October is a favourite month of mine. The colours of the trees changing, birds migrating, sweaters needed and hats and mittens taken out of storage. Here is a brief summary of some of my October art encounters and activities.
Artist Talk
I love exploring new art techniques and learning about and meeting other artists. One "artist encounter" that I enjoyed in the month of October was an artist talk given by Brian Turner at the general meeting of ArtEast in Orleans. Brian works in watercolour and he also teaches an 8 week watercolor class through the Kanata Art Club website for details (www.artforall.ca)
Brian Turner gave an artist talk on composition at the ArtEast General Meeting
Finally! The perfect weather for urban sketching and plein air painting has arrived!
In June, there were SO MANY more opportunities for more life drawing (The Atomic Rooster, Art House Cafe and Atelier Denu ) and I managed to organize another sketch event for the Ottawa Urban Sketchers (at Doors Open Ottawa in conjunction with Synapcity's "100 in 1 Day" event).
I spent two days on the Ottawa river this week to paint. The weather was rough on Day One (windy, threatening to rain) and I had to leave after two hours. On Day Two the weather was quite pleasant and I managed to get in four hours of painting and sketching.
Even when I don't have a completed painting to show, there is always lots of enjoyment and learning that goes on and I am confident that I will put these two quick acrylic studies to good use at some point in the future.
Day One
On Day One I set up facing the Champlain bridge that connects Ottawa to Gatineau in order to paint the stromatolites that are visible in August when water levels are low.
My easel
Stromatolites
The Ottawa stromatolite remnants are over 450 million years old! If you believe, like I do, that landscape is a wild and living thing, these rocks carry in them quite a story!
Values: Light foreground and light tree, dark midground
and medium background
Photograph of location
I realized, after I had set up, that I had forgotten some essential painting supplies when I hurried out the door. Important things like a palette and my titanium white. I managed to make a palette out of a tin I had in my sketch bag but there was nothing I could do about forgetting Titanium white!
So I decided to paintFauve style for this quick study. I think the fauve study composition is interesting with the values reversed?
Day 1: Two hour study: Stromatolites Fauve style
(values reversed)
On Day Two I approached the scene from a different angle and here is what I painted:
Day 2: Two hour study
In some ways, the parched and pale look of the stromalite foreground (and the tree) really demonstrates the fact that stromalites are the oldest living things on earth. I felt I needed to paint them in colours that reflected their age and refelected the ancient conversation they have held with the Ottawa river over time.
I only had four hours to paint and sketch and I took many breaks to chat with the wonderful visitors that wondered off the shore on Day Two. The visitors were:
a father and son catching minnows
two men who had apparently read an article about the Ottawa stromatolites and decided to make the trip
a group of university students who came with maps that they had printed online (links below)
Group of students on trip to see stromatolites.
There was even a pair of ducks that swam over for a little visit. What a wonderful two days it was!
Tuesday was the last day of our six session summer landscape painting with famous Canadian artist David W. Jones. I am going to miss David and this great group of landscape artists.
David chose Pinhey's Point for our last painting session and I realized that I had accidentally ended up in that general area last fall. I had blogged about a fall road trip in October 2014 where we had attended an estate sale that was located next to a graveyard and old abandoned church.
I was excited about this last session. I was curious about what the area would look like in the summer.
Pinhey's Point Historic Plaque
Pinhey's Point, located on the Ottawa river, is exceptionally beautiful from every angle.
Sketch from "Kite Arial Photograph" (KAP)
(see link at bottom of page)
The cumulus clouds were incredibly robust and plentiful. I could have easily passed the day just sketching the clouds as they rolled by.
Sailboats taking shelter in the bay at Pinhey's Point
Pinhey's Point provides a pretty little bay which serves as a very popular day anchorage, and a convenient overnight anchorage for sailboats. There were five sailboats anchored there when we visited on Tuesday.
Sketch of view from the bottom of the hill
View from the bottom of the hill
I made several small quick sketches as I explored Pinhey's Point.
The sailboats anchored in the bay
The pines on the Point
I sketched the five pines midway down the Point. I liked the reflection of the pines in the water of the little bay.
Pinheyès Point reflection
I learned from David that access to the Point was closed to the public sometime ago. This is because it was found that the large number of visitors was endangering the ecology of this small strip of land.
Because it was our last session, we arranged a potluck picnic which was enjoyed by all while we were regaled with David's stories of his interesting encounters with jazz musicians. What a lovely way to spend our last day together.
The picnic lunch
Celebration of summer painting
The artists: 'The Group of Ten' (one person was missing unfortunately)
and our wonderful teacher David W. Jones
Although I painted eight landscape paintings, not one of them was ever entirely finished when it came time to leave the location. This is partially explained by the fact that I get carried away with sketching while I am exploring the location and generally didn't start painting until after lunch. This left me only two hours!
But I did learn something about painting, something about the landscape and something about myself at every single session.
Below is the painting I started after lunch on our final day. I loved the colours!
My easel with my two hour acrylic painting
Many Thanks David W. Jones!
I am reposting the video I posted earlier about our wonderful summer landscape teacher David W. Jones. He has been teaching art courses for a LOT of years and plans to continue doing so. If you have enjoyed these posts and are thinking of trying one of David's courses, check with the Ottawa District School Board.
Our fifth session of plein air painting took place at Ferme Lavender Ridge, a beautiful farm located in Luskville, Quebec.
This farm is open to the public. It's 35-45 minutes from Ottawa (on Rte 148) The owner Joanne Labadie is amazing! There is a lavender shop with everything (soap, scone mix, sweets etc), and there are vineyards that produce three types of wine for sale in the shop: 2 white, one red (and a StOmp with a funny story)
Their lavender shortbread cookies that we sampled are beyond divine - especially when paired with their 2014 award winning wine "LaVigne".
My art journal sketches of the day
Ferme Lavender Ridge - Page 1
Joanne Labadie was warm and welcoming and walked all the painters around the entire farm (with her daughter and dog) before we started to paint. (That's Joanne pointing in my sketchbook at bottom left).
Owner Joanne Labadie pointing to her fields around the farm.
It's been a rough year on the farm - the late frost in May hurt farmers everywhere. To that unfortunate act of Mother Nature, Joanne shrugged and said "That's farming". You can see she loves what she does and she loves her visitors. It was SUCH a great day.
Joanne Labadie's tour of her farm was so informative and fun.
Joanne clearly loves what she does!
The farm, buildings and fields were all so picturesque and it was so difficult to decide where to paint or sketch first. So I began, as I always begin, making a series of quick sketches and taking photos from various vantage points around the farm.
Lavender Ridge farm house
My first quick sketch of the vineyards and Lavender Ridge farm house
Sketching Around the farm
The group is scheduled to paint between 10:30 and 4:30. Taking into account the wait for late arrivals and add to that the wondeful tour given my Joanne, I estimate that we actually started around 11:30. I then decided to sketch until 1:30 when we all stopped for our lunch and a wine tasting (of La Brise and La Vigne)
My art journal sketches of the day
(Ferme Lavender Ridge Page 2)
The wine tasting
The barn
Tree in the driveway
(I am not the only one who has been inspired by this tree)
My Plein Air Painting
I didn't actually start painting with my acrylics until after 2 pm (whenever lunch and the wine tasting finished) and I set my iPhone timer to 4 pm (to get my vrtucar back on time) So I was limited and worked fast and this is what I managed to accomplish in just under two hours.
My painting - after two hours
(acrylic, unfinished)
