Collecting the Sap

Here is another painting that I think is well suited to the season, here in Ontario. Our maple sugar and syrup making season has just ended for another year. The tradition of collecting sap from sugar maple trees is well known in eastern Canada and the north eastern USA. It is done in early spring when the sap stored in the roots of the maple tree begins to travel back up the trunks of these trees, to feed the buds that will soon blossom into leaves. Small holes are carefully drilled around the circumference of the tree and 'taps' or 'spiles' are driven into these holes to collect some of the sap as it flows upward. The sap, in turn, is allowed to drip into pails attached to the tree, or as is most common today, into a network of plastic tubing, which may run for miles to a central collection point. The sap must be boiled down quickly to avoid spoilage. It takes approximately eleven gallons of raw sap to produce one gallon of delicious maple syrup.

For the most part, tractors and modern equipment have replaced the horses and sleighs that were traditionally used in collecting the sap for delivery to the 'sugar shacks' for the long process of boiling over a wood fire. If you look hard enough, it is still possible to find teams of horses, such as the Belgians pictured here, being used in the bush to bring tanks of sap to the wood fired evaporators and maple sugar shacks.

The title of this painting is 'Collecting the Sap'. This painting measures 18 inches by 24 inches. I painted it on stretched cotton canvas, using alkyd paints. Prints are available.

Madawaska Sunset

I thought this painting would be appropriate at this time of the year. We are down to the last days of March, spring is officially here, and the weather is definitely showing a warming trend. I painted this picture some years ago, when we owned a cottage on the Madawaska River, south of Algonquin Park, in Ontario, Canada. This is the view from that cottage, which sits high on the river bank, just to the right of this painting. It is a late afternoon picture and the sun is setting in the west. I loved the contrast of the warm light reflected in the water, surrounded by the cold blue of the melting ice in the foreground. The three Canada Geese tell a story of the changing seasons and the new life which will soon burgeon throughout the north.

The title of this painting is 'Madawaska Sunset'. The painting measures 18 inches by 24 inches and it is painted in alkyd paint on stretched canvas. Like most of my paintings, prints are available in a variety of sizes.

Toronto Illustrators

Another month has flown by and I have found little time to add a new post to my blog. My last few posts have been in reference to my previous career in illustration. The industry has changed a great deal in more recent years, and digital art, created with the use of computer graphics software predominates these days. You can view the work of a number of illustrators, such as the one I have posted here, by visiting www.torontoillustrators.com.

Sports Illustration

In honour of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games wrapping up today in Vancouver, I thought I would post an illustration that I was commissioned to paint for the Canada Games when they were held many years ago in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This illustration was painted on a fine weave cotton canvas with acrylic paints. It is hard to beat the intensity of colour that you can get with acrylics. Once again, this is a montage but this time there is a full background included. I enjoyed getting a feeling of animation in the water in the foreground and the flapping flags in the background. The colour scheme is vibrant because of the rich warm skin tones of the swimmer contrasting with the icy blue of the water around her.

Auto Racing Montage

As I have mentioned before, throughout the 1970's, 80's and into the 1990's, I worked full-time in Advertising Illustration. Many of my clients were in the automotive field, such as Goodyear Tire. I produced a number of illustrations for Goodyear during that time period and this is one example of the work I did for them. What could be more fun to paint than a montage of racing machines diverging at dramatic angles?

I tried to create an interesting and exciting composition that sweeps from back to front in a dynamic and dramatic curve. The rakish angle of the Goodyear Racer in the foreground seems to suggest thrust and speed. A montage must be carefully designed to work as an interesting unit without confusing the viewer. Often it is done as a vignette, so positive and negative shapes must be considered as well. The colour scheme must work as a unit and the design should carry the viewer's eye into the picture and keep it there. A variety of shapes and sizes of the elements within a montage are required to create visual interest. The whole thing can be a lot more difficult than you might think, at first glance.

I painted this illustration on a very fine woven primed canvas, using acrylic paint. Before I began to paint much detail over the finished drawing, I loosely painted a thin wash of colour over the general area of each individual scene, using the local colour of each one. After I painted the various elements in detail, I back-painted around the illustration with white gesso to softly define the shapes.

This Time For Sure & Home For Supper

This one is called "This Time For Sure". I wanted to paint a typical day of pickup hockey, played by a bunch of country kids, on a frozen farm pond. When I was a kid, we played like this, sporting any equipment that we had. Many times we would not have skates available and we would play in our boots. The 'net' would usually be non-existant too, and we would improvise with a couple of blocks of firewood from home.

Once again, this painting is done in alkyd oil on stretched canvas and measures 16 inches by 20 inches.

This one is called "Home For Supper". It features the same scene, but in the moonlight instead of mid-afternoon sunshine. Often, we played on the ice until the sun went down and supper time would arrive after dark. Finally realizing that we were late, we would drop our sticks and head for home , a hot meal and the warmth of a country kitchen.

I painted this picture smaller than the others, only 11 inches by 14 inches. It is painted on canvas using acrylic paint.

Dreams of Glory

This is another of my series of paintings on the theme of country kids and hockey. This one gets the girls involved too. I call it "Dreams of Glory". When we were kids, it was common for the boys to dream of playing hockey in the NHL (National Hockey League) and the girls would dream of becoming Olympic figure skaters. The dog was usually happy to just live in the moment, jumping on anyone who happened to take a tumble!

This painting measures 16 X 20 inches. It is painted on stretched canvas using alkyd paint. You can tell it is a good old frosty winter day in the country by the crystal blue sky and the hoar frost on the trees. The farm house and outbuildings in the background, along with the style of clothing worn by the kids, suggests the 1940's and 1950's. My favourite part of this painting is the low sheen of the ice surface, suggested by the soft reflections and the crisp skate marks that define the surface.