Pictured above is my watercolour painting 'Reflections of Yesterday' and today I am recounting the story of how this remarkable painting came to life.

In the spring of 2017, my husband and I and several friends explored New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island for two months in our travel trailers. I posted three stories showing the highlights of this fantastic trip ('Perfect Prince Edward Island', 'Camping in Beautiful Nova Scotia', and 'Top 5 Must-Have's for Travel Fun').

While exploring the quaint seaside village of Victoria in PEI, I photographed a colourful, weathered shed window from five different angles. I knew the various elements of this scene would work well as a watercolour portrait. The two views shown below are the ones I chose as painting references.

I liked the colours better in the red window trim in the left hand photo, but I preferred the reflection of the jellybean house in the right hand photo. One of the advantages of being a painter is that I can 'mix-and-match' my references.

Every inch of this painting was pure joy to create, from the cracks in the wood shingles, to the flaking red paint of the trim, to the distorted reflections in the vintage window glass.

For this painting, I tried out watercolour paints made by Sennelier in France and I was very impressed with their clarity and strength of colour. The three pigments I chose (Sennelier Red, Sennelier Yellow Deep, and Phthalocyanine Blue) worked perfectly for this piece. I will be using these paints again!

Fortunately I had the foresight to take photos as I worked on this challenging composition. From these work-in-progress photos, I assembled a short time lapse video, so you can see the flow of this piece to its completion.

Click on the image below to view the 2-minute story:

The completed painting (shown below) is mounted on an archival wood panel, trimmed, varnished, and presented in a black wood floater frame. There is no glass to get in the way of enjoying the details of 'Reflections of Yesterday'.

This 12 x 16" artwork was acquired by a collector in Sunderland, ON shortly after completion. A little piece of my heart and soul went with this painting. I consider it to be one of my master works.

Click here to see more details about this painting.

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter to see more of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming exhibitions.

November has been a busy month in my art studio, with the completion of 8 new watercolours (pictured above). My northern lakes series continues and some unique and luscious skies have been introduced, depicting the magical effects of dawn, sunset, twilight, and starlight. I am in heaven, pun intended, and fired up to make more paintings in this dramatic series in larger sizes next month.

In the meantime, I am sharing the stories behind the creation of these artworks.

Shown above is Let the Dream Begin, varnished watercolour on 6 x 12" panel. Warm sunset fades softly into twilight after an early snowfall has blanketed the landscape. The lake is still open but soon it will freeze over to begin its winter slumber. The idea of drifting into peaceful sleep prompted the title.

This piece was inspired by a summertime photo of a Ganaraska sunset (shown below) taken by my friend Tim Thorington and used with his permission.

I decided to switch the season to winter in my painting, which simplified the foreground and let the water shine.

Click here for more information about Let the Dream Begin.

Shown above is Let It Go, varnished watercolour on 6 x 12" panel. I imagined a story to go with this scene. There is a canoe resting on the island, and the paddlers have gone for one last swim before sunset. They had an amazing day on the water and don't want it to end. This feeling is captured in the title.

Shown above is Lapping Waters, watercolour 16 x 20". I painted this scene as a demonstration for a 3-day advanced level workshop I taught in my studio in November 2019. I took some photos during class so I could show you the strategies and steps involved in making this painting.

The photo above is one I took on the beach at Ney's Provincial Park, on the north shore of Lake Superior near Marathon, Ontario and was the reference we used for the painting. I gave my students the option of bringing their own photos of driftwood to make their paintings unique.

As is my usual habit, I used just three tubes of paint to mix all the colours I needed for this scene. I don't always use the same primary colours but in this case I used Antwerp Blue, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and New Gamboge (all by Winsor & Newton) because this brand is easiest for my students to obtain locally.

Because watercolour dries very quickly, I have a small window of time to apply paint before it starts to dry. Since it is easier to paint a small section in 30 seconds than it is to paint a large section in 30 seconds, it is helpful if a scene has distinct sections that can be worked on individually. Conveniently, this scene divides naturally into several horizontal sections and my strategy was to work on one section at a time, starting at the top and working downward. (Sky, deep water, surf, calm water, sand.) 

DAY 1 (plan, sketch, begin painting background)

To begin, I sketched a simple contour drawing on graph paper (shown above). This establishes the horizon, the edges of each section of the scene, the shapes of the foam, and the outer shape of the driftwood.

When completed, I traced this sketch using graphite transfer paper onto a 17" by 21" piece of 300 lb Arches cold press bright white watercolour paper. The finished size of the painting would be 16" by 20".

(Shown above) I wet the sky area and painted the upper blue section and then the purple mist section, being careful to leave some of the mist area white in between the colours.

On dry paper, using a paint brush and a water brush, I painted in the darkest shapes of the waves using a golden brown mixture, softening the edges with clear water as I went along. (This is the complementary colour to the blue water, so will read as a dark blue gray once the transparent blue layer goes over top.)

While that area dried, I used liquid masking fluid (my favourite type is Pebeo Drawing Gum which is pale blue) to protect the white highlights of the surf. This is a temporary coating that preserves the white of the paper and allows me to paint around the protected area quickly and evenly. The close-up photo below shows the blue masking fluid in the surf section.

When the masking was dry, I painted gray on top to represent the shadows in the surf. When that paint was dry, I rubbed off the masking fluid with a crepe eraser, revealing white bits of the foam nestled in gray shadows. I added pale blue shadows to the lower edges of the white bits to give them dimension.

DAY 2 (completing hill and lake sections, beginning the sand)

(Shown above) I mixed a dark gray and painted in a hint of the far hill peeking above the mist. I also added a few purple shadows in the mist to give it some form.

I wet the deep section of the lake with clear water and painted blue and dark blue onto the lake surface. I lifted colour here and there, using a clean damp brush, to look like sunlight on the swells in the water.

(Shown above in detail) Using mixtures of green and blue green, I painted in the near headland. Then I touched a wet water brush to the painted areas, leaving soft blooms in the paint that looked like sunlit tree masses. When the greens were dry, I added some tidbits of tan colour to the shoreline to represent the rocky shore.

While that area dried, I applied liquid masking fluid to protect the white surf and driftwood.

(Shown above) I wet the middle section (the calm water closest to the beach) with clear water and painted in three colours: pale gray under the far surf, tan across the middle, and darker brown along the leading edge of the wave. These colours had to be applied quickly so they could have equal moisture levels that would dry evenly, with no back runs.

Then I wet the front section (the sand) with clear water and painted on the same three colours I used in the middle section, trying to imitate the placement of the colours according to the reference photo. The pale gray went next to the wave, the tan across the middle, and the darker brown in several areas.

(Shown above) Once the paint was fully dry, I re-wet the sand with clear water and painted on a second layer of the same paint mixtures, in the same areas as before, to deepen the colours.

(Shown in detail above) When the sand area was dry, I added the cast shadows below the foam to give it dimension. After that dried, I rubbed off the masking fluid and painted pale gray shadows within the foam, using the reference photo to get the shapes right.

DAY 3 (completing the sand and driftwood)

(Shown above) I painted the first layer of shadows and texture in the driftwood using a mixture of grays and browns. (Shown in detail below.)

(Shown above) After the first layer of paint dried, I added more layers of colour and shadow to the driftwood, paying careful attention to my reference photo.

(Shown above) After the driftwood was fully dry, I painted the shadows cast on the sand. I was careful to make these graded washes rather than flat washes, to imitate how light reflects back into shadowed areas.

Shown above is my finished demonstration painting.

My students were accomplished watercolour painters who worked diligently to recreate this complex scene, and the results are shown above. Each one is a unique interpretation, beautifully done.

My finished painting, titled Lapping Waters, was mounted on a 16 x 20" archival wood panel, then varnished and presented in a black wood floater frame. There is no glass to get in the way of enjoying the details of this scene. I think it successfully represents the stark beauty and warm light of this special place.

For more information about Lapping Waters, click here.

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter to see more of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.

It is remarkable how many memories can be captured in a simple lake scene. I grew up in the Canadian Shield region of Ontario, just east of Algonquin Park. Landscapes filled with clear water, sturdy rocks and wind-sculpted pine trees are ingrained in my soul.

Now that our summer camping trips are in the rear view mirror, it feels great to get back to playing with paint in my studio. Camping season ended at Thanksgiving, and already I have finished six exciting new works in my northern lakes series, pictured above.

I love painting the effect of calm water and the stillness it imparts to the viewer. Many people tell me these paintings remind them of their childhood. Let me give you a tour of my latest paintings and tell you their stories.

Exit Light, Enter Night, 6 x 12" varnished watercolour on panel, shown above, has been a long time in the making. I have lost count of how many attempts I made at capturing the vivid colours of this scene.

My original inspiration was a photo taken by professional photographer James Shedden, who posts his gorgeous photos on Facebook. When I saw his winter photo (shown below) in May of 2019, I felt a visceral connection to the land of my childhood in the Upper Ottawa Valley. I just had to paint this! And James was kind enough to give me permission to use his photo as a painting reference. You can check out his work at SheddenPhotography.com

The difficult aspect of this subject is controlling the placement and intensity of the colours that make up the sky. I had to paint on wet paper to get the soft transitions between colours, but problems occurred when the colours bled too far on the wet paper, and warm oranges mixed with cool blues to create grayed colours. After starting over a few times and running into the same problem, I decided to begin again but with a new strategy: slow down and separate the processes.

I pre-wet the watercolour paper and applied many coats of blue to the upper sky and the snow-covered lake, letting each layer dry overnight before adding the next coat. After several days, the blues reached the intensity I was after. When they were fully dry, I re-wet the middle section and stroked in the pinks and oranges.

I changed some pink areas of the photo references to oranges when I painted them, to emphasize the dramatic contrast of complementary colours blue and orange. It took a few coats over several days to build up rich colour there too. When the sky had dried, I added in the delicate streaks of purple and turquoise above the treeline.

Once the sky had dried thoroughly for a few days, I drew the tree outlines with pencil and then filled in the trees with black watercolour mixed from the primaries. Several coats were needed to achieve an opaque black.

This paint-and-wait process I have described required patience and the ability to delay gratification, but I was very happy with the final result.

The title 'Exit Light, Enter Night' is from the lyrics of one of my favourite Metallica songs and perfectly describes what is happening in the scene.

For more information about Exit Light, Enter Night, click here.

Shown above is Serenity by the Shore, varnished watercolour on 8 x 8" panel, inspired by our camping trip to Lake of the Woods in northwestern Ontario in July. This vast lake contains many scenic bays and islands and the waters are very clear so you can see the bottom of a shallow bay.

These are the two reference photos I used to compose my painting. The transition from blue sky reflected on the water to the sandy brown lake bottom was done in one paint layer on wet paper. This is a risky technique, especially adding in the slight ripple of waves, so I was very pleased to get it right in one go. Once this layer had dried for a few days, I painted in the island, its reflection, and the underwater rocks and crevices.

For more information about Serenity by the Shore, click here.

Shown above is Waiting For Summer, varnished watercolour on 8 x 8" panel. This quiet little scene was inspired by a photo I took decades ago at the Richardson familycottage on Big Cedar Lake, in central Ontario.

When I look at this scene, I almost can hear the echoes of summers past, when kids swam around and dove from the home-built raft. I love the feeling that mist softly imparts; there is a gentleness, but also a sense of mystery, inviting the viewer to add personal reminiscences of cottage life.

For more details about Waiting For Summer, click here.

Pictured above is Heading For Home, varnished watercolour on 10 x 10" panel. This painting began as a doodle in my sketchbook (shown below), during our camping trip to Lake of the Woods. This was drawn entirely from my imagination.

When planning the colour scheme for the painting, I wanted to try some complementary sunset hues. I found a photo of a random sunset in my archives and the unusual colour combination of turquoise and peach caught my eye. I added the canoe and paddlers in the distance to imply the end of a fabulous, strenuous day spent exploring the wonders of Nature, when it is time to return home before dark.

To see more information about Heading For Home, click here.

Shown above is Misty Blues, varnished watercolour on 8 x 8" panel. This foggy Lake Superior scene was inspired by a photo taken by my Facebook friend Ellen VanLaar. Last May, she posted the photo shown below of a foggy morning at Coppermine Point, which is near her home between Pancake Bay and Lake Superior Provincial Park. Ellen graciously gave me permission to use her photo as a painting reference.

I so enjoyed painting the 8 x 8" version of the scene that I made a second version in a rectangular format in a larger size. This became Blue Becomes You, varnished watercolour on 12 x 16" panel, shown below.

For more information about Blue Becomes You, click here.

As our weather gradually cools, and more days are spent indoors than out, I look forward to creating more new paintings and sharing with you the stories behind them.

Which painting is your favourite? If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter if you wish to see more painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming exhibitions.

Usually I paint from my own reference photos gathered during our camping journeys, but today I am showing my process of creating a watercolour from photos taken by other people.

Shown above is 'Discovery Awaits', watercolour on panel (no glass) 10 x 10". This was inspired by a photo, taken by my long time friend and former co-worker Tim Thorington, of Rock Lake in Algonquin Park. Tim is an avid, accomplished photographer who shares his work with the world via Facebook, and when I saw this photo below, I knew it would translate into a fine painting.

I loved the curving shoreline that invites the viewer into the scene, the unusual cloud patterns, the warm and cool colour scheme, the rocks, the pine trees and the autumn colours in the far hills. I messaged my buddy Tim and he kindly replied with his consent for me to copy his photo and sell my painting.

Many hobby painters don't realize that all photography has an automatic copyright, meaning only the photographer has the right to sell any copies of his or her photo. Painters can copy any photo they wish to, for practice or for pleasure, but if the painter wants to sell the resulting painting (or any reproductions of that painting), international copyright law says the painter must obtain written permission from the original photographer.

As with all my paintings, before I started to paint, I made some colour tests (shown above) to help me choose which primary paint colours to use to make this scene. I decided on MaimeriBlu paints Primary Yellow, Primary Red, and Primary Blue. These three combine to make all the land and foliage colours in  the scene (see the bottom row of paint swatches), but I knew I would need to mix in a second blue to produce the soft sky and lake colours, so I included Cobalt Blue Deep.

The next step was to gather a few more reference photos, cut my Arches 300 lb bright white cold press watercolour paper about 1" larger in length and width than the finished painting, and tape it to a back board (shown below). The pine tree reference photo was my own, and another good friend supplied the canoe reference photo with permission to use it.

On the watercolour paper, I penciled in the major lines of the composition and used liquid masking fluid to temporarily waterproof a few details such as the canoe and logs on the beach. This masking preserves the white of the paper until after the sand is painted.

Then I began with the most risky part of the painting - wetting the sky area with clear water and brushing in the cloud patterns using a mixture of Cobalt Blue Deep with a bit of Primary Blue. The tricky part is matching the moisture level on the wet paper to the thickness of the paint, so the blue/gray transitions are gradual and the blue doesn't bleed too far. I was thrilled when the sky turned out so well. Then I wet the lake area and brushed in the same paint mixture, being sure to leave areas of highlight to make the water appear to glow.

I let the sky and water dry for an hour and went on to paint the first layers on the beach, rocks, and deciduous trees, (shown above) and completed the far shore by dabbing in a careful arrangement of foliage colours, using the photo as reference. These colours are slightly more muted (grayed) than the foreground foliage will be, to give the appearance of atmospheric distance.

After another half hour of drying, I deepened the colours on the beach and painted the pine tree foliage and then their trunks and branches (shown above).

The next day (shown below), I added yellow and orange areas to the deciduous tree on the right, shadows and twigs to the pine trees, shadows on the rocks, and texture to the foreground beach. I removed the masking fluid from the canoe and pieces of wood on the beach and painted them, adding shadows at the end. I decided the far shore was still too bright, so I glazed over it with a diluted neutral (grayish tan) mixture to subdue the colours slightly. Perfect.

I feel many elements of this painting turned out exactly right: the curving line of the beach that beckons the viewer into the scene, the glow of light on the water, the unusual cloud patterns that lead the eye to the sculpted pine trees, the warm and inviting colour scheme, and the canoe which adds a storytelling element. I love the  sense of place in this painting and feel like I could step into the scene. I grew up just east of Algonquin Park, and have happy memories of time spent on sandy beaches like this one, swimming, canoeing, listening to the wind in the trees and enjoying the peace of nature.

The completed painting is mounted on an archival wood panel, trimmed, varnished, and presented in a black wood floater frame. There is no glass to get in the way of enjoying the details of 'Discovery Awaits'.

Click here to see more details about this painting.

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter to see more of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming exhibitions.

Since I paint in a realistic style, I use photographs as references for my watercolour scenes, so I can get the details right and make viewers feel like they could walk right into my paintings.

Although I occasionally use a photo taken by another photographer (with written permission as dictated by international copyright laws), the overwhelming majority of my painting references are my own photos.

The autumn scene pictured above, 'One Shining Moment', watercolour on panel (no glass) 14 x 22" was inspired by a photo I took while visiting our friends' cottage near Haliburton, Ontario.

The view from their shore is lovely in all seasons, looking out over the lake to a series of forested hills.This lake has inspired a handful of watercolour paintings over the years, including 'Winter Interrupted' (2001) 12 x 21", shown below.

Here is another watercolour shown below, 'Jennifer's Winter Wonderland' (2007) 10 x 7".

During another visit to this lake in September 2012, I managed to catch a moment of autumn sunlight highlighting the shoreline trees in the photo below. This 'spotlighting' effect creates a dramatic focal point, emphasized by diagonal lines of the treed slopes as well as dark shadows in behind, and underscored by gentle lake ripples from a faint breeze.

Lighting makes the difference between a great photo and an ordinary one. Below is another shot taken at a different time that day. While lovely, it has no strong focal point. No single element grabs the viewer and says "Look at me! I'm magnificent!".

For the last 8 years, the sunlit photo with the strong focal point has lingered in my vast photo reference collection, too daunting to try to capture in watercolour. Finally this spring I had time to tackle a major work, so I took the plunge and developed a large watercolour based on my autumn lake photo.

As I suspected, the sheer scale of the painting and the technical difficulties of masses of tree foliage and blurred reflections would make this a very difficult and time-consuming project. But I kept my nose to the grindstone for 3 weeks, working layer by layer with lots of patience, and prevailed.

I added a tiny red canoe to the sheltered little beach to give a sense of scale to the forest and to help viewers insert their own stories and memories into this scene.

Fortunately I had the foresight to take photos of each stage of this challenging painting as I worked. From these work-in-progress photos, I assembled a short time lapse video, so you can see the flow of this piece to its completion.

Click on the image below to view the 3-minute story:

I am very pleased with how this major work turned out. I feel like it is beckoning me to enter the scene and spend a perfect day exploring the mysteries of this beautiful northern lake. I hope you feel the same pull to become part of this magical place.

For more details about this painting, click here.

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter to see more of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.

Northern lakes are the places in nature that heal the stress of my busy life, calm my mind, and restore my equilibrium. I love them beyond measure and cannot imagine a life that does not offer frequent immersion in these glorious landscapes throughout the year.

I pour my authentic soul into each and every painting I create of remarkable natural places. My hope is that you, the viewer, find a soothing resonance within your own true self when you gaze upon my artwork.

Every winter I enjoy several months of dedicated studio time. This post tells the creation stories of my latest northern lake paintings, all of which are small in size but abundant in optimism and joy.

Shown above is A Piece of Heaven, watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12".

This piece was inspired by two photos taken years ago. I forget the locations but I think they were somewhere in Ontario. One was an early autumn photo and the other was was taken in summer, but they joined together to make an interesting composition (shown below).

I particularly liked the tiny sailboat near the island, and the faint reflections of the dark trees on choppy water. I decided to make my painting a later autumn scene. How lovely it would be to spend a breezy day sailing between the islands of this glorious place.

Click here for more details about A Piece of Heaven.

Shown above is Out of the Blue, watercolour on panel (no glass) 12 x 9". This piece is entirely from my imagination, based on years of visiting beautiful northern lakes and absorbing their peace and serenity.

I painted the sky and water first, building up a half dozen layers over the course of a week to get the depth of colour I needed. When that was fully dry I penciled in the island and two canoeists, then painted them. They are enjoying a peaceful paddle around the island, before the sun dissolves the early morning mist.

Click here for more details about Out of the Blue.

Shown above is Autumn Dream, watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12". It is another piece painted entirely from my imagination. Originally it was a square 12 x 12" work in progress, but I overworked the reflections and decided to crop them out of the painting. I think this stretched format makes a stronger statement.

I especially love the clear autumn colours and variety of trees on the island, and the misty shores in the background. I included a canoe in the scene to add to the story. Someone is exploring this wee island. Maybe they camped here last night and are preparing for another glorious day on the lake.

Click here to see more details about Autumn Dream.

Shown above is Autumn Adventure, watercolour on panel (no glass) 8 x 8". I took the reference photo (pictured below) a few years ago on an ATV excursion in the Haliburton region of central Ontario.

It was easy to translate this photo into a square format. I changed the overcast day into a sunny one in my painting. I included the overhanging leaves to enhance the sense of shelter and protection. The viewer is exploring on a fine autumn day, peeking out from a tree-covered shoreline to discover this wee gem of an island. Let's hop in a kayak or canoe and paddle over there.

Click here for more details about Autumn Adventure.

Shown above is When All is Calm, watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12". This scene was inspired by two photos I took somewhere in Ontario years ago (shown below).

I employed considerable artistic license when creating this painting. It captures a moment of serene calm - that rare early autumn day when the lake is like glass. We all could use some of this peace and solace these days.

Click here for more details about When All is Calm.

Shown above is The Golden Hour, watercolour on panel (no glass) 10 x 10". This is one of those paintings that started off as one thing and morphed into something completely different. It was like the painting knew what it wanted to be and nudged my brush strokes in that direction.

The original idea was inspired by two saltwater sunset photos (shown below) that I took near Twillingate when we visited Newfoundland last summer. I liked the golden tones in the first photo and planned to add the moored sailboat from the second photo. The story would involve sailors anchored for the night in a sheltered bay.

I decided on a square format and started painting the sky and its reflection. It took many layers over the course of a week to build up rich colour and contrast between the glow of the sun and the shadows surrounding it. Shown below are 3 stages of this layering process.

The resulting bronze colour scheme was not the original coppery hue from the photo reference, and the highlights were more globular than streaky, but I really liked the soft, soothing mood that was emerging. I looked through my photo archives for a new water scene reference and found the perfect one (shown below).

I took this early morning photo decades ago at the old Richardson family cottage on Big Cedar Lake in central Ontario. I used the iconic raft and far shore as references to complete my painting and the story became a quiet moment in cottage country.

Click here for more details about The Golden Hour.

I hope you have enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at my latest creations, and a glimpse into how I translate photos from my travels into unique artistic expressions. My hope is that my artwork will welcome viewers like old friends, and draw them into the narrative deeply embedded in each painting.

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter if you wish to see more painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions

Shown above are the three watercolours I completed last month. They form an eclectic group, with each painting having been inspired by a different journey. The trait they share is that I have wanted to paint these subjects for a while, sometimes years, and I finally got around to it this winter.

The smallest painting, 'Frozen Two', watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12" is shown above and pictures an ice falls that forms each year near Lake St. Peter, ON. I photographed the icy cliff while snowmobiling several decades ago (photo shown below) and always thought this scene would make a dramatic painting subject.

I am drawn to the contrast of dark brown rock and light blue icicles, so I enhanced this colour scheme and value contrast in the painting. I added the deer to the picture to give a sense of scale and a spark of life. Shown below is me in my studio working on this piece.

Disney's latest cinema blockbuster, Frozen II was playing in theatres during the time I was creating this watercolour. I couldn't resist the play on words when I was searching for a title for this sweet little painting.

Click here for more information about Frozen Two.

My next two pieces are from trips to the East Coast of Canada. 'Reflections of Yesterday', watercolour on panel (no glass) 12 x 16", is shown below.

In the spring of 2017, my husband and I and several friends explored New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island for two months in our travel trailers. I posted three stories showing the highlights of this fantastic trip ('Perfect Prince Edward Island', 'Camping in Beautiful Nova Scotia', and 'Top 5 Must-Have's for Travel Fun').

While exploring the quaint seaside village of Victoria in PEI, I photographed this colourful, weathered shed window from five different angles. The two views shown below are the ones I chose as painting references.

I liked the colours in the red window trim better in the left hand photo, but I preferred the reflection of the jellybean house in the right hand photo. One of the advantages of being a painter is that I can 'mix-and-match' my references.

Every inch of this painting was pure joy to create, from the cracks in the wood shingles, to the flaking red paint of the trim, to the distorted reflections in the old window glass. I am trying a new brand of watercolour paints this winter. They are made by Sennelier in France and I am very impressed with their clarity and strength of colour. The three pigments I chose (Sennelier Red, Sennelier Yellow Deep, and Phthalocyanine Blue) worked perfectly for this piece.

Click here for more information about Reflections of Yesterday.

The next new painting, 'Yesterday's Dreams', watercolour on panel (no glass) 14 x 11", is shown above. I used the same three paints to create all the colour mixtures for this scene.

Last summer, by husband and I spent three months touring the island of Newfoundland in our travel trailer. You can read about key adventures and see highlights of the trip in these posts: 'Icebergs of Newfoundland', 'Top 14 Vistas of Newfoundland', 'A Whale of a Tale in Newfoundland', and 'Seeing Caribou and Moose in Newfoundland'.

While exploring the back roads of the Bonavista peninsula in northern Newfoundland, we came across this gas pump on its concrete pad, smack in the middle of a field of grass, in the tiny settlement known as Red Cliff (photo below)

The price on the pump was 75 cents a gallon, so it probably made its last sale in the 1970’s, before the metric system was adopted in Canada. Any surrounding buildings were long gone. On the shore beyond, a row of houses and fishing sheds had succumbed to wind and rain. I could imagine a story here about the folk who lived and worked in this beautiful place. I knew this would make a fine painting subject.

The grass was finicky to paint, using many layers of masking fluid and paint to achieve the effect of individual blades of grass. The rusty gas pump was an absolute joy to portray in watercolour. I used a magnifying glass and super fine Micron pens with archival ink to do the lettering on the pump.

Click here for more information (including a close-up photo) about Yesterday's Dreams.

The final new painting to show you today is a commissioned piece titled 'Summer Constellations' watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12". The client had seen an earlier painting I did of this scene, fell in love with it, but was disappointed when it was acquired by another client. The problem was solved by my painting a similar version. The first painting, 'Evening Constellations', (2018) shown below, was the same size.

For more information about Summer Constellations, click here.

That wraps up my latest creations. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into how I translate photos from my travels into unique artistic expressions. My hope is that my artwork will welcome viewers like old friends, and draw them into the narrative behind the art. Stay tuned to see what old friends February brings!

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter if you wish to see more painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions

Shown above is 'Whispering Waters' watercolour on panel (no glass), one in a series depicting islands in northern lakes. Everything in this 24 x 18" painting is inspired by my imagination assisted by general reference photos from trips throughout northern Ontario, except for the green cedar-strip canoe, which is shown below in a close-up photo of the painting.

This 16-foot canoe was made by First Nations (Huron) in Wendake, Quebec for Simpsons-Sears. My husband bought it in their store in 1963 and we still own this fine craft. I painted it from life.

Shown above is a close-up photo of the island in the painting. I am thrilled with the mist in the background, which contrasts perfectly with the dark hues of the island and adds a sense of mystery to the scene. The complex reflections were very challenging but turned out even better than I had hoped.

The photo sequence below shows the painting in stages as I created this scene.

Step 1 (above) I drew the outline of island, canoe and rocks in pencil on 300-lb cold press bright white Arches watercolour paper. Then I masked the edges of the rocky point of land with masking tape, wet the rest of the paper with clear water, and painted on several mixtures of Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue Deep and Primary Blue. I used sweeping horizontal strokes with a large brush, to simulate gentle ripples in the water. I used the same blue mixtures for the sky.

Step 2 (above) I added two more layers of blue to the water to get the deep colour I wanted, with a full day of drying in between layers, to minimize lifting of older layers when the new layers were applied. Then I removed the masking tape and painted the first layer of greens on the island trees.

Step 3 (above) I painted more layers onto the island trees and created their reflections, making sure to place them in the lighter sections of the ripples. All colours in this painting were mixed from the three blues mentioned previously, plus Permanent Yellow Lemon and Primary Red. These paints are all made by Maimeri in Italy and I love the rich, clean colours of these artist quality paints.

Step 4 (above) I mixed a neutral gray from three primary colours and painted the far shore on dry paper, adding clear water along the lower edge to look like fog. Once the paper was dry, I painted the straight blue reflection of the sky at the water level of the island. After that dried, I painted the rocks on the island.

Step 5 (above) Using masking fluid, I protected the gunwales of the canoe and the paddle on shore. Then I painted three separate layers to create the foreground point. The first was a grisaille (grayish) layer to set up the shadows while I could still see my pencil lines clearly. When that was dry, I wet the whole shore area and painted on several brownish mixtures and sprinkled on salt to create texture in the wash. When that dried I removed the salt and intensified the shadows.

Step 6 (above) I painted the canoe exterior and interior, removed the masking, and painted the gunwales and paddle.

Step 7 (above) I darkened the shadows throughout the painting to finish 'Whispering Waters' 24 x 18".

Mounting and Framing: Once the paint was fully dry, I mounted the watercolour paper to an archival wood panel, then varnished to provide protection from UV fading, then mounted the panel in a black wood floater frame (shown above).

I am very pleased with how this major work turned out. I feel like it is beckoning me to step into the scene, pick up the paddles, launch the canoe, and spend the day exploring the mysteries of this beautiful northern lake. I hope you feel the same pull to become part of this magical place.

For more details about this painting, click here.

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter to see more of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.