What a wonderful day!

It's been a wonderful warm day today!
The temperature right now is 20 degrees Celsius, and it's sunny and windy. Hung the laundry out to dry on the clothesline today for the first time this spring, but now there is a thunderstorm warning! I got my garden journal out again today to sketch the hardy Lamium that has taken over almost everywhere! The think I like about it is it attracts lots of bees. Today a big old Bumbler came to visit while I was sketching. Gotta go, I hear thunder!!

More April Showers....An encore!

Well I ruined the last version of this painting when I tried brushing on varnish....so I've attempted another one, this time using spray varnish! I actually think I like this one better. I also bought some more canvases, so I'll be playing around some more with this type of painting.

Another Garden Journal Entry

It finally stopped raining long enough to go for a walk this afternoon. When we got back we spotted these little blue snowdrops in the garden by the driveway. Soon there will be a sea of "Star of Bethlehem", and more, but for now this is the only colour besides green!

April Showers

I was disappointed with my last painting so I thought I'd try something really different. I found a little 8 X 10" canvas and covered it with gesso, then painted with watercolour paint. When it was done, I sprayed it with fixative and then varnished it.

It was almost impossible to get dark values with this, but I kind of liked the washed-out effect.

Finished Vineyard painting

Well, I pretty much overworked this one to death! Not happy with it at all, but I'll show it to you anyway!

I still like the original sketch the best.

Working from a Plein Aire Sketch

While in Michigan last fall with Sue and Lauren, I did several sketches using pen and wash. One of my favourites was of a vineyard. I remember it being very windy, but sunny. It was a wonderful day, and painting from this reference brings back some great memories.

This is the sketch:



And here is where I am with the studio painting so far:




It probably won't end up looking anything like the actual vineyard we were at, but that's okay!