Painting in the Laurentins in August

As usual my family and I spend time at our cottage in Val David. This gives me a good opportunity to paint en plein air. The next few posts will show some work that was done this past summer.

This was an 8 X 10 on panel done just off the section of the bike path running along the old railway bed between Val David and Ste. Agathe as it crosses the North River. As I was painting a gentleman came along on a bicycle and stopped to watch what I was doing. He introduced himself as Gordon Harrison, an artist from Ottawa, and gave me some great tips!






















This photo shows my easel and the view beyond.

Big Rocks

Another 8 x10 oil on panel painted along the North River outside of the town of Val David in the Laurentiens. In my more recent paintings I have been trying to keep in mind the one thing that struck me when I first saw the scene. This feature, if it is not obvious, is the bright blue reflection in the middle ground. I had fun playing with all the other elements, such as the reflections but they all ended up being less important than the blue patch.

In the next post we will head off to my second year at "Brush with Highlands" a plein air painting weekend in the Haliburton Highlands north of Toronto.

Painting in the Park, Val David

Even though the painting itself is no great shakes, this one was fun!

The North River runs through the village of Val David and there is a small park with an observation deck, picnic tables, etc where people eat lunch, play and enjoy the river. The river bank drops down about six feet so that as I was sitting at the river's edge and painting I was out of sight of the people in the park. At one point I turned around and a boy of perhaps 5-6 years old was intently watching what I was doing. He watched for a long time. An artist friend said that I may have influenced him to be come a painter!

Painting in the Laurentiens

This 8x10, called "North River Bend," was the first that I painted while at our cottage in July of last summer. It was a cloudy, cool morning as you can probably tell.