Capturing the last fall color

When I saw what the temperatures were going to be this week, I called on my friend Diane to come plein-air painting with me. Today it was projected to be 20 degrees c. with no wind; a perfect day to paint. My goal for this painting session was just to paint the fall colors. Not having slept well, I didn't feel ambitious enough to drag out my oil box so watercolors and pastels came only.

After picking Diane up at 9:00am, we headed to St. Vital Park. We had hardly started down the road, when I spied an open reflection of the far river bank in the water. It was absolutely breathtaking because the water was like glass; reflecting the scene in its full color detail.

We went down to the bank and I did two watercolor sketches; one facing the trees behind with the sun coming through the trees and one facing the beautiful reflections in the water. It was a little chilly but I had dressed for it with my Costco down jacket and gloves. Only my big toe was cold. After approximately an hour and a half, we drove around to the duck pond which now has a beautiful new shelter which we had lunch in. Enjoying the warmth, we decided to stay inside and sketch a tree right outside the shelter.

This was a spectacular day and makes you wonder why anyone would want to paint in their studio!

Beautiful pattern of sun and shadows through trees

Diane sketching the above scene

Shirley about to paint what's behind her

Rather abstract pattern of light and shadow

My attempt to capture the glorious fall reflections

A particularly nice shaped tree 

Glorious Fall Painting in Headingley

Tuesday was a really warm and pleasant day. My first thought was to paint in Assiniboine Park; someplace close by. As I drove through the park, I just didn't see anything that really grabbed me. This is probably due to the familiarity of the park. New or less frequently seen locations really help to inspire. I got back out on Roblin and headed out to Headingley and right through the town until I hit the gravel road. There is some low wetland there but a fairly new posted NO TRESPASSING sign turned me off of stopping there so I headed back to the first intersection into Headlingley. Here, there was a small area to pull off onto and it was right beside a walking/cycling path that took you down past the old railway bridge.

I had intended to do a small pastel but decided to start slowly and do a watercolor sketch of the old bridge. Only once cyclist passed while I was working on this sketch; nice quiet location to paint. After finishing this sketch, I walked back to the car and hauled my rolling backpack out that contained my pastel painting gear. I set myself up in the shade beside the walking path and decided on a nice pair of trees right at the intersection with a stop sign.

I did the initial drawing with charcoal. I don't normally use charcoal but the trunks were quite dark so I decided it wouldn't be something I would have to work hard to cover. I really liked the composition of this little pastel. I've "zoomed" in close to take in only these two trees and there's the nice curve of the road on the left hand side. I also like the contrast of the fairly dark oak tree on the left with the brilliant gold tree.

This was a satisfying and very relaxing outing; probably due to the lack of traffic in the area and the absolutely gorgeous day. One thing I am finding increasingly frustrating is that unless you go to a park, it is hard to find a place to pull off and paint. It's not a good idea to park yourself on private property or on the side of the road so it really limits your options as to what you do. This makes it difficult to paint all those really scenes that I see as I drive down highways and roads.

Watercolor sketch of old rail bridge at Headingley

Pastel sketch of Headingley intersection

From St. Boniface to Transcona

It really is nice to think that you have a whole day in front of you when painting or sketching. The Charleswood Art Group was meeting at the St. Boniface Cathedral today.  I decided to start in this area and then head to Transcona to paint. I brought both my watercolor sketching and pastel painting art supplies.

Last year I had completed a nice little oil of the St. Boniface Cathedral so I was looking forward to again visiting this site. I had admired the St. Boniface Museum building last year and hadn't done anything with this so I decided to start there. There was a nice picnic table in front of the museum to set myself up on. This is a fairly large old wood building with a lovely center windowed porch and green wood shutters at every window. I chose to just sketch the front porch area.

My second subject was a view of hi-lited tombstones leading to the front of the St. Boniface cathedral. I didn't spend time with this subject so the cathedral itself is very loosely suggested. The rest of the gang decided to go for lunch and I decided I wanted to keep going. Just as I was leaving, the bells at the cathedral began ringing; announcing 12 o'clock noon.

My next and last stop was out to Transcona. After having a quick lunch at a Tim Horton's, I headed down Dugald road and right on the perimeter highway where I took the first right to an access road that winds around and goes past the cemetery. As I proceeded around the curve, I notice the field full of those lovely wild purple flowers in random mounds. There was a place to pull off the road which made it easy to stop and sit myself down on the grass to do a small pastel painting. I was running short of time as I had agreed to meet two daughters for a coffee so rather than set up my easel and travel adaptor, I held the small 5x7 Ampersand pastel board in my hand to paint. I had brought my Unison landscape set, my new Diane Townsend blue set and a few Unison dark pastels in another small box. I had a lot of fun doing this last little painting and think it would scale up well to a larger pastel painting.

It was a good day ... still wanting to get out and find a wonderful sunset!

Pastel of field in Transcona

Sketch of St. Boniface Museum

Tombstones in front of St. Boniface Cathedral

A Day at the Beach

Summer just isn't summer if you don't spend a day at the beach. I had wanted to get to the beach for some time now and finally this past Monday, it seemed to be the perfect day to go. I had two sketching ideas in mind; the obvious kind of sketching you would do on a beach and canola fields. I love the bright chartreuse green of canola fields.

Our first stop was Whytewold, where I was hoping to sketch the dock that's so beautiful with it's spindly supports.  Unfortunately, the water was high enough to cover a lot of the supports. Also, you can see that they have brought in chunks of rock to try and preserve the shore but they aren't at all natural looking. Also, there is no place to park right at this spot. Cottagers would hate me but I would rather see no one allowed to live directly on water and leave it open for everyone to enjoy the view.

After Whytewold, Winnipeg Beach was next on the itinerary. There weren't a lot of people on the beach but what caught my eye was the water tower which is on the south end of the beach. When sitting on the benches, the water tower was not in view so I plunked myself down on the sand and did a watercolor sketch of the tower. I really liked this view with it's strong diagonals of the beach and boardwalk set against the horizontals of the trees and their shadows and the narrow spit of land on the left.

Being almost close to lunch time, we headed for Gimli where we enjoyed fantastic battered pickerel and French fries ... just delicious. Following lunch, we set up our lawn chairs in the shade next to the beach where I had a view of people doing what people do at the beach. It's always hard to sketch people. The easiest ones to sketch are the ones that are sitting or lying down rather than standing. Sketching was followed by a little walk aound town to see what was new and to stop in the must stop spots like Tergeson's.

About 3:30pm, we left Gimli and as we started down the highway, it occurred to me that I hadn't been out on Willow Island for years and years. Bill had never been so I took us down the narrow peninsula known as Willow Island. It was just starting to spit a bit but I did stop and take some photos. I liked the marsh area on the south side of Willow Island where people docked their boats. This was the most inspiring material I gathered on this little trip and resulted in a pastel painting of the scene which I show below in a nearly finished state. On Willow Island, again I was struck by the difficulty in getting to the shore on the north side as it was built up with cottage/home after home lined along the shore.

As we continued home down number 9 highway, I'm still on the lookout for a chance to get in those canola fields. When I was almost to Petersfield, there it was ... the perfect canola field, fringed with lovely Manitoba ditches full of a variety of grasses and weeds full of colors and textures. From the car, I did a quick watercolor sketch. This will probably be done up in oil on the same size board.

A very successful and enjoyable painting expedition!

Willow Island Marsh done in pastel on black

Sketching a the beach at Gimli

Canola fields near Petersfield

Painting in Saskatoon

Although the name of this blog is "painting life in Winnipeg", I am very interested in going further afield to paint outdoors. When a family wedding came up that was being held in Edmonton, I suggested to my husband that we make a small vacation out of it. Our plan was to get out to Edmonton quickly and take a little time on the way back to sketch and paint. On the drive out, we encountered amazing scenery along the North Saskatchewan river just west of Saskatoon. The days were bright with beautiful clouds in the sky ... remember I said I was going to paint on the way home. Unfortunately for me, the weather was not quite the same on the return trip but we did spend two mornings at Cranberry Flats south of Saskatoon thanks to a tip from a friend who lived many years in Saskatoon.

Cranberry Flats was named so due to the presence of high bush cranberries. It is situated on the South Saskatchewan river. The first morning we went there it was extremely windy and I had to clamp down my sketch pad just to doing some sketching. The meandering river with its sand bars was a great subject as well as a nice hill with a sandy path winding its way down. I particularly like the local vegetation which consisted of a lot of wolf willow and junipers that crawled over the ground and prevented erosion of the very sandy soil.

The second morning we took our paints with us; I took oil and pastel and Bill took acrylics. The weather was perfect and we set ourselves up on the scenic overlook over the river. I mostly completed an oil study on an 8x10 Judson's carton board and a small 5x7 pastel painting on Ampersand pastel board.  One of the highlights was a squirrel that enjoyed hanging around us and even came right up on Bill's shoes.  A perfect day of painting!

One of the things I learned from this trip is that it is very hard to find time to paint. There is always something else to do; driving, eating, shopping, etc, etc. It is also hard to find a good spot to paint if you are driving on the main highways. For future trips I will have to consider this carefully if I want to get some serious painting time in.

This particular painting trip also was a test of some new gear that I bought. The day before I left on this road trip, my parcel came from Sun Eden with my new travel adaptor. I bought this specifically for plein-air painting and it worked really well. One of the photos shows an ampersand pastel board set up on the adaptor. This will mean I have a very lightweight setup to do plein-air pastel painting. I also worked with the Ampersand pastel board which I think is fantastic. It's a nice rigid surface and takes layers and layers of pastel beautifully. I also found that you don't get a lot of dust falling which is great when you're on the road and might want to consider working in your hotel room for example. I think I may have to invest in some more of these boards.

In addition to the painting at Cranberry flats, I got some sketching done in Edmonton and on the road to Saskatoon. I have also posted some photos below to support the sketches and paintings I did.

country road west of Saskatoon

Getting a quick sketch in of the scene above

Cranberry Flats, south of Saskatoon

Note the squirrel at my husband's feet!

Nearly complete sketch of Wilson Is, Cranberry Flats SK

Set up to start small pastel study of same scene

Cow sketches done at the University of Saskatchewan

West of Saskatoon - sketch of country road

Sketch of Janzen Nature Centre in Edmonton

Ink Sketch of Janzen Nature Centre in Edmonton

First time out this spring

Like many places in Canada and the States, we have had an unusually long and bitterly cold winter. The leaves are now just finally coming out on the trees which is a particularly magical time of year. There's something special about that moment when the branches of the trees are still visible but are now cloaked in a haze of bright yellow green.

Diane and I met at her place out near Birds Hill and upon seeing the stand of trees which included one particularly nice treeing that was leafing out, we agreed that there was no reason to look elsewhere. After setting up our easels, we started by having a coffee and a fresh baked muffin.

It was nice to see that after several months of not touching my oils, I still managed to remember to bring along all that I needed. I do have a list which I keep in my bag to double-check that I haven't forgotten anything important. I did read recently about one painter's experience of dealing with not having any white paint with him. He substituted silver and had some unexpectedly good results. It just goes to show you that we are good at improvising and we can always make something work. It also helps to paint with a buddy so that you can borrow what you haven't remembered to bring.

Before tackling our subject, I made a sketch of the scene; making notations about colors or lighting details that were important if the light shifted too dramatically before we finished. I worked on a panel support that was prepared with a venetian red acrylic gesso. This is rather strong for a spring scene but I was still happy with the result. I worked very patiently and slowly, taking care that I had mixed the right color and value that I wanted. I also used a new Italian palette knife which worked very well. It was a much better size for the scale of painting I do outside and very flexible. It also saved me from mucking up my brushes with paint because of using them to mix paint rather than a knife. I think I am getting smarter about painting and am relying more on my observations.

After lunch we moved indoors as the temperature was around 30 degrees C. When I left to go home, it poured rain making it difficult to drive the first kilometer or so. The first set of lights were also blinking red due to the moisture causing a huge backup of traffic but it didn't spoil my good mood having had such an enjoyable painting day with Diane.


Might use as a study for a larger studio painting

Diane's backyard view - beautiful!