aquainted by Richard De Wolfe - When I was a very young boy, my father kept a f...

"Getting Acquainted" by Richard De Wolfe 18 x 24 alkyd oil on canvas

When I was a very young boy, my father kept a few farm animals, as well as flocks of chickens, ducks and turkeys to help provide for our large family.  He had already stopped keeping cattle by that time, but I was very familiar with cows and calves on neighbouring farms in our rural community as I was growing up.

"Getting Acquainted" is a fanciful interpretation of my father introducing a 3year old 'me' to a young calf in the barnyard in spring.  For many poeple, it represents a nostalgic memory of life on the family farm in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

I love creating paintings that bring back memories of my childhood in farm country along the St. Lawrence River, in Ontario, Canada.  Life seemed so simple then, but that is more a product of the innocence of childhood than the reality of those times.  We had polio, World War 2, DDT, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis and many more life-threatening situations to cope with, not so different from today.  I think the difference is that the past is 'known' and the future must always remain 'unknown'.  Enjoy life and tell someone that you love them.

ARTFINDER: On the Podium by Richard De Wolfe - This old tractor belongs to a friend of mine. F...

On the Podium 24x30 oil on canvas by Richard De Wolfe

I have been away from the blog for some time, but I will try to get back to it as often as I can.  It is amazing how much of my that time social media uses up these days!  Juggling posts, web sites and painting sometimes requires more than I have available in my day!

This is an older painting of mine, but one that I still enjoy very much.  I love painting country art and farm subjects and this one falls squarely into that catagorey, very nicely.  I hope this old tractor, acting as a sound stage for a very melodious performer will brighten your day.  There is nothing more uplifting than the golden voice of the song sparrow.

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

Winterlude Part 3

"Winterlude" almost there!

I keep adding colour and detail throughout the entire scene.  I want to maintain a balance so that I can judge each new brush stroke against the overall look of the painting.  If you concentrate too much on one area you may find that it doesn't work so well after the rest of the painting is completed.  You also run the risk of 'falling in love' with how that particular area of your work looks and you may not want to make necessary changes as you go forward.  By working more or less equally across the painting, you can maintain a healthier and more impartial perspective on your work.

Here I have painted in the distant trees using a mixture of sap green, ultramarine blue and titanium white.  Ultramarine blue dominates to create an illustion of distance.  Now the local colour of the barn is introduced.  I decided on a soft yellow to promote the feeling of bright sunlight on a cold winter day. I add snow to the branches of the spruce tree in front of the barn and generally add more detail to everything.  I introduce a slight hint of warmth in the sky on the right side of the painting, again to establish a feeling of bright sunlight coming from that direction.  Now I embellish the soft shadows in the snow and on the snowy branches in the foreground using a mixture of ultramarine blue and titanium white.

"Winterlude" 9 X 12 inches acrylic on board

I work fairly consistently over the entire painting as I go along, so everything comes together quite nicely as I near the finish.  I add small details and highlights as necessary, such as brightening the snow on the barn roof, spruce tree, fence and middle ground to suggest bright light in these areas.  I add bits of snow in the forks of tree branches beside the barn and I strengthen the blue shadow areas.

The last area to concentrate on is the foreground.  Layers of detail and colour are added to the birds to make them appear close to the viewer.  The pine needles are finished off with darker and more detailed brush strokes using a combination of sap green and lamp black,  The tree branches are painted in quickly with burnt sienna and lamp black in the shadows.

In order to increase the contrast between the sunny background and the shadowed foreground, I add a glaze of ultramarine blue and mat medium over most of the pine branches and the birds until I see a clear division between the two areas.  Once the signature is added, the painting is finished!

Winterlude Part Two

"Winterlude" a work in progress

Now I begin blocking in a few colours to create an underpainting on my illustration board.  The sky is roughed in with a combination of cerulean blue and titanium white acrylic pigments.  Because the light is coming from the right side of the painting, I transition from a very pale colour on the right to a darker sky on the left.  I block in the shadows on the barn roof and in the snow.  The snow surfaces that are directly in sunlight are blocked in with titanium white.  I use cerulean blue to add a few contours to the shaded, snow laden boughs in the foreground.

"Winterlude" one step closer!

I keep adding more colour and more detail, gradually establishing my colour scheme and mood of the painting.  I use cadmium red to wash in basic tones on the male and female cardinals and slowly build contours of light and shadow as I go.  The plumage of the female cardinal is primarily drab and somewhat olive, so I use a combination of cadmium yellow, titanium white and ultramarine blue to create this colour.  The spruce tree in the middle ground and the pine boughs in the foreground are quickly blocked in with sap green.  Next, I introduce burnt sienna on the fencing and bare deciduous trees in the middle ground.  I also build a little more shadow contour on the male cardinal with this colour.  Finally, I paint the sky again with more colour and detail in the blending.  My painting is starting to take shape!

Barn on Hunt Road

'Barn on Hunt Road'  7X9 inches  

It was late in the season, one day last summer, when I drove past this aging old bank barn on a side road a few miles northwest of Kingston, Ontario.  The missing boards, rusted metal roofing, along with the split rail fence really caught my eye.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to concentrate on a larger painting at that time, but I intended to return at a later date and spend more time.

I managed to get this small painting completed and then filed it away in the back of my mind to follow up in the weeks ahead.  The spot was really charming and I really wanted to make the most of it.  Finally, the day came when my objective for the day was to create a larger plein air painting of 'The Barn on Hunt Road'.  The weather was perfect that day, sunny and warm, with nice cloud formations starting to build but no dreaded winds to topple my french easle!  With great anticipation, I struck out for the location along the dirt road where I had found this wonderful subject.  Alas, to my dismay, when I arrived at the correct location, all was lost.  The beautiful, historic old barn had been bulldozed and the land was now scraped flat!  Another rustic scene had been changed forever.

Situations like this are one of the reasons I love to paint the landscapes around me.  I never know when they will cease to exist and could be lost forever.  If a painting or at least a photo is made then there is  a record of something that can never be recreated in just the same way again.  Fortunately, I did complete this small painting and I did take some photos that day, so maybe a larger work will one day sit on my studio easel!

I Remember When

The weather has been very nice here in Southern Ontario for the past month.  I have really enjoyed it but of course it took me away from the computer and my blog.  During that time I managed to get some plein air painting done.  I love to be outdoors on warm, sunny autumn days, and this year the opportunities to do so were terrific.  Hurricane Sandy was supposed to hit us pretty hard after it came ashore in New York and New Jersey, but fortunately for folks in Southern Ontario, it had pretty well blown itself out by the time it got here.  We sure felt bad for the shoreline residents of those US states who were devistated by the storm.  Many of them lost everything, including the land where their homes once sat.  It makes you realize just how lucky you are and that you should appreciate everything and everyone you have in your life.

I was also busy with my art exhibit in Kingston, Ontario during the month of October.  My opening at the beginning of the month was a great success, with a good turnout and lots of interest.  I sold a number of paintings and obtained a few commissions to keep me busy too.

I Remember When 12 X 16 Alkyd on panel  Sold

This is a plein air painting that I did a number of years ago.  The location is a very narrow country road in Eldon Township, well to the north and somewhat east of the city of Toronto, Ontario.  The land was still being worked, but the house and barns had been abandoned long ago.  Places like this are full of mystery and I always wonder what interesting stories they could tell of days gone by and lives lived before my time.

I sold this painting in my recent art show, so it has gone to a new owner and a new home.  I hope the new owner can find as much enjoyment in it as I did when I painted it on that now distant autumn day.

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.