Friday, June 24, 2011

Rainy Lake


Rainy Lake
oil on canvas
6 x 8

It is hard to find time to post in these summer months. Last week I went up north to Voyageurs National Park for some painting, birding, and being. The top photo is the house boat which we rented and moored on a 6 acre island, becoming a wonderful home base - luxury camping! The weather was fantastic and I managed to get out painting quite a bit, doing small studies of views from the island (above).

I like these words by artist Charles W. Hawthorne:

Do studies, not pictures. Know when you are licked - start another. Be alive, stop when your interest is lost. Put off finish - make lots of starts..... Starting with a note of truth in a piece is the important thing - the first color you put down influences you straight through. Do not put things down approximately - you will take a wrong thing and unconsciously key everything to it, making it false. Never mind if your whole canvas in not successful. If one spot is successful, it is enough. Do a bit of truth.

One more thing, the Trumpeter Swans on our pond have had cygnets - four small grey fluffys swimming around!

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