A Brush with Highlands - Part II

This was painted on the morning of the second day. No great shakes, but that is how it goes with plein air! What usually seems to happen, at least to me, is that you are in the great outdoors, having chosen a great view and having fun, maybe struggling bit, but generally in a good mood, which colours how you view the work. When you look again later sometimes it still looks good and sometimes not so good!

In the afternoon I did another painting which sold at the show and sale on Sunday. I neglected to take a picture of it. However I like to take pictures of the situation that I am so on the left you can see the lengths I went to to paint the scene. My pouchade box is sitting in the crotch of a tree all set up to paint. There was a boat landing just to my left and I wondered what they might think of a man peeking out from the bushes.

A Brush with Highlands Part I

This is the first painting I did at A Brush with the Highlands which is a plein air festival held north of Toronto at the beginning of August, a civic holiday in Ontario. It is near the Haliburton School of the Arts, the Highlands in the title refer to the Haliburton Highlands. Most people camp for the weekend and on Sunday, the final day, there is a three hour exhibition with prizes. All in all an excellent experience.




The painting above  (8" x 10")was done the first morning in a slight drizzle which fortunately cleared up. The painting, easel and I were out in the rain with an umbrella I was lent for shade protecting my supplies on the ground. This painting I later sold.

The painting at the right was done in the afternoon at a place called Centre Lake. The black specks are, of course, bugs stuck in the oil paint. The area around Wilberforce, Ontario is full of Provincial Parks so there is plenty to paint. The organizers also arrange with private landowners for permission to paint on their property

Cherry Beach

Even though I have done some recent paintings en plein air I will quickly post those from a year ago so that I can catch up. This was painted on a bright day last June at Cherry Beach looking east past the Life Saving Station.