on preparation

I was a hearty feast for mosquitoes  yesterday by a charming creek. As soon as I set up they attacked. Today I counted approximately 45 bites on shoulders and back – a conservative estimate. Bug smear was no deterrent. Then to add insult to injury I couldn’t find my brushes. That left me with my finger, rags and two palette knives. But when I loaded up my car and paused for a sip of tea I found my brushes at the bottom of my back pack. The plein air fairy chuckled (at my expense) and murmured sweetly – you had something to learn from this experience didn’t you? 

oil on board 9"x12"

An approximation

Looking at oneself is a challenge  in restraint and risk taking, an exercise in detachment and  self involvement. Serious fun but sometimes tinged with a quirkiness, an ambivalence,  a bizarre experience,  daunting really. 

In some respects. perhaps the nature of all  exposure is like this.  Of course I don’t pay  myself a model’s fee which is a compensating incentive.

And just because it’s mothers day doesn’t require of me that I take off my artist’s mask. My family allows me that  space and freedom. That is love!

oil study 10"x12" 2nd day

first day worked over previous study

RBG

Very soggy and rainy the past two days and as a result I’m a bit housebound – not that I would melt if I ventured out. I painted this near the study centre of the Royal Botanical Gardens late March – an overcast day looking  through trees and brush to York Boulevard on the other side of lake Ontario.

oil on pre gessoed panel 8"x10"

House in order

There were still puddles of snow on the street when I painted this two months back looking down at a house from the vantage point of the second story of the former town hall in Dundas. The car in front of the house drove away  from right under my nose – not my car – and it didn’t return for me to renegotiate it into the picture – just fine and dandy.      

click to enlarge

oil gessoed board 9"x12"

A blustery day

It’s become the norm lately these days that are a reprise of everything winter had to offer except that now the audience consists of crocuses and budding branches. 
It was like this two weeks ago when I persuaded David to drive me to an outdoor session at the royal bowman near Rockwood where he sat inside the car and read while I scribbled  color onto a tiny format while the wind was whipping at me - brrr -  and then for my amusement he pretended to be a bear beside an archery target!

pastel on gessoed water color paper 8"x8" 

pastel on gessoed water color paper 4"x5.5"

David thinking he's a bear

In no particular order

I lie – in fact the order was just as the model intended,  moving effortlessly from one engaging pose to another -  from start to finish – first she sat leaning back, then she stood with weight on her left leg leaning into her left arm and finally - semi reclining on a drawing bench since we are not especially equipped with cushions, fabric or comfy furniture although that could change. 

The drawings are on Strathmore charcoal paper 18”x24” using thick  and thin sticks of charcoal and soft pastel. Each pose lasted forty minutes with  breaks  every twenty minutes. 

Chair

in order to finish off the remainder of a load of paint at my disposal from a previous outdoor session I attacked an unfinished chair.

This chair was one of four that served in my daughter's kitchen at Rue Stanley in Montreal when she  was a student there. They had belonged to her room mate’s grandmother.

When the room mate moved out my daughter acquired three of the chairs and now they’re serving in my kitchen at Stanley St. in Hamilton. 

oil on 9"x12" pre gessoed panel