Shiloh

This is Shiloh, my new puppy, a Boxer/Lab/GSD mix.  She is already about twenty pounds of love, compassion, and extraneous puppy energy.  (I would not be surprised is she surpasses the 100 pound mark when she is full grown.)  She has been living with me for two weeks, and already we are walking off-leash, on-leash, playing full fetch (ie she returns the ball), and just chilling on occasion and being happy in each other's energy space.  More and more we are knowing and liking each other.  So without further ado, here are a few pics.

Above: during our off-leash walks, she does these puppy-hops about and around me, and then stops in whatever moment she finds herself, and looks at me.  You can't see it in this picture, but she is smiling!

Above:  Here she is in the car. She loves car rides!  Right now, I have her sitting in a plastic container, but it will not be long before she will outgrow it.

Hey, this is my reading chair!  She likes to sit in this chair when I am not.  When I walk into the room and approach the chair, she gets off and sits by it, waiting to rest beside me.

This is my favorite picture.  Perhaps it is the lab in her that made her so smart about retrieval.  She was retrieving fully right from the moment she came here.

A picture from our off-leash walk on the vacant property across the street from my house.

This picture kind of shows what she looks like fully from the side.

Nearing the end of November, and the beginning of December.

We had some snow on Sunday and Monday evening, so that the trees had that magical winter-look, the evergreen branches gobbed with gentle coverings of white.  There was no or little wind, so even with the cool fresh temperatures, it felt still, peaceful and cozy (if you were properly dressed).

On Tuesday morning, I drove my car to Rusty's for an oil change, and leaving the car there, I went for a short walk along the ravines and marsh that exists by that portion of Hwy. 35.  Across from the Hwy. 35 turn-off to Kinmount, there is what I have always thought to be a beautiful wetland area, one that I hope to paint someday.  Visiting the site on foot, I took the following two photographs.

The first I thought was beautiful because the  log and its branches reminded me of antlers.  The wood was dead, but its beauty endured, breathing and alive, as driftwood.

The second photograph, below, was a more general one that captured the feel.  I felt as if I could have sat down in a lawn chair and just be content to stare at the "Peace".

as a few of you know, i recently moved into the Haliburton area.  here, I hope to renew my painting and art, as well as become part of a new community.

my new house was originally a barn with a first level of wall made from stone and about two and a half feet thick.  my first executive act as the new owner was to paint the house barn-red.  over the winter, i will work on the interior.

while doing that, i will be working on a series of watercolor paintings, some of which I might be publishing on this blog.

DECAF 2015 - Danforth East Community Arts Fair - My paintings for display there

This year, I am so grateful for being allowed to participate in DECAF, being held on September 19 and 20 at East Lynn Park,(south side of the Danforth between Coxwell and Woodbine).  Here are some of the paintings that I will be showing there. .

Watercolor (w.graphite)  12 by 16.  Leaf Spirit Abstract.

Marriott's Cove, Nova Scotia - waterolor (w.graphite), 12 by 16 - from a walk in Spring 2015

Maple Leaf Abstract - watercolor (w.graphite) 12 by 16 - this is a watercolor version of an abstract oil I painted in the same theme.  I do not paint the exact same painting twice, but sometimes I will do a watercolor version of an oil painting, or an oil painting version of a watercolor painting.  So it is that I have done that here.

 Marriott's Cove, Nova Scotia - a second painting along the same walk as the first.  Watercolor (with graphite) 12 by 16.  There was something very paintable about that shore shed, so I did it from a second perspective.

 Branch Painting in oils 30 by 40.  I saw these branches during a walk near Kensington Market, and did a sketch in black and white on a crimson red background.  However, rather than do a detail realist style painting, for a number of emotional reasons, I went at it quickly with a 3/4 inch bristle brush, and then did touch-ups, letting some of the crimson red background show through.  It looks rough, but to take it further, to refine it, would detract from its spiritual impact.

 Redemption oil painting 16 by 20. I painted this painting, thinking of a friend who was knocked down but got back up again.

 White Flower Abstract - oil painting 16 by 20

The above two paintings are both still lifes, painted in different styles.  The bottom one is bristle brush, freely painted, in mostly one sitting, while the one on two is soft-haired, more refined, revisited and charmed.  One is 18 by 24, and the other is 20 by 24.

 The above watercolor (w. graphite) was painted over time through a very difficult period, with a lot of stabbing wet on dry strokes.  It is larger than most watercolors I do.  I stopped it and left it be when I thought both it and me had had enough.  This painting is 18 by 24 so it will fit a standardized frame from somewhere somehow.
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 This is an oil painting that I revisited many times.  I saw this flower on one of my walks in the early morning, sketched it, and then basically went in my own direction with the coloring once it was on the canvas.  It is 16 by 20.

 The above watercolor is 12 by 16.  It was painted with smaller brushes, quickly in trying to avoid tedium or fragmentation of concept, to create a reddish net appearance over the main part of the tree.  As I was sketching and painting it, I was reminded of when I was a child how I would stare at branches and see patterns separate out from each other.

This is an oil painting 20 by 24, which I painted with black and white undertones to find depth and composition and then covered with thicker bristle-brush strokes, mixed with softer sable brush-strokes, to try to have a more arresting look.