Halifax Blues

I love Halifax. Especially the houses, shingled and painted in cheerful colours, unlike our neutral places here in Ontario. The city has a personality quite unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It's worth a visit. I took tons of photos last time I visited. I took the reference photo for this painting on a sunny morning walk to get coffee.

Acrylic on 7x9 canvas board

I usually prime my canvas with a neutral ground, yellow ochre for landscapes, or burnt umber and white to make a light grayish brown. But today I tried burnt sienna, thinking that blue on top of reddish might work. This created a challenge I would never have imagined. Yellow does not work well on top of red. It is somewhat transparent. I ended up painting the yellow areas white, then yellow.

I painted pretty quickly tonight because I didn't get started until 10 pm. It took me until after midnight which accounts for this post being dated the 19th. But we did enjoy a great dinner of grilled italian sausages and potatoes. It was all I could do not to go to sleep right afterward.

Valuable Lessons Learned Today:

• Cadmium Yellow Light is very transparent. It becomes less transparent when titanium white is added to it.
• Payne's Grey is actually a very dark blue. I added white to it to make shadows. They were very blue. Adding a bit of Burnt Sienna made it more neutral and grayer.
• Try to paint before dinner time.

A Good Red Is Hard To Make

After a long day of cutting down trees with the help of my good neighbour, I had very little time to paint. I picked out what I thought would be a simple painting of an old house and gave myself an hour or so to finish it. Two hours later and here it is. Not quite the colours in the reference photo but I ran out of patience and time. I really rushed! I'm not yet ready for speed painting.

Painted on 5x7 Canvas Board

A mess of reds

I lost track of the paint colours I used, so instead here is one of my palettes. I really struggled to match the warm red of the roof. In the end I used a mix of cadmium red medium and cadmium yellow light, with a bit of titanium white. The sides of the house were a warmer brown than in my painting. I'm still using only the paints that I had in the house. When I get more experience at mixing colours I'll try some different ones. I would like to do this painting again at a later date. PS Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Valuable Lessons Learned Today:

• Adding white to red does not make light red. It makes pink.
• There are so many shades of red. I need more experience mixing colours. Lots of paint gets wasted and it takes a lot of time.
• Don't paint while you are very hungry. It really messes with your concentration.

Life Gives You Lemons

I have never painted a still life before. A simple piece of fruit seemed like a good start. The reference photo is from Will Kemp Art School. His tutorials are amazing. I have been watching them in the evenings for some time. He teaches colour mixing and acrylic techniques in a beginner friendly manner.

I used an 8x8 canvas board and the colours included Titanium White, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Yellow Medium and Cadmium Red Medium. I watched Will Kemp's tutorial last night but did not follow it when I painted, instead opting to just paint freely. It seems that I have a way to go before free works for me.

Valuable lessons learned today:

• It takes a lot more yellow than red to make orange. Add the red to the orange in very small amounts.
• Acrylic paint seems to dry more quickly on the palette than on the painting. Do not rest your hand on the painting until it is dry.
• Lemons are harder for me than I thought. They're not bright yellow, but they are not as orange as this painting either.

The Laziest Painter in the World

Procrastination is my middle name. I've been a painter on and off (mostly off) for over twenty years. It seems the more time I have for painting, the less I am motivated to paint. A small stack of watercolours from the 90's sits in a bag in a box. Some halfhearted oils are kicking around somewhere. I just turned 50.

I happened upon the book Daily Painting by Carol Marine at the local library a couple of weeks ago. Her blog is called Carol Marine's Painting a Day. The idea of the book is to paint daily, in small manageable doses. Small paintings the take an hour or so. I spend more time on Netflix every day.

I have always believed that it is never too late to start (learn, do, play etc.) something. Lassitude is my Confirmation name, so I will try and stick to it even on bad days.

We have a supply of acrylic paints in the house and since I've always like the look of the finished works done by others, I thought I'd start there. I watched many tutorials online and jumped into it today. The reference photo was taken a few years ago at Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia. I see I have a long way to go.

Acrylic 7x9 on Canvas Board