Reno project chapter 3 and a bit of painting

Here's my new best friends, an electrician and a builder, arriving today. Young people with good backs who can wrestle those floor joists into place that I was preparing 2 and 3 posts back.

Here's Misty organising some pot lights upstairs. Electricity and all its hidden wires is a complete mystery to me. When Ben gets the new ceiling in over the kitchen, she will install a couple of track lights down there.

Most of the joists are up, tomorrow I'll be excited to see the T&G floor/ceiling go on and the railing come out.
It's been hard to get any pictures painted with all this other stuff going on. Here is an old photo I thought I'd use as a reference for a watercolor.

1958, Canning , Nova Scotia, what a wonderful carefree time to have a childhood...nowadays those kids would have hemets on and safety harnesses... or more likely be on the couch in front of a screen. The 4th kid from the left is me at age 8. At another farm closer to home, I was usually the only kid around at haying time and I got to drive the tractor as the men forked up the hay and built the load.

I stretched a piece of watercolor paper, did my pencil drawing and washed in some sky, blotting out clouds with a tissue. I dabbed on bits of masking fluid here and there to protect areas I wanted to keep white as sun highlights, and most of the rest got a warm yellow ochre wash.

Next I made up some background, painting  each section more bluish towards the horizon to make the landscape recede. The tractor is going to be gray so I wet the area plus anything else that will be dark with plain water, and then dab in watery colors that will blend on their own to make a neutral gray, cobalt blue, aureolin, and rose madder. I left this alone knowing it would dry lighter .

 With a damp brush I loosened the color in the spots where the sun would make a highlight and blotted off most of the color with a tissue. Then came some darks for the underneath layers of the hay. Now it's at the ugly stage where it's easy to get discouraged and go do something else. More progress in the next post.

Christmas Sheep and Fun With Gardening

It makes me quite giddy with happiness to have green things still  growing vigorously in the unheated glass greenhouse a week into december. I was able to pick 2 good bags of kale for a couple of my csa customers, with enough left for my morning omelettes. One of my favorite ways to eat kale is to chop up a handful of it in small bits, whisk it into an egg or two, with a bit of chopped onion and mushroom, and make a cheezy omelette. Yum! And so healthy. Kale is such an amazing powerhouse of nutrients.
I started my next painting..., in a bit of a hurry to get two entries ready for a January show in Saint John, with an entry deadline of next week. Here is the under painting of watercolor on toned pastel paper. This will be a mixed media of watercolor and pastel chalks.

And here is the finished and framed results, outside mat size 16x20".

Switching Gears

I always loved cows, their placid demeanor and thoughtful cud chewing appeal to me. At least the cows of my past, allowed to roam in sunny pastures, grazing their natural grass diet...being contented cows. The poor beasts in factory farm feedlots today..so sad.
I have painted this pair before in acrylic but I like this watercolor version better. (matted prints are available) It's been hard to stay indoors and take up the brushes again, with such a warm fall calling me outdoors. Today it's raining and the manure spreading will have to wait , so I will begin a painting of a pair of sheep.

Where did january go?

The month has flown by. I've been occupied with preparations for next summer mostly, cutting mats for our prints, building this and that, trying to get things out of the way before gardening season. The mesclun lettuce mix I planted a month ago under lights is outgrowing it's tray so today I transplanted these babies into the earth bed in the greenhouse. Beautifully warm in there with the bright sunshine streaming in, a perfect antidote to january's deep snow.

The leeks started at the same time are looking good, and four types of onions seeded last week are unfolding themselves from their trays.

I got started on a watercolor painting at last. First I wet the paper and gave it a wash of  dilute yellow ochre because I was thinking of the scene being in early morning warm light. I sketched out the scene and covered the light areas that will be the highlights, with masking fluid. Then came wet sloppy colors that were alowed to blend and merge.
When all was dry, stronger but still loose and wet colors were applied to the background.

Next came the shadows and local colors of the wharf and the boats.

Then I rubbed off the masking fluid, tidied up the edges and deepened shadows. I lifted off color to create the third building in the background and added some foliage texture. I hope to finish this in a few days, adding seaweed and rocks to the foreground and reflections on the water.