Colborne artist, Helen van Poorten, has been hosting plein air excursions throughout Northumberland County this spring and and will continue through the summer. Every second Wednesday, whoever wishes to come, joins her somewhere in these beautiful hills and valleys. Previous locations ranged from downtown Port Hope to a donkey sanctuary to the Nawautin Conservation area in Grafton. Today's event was held at artist Jane Robertson's home overlooking Rice Lake. Here is a link to her artist's page. I love her painting style.
As soon as we arrived, so did the drizzling rain. Jane pointed us to her favourite views, some around her home and some just down the road. I chose to check out the path leading from her backyard through the woods and into a meadow. These white birch caught my attention, and I spent some time sketching them.
What a lovely meadow! The drizzle was turning into a light rain and my pencil was not liking the wet paper. I got the scene loosely sketched and headed back up the hill to the house.
Back at the house, Jane was working on a scene looking to the north. Interesting how she first puts in a layer of grey underpainting. Oil painting is so different from watercolours.
Below is her finished painting. It's remarkable how much can be done in a little over two hours... in the rain.
Back at the house, I was experimenting in using fairly runny paints to make layered washes. I am hoping to revamp my watercolour workshops and today was the day to figure things out. I love these little jars from my favourite yoghurt - Riviera Petit Pots. I've been cleaning and saving the cool little jars for my workshops and classes.
As my paint was drying .... and it never really did dry .... our fearless leader was on the front lawn, fully prepared for the elements under her umbrella.
This was her view of Rice Lake. The misty rain made the hills look very hazy.
She managed to find a building and some hydro poles to make a great composition.
Two ladies who went down the road to find a scene were greeted by the owner of the property they were painting. She erected a TENT for them, brought out coffee and muffins, and painted with them! Good neighbourliness is alive and well in Northumberland.
After 2 ½ hours of work, we gathered to share what we had done and to eat lunch together. Clearly, we had a green theme going.
I found out that this artist may be attending my next watercolour workshop. It looks like she is well on her way to doing very well with the medium.
My painting never did dry until I was back home. This style is very not me, but it was a lot of fun to experiment with layering washes, using only four colours and dealing with paper that never did dry. I think I will add some darker tones to make it feel like it is mine.
It seems to me that there is a silver lining coming out of our Covid years. Folks are finding that there are fun things to do right in their own back yards.
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
Thomas Merton
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