More snow has been invoked and it was fitting because today was almost like winter. It snowed for about 5 minutes, but then the sun came out and banished it.

I’m finding that I am encapsulating some shapes into specific areas like snowy bank, or tree line, and then letting a few shapes escape into the rest of the painting. I think I want to explore doing that more.

I’ve started to put in the background trees – I wanted to see what they would look like. The sun will just kiss the top of the trees, bringing some lighter blues and even a few yellows. I want that to echo with the lighter area in the pond.

Some of the far shore is visible against the icy water. In some spots the land, the ice and the water merge together until it’s hard to tell where one begins and another ends. More of my feeling that everything is the same – the shapes and colours may vary a bit but not enough to change the essence. It’s sort of like karate to me where a strike, a block, a punch are all the same – intent matters, and perspective. It doesn’t matter what you call a thing, it’s all just labels anyways. I’m possibly not explaining it well – good thing I’m a painter and not a writer.

16 x 20 – Acrylic on Wood

I love Klimt’s landscapes for their distinctive patterns, rich colour  and delightful detail. I also notice however, that there’s very little push/pull of light and shadow, and forms don’t resolve strongly – this is something that I want to work on more in my own work this year. It feels like a very fine line I’m walking, I need the abstract patterns and the realist hit at the same time.

I have painted more of the water this session. It’s a little lighter away from the shore and not as frozen.

16 x 20 – Acrylic on Wood

I started this painting intending to paint a quiet scene with a still pond just beginning to thaw as winter warmed to spring. As I painted I realized that the water wasn’t still at all. Everything, including a quiet pond is constantly moving, changing, flowing together and apart in a sinous dance…

How do you paint change? How do you reconcile a thing that imparts stillness with the fact that nothing is still at all? The tree and the water and the air between them are all the same – crashing together and rushing apart only to merge again.

12 x 16 – Acrylic on Wood

Clouds rise from the dead tree’s branches as smoke from a factory and laze about in the endless blue sky. Early fall brings the beginning of change to the valley below but the snag remains aloof and unaffected.

Did you know a dead tree that is still standing is called a snag – I didn’t. I just love the internets.

12 x 16 – Acrylic on Wood

We got a bit of snow recently and there’s some more on the way so I’m feeling a wintry painting coming on.

But it’s still a beautiful fall day in Hockley Valley. The dead tree is complete and moves in and out of the background as sun and shadow both define and hide it.

12 x 16 – Acrylic on Wood

Hmm, I think the first couple shots I took are a little green. The sky is really more purple than turquoise – so this image is a more true representation of the actual painting – at least on my monitor.

12 x 16 – Acrylic on Wood

The branches of the dead tree remind me more and more of the steel plant in Hamilton. We drive the skyway often and the plant makes an impressive site. I’ve even taken ref pictures of it – I know it’s not a natural feature of the Canadian landscape but I’m finding it compelling nonetheless. It’s all slate buildings and orange fire wreathed in smoke and water. I may have to paint it.

12 x 16 – Acrylic on Wood

Well it’s -10 degrees outside but in Hockley Valley it’s a gorgeous fall day with little fluffy clouds, gentle breezes and the smell of gently rotting leaves.

I couldn’t decide what size to make this painting – some of the shapes in the sky are quite big though so I went slightly smaller than I was thinking at first. Sometimes I just know what size a painting should be but then there are those other times where i don’t.