The Credit from the Village Bridge Done

I am really enjoying working with Oils. None of the urgency that watercolours and acrylics force on you because they dry so fast. This is really a contemplative medium with perhaps more nuance and contemplation than spontaneity and speed. Mind you, I like both ends of the spectrum and will continue to enjoy my watercolours, but something about oils is deliciously captivating.

Anyway, here is the finished painting from Wednesday. I spent the afternoon working on it through a headache but I am very pleased with how it turned out. I hope you agree.

The Credit from the Village Bridge, Oil on primed masonite board, 8"x10"
Buy This Painting

The Credit River from the Village Bridge

I braved the threatening clouds today and headed out to paint en plein air. No group this time. Just a lone wolf on the hunt for a scene to paint. I ended up just north of the 401 on the bridge entering the Credit Village. The bridge, obviously over looks the Credit river (my theme for the year I guess!) is narrow, but I managed to find a spot away from the cars and the bikes. I didn't have much time and it actually rained a bit on me but not enough to soak the umbrella. The river is much wider than I chose to paint it. I was mostly interested in the shadows and the aerial perspective so I chose to make the river narrower. Call it artistic license! There is a lot of glare in the photo which basically washes the colours away. I will take another picture later.

The painting is not yet finished. I still need to tweak it a bit but I thought I would share it with you anyway.

The Credit River From The Village Bridge, Oil on primed masonite board, 8"x10"

Red Barn

Sometimes it is nice to see a painting in progress. It sort of feels like a sport to see it develop. I didn't video tape this one in progress, but I did take some shots with it at various stages. The top one is the finished painting and it moves backwards as you go down to the third.

This is not a plein air. I did it in the studio and in no more than 20 minute intervals over two weeks. I just didn't have time to do more. I hope you enjoy it!

Red Barn, Acrylic on canvas board, 6"x8"

Credit River

The credit river runs through Mississauga where I live. The banks of the river as it winds through Mississauga, have been turned into nature reserves and park land. This network of nature in the middle of suburban life has become my favored subject for painting in the last few months.

Last weekend, I revisited the Credit just under the Burnhamthorpe bridge and settled down to do this painting. The day was ideal. Not too hot, not too cold and the wind was just enough to keep the bugs away, but not hard enough to dry my acrylic paints. It took me 2 1/2 hrs to make this 8"x10" acrylic on canvas.

The Nature of Satan

First let me address anyone who is reading this with a literal perspective: Don't. I am no particularly interested in a religious sermon about the Devil. I am more interested in the nature of the literary as opposed to the literal Satan. The Satan as manifested in art and literature from the Divine texts to modern cinema.

It all started while listening to a podcast lecture by Paul Stevens on Milton's Satan. I would encourage you to listen to it. It is well worth the time. I had not thought about Paradise Lost since 1984 when, on earning my MA in English Literature I promptly put it away and turned to Finance and business for further study and to earn a living. Satan, you see, had been a favorite subject of mine in my youth. As much as I feared him as a boy growing up, I engaged him in my early teens through Uriah Heep to overcome these fears and identified with him as a rebel and tragic hero as a late teen and young man in the middle of a religious war where God - as manifested by the deeds of his many fervent servants - was indistinguishable from Satan. The last time I met Satan at an intellectual level, he was seducing Leopold Bloom on the streets of Dublin. Don't misunderstand me, evil has been most prevalent in the past two decades. But the Literary Satan has been absent from my life for a long time. I never watched any of the gratuitous "B" movies or read any of the epic books that may have touched on him recently except perhaps for Harry Potter of course.

With that in mind, I thought that I would engage you in sharing your views of Literary Satan. What role did/does he play in your life? What is your opinion of him? Is he a tragic romantic rebel hero as I came to know him? Or is he something else? What, in your mind is the meaning of the archetypal Satan.

My Take on Building a Pochade or Cigar Box

I was meaning to build a full tutorial on how to build a pochade box. I may still do that, but in the meantime this should be a good short tutorial that some will find useful. Please share your thoughts here or on YouTube.

Rapids

Just a 6"x4" Acrylic for today. I am enjoying taping these while I work on them. It is teaching me a lot about how I work.

I really enjoyed doing this one. I mixed some modeling paste with the colours and had a bit of trouble with it at first. I am not sure if you can see it, but the texture on this one is exactly what I am looking for. I was getting disappointed with acrylics because I couldn't preserve the brush work and texture. These just seemed to melt away as the paint dried. Now, with the modeling paste, the texture is there to stay. I like it a lot.

Rapids, 6"x4" acrylics on canvas board. $45.00 S&H included.

(Details)