Every now and then, I find myself in complete awe of a painting I have finished. Somehow, my creation is greater than the sum of its parts. It simply makes my spirit soar. I am drawn to step into that scene and breathe in the scent of pine trees on the gentle breeze, or pick up a special stone, a relic entrusted to us by antiquity, and feel its smooth solidity in my hand.

My latest beach scene from Lake Superior, 'Listen to the Lake', has had this effect on me. My gaze is captured by luminous waves and I can hear the lapping water of that peaceful shore. I love the punch of colour provided by the lime-green lichen on the large boulder, and the way the distant headlands fade into the mist. I want to be in this special place.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to take a photo of each stage of this watercolour painting as I created it, allowing me to produce a 90-second video of the making of 'Listen to the Lake':

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

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I grew up in the Canadian Shield region of Canada, just east of Algonquin Park. The northern Ontario landscape of my childhood - lakes, rivers, pine trees, sand, and rock - remains vividly in my mind to this day. The majority of my paintings contain one or more of these landscape elements.

The last few summers, my husband and I visited with long-time friends at their cottage on Stoney Lake in central Ontario. The above photo of me was taken on their boat when we were cruising the lake.

I have taken many beautiful photographs of the scenery on Stoney, which looks similar in many ways to the region in which I spent my childhood. The photo below is the view from our friends' dock.

I decided this would be a great reference photo for a six-week advanced watercolour class I taught at Meta4 Gallery in Port Perry last fall. The scene had interesting reflections, rocks, mosses, lily pads, and tree trunks.

Here are some photos of my students at work on their paintings.

Below are photographs of my demonstration painting, showing how it progressed. The lower half is already finished. I used a new and unusual method for painting the reflections on the water, and became so engrossed in the process that I forgot to pause and take photos in those earlier stages. 

In the first photo (above), the base layer has been applied to the rocks, moss, and forest greenery. Salt was sprinkled on the stone and moss while the paint was wet, to create a textured effect. When dry, the salt was brushed off.

In the second photo (above), the upper left quadrant has the second layer done. I used two-brush technique, (one brush loaded with paint and the second brush loaded with water), working on dry paper. This allows control of the paint flow to a minute degree.

In the third photo (above), the second layer of paint has been applied to the upper right quadrant. The painting is about 95% finished at this point. The remaining steps are to go over the whole painting, adding more dark shadows into the forest background, and adding more texture to rocks and moss using a dry-brush technique.

The photo above shows me and my students with our finished paintings. Everyone did an amazing job and enjoyed learning some new techniques. No two paintings looked alike, even though we used the same reference photo.

Here is a photo of the finished painting in its frame. Northern Reflections, watercolour, 16 x 20". I am very pleased with the way it turned out. When I look at my painting, I feel like I am back in a little piece of heaven on a northern lake. Click here for more details about this piece.

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

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At the end of last year, I took some time to catch up on paperwork in my studio office, finish some framing, and do a general studio tidy-up. Once that was done, everything looked so uncluttered and clean I took some photos to show you what a working artist's studio looks like. I also want to share with you some key features that make my creative space both comfortable and efficient. Welcome to your personal virtual studio tour!

When you come down the stairs to enter my studio, you see the panorama shown above. It is an L-shaped space, with my creative area on the left and my gallery and teaching space on the right.

Our home is a bungalow with 8' ceilings on both levels. In the lower level, large above-ground windows face west and north, to fill the space with light so it doesn't feel like a basement. We added four 2' x 4' LED ceiling light fixtures that greatly enhance the natural illumination.

The photo above shows my studio office. The desk and black file cabinet on the right house my computer and day-to-day office files and reference binders. On top are white photo storage boxes containing reference photos I have taken, sorted by subject matter and season. I take thousands of photos but just print the ones I think I may use as painting reference some day.

The white bookcase on the left mainly holds my collection of painting technique reference books, plus office stationary. The glass doors keep the dust out and make it easy to find what I'm looking for. The window in the middle is the one on which my wild turkey visitor knocked last month.

The photo above shows my office and creative space. On the left is my trusty collapsible print rack that I take to art shows as well as use in the studio, to display my giclee prints and matted paintings. The small bookshelf in front displays Watercolour Toolbox, the art instruction book I wrote. On top of the desk hutch is the satellite radio receiver that supplies whatever genre of music I choose, to keep me company as I work. Mostly I listen to soft rock or quiet jazz.

On the back wall is the tiny gas fireplace we added to this space, to make it cosy in cooler weather. I have it on all day, every day in winter. To the right of that, under the north window, is the drafting table where I do most of my painting. The working surface is 3' x 4', large enough for a full sheet of watercolour paper plus reference photos displayed to the sides.

In front of that is a desk credenza just over 5' long, that is very handy for assembling frames or doing any job needing a large horizontal surface. When one of my painting buddies comes here, she works at this desk while I paint at the drafting table.

To the right of my drafting table is an Ikea cabinet I bought over 30 years ago. It primarily stores unused framing materials, painting supports, paint palettes, paint tubes, and rags. The photo above shows it with the doors open. The adjustable shelves are 24" x 30", so this cabinet stores a lot of stuff.

Continuing around my creative space to the right, I have a black flat file cabinet that holds an astounding amount of watercolour paper, paintings in progress, brushes and other art supplies, office supplies, giclee prints, art card supplies, and archival bags. I bought this used metal cabinet from one of my framing suppliers when they no longer needed it, and I had it repainted at an automotive paint shop. Each of the ten drawers is 2' x 3' inside, so that is 60 square feet of horizontal storage in total. I love the efficiency of this cabinet! 

Around the corner to the right is my painting display space. I have professional grade wall hooks spaced 24" apart horizontally, with a second row 20" below the top row. This layout fits most sizes of finished paintings, without having to move hooks, although some of the larger pieces may cover two hooks.

My display space shown above consists of three walls, one 10 feet wide, one 12 feet wide, and one 8 feet wide. There is a short hallway to the right with display walls 2 feet and 6 feet wide. This gives me a total of 38 linear feet of gallery space. This is also the room I use for teaching my watercolour workshops. I teach up to five students at a time, and we each work on a 2' x 4' portable table. The photo below shows a typical class (and a different display of paintings).

No art studio or teaching space would be complete without a bathroom. In the photo below, you can see the bathroom we added on this level when we renovated. I also display a couple of finished paintings in there.

This completes the tour of the public area of my studio practice. The photos below show more studio storage and equipment that is in our furnace room and not accessible to the public (except on this virtual visit).

Shown above is my wonderful automotive storage rack. Each shelf is capable of supporting up to 500 lbs. This rack stores my painting transport boxes, shipping materials, business records, bulk storage of Watercolour Toolbox books, art show lighting equipment, framing materials, as well as some household items. Those 13 binders on the right are scrapbooks that document my entire art career to date (paintings, awards, shows, etc.). All this on a bit of floor measuring 2' x 6'.

Below, also in the furnace room, is my mat- and cardboard-cutting table. The slots underneath store mat board, and painting transport boxes, bags, and portfolios. The drawers hold my framing hardware, tools, and equipment.

I hope you have enjoyed your personal virtual art studio tour. I hope to see you in person in my studio at some point in the future.Visitors are welcome by appointment, or during an Open Studio event.

If you have any ideas, questions, or comments 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 learn more about the life of a professional artist, travel tales, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions. 

Last year I instructed a six-week watercolour class at Meta4 Gallery in Port Perry, for intermediate level students (meaning they have extensive watercolour experience). I chose this winter scene of a big rock and a fir tree because it would provide an opportunity to work with several different painting techniques, and I love to paint rocks in any setting. My finished 16 x 12" demonstration painting is shown above.

This is the graduation photo from our class. You can see all the students worked hard and did a great job on their paintings. Each piece looked different than the rest, which is always the case in my classes. I encourage students to make their own way when developing their compositions, such as in choice of paint mixtures, or in the amount of detail they want to achieve.

The reference photo above was one I took many years ago on a snowmobile trip in northern Ontario. I liked the composition, but would have to use some imagination to make the flat lighting more interesting and to simplify the background.

Step #1 (above) Drawing / Snow Shadows

I began by sketching the scene on layout paper, making all corrections before tracing my drawing onto Arches 300 lb. cold pressed bright white watercolour paper. Then I decided the best angle for 'invented' sunshine would be from the upper right.

As with all my paintings, I used a limited palette of paint colours for this scene. With just yellow (New Gamboge), blue (French Ultramarine), and dark brown (Burnt Umber) I mixed all the colours needed for this scene. I wet all the snow area with clear water, and brushed on a watery blue mixture everywhere the imagined sunlight would not fall, to give the effect of snow shadows. The sunlit snow was just the clean white of the paper.

Step #2 (Above) Masking / Base Layer on Forest and Fir Tree

Once the snow shadows were dry, I applied masking fluid to the trunks of the birch trees, to make sure they stayed white while I painted the scene around them. This masking layer will be removed near the end of the painting process, just prior to painting the birch trunks.

While the masking dried, I mixed up a bright green and a medium green, using different combinations of blue and yellow. I wet the entire background above the snow line and dropped in bright green where the imagined sunlight would fall. Then I added sections of medium green where shadows or coniferous trees would be. I made sure to leave space for the sky, into which I placed a few strokes of blue to give a soft cloud effect.

While the background dried, I mixed up a dark brownish green for the foreground tree shadows, using all three colours. For my main subjects, I often paint the shadows first, let them dry, and then paint the actual colours of the subject over top. This sequencing allows me to place my shadows accurately, while I can clearly see my pencil lines. If I paint the subject colours first, they can obliterate my pencil lines, and my shadow shapes then require some guess work.

Step #2 Detail (Above) Negative Painting on Fir Tree

I painted the fir tree shadows onto dry paper, using a negative-painting-with-two-brushes technique. One round brush held the paint and the other round brush held clear water. Working on dry paper, I applied the paint above the highlight shapes of each needle cluster, and then placed clear water immediately above, but just touching, the painted section. The areas of wet paint and water flowed together slightly, creating a soft transition. It takes a lot of practice to judge the amount of fluid needed to create this effect, which is why this subject was a great learning experience.

Step #3 Second Layer on Forest and Fir Tree

Once the fir tree shadows had dried, I erased the masking layer from the birch trunks. Then I painted the entire fir tree with a couple of green mixtures, making sure to keep the lighter ones on the upper right, the sunlit side of the tree. Since watercolour is a transparent medium, the shadow layer showed through the second layer.

When the fir tree was dry, I painted the birch trunks with whispers of pale blue and pale brown paint on the left halves of the trunks, and clear water on the right halves, to give a cylindrical effect. I painted the branches and tree trunks in the forest with a dark brown mixture, making sure to lighten the colour on the right and upper sides by adding some water.

Step #4 Completing the Forest / Painting the Rock

I added some negative painting effects to the forest shrubbery and tree masses, using a dark green mixture. This gave the effect of sunlight falling on the forest and made it more three dimensional than in the reference photo. Once dry, and to finish the forest, I added more twigs and small branches, and dark scars on the birch trunks, using my rigger brush and calligraphy pen.

Getting ready to paint the first layer on the rock, I masked out the dried leaf shapes and blobs of snow underneath the fir tree. When that had dried, I used a rigger brush with dark gray-brown paint to create the dark cracks in the rock and the shadows between the dried leaves. Once dry, I used my two-brush technique with the same paint to create the softer shadows on the underside of the rock. Then I let the paint dry fully.

For the colour layer on the rock, I made pale mixtures of gray-blue and gray-brown. I wet the entire rock with clear water, brushed in the two colours using the reference photo as a placement guide, then sprinkled on table salt and left the painting to dry over night. Then the salt was rubbed off, leaving a pale patch in the colour where each salt crystal had been.

I removed the masking fluid and painted the leaves and snow beneath the tree. I added some tiny twigs in the snow here and there to complete Snow and Stone, watercolour 16 x 12". Click here for more photos and details of the finished painting. I thought it turned out incredibly well. What do you think? Please share your comments by using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. Thank you.

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In my previous post, I told the story of our camping trip to Lake Superior this summer. Although I am in the midst of teaching watercolour techniques to over 50 students this fall, I have carved out some private painting time in my studio, inspired by my Lake Superior trip photos.

The painting above, Clarity (watercolour, 28 x 11"), was the first major work inspired by this trip. I used several experimental techniques and am excited with the result. The scene depicts a view from the coastal trail near Rossport, on the north shore of Lake Superior. The water is so clear, it becomes almost impossible to tell if rocks are above or below the surface. I'll let you decide.

I made a short time lapse video, showing how this painting grew from start to finish. Click on the arrow below to view:

Click here to see more information about Clarity.

For my second Lake Superior painting, Time to Head South (watercolour 16 x 20") shown below, I was able to combine the activities of teaching and producing a major piece of artwork. I began by drawing the two Monarch butterflies and the autumn leaf in pencil on my watercolour paper. Then I drew in the stone shapes as a background.

During three of my one-day Pebbles 1-2-3 beginner workshops, I used this composition as my demonstration painting. I shaded and coloured the stones, working around the butterfly and leaf shapes. I used my Lake Superior trip photos as inspiration for the specific stone markings.

As with all of my paintings, every colour in the painting was mixed from primary red, blue, and yellow paints. Once the background was finished, after the third workshop, I painted the Monarchs and leaf.

The title, Time to Head South, refers to the annual fall migration of Monarchs, to their winter habitat in the mountains of Mexico. I hope we see lots of their descendants here in Ontario next summer.

Click here to see more information about Time to Head South.

These paintings are just the beginning of my Superior collection. I look forward to sharing more of them with you.

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This spring, I taught a 3-day Hollyhock and Stone watercolour class, for intermediate and advanced students. We each chose different reference photos and painted different blossom colours. I chose a pink and burgundy mix (shown above) for my demonstration painting, with a finished size of 16 x 12".

We began by drawing our composition on layout paper (using proportional squares to enlarge the photo image), then tracing that drawing onto our 300 lb watercolour paper using graphite transfer paper. Then we masked out the fine veins inside the flowers with masking fluid to preserve the white paper.

For my paints, I wanted to evaluate a new (to me) brand of watercolour paint - Schmincke, which is made in Germany. I chose Helio Blue Reddish, Permanent Carmine, and Gamboge Gum Modern as my three primary colours, and mixed all of the painting colours from these three. I loved the smoothness of this brand, and look forward to doing more paintings with my Schmincke paints.

I find the most successful method for painting plant life is to work up the shadows in gradual layers, and adding a coat of brighter overall colour at the end. When the first shadow layer is dry, the next layer adds deeper colour, just in the darker shadow areas. The photo above shows the flowers after three layers and the green buds and stems after two layers.

In the photo above, I have added one more shadow layer on the green buds and stems, followed by a bright green glaze over all the green parts. When this was dry, I painted the cement mortar of the stone wall with a two-tone tan.

In the photo above, my students are pictured in my studio, working on their hollyhock compositions. My demonstration painting is at the bottom, and you can see several of my favourite #12 round sable/synthetic brushes beside my painting.

Once the mortar sections had dried, I wet each building stone, dropped in two paint colours, and then sprinkled on salt to produce a mineral effect. I used a cool neutral mix (blue-gray), and a warm neutral mix (brown-gray). Once this was fully dry, I brushed off the salt. Then, using a dark gray mixture, I added some shadowy cracks between the mortar sections, and some subtle shadows to make the mortar look less flat.

In the photo above, I have added shadows across the faces of the stones, using a charcoal gray-black (mixed from the primaries), and added more shadow details to the mortar. I removed the masking fluid from the petals and washed over them with a pale watery pink to change the veins from white to pale pink.

We're on the home stretch now. I deepened the burgundy colours around the centre of the main flower and added some soft shadows to the upper petals. I added a soft blue wash over some of the stones to create a greater variety of stone colours. I added a very watery blue glaze over the mortar to make it less dominant.

This completed painting Hollyhock and Stone, watercolour 16 x 12",  will be on display at my solo exhibition at The Shipyards in Gravenhurst from July 28 to August 11, 2017.

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Recently, I completed this 16 x 12" watercolour titled 'Moongazer' (above). It is an imaginary scene, based on these three reference photos (below). The trees and water are from our travels along the north shore of Lake Superior, and the full moon was seen from my house. The sketched watercolour paper is shown beside the photos.

The second photo above shows the painting after two layers of sky colours. I didn't like the way the colours were granulating, and I thought the moon should be higher and smaller, so I turned my watercolour paper over and started afresh with new colours.

Here is the new painting above, with the tree and moon covered in yellow masking fluid, and the first sky layer on.

This painting was slow to complete, as I had to let each sky layer dry at least 24 hours before applying the next layer. Shown above is the finished sky after six layers. The masking fluid has been removed from the tree, revealing the white paper.

In the photo above, the first paint layer has been applied to the tree foliage and two layers have been painted on the tree bark. I left some paper bare at the top of each foliage mass, to give the effect of moonlight shining there.

In this last photo, the tree has received three paint layers. Then I painted the distant hills and lake and let that dry. Finally, I painted the foreground forest in one layer.

This painting has an atmospheric mood that really captivates viewers. I am delighted that it found it's new owner even before I had it mounted and framed.

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I completed this painting, February Flow, 18 x 24", just before Christmas and I have to say, I am enthralled with it. I don't know if my reasons are just sentimental (the scene is about ten miles from where I grew up), or if they are objective, but I feel like I captured something very special in this piece.

It has a Zen-like quality and looks deceptively simple. The painting is full of contrasts such as light/dark, still/moving, fragile/strong, simple/complex, quiet/noisy, and frozen/liquid. The complementary colour scheme of cool blues and warm browns is a favourite of mine.

Let me share with you some of the earlier stages of this remarkable painting.

I found the subject matter quite by accident. It started with this view of the Petawawa River, near its confluence with the Ottawa River (shown below).

We were there on a snowmobile trip with friends last February, and stopped briefly on the trail so I could take some photos. The sun was shining on my camera's digital display, and I had my helmet on, so I couldn't see what I was photographing exactly. I just pointed the camera at the river and took the shot. It wasn't until I reviewed my photos at home after the trip, that I noticed the lower left part of the scene. Here it is enlarged (shown below).

I knew it would be a great painting subject, and finally last month I got to it. I decided on a fairly large format (18 x 24") to do justice to this scene.

After I drew a detailed sketch onto my watercolour paper, I masked out the sapling and painted in the first shadow layer on the snow, working on wet paper (shown below).

The next day, I re-wet the snow area with clear water and added a second layer to the snow shadows (shown below).

The next day, I started painting the river. This was the difficult part of the process. I followed my reference photo very carefully, to recreate the shapes and values (lights and darks) so it would look like rapids. Here, the river is about half way complete (shown below).

And here is the stage where the river is pretty well finished. I removed the masking fluid and painted the ice on the sapling (below).

The next day, once the paper was fully dry, I tweaked a few shadows here and there, and darkened some sections of the river to complete the painting (shown below).

I titled the painting 'February Flow' because I am becoming more aware of how truly precious our fresh water is, how lucky Canadians are to have an abundant flow of clean water in our rivers and lakes, and how important it is that we protect our fresh water resources for future generations.

If you would like to see some framed views of this piece, click here for more details.

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For the first time, last fall I taught a watercolour class with birds as the subject. I discovered they are fairly easy to paint if one has a well-composed, sharply focused reference photo.

Here are the steps in the painting:

Step 1: (see photo below) I demonstrated the classical method of enlarging the image, using proportional grid lines. Looking at one square at a time on the reference photo, I drew the subject onto the layout paper in the corresponding square, drawing everything twice as wide and twice as tall as in the original photo.

Step 2: (see photo below) Once the drawing looked correct, I traced it onto 300 lb cold press watercolour paper, using a graphite transfer sheet in between.

Using clear adhesive shelf paper and masking fluid, I protected the bird shapes. I also spattered masking fluid over the sand, using a tooth brush. The shelf paper and masking fluid keep the paper dry and clean while I paint the background, and will be removed prior to painting the bird and pebbles.

Once the masking fluid was dry, I mixed two neutral paint mixtures (one brownish and one grayish) using Indian Yellow, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson. I wet the sand area, dropped in the two colours, and sprinkled on table salt.

The salt absorbs water and paint and is scraped off when dry, but it leaves behind an interesting 'starburst mineral' effect in the dried paint.

Step 3: For the background, I mixed a medium green and a very dark green using the four paints listed above. I moistened the paper with clear water, just in the areas that were to be lighter. Then I brushed the medium green mixture onto the wet areas, and the dark green mixture onto the dry areas.

Step 4: (see photo below) The background had gotten lighter and duller when dry, so I glazed over it with Sap Green and added more of the dark green mixture to the shadow areas.

Once the background was fully dry, I removed the shelf paper and masking fluid. Using various mixtures of the original four paints, and with careful observation of the reference photo, I painted the bird feathers. I started with the lightest blue shadows and gradually built up to the darks, layer by layer. The beaks, eyes, and legs were done with the same strategy.

To complete the sand pile, I used a dark neutral mixture to paint the shadows cast by pebbles and large sand grains, and I scumbled over the sandpile with the side of a brush dampened with the same dark mixture. I painted the details on the pebbles using a fine brush.

To see a larger photo of the framed seagull painting Defending High Ground, click here.

Here is a photo of my students with their paintings. Well done, ladies!

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