Dam on the Skootamata

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This little work (11x14) in size has a rather pastoral feel to it. It features the dam on the Skootamata River near Actinolite, Ontario. The picture looks a little darker online, but overall it has a lively display of colours and reflections in the water.

Its a small world isn't it?

Florie Evoy and Madonna Romback with Fredericks in centre

One of the joys of an artshow is meeting delightful people, family friends and having surprising things happen. Two of the women in this picture were unbeknownst to me, my son in law's foster aunts. And he lives in BC. They live in Newfoundland. And the meeting with them was unexpected and unplanned and even more then that...I didn't even know them. Florrie dropped by my booth and made a kind comment about my works and one thing led to another and, and the results can be seen above.

And Did Those Feet in Ancient Times?

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As I walked along the bank of the Skootamata River, I saw what appeared to be a fishing weir, made by ancient peoples. I could imagine the men, with their spears catching trapped fish. There was a big rock along the side of the river and it was easy to envision people standing on the rocks watching the event unfolding.

The presence of those peoples was so immediate to me, that I decided on the spot to paint the scene.
This work is one of my favourites. I took the scene and gave it a mystical colouring and I highlighted the rocks with salmon pinks and light blue hues.

Its a small painting - 11x14 in size and one of my favourites.

Path in the Forest

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This is one of a set of four paintings which I did at the Ontario Plein Air Society's workshop at Bridgewater Resort. I was excited by the slope, direction and charm of the trees. It was a hot afternoon so I tried to capture both the heat of mid afternoon and the cool tones of the forest and rocks.

11x14

Plein Air Society's Bridgewater Resort Workshop, on Skootamata River

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I had the pleasure of attending the Ontario Plein Air Society's July Workshop at the Bridgewater Resort on the Skootamata River, adjacent to the village of Actinolite, near Tweed, Ontario.

It was my first art workshop and I have to confess that I was over the top with enthusiasm about attending it.

Because I live a half an hour's drive from the Resort, I elected to be a 'day time' outcamper.

The food was splendid, the companionship great, the setting excellent and the instructor Edward Abela was first rate. Taking all in all, I couldn't have asked for more.

Keith greeted us and set the participants at ease by announcing that it was a non competitive workshop in which our only concern was our own development. Those words took a weight off my shoulders for I had been privately wondering how I would stack up against the other painters. My biggest fear was that I would be the worst painter in the group.

It didn't take long for the group to settle into the pattern of the workshop. Our aim was to produce at least one work a day.

The workshop marked a coming of age for me as a painter. No matter how good (or bad for that matter) my painting may appear, the truth is, most of my acrylics were more 'head works' then from the heart. No wonder, for when I watched Edward Abela paint, it dawned on me that my self taught style needed some tweaking.


When Edward asked the group what we wanted to learn from the weekend, I said......"To take an amorphous mass of green trees and separate them into distinct areas which I could paint. And, I wanted to make advances in colour work. Well, the good news is I felt that I had achieved both goals.

From the minute the easels were set up on the first morning I tore into my works with a passion.
I focused on breaking the "small stroke syndrome", and developing a longer more relaxed and comfortable brush application.

The good news is I feel that I achieved both goals by the time the workshop ended.

Size: 16x20

Meadows in the Sky

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I painted Meadows in the Sky, after a visit to National Park, with the same name, near Revelstoke BC. I did it plein air, as a watercolour, then reworked it and more recently I resurrected it as an acrlylics painting.

While each painting has its own personality, I prefer this work to the others.
I went through Lynda's pictures and found exactly the right photo to use.

The background mountain range and lake hangs like a grand theatre curtain behind the foreground. The foreground has a rough beauty inspired by the profusion of mountain meadow flowers.

16x20

Careful Now!

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When I was a little boy my uncle took me to a sugar bush. I talked to the farmer who was doing down the sap. Being a curious kid I had lots of questions. I remember asking him if the sap was pure and clean. He laughingly told me that it was, even though black squirrels sometimes drown in the pails.

Hello? Black squirrels drown in sap buckets? How can that be? Well, they edge their way down the trunk and lean forward for a drink and find themselves balanced on the fine edge of disaster.

I asked the farmer if he throws the squirrel and the sap away.

"Hell no. I throw the squirrel away, but the sap adds flavour to the mix." And with that he gave me a big wink and a laugh.

I decided that this would make a good story painting.

I had fun with this work, particularly gettng the textures right on the trees and getting the right bounce of light off the spring snow.

The picture is 61cm x 46cm. (24"x 18")

The picture has now found its way from my studio into a private collection.  Sometimes it hurts to say goodbye.