Stand

.....late afternoon....from yesterday's walk up Lost Dog Hill....

Grey and Yellow

Driving home from work, I was struck by this contrast of two. Painted it when I got home but by then the light was almost gone so had to use artificial light. It turned out ok regardless. A little unexpected touch that survived was the step from the lime green bush, to the yellow, to the grey.......very often when I'm painting with artificial light, the thing looks dramatically different in the morning.

October Ridge

I walked deep into a harvested bean field...just before the light starts to fade.....getting to be late October.

Hillock

The collages are as important as the paintings. They take a bit longer to make than the paintings and the mood going into the making is different. The collages are more meditative....more playing around with colour combinations and mumbling to myself....the paintings seem to require a faster flow. In some ways the collages can also allow for greater openness to surprise.

Vapour Trails at Dusk, and Early October

Dusk, Lost Dog Hill

Walking in the evenings over the last few days.....weather was perfect and warm....this particular motif has been a favourite for a number of years and I may have painted it over 20 times.

I have some hope that little impressions might in fact be captured, at least in part. Not everything gets made into a painting. I found myself staring through a hedge and wondering about a leaf pattern against a particular sky. And there was a certain purple black that was very appealing against evening turquoise skies with just a touch of warm.....not in this picture, but little collected impressions that maybe get mentally banked.

As small as all these paintings are, just a slight reduction of scale frees up the process a great deal.

Campus Edge

Campus Field

Campus Field,
9.5 x 9.5 inches, acrylic on gessoed single ply matteboard

Approaching Home

Acrylic on gessoed single ply archival matteboard, 10 x 10 inches.

Toward Scriven Road

Towards Scriven Road. The road was named after Joseph Scriven, who wrote "what a friend we have in Jesus"......I believe he died through accidental drowning in the lake you see here....Rice Lake.

Mansion Hill

I approached a hilly property from a footpath.....I later researched these acres for sale.....3 beautiful houses on one property.....almost all of it not visible from any road.

Fox Hill, September

Fox Hill....yesterday........I exaggerated the yellows....fall time seems to be coming in early. It was very cool this morning. I left today's painting a bit late....not much light left right now.

Hydro Ridge

This little abstraction only suggests the landscape, but the memory of a particular location informed the choices. It was a wonderful steep and wild climb on a narrow path through some hill country.

Football Field

September Ridge

Garden Hill, Early September

Late afternoon on a still, overcast September day. The northumberland hills are so varied.....you can find all sorts of fascinating roads to explore.

I have avoided Payne's Grey in the last little while in favour of black or a warmer grey....in this case set on top of a pink underlayer in the sky.

Cove at Rice Lake, Saturday Morning

I never capture any of these moods very precisely....but the impetus for this was the way the few blues come together to create a feeling of calm and ease on a lake earlier in the morning....a cove at Rice Lake.

Guard

Rain Day

A very nice grey day.....August has had plenty of rain while July was totally dry. Looking into Coyote Hill near midday.

The bottom field caused problems in this painting...I changed it a number of times. The value remains fairly close to the dark of the back forest....not ideal in spacial terms.

Rice Lake, July

Small acrylic collage painting on pine, 6.5 x 7.25 inches.