Tunnel(ing) Vision....

Winter has buried Rockport in another foot of snow overnight... bringing our two day total to almost thirty inches. From the news today, we fared better than our Eastern Seaboard  and Atlantic Canada neighbours, missing the high winds at least... and less of the white stuff. There was never a hydro outage in our area either. A blessing most of our southern and eastern neighbours, unfortunately were not spared. Never the less, our lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng driveway was enough of a challenge for this  ol' tunneler. Luckily, I had completely shovelled all of yesterday's dump... so I had only half of the total snowfall to contend with this morning.

Even Deb's "daily" was not delivered from Toronto. Roads in the GTA were a mess with twenty-four inches falling overnight there. By the time I had the driveway cleared, it was time for lunch. Afterward, I came down into the studio and selected a "scaled down" subject for my Day#9 Challenge. I simply rewound my success project from yesterday... and "stick-handled" through the fatigue and aching back and shoulder muscles to create a suitable 8x10 inch panel for today.

I followed exactly the same routine... white panel... drawn upon intuitively with India ink and the twig quill I had  fashioned... using a photo reference garnered on our recent trip down to visit Deb's aunt and uncle in Prescott. I had stopped on another visit to see them to take the photo and produced a decent 16x20 inch canvas as a Christmas gift for them from Deb and I. They are kindly folk... fun to be with and strong early influences in Deb's early growing up years, along with her Grandfather Pillar. I had always liked the painting and had vowed someday to paint another. That is now in the finished box. I think that yesterday's piece (which Deb spoke for immediately) and this one...  will make a nice pair together in our Islesview home.

I stained in a colour ambiance using my leftover colours from yesterday's session and washes of turpentine to thin out the initial layer of pigment... especially in the sky area. The stark contrast of the uncovered ink drawing maintains a strong linear quality for the subject.  I gradually added stronger values of  paint to strengthen the under painting until lay in was reached. At this point , I decided to use my small palette knife to "knife" in some texture into the snow and fir tree areas. The rest of the two hour session was devoted to pushing and pulling hue and value to create contrast and colour harmony, There are a few areas to correct ... perhaps tomorrow , after the paint has set up. May be not... I'll see!

 I hope that you enjoy the piece. It is fresh and represents the last lighthouse on the St Lawrence River before Quebec and the Gulf of St Lawrence. I lovre historic subjects. Lighthouses are rapidly disappearing because the Canadian Coast Guard will not maintain them. Most have already been decommissioned and have been replaced by unmanned electronic lights. Prescott City Council is now negotiating with the Government of Canada to save this historic light because they very much value their heritage and Canadian Maritime History. Fort Wellington is a much-visited historic site, where War of 1812  re-enactment battles are staged each year. My hat's off to the citizens and city fathers of this small Riverside community. Bravo!

I'm keepin' the shovel parked by our driveway entrance. Word has it from Environment Canada... that more white stuff is due on Monday... with perhaps a splash of freezin' rain "to sweeten up" the mess and clean up. Hope everyone is okay... and back to normal soon! Stay safe... ALL!!

Cracklin' fire hour... comin' up!

"River Sentinel at Prescott Harbour" - oil on canvas 8x10 inches


Good Painting to ALL!!!