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A Light Dusting of Snow
The snow was preceded by freezing rain. The small amount that fell was enough to cover roofs roofs and cars.
Since then we’ve had more snow and now the ground is white.
Transition
I took the photograph from which I painted this scene a few weeks ago, after the first real snow. Only a few trees still had their colours. Two days later the snow had all melted. The leaves didn’t last much longer.
Last of the Colour (Almost)
There is still a bit of yellow in some of the oaks.
A little over a week ago I had some colour in my back yard.
The colours were much more subdued than the previous week.
The oaks on the other hand were in their glory.
But some of the oaks had started losing their leaves.
These were in less protected locations.
One was a victim of November 1’s winds.
Fading Colours
Here are 3 more sketches done in ink on my morning walks last week. The watercolour was added later. Most of the reds were gone but surprisingly some of the sumac were still persisting.
I was planning to paint the sumac behind my house yesterday (Friday) but after the heavy rain overnight on Thursday and the strong winds yesterday it looked something like this..
Break Out of Your Shell and Fly
Lately I’ve been painting birds, trying to do them loosely but not very successfully. I get too involved in trying to make them look like what they are.
A Song Sparrow singing by the side of the road on my morning walk.
This spring, a pair of Baltimore Orioles visited my Hummingbird feeder, bypassing the Oriole feeder that was also out. (The Hummingbirds use both feeders.) I put out some oranges and the female was very assertive in not giving up her place to the male.
I saw a large flock of Tree Swallows down at Grassy Bay just before the bugs got really bad. They flew too fast for me to get a picture of them flying but several of them rested on some reeds and I was able to get a photograph to paint.
Sheltered Shoreline
I have tried several times to do this type of painting but they have never worked out. This one, done from one of my photographs is the best so far.
I think I used every green in my palette as well as a few mixes.
Spring Tree
The black flies are out but if I keep walking I don’t get bitten, much. Fortunately, Thursday morning, on my early morning walk, I only encountered clouds of non-biting midges. I stopped to sketch this tree with my pen and added watercolour when I returned home.
It looks like many of the branches may be dead as there are no leaves on them. Or maybe this tree is just a little slow.
Shadows
The snow is beginning to go. There are bare spots in the woods and on my driveway. The forecast for today is calling for 15 – 20 cm of snow so winter hasn’t given up just yet.
I try to paint a snow scene at least once a year. This is my second attempt at this one. It’s from a photo I took a few weeks ago.
