It's been a while ..

Life happens even when you are not paying attention.
It's been months since I put pen and brush to paper, yes I have been struggling to track down my muse(s) but today I actually did something!

A small line and wash study of an unknown barn (mostly out of my head) on a sunny day ..

Now the ball is rolling lets see if I can keep it rolling !

Out of the closet ...

Not many people have seen my work , over the years it has pretty well been my immediate family.
This year I decided to 'come out of the closet' so to speak and I entered one of my recent watercolours into the Wellington Artists Gallery 'Juried Art Show'.
To my surprise it was accepted !

So that was that .. no more hiding in the closet.

Homage to A.J Casson - White Woods
and me (No I wasn't the waiter)

Something new ..

Golden, the oil and acrylics company recently released a line of watercolours.
Curry's have them on sale ...

I bought a set of six "High Chroma" colours that is composed of what I call the New colours (Quinacridone Gold, Pyrrole Orange and other fanciful names) as opposed to the traditional colours (burnt umber, raw sienna.etc)

I started with new paper well actually it's not paper (as in made from pulp or cotton) but
crushed rock ..Terraskin, produced by a Canadian Company.

I abandoned the watercolour fairly quickly and reverted to a more traditional cold pressed paper.

More on the Terraskin later.

I quite like the new colours especially for Autumn leaves, I think there will be more coming along :-)


9" x 12" Beinfang Watercolour pad 140lb cold pressed
Golden QoR High Chroma watercolours

Oh and new brushes !

Escoda Prado sizes 16,10 and 8 (I love their sables and these synthetics are not to be sneezed at either. :-)

Yes everything is on sale at Curries !
Alan

Wellington Artists Juried Art Show ...

A while ago I attended a watercolour weekend by Nan Hogg, it covered working in the the style of A.J Casson.
I blogged about it here:

http://happeninks.blogspot.ca/2015/07/in-style-of-aj-casson-part-two.html

Since then I really jumped in at the deep end, I entered the painting in the Juried Art Show being held at the Wellington Artists Gallery in Fergus.

http://wellingtonartistsgallery.ca/

It was accepted !!

Out of 112 entries only 60 were chosen and one of them was mine :-)

This is the first time I have really shown my work in public, oh there are a few here on the blog and a few close friends have seen the 'real thing' but now ..

The opening reception and awards ceremony will take place on Oct. 3, from 2 to 4 pm.

The exhibition runs from Oct. 1 to 28. 

Alan

One liner ...

My 'gallery day' was Friday during which I spent most of the afternoon out in the shade, reading and drawing.
This is an attempt at a 'one line sketch'; the intent is to keep the pen moving and not lifting it off the paper.

OK I cheated a few times :-)

Strathmore 300 'mixed media' sketchbook 5.5" x 8.5"
Noodlers AHAB flex pen
Noodlers Carbon Black ink

Road Trip - Erin

I went on a road trip this morning all the way to Erin.
OK not a long way but far enough for some fresh scenery.

After checking out the (ahem) Bakery we settled down across the street to draw/paint the buildings of downtown.

I chose a rather freestyle pen and ink method (one line sketches) that I am tinkering with, thanks to Larry in Quebec City  http://www.larrydmarshall.com/

Noodlers Carbon Black Ink in a Noodlers Ahab flex pen
Strathmore 300 mixed media sketchbook 8.5" x 5.5"

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Patrick had taken on a rather large watercolour so I was done before him so I decided to work on a small watercolour, a fire hydrant ... thanks to Larry again!

It was to have ink added but I was told to leave it alone ...so no ink.

W&N watercolour Field set W&N travel Brush set
Moleskine 5" x 8" watercolour sketchbook

All in all a great, relaxing morning

Alan

Pen and Ink sketches ..

Yesterday I watched a you tube demo on drawing rocks in pen and ink, which fired my imagination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MbNuOsRq7Y&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs

So going back to a photo I took at Limehouse a year or two ago I produced this pen and ink ..

Micron 01
Derwent watercolour graphite pencils
Canson Mixed Media sketchbook 5.25" x 8.25"

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Jump ahead to this morning... I had arranged to meet a friend downtown at the Boathouse for tea and goodies. I arrived early and sat in the park (in the drizzle) and sketched one of the bridges across the river.
It's funny how many times I have looked at this scene and never noticed that the original bridge only had two arches, a third one was added at a later date.

The difference between "looking" and "Seeing"!

Noodlers flex with Lexington Gray ink
Pentel brush pen
Canson Mixed Media sketchbook 5.25" x 8.25"