Boothill Studios

2012-01-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

Balmy temperatures on New Year's Day with no snow falling - so tookoff into the Don Valley Ravine outback and painted this 8" x 10" pleine aire there. A small piece of land down right by the river where the sun seldom gets to - so the snow looked pristene and good. I call it " A Hush of Snow ", since the valley was still asleep and you could hear a pine cone drop.

Maybe make it a full size in the studio - but I'll wait until I'm snowbound.

WILF

2011-11-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

The Goblin Forest

This is from my sketchbook - a fast and loose impressionistic watercolour

painted at the Haliburton Wildlife Centre and Wolf Forest. I managed to capture

the feel and mood at about 3.00 p.m. when the shadows were getting

longer, yet there was still a hint of a sunshine from the afternoon.

I imagined goblins and wraiths playing here.

WILF

2011-09-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

Jenny Anydots, my studio cat - will make friends with just about anybody

who strolls past. She has no concept of danger or the fact that she might

well be seen as a tasty meal by larger forest folk.

So, here she is making out with an errant moose. I know it's not

got a lot to do with art and painting - but it is just as heart warming as

a Monet, Degas or some such. Mayhap I'll simply have to paint it one day myself

2011-09-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

" Eagle Lake Falls" 22" x 15" watercolour on Arches 140 Rough

Did this 22" x 15" watercolour pleine aire, on-site at Eagle Falls.

It was still late Summer, so I used my imagination and turned it into a Fall/Autumn

scene ( artists can do this ). Liked the rush of water and the small falls where logging

took place in the older days and pines and hemlocks floated their way

down to the mills at Minden. Had fun painting it - hope you enjoy

looking at it.

The Trunk

2011-06-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

I found this old humpback steamer travel trunk in a New Mexico auction - it was for sale and a little the worse for wear - so I bought it and loaded it into my van. It took a few weeks to refurbish and banish the the spiders and dampness - but eventually it looked ok to start the decorating. Lots of acrylic paints, collages and lo! and behold! it turned out like this. I lined it with cedar strips and tiddlied up the hardware. These old trunks are getting rarer and rarer.

The hump had two purposes. One, to make sure that the shippers couldn't pile one on top of the other in a hold or warehouse and damage the bottom one. And, two, the hump was where you packed your lady's fancy go-to-meeting bonnet. Couldn't crush it there. This one;s a keeper.

And by way of another one. This is an old carpenter chest that once belonged to an immigrant German family in Texas in or around 1880. It was in poor condition - but I got it done. And it took almost a year to match the original paint and to collect old carpenter tools from many, many garage sales and auctions. A big bonus was the fact that I had a photograph of the original owner and used it too...along with a tintype of good odl Annie Oakley. This one sold to the owner of a chain of lumber yards.

OK - I paint watercolours --- but once in a while I do make SouthWest pieces and when I find a trunk I like to breathe new life into it.

Unk
Boothill

2011-05-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

By The Lake

Just a quick, pleine aire sketch painting from the lake.

Dealing in values and shapes, rather than in actualities.

Size 10 1/2" x 12 1/2" on Arches Rough brightwhite paper.

Perhaps to become a larger painting in studio.

Location - Haliburton Highlands.

2011-03-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

" Spring Thaw "

Have just finished this 15" x 22" vignetted watercolour of an Ontario farm in winter, turning to spring.... snow still there,.... but warm clear skies are beginning to herald a new season. The edges are vignetted so that the painting may be framed inside a mat and appear to float. Maybe now I can start drawing greens and yellows from my palette as warmer weather approaches - and get doing more pleine aire work in the great ouitdoors.

See more of my work on the Fineartamerica web site. Find it on Google, then click my name.

Thanks for taking the time to peek at this.

Reggie

2011-02-05T14:00:00.001-08:00

I know this is going to sound really strange, but Reggie here is a good buddy of mine and one of the keenest art critics I know. Even stranger is the fact that he's a 680 lb. tiger, standing almost seven feet tall and inhabiting the forests around my Haliburton cottage. It's not every day you meet a tiger with a keen eye for composition, a feeling for colours and an eye for what works - but he does have that keen and absolute sense.

Only last week, while pleine aire painting, he popped up and growled loudly at a snow scene I was busy painting - plainly telling me, in no uncertain terms, to make some changes or else. He was right! Too much foreground, not enough darks and shadows and maybe a tad too much Cerulean Blue in the composition. Then he simply melts back into the forest again. He's not a painter himself ( the old opposing thumb you know ), but he sure understands my art.

Of course, it helps to keep a T-bone handy in your back pocket since tigers seldom work for nothing.

2011-02-05T02:59:00.000-08:00

Mister Bumble

This is not my painting - but I wish it were. It's a creation from the vivid imagination of my six year old grand daughter. A 30" x 16" acrylic on canvas. We call it Mister Bumble.

Not long ago, some researchers at MIT decided to look into the world of creativity and employed two control groups - one adult the other small children. Both groups were asked the following question ... " what's a brick for ?". The adult group all replied along the same lines - to build with, for housing, for walls, for pavements and so forth.

The children saw things quite differently. Since their imaginations had not yet been tarnished with being taught that - sky is blue, grass is green, bricks are red ---- and remember to stay within the lines. Here's some of the childrens responses:

" If I had two I'd tie them onto my feet and be taller than my sister "

" They'd make great walnut crackers by banging together "

" If I threw one through Sym's Jewellry window I'd be rich "

Not one thought the obvious - they had not as yet been adult-erated. Don't I wish I had some of this imagination now when I sit at the easel to paint. Indeed I do.

Sundown

2011-02-01T05:49:00.001-08:00

Sundown

My studio at the lake in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada often welcomes spectacular sunsets, especially in late August and early September. Myriad colours reflected into the still lake waters.

Surounded by dark red pines, spruce, hemlocks, balsams and birch. Tranquility that begs to be painted and photographed. Or simply to be watched with a cooling drink firmly grasped in hand. This is one of Mother Nature's delightful evenings - 2011.

September Song

2011-01-16T02:54:00.001-08:00

It's about mid-winter and there's a ton of snow on the ground - but my " mind's eye " seemed to focus on my lakeside studio and the September delights it reveals. A time when waters are still on cool fresh, mornings and Mother Nature comes dressed in a riot of colours. Hence this small

quickly done wet-into-dry composition - aptly named: September Song.

10" x 14" white matted on Arches 140 Rough Brightwhite with a generous pallette.

Ah! Me! will winter never end.

UNK

2010-11-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a one-page demo on " How to paint fence posts " --- those old wooden ones in farm fields or those posts used in jetties and wharfs by the ocean. You might find it useful. Hope it's big enough to read since all the instructions are on the one sheet.

2010-11-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

Couldn't resist my whimsical urge to paint this watercolour of local moggies gathering at Murphy's Fish Emporium on a Friday afternoon - when good old Murphy is quite liable to put out a few tasty morsels for long suffering cats ( this illustration appears in my published book - Strange Tales and Impossible Happenings in the Village of Foibles )

Farmstead in the Rockies

2010-11-21T14:33:00.001-08:00

Here's a fast 20 minute quite miniature 5/12" x 8 1/2" watercolour, based on my memory of a small farm near Bragg Creek, Alberta. Snow in the air, snow on the ground and the Rocky Mountains looming over the background.

2010-11-16T03:45:00.000-08:00

This is a fast demo done for a student class - I guess it took about 35 minutes. For the moment I'm calling it " A Touch of Green " - didn't have any reference photos, but in my mind's eye I saw this scene of up-north amongst the Lakes of Haliburton, with a touch of sunshine making the green illumination. Sort of liked it and will do a full sheet of this same thing next week.

I use a wet-into-dry technique and with a little spritzing the painting practically paints itself. The colours meld and join hands and run minor and unexpected riots across the paper. Much easier to handle that wet-into-wet - unless you're a mster judge of papers and that precise moment when to apply the pigments.

" A Touch of Green " - 10 1/2" x 13 1/2" on Arches 140 Rough Brightwhite

Thanks for looking in.

A Whole Lotta Moose

2010-10-08T05:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a series of " Moose " paintings - whimsical things really - commissioned for both a brewery and a local lodge. Quite Canadian in tone and format . All work is 10" x 12" watercolour on Arches 140 Rough. There were eight in the series - here are three.

" The Sound of Moosic "

" Shinney Champs " Team Photo

" Royal Canadain Moose Police " - Fort Ongulate Detatchment

2009-09-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Matilda

Matilda is a Kerry Sheep, one of the many thousands that inhabit the green hillsides above the village of DunnQuin, County Kerry, Ireland. Some say that all sheep are alike and look alike - but I venture to disagree. This here is Matilda, woolly in the extreme and black of features. She crossed my path one afternoon when I was painting other things like scenery, green fields and a vast Irish sky. Simply decided to paint her.

Saw her in a purple haze and a red ground and that's exactly the was she wanted to look too.

It's a small work, only 4" high and 5" across - but I am offering prints through fineartamerica.com ( not sure you can link therough here but that's the entry address, then look for my pages )- because of using a " fine " pixel setting on my camera, you can get Matilda in sizes up to 24" x 30" ---- wow!

The original is not for sale - it is destined to hang in the Kerry house.

Nakahata and the Birch - a legend

2009-06-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

The Legend of Nakahata and the Birch

Many years ago. the god Nakahata was on a journey of great length. Along his way lay the Lake Kennisis which was blue to the eye and fresh to the soul and so the god decided to break his tiresome journey and refresh himself in the crystal clear and sparkling lake waters.

But there is one thing the gods cannot do and that is let water touch their eyes. And so Nakahata removed his eyes and gave them into the safe keeping of a stand of majestic birch growing along the shoreline. Warning the birch to take great care of the precious orbs. And having thus admonished and charged the birch, Nakahata betook himself into the cool lake waters.

By and by two bold geese happened by, and seeing the eyes lying there, decided to play a trick on the god and so they took and hid Nakahata's precious eyes deep in the forest Having done this mischief they thus they took wing and cackling with laughter, flew away.

When Nakahata returned sightless he went to the place where his eyes had been - but they were not there - nor would the birch reveal the hiding place, but only laughed at the god anguish. And so for many months Nakahata wandered the forest in vain, crying out is grave despair.

One day two warrior hunters happened by and learning of the cruel trick set off until at last they found Nakahata's eyes hidden deep in a woodland cave. Thus was Nakahata's eyesight restored.

Nakahata then berated the birch for its foolishness and taking his flail, he whipped the trees soundly and swore that from henceforth all birch would bear the marks of the gods anger - which today accounts for the black stripes and marks, the seasonal peeling bark and the surface wounds found on all birch in the forest. And to the foolish geese he issued an eternal order that henceforth they would be banished from the lands they loved for half a year, which is why the geese fly south in migration to this very day...only to return is the Springtime of the year when the season arrives.

And, as a reward for their helpfulness, Nakahata promised the two warriors and their tribes that from that day forward they would no more be confined to the land, but would now own a wonderful way to travel over water. And so, taking the birch bark from the flailed tree, Nakahata fashioned them the very birch bark canoes that are still, to this very day, a part of our lives and legends.

I keep this legend in my mind when I paint birch trees in winter or summer

2009-06-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

I'm Coco the studio cat. I don't paint personally, but like to sit and watch and occasionally take a stroll through slightly wet paint just for the fun of it...a sort of Jackson Pollock kind of thing. Stick around - I'll keep you posted on a mog's view of things.

A Brush with Creativity

2009-06-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

In May of 2002, seven years ago, I sat down at a desk for my first art lesson. The results were not exceptional - until I decided to treat the art of learning art as an excercise like going for an MBA degree. Every week I sought out teachers, flew to stange cities to get at the talent I needed to make it as a watercolourist. I painted each and every day, indoors when outdoors was impossible. Slowly and perhaps painfully, I began to get where I wanted to go - to be in galleries, have shows, be printed into books and, of course, to sell. Today I have reached an acceptable altitude of skills and intend to keep going and learning from those in the rareified air above.

I teach, I critique, I paint, I win awards sometimes and have a modest few collectors who relish my work for their homes and collections. Painting - it's what my right hand was made for - and here are a few:

" Reflections "
15" x 22" watercolour on Arches 140 rough

" Reflections In a Mill Pond "

15" x 22" watercolour on Arches 140

" Winterlude "

Full sheet watercolour 22" x 30 "

" You've Got Mail "

15" x 22" watercolour on Arches 140 rough

" Ladies In Waiting "

22" x 30" watercolour on Arches 140 rough