8×10
Another one from an early and lovely spring day on Wolfe Island. This photo, and I believe my painting as well, capture better than a lot of images just how HUGE these turbines are on the landscape. The large farm is sitting close to the base of the (closest turbine) and it is simply dwarfed compared to it.
I am still not sure if I love or hate these giants, but one thing I can say about them is that they have forever changed the view and I like to paint them. OK… that was two things…
In order to purchase the land where Tiny House Ontario sits, I had to sell land with a very crooked little cottage on it. It was a fantastic spot in beautiful Warkworth, Ontario. You could walk to the village and yet you were secluded so much that you could bathe naked in the Mill Creek that ran around the ten acres.
This is the inside of the crooked cottage. I started painting it about a year or maybe two ago and lost focus on it. I pulled it out today and ta-da, it is done, like magic.
The stuff in the painting all has a story. The tall cupboard was retrieved from the garbage in Germany when I lived there. It is called a chimney cupboard. The wash basin and pitcher are made of enamel and were handy (still are) because either there or Tiny House Ontario have running water. The Victorian sideboard is from Eaton’s and cost ~$3.89 to order it from the catalogue about a hundred years ago. I had the catalogue but I donated it a while back so I can’t look it up. The sideboard now sits in my sister’s home, I gave this to her when she bought our great, great, great grandparent’s home. It is nice that it is there and it looks great in her kitchen. The stairs stool was built by my grandpa and the kettle in the other room belonged to him and grandma. The green footstool was also taken from the garbage; it has storage inside and I kept my dogs stuff in there. The candle holder on the wall was made by the Philoxian hippies at their commune in Marlbank. I bought it years ago when I was there with a group of friends from my youth; we were teeny-boppers then… I guess that this painting could just as easily be called waste-not, want-not or nostalgia.
I finally finished it today. It is 18×20.
For the last couple of days I was looking around the internet for images of the tulip fields in Holland because I was reminded how lovely they are. I thought with too with having spring early, that it might be sort of interesting to paint one of those fields. I also thought it might be a fun painting to show to the people who read my blog (or who just look at the photos and paintings) what they look like when they are underway.
So if you read my posts, you will know what I am up to and if you just look at the pictures then hopefully you will see that there is more added later.
Anyway, I will post today where I take the image from, along with the first draft of my painting. It is just a tiny little 6×6 gallery matted canvas.
First I painted the entire canvas blue – which I regret now because blue is very hard to cover – so on the first good coat of colour the piece is totally dull when compared to the original image. As I paint more I will post more. March 31.
Development of colour depth. April 1 morning.
Some more background colour in and the beginning of the three farmers. 6:00 pm April 1.
Babysitting my friend’s dog. His name is Bailey and wanted to see what I was painting. Poor Bailey Blue, isn’t he cute though? He has beautiful eyes, like the singer Björk, I think.
A little more work on the details this evening. April 2
Turns out that this is the fiddliest painting ever! Looks so simple – a few stripes on a canvas. Am I right? Oi Veh!
Finally here it is!
Tulip Farming 6×6
This painting is of a place that is very special to me. It belongs to people who I love, very much. It is 24×24 – SOLD
When you arrive on Wolfe Island, and turn left off the ferry, not too far down the road sits this lovely Tiny House which is actually a child’s play house, I assume.
Having grown up in the country, I could never understand people’s reluctance to move kids to the country because there is “nothing to do”. Nonsense!
In this little image alone, the little girl in me can find at least a hundred things to do. The grown up me too.
I hope that the owners of this beautiful place did not mind my laying on my tummy in their lawn to get this angle? No one yelled at me anyway.
The bench faces out toward Kingston to Lake Ontario.
What I am after in this painting, is the simplicity of Anna Mary Robertson, the solitude of Lawren Harris, the movement of Emily Carr and the light of the Dutch Masters, the mood of the impressionists and the story telling of Douglas Coupland… not asking much of myself, am I?
8×10
Tiny House Ontario 