Magical morning

Sparkling Creek  Oil on Board

It was a magical morning as I went for a walk in my favourite places near home.  The creek is always a source of inspiration and peace and I was inspired to paint what I saw and felt.  I still have to figure out how to paint the lovely ice crystals I saw forming on the rocks and twigs.

Peonies

Peonies

These are the last of my Peonies for this season, I sat in the backyard awhile back and had a great time attempting to capture their essence.  Next up will be the Sweet Peas or Dahlias.

Autumn painting

Put the finishing touches on this en plein air piece from last fall today and also found a nice frame for it kicking around the woodshop so its a good days work!

Wellington Pond in Autumn

Wolf Willow Retreat en plein air

A bunch of painter buddies got together on a few days and painted en plein air in the town of Eastend, SK.  It was a great experience, very hot and humid, but a beautiful day nevertheless.  One memorable experience was having a cranky rancher type of guy stop by our setup and proceed to give us a berating for blocking the fire lane (which it wasn't). Talk about ruining the ambience of the moment!  We managed to send him on his way and continued to work on our respective pieces.

Down the back lane

Daisies in Shade

This time of the year at Manitou Beach one can find lots of wild flowers growing all over the place, especially in vacant lots or parcels of land where owners don't get to very often.  Right across the back lane from my studio is such a piece of land that often has bunches of daisies growing profusely so the other day I sat there and painted to my hearts delight!

A Pastel

The dogs and I went down to the local park the other day and enjoyed it all to ourselves, if you count out the numerous magpies and other critters present.  Not another human in sight so I sat by the creek and did this 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 in pastel.  The tempurature was a balmy -10 Celcius and the sun shone delightfully.

A point of View

This painting underwent 2 cuts before I was satisfied with it.  Sometimes I go back to the site of the painting and re-work the piece. I like to do this as it connects me in a special way with the land I'm standing on.

Tribute to Tom

 I have the highest regard for the Canadian painter Tom Thompson. His paintings inspire me to try harder to succeed at my quest to paint well.  This painting had its genesis in the landscape around Manitou Beach, SK.  I haven't had much time to paint outdoors lately, work gets in the way but I try my best!  Hope you enjoy, and for my European and other worldly readers please Google Tom Thompson and have a look at what he accomplished in his short life, you won't be sorry.

The Silence

The Pond

After quite a respite from plein air painting I finally had a bit of time to get outdoors to paint a few days ago and this is the result.  The scene is a small pond at the head of Wellington Park, here at Manitou Beach.  It was a lovely morning, quiet except for the sound of geese, pelicans and other birds on the move.  What is silence anyways?  It has been said that if a human can get out into the outdoors on a regular basis, and I mean somewhere away from man made noise, their auditory sense expands exponentially. The silence of nature is quite noisy, but an enjoyable noise that has many different levels to it.  Consider how a prehistoric man would react to life in a big city, I am thinking he would go mad.  Unfortunately there are very few places left in the world that could be classified as truly silent.

Plein Air Partners

Frenchman River

I had company whilst painting this oil. My daughter Sacha and good friends Dean Bauche and Jan Layh all sat out in the glorious morning sun down by the Frenchman River and painted in our own manner.  This was the first time that Sacha painted out of doors with me and I think she did great.  The hills around Eastend, SK are so green due to large amount of rain they have been getting.  I am told by people who travel that this place reminds them of Ireland and Wales.

Hyacinths

The Deer missed these flowers, some Hyacinths I planted last fall.  I so enjoy watching nature unfold, the simplest things seem to sublimely beautiful and profound.

Deer Food

These are what is left of all the tulip bulbs I planted last fall, pretty much all the rest of them were chomped off at ground level by opportunistic deer that wander around the neighborhood looking for free handouts! I will persevere with planting flowers and vegetables, just because. I am learning a bit about the workings of nature living where I am, it just takes a keen eye and a handful of patience.  As my wife often reminds me, deer have to eat as well.

The Layh Homestead

A few weeks back Crystal and I attended the Langenburg Adjudicated Art Show, their 18th, and had the pleasure again of staying at their lovely home near the edge of the Assinaboine valley.  Jan and Don have an amazing yard, I don't know how they find the time to keep it so perfect with their busy lives.  I found a bit of time to paint while I was there so I set myself up in one of the gardens and painted this view towards their house.

Windy day

What a windy day we are experiencing.  I loved the way the trees were bending over and wished to try my hand at expressing that movement.  Also, the colour of the water and the scudding clouds mesmerized me. Hope you like it! A glorious day.

It might Rain

I sat in my back yard lounge chair and painted this watercolour a few days ago, actually before it really started greening up here at the beach. Shortly after I finished this one it started to rain.  How wonderful it is to sit and paint outdoors on a spring day.  Robins and sparrows, purple martins and goldfinches singing to their hearts content with the odd raven flying by with a sticky bun in its beak! I've lost count on how many paintings I've done from my yard.  I'm a lucky duck for sure to be living in such a sublime place.

April Showers

Rain has been the order of the day lately.  Going for walks is a joy, the greening of the landscape is well on its way and the aroma of the poplars in bud can be intoxicating in a very good way.  Kinda hard painting pastels outside in the rain so I painted this from my window in the studio, something I've done quite a bit of.  I witnessed a funny event while painting, a Raven and a Magpie were getting into it over something and the next thing I see is the Raven flying off with a large cinnamon bun in its beak! He handled it quite easily and after stashing it somewhere was back in five minutes to scrounge for another one.  Love those birds and their choice of snacks.

Thinking of Tom Thompson

I figure Tom Thompson definitely is Canada's greatest painter.  He was a man who was most comfortable outside, like me, and painted the majority of his paintings plein air.  These paintings are often called "sketches" but actually in many cases are superior to his studio paintings because of their freshness and vitality. He was not a rich man (like me) and often painted on wood panels that he would salvage from work sites (like me).  I love how the grain of these wood panels show through his finished works as they uncannily add to the painting.  Many have tried to replicate this effect (like me) to no avail. I figured I'd try anyways cause the Lord hates a coward. I title this painting Morning Shadows, it is painted on a birch panel and is 10 x 12 inches in size.

Thin Ice

I managed to do a small plein air this morning while the sun was shining, I call it "Thin Ice" as it depicts a sciff of ice on Wellington Creek.  I liked the contrast of the water and ice with reflections.  Right around the time the sun disappeared my dog Oreo practically jumped in my lap, which meant it was time to pack it up and go for a walk, which was the original intention in the first place.  Dogs are long suffering.

Spring Runoff near the Village Inn

I painted this morning sitting near the Village Inn here at Manitou Beach.  This rock formation was created last year as part of a major overhaul of the beach front needed to deal with the increase of water coming into the lake.  The result was we gained a lovely water feature complete with a Fred Flintstone type of bridge spanning over the creek.  A nice place to be, our family installed a bench in memory of our sister Angelene Tysseland who passed away last winter. 

Patterns

Pretty much every day the dogs and I take this path down into Wellington Park and beyond.  Its a nice, arduous walk that gets my heart pumping and I always see something brings delight to my eye.  I think I am developing an extensive vocabulary of colour, sometimes after a walk my eyes are literally vibrating!  There always seems to be happy combinations of colours and patterns outdoors. Never boring.