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.

A Day in Rome

We visited Rome for one busy day.  After a long drive from the port of Civitavecchia, our tour bus became lost in Rome.  It turned out that the driver had never been to Rome before!  It is a very busy city with a lot of traffic congestion.  The old walled city within takes you back in time from the moment you enter the gates.

The statues and building facades are all very beautiful.  This is part of the dramatic equestrian art that embellishes the Trevi Fountain.

The Pantheon was a beautiful, domed building with massive columns adorning the entrance.  It is filled with art and artifacts of the early church.  Raphael's tomb is within.

This delicately carved pair of doves hang suspended over the tomb of the artist Raphael.

We did not stop at the Coliseum but only saw it from the tour bus as we worked our way past it in afternoon traffic.  We had to hurry, we were on our way to Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica!

Milan, Italy

Milan was the next stop on our cruise.  This is another beautiful European city filled with historic monuments and buildings.  Art is everywhere!

Medieval sculptures and ornamentations are the order of the day in the old parts of the city.

I found the contrast between old and modern technology to be very interesting.

The French Riviera

It  was more than a month ago that I promised to post to my blog during our 12 day cruise of the Mediterranean.  Obviously, that did not happen!  We were so busy touring in each port that I did not get a chance to do much else.  This cruise was fabulous but exhausting!

I expected to see many statues and monuments 'decorated' like this ediface over a doorway, but surprisingly, this was one of the few.  Aix en Provence was a very clean town on the French Riviera.

The old part of the town was filled with delightful inner courtyards such as this one, which is now part of the university that is located there.

This fountain was a beautiful spot in the center of the old town, and students seem to congregate there, to enjoy the sun, to read and to socialize.  Aix en Provence was one of my favourite places on the cruise, offering many wonderful subjects to photograph and to paint.  This is the town where the painter Paul Cezanne lived.  We ate lunch in the cafe where he often spent his afternoons.

Mediterranean Cruise

I arrived in Barcelona early yesterday morning to begin a twelve day Mediterranean cruise.  From here we will travel to Marseilles, France, Savona, Rome and Naples, Italy, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Venice, Italy, Messina, Sicily and then back to Barcelona!  There should be much inspiration for painting along the way!

The picture above shows the Mirador de Colom, a monument to Christopher Columbus, in Barcelona, near our hotel.

Columns from the Temple of Augustus, preserved in Barcelona, inside a building. 

I will post a few photos from the ports we visit over the course of the next two weeks.  This is my first visit to Europe and I am sure I will be filled with artistic inspiration all along the way.  There will be a great deal of art to admire and much architecture to see.  I will keep you posted.

Tropical Rain Forest Toucan - Step Four

I continue to add basic detail to the foliage behind the toucan.  Each plant has it's own shades of green.  The leaf structure and veins within them also vary from plant to plant.  In the background I paint subtle whisps of vines to suggest greater depth in the picture.

I continue to paint layers of detail into the leaves until they seem to be strong enough to stand out without overpowering the toucan in the foreground.  The last thing required is to intensify some of the colours in the toucan, mango, butterfly and tree frog.  The picture is complete when I ad strong white highlights here and there.  I save the greatest colour contrast and largest white highlight for the toucan and it's bill, so that it will dominate the picture, both in size and strength.