Road to Rain is Complete!

My oil painting, Road to Rain, is now complete! It's so exciting for me, to have finally completed this oil painting - and to have it turn out so nicely. I have renamed it: "County Road Storm"


It is listed for sale now - since I do not have enough walls for all my work, and quite honestly, I do like hanging other artist works up instead.

Autumn Oil Painting Progres

There have been a few updates to my Autumn oil painting, here are the last three progress shots:

It's starting to take on a new direction. I'm not sure about the blue sky. But if anything, it will be good as a sort of 'under painting' effect in the end if I choose to paint over it. It's also building up quite the texture.

It's on a standstill now until these layers of paint dry. They're a little thick, so it might take a little while.

Autumn Oil Painting Progres

The painting is past it's half way mark, and I'm still loving how it's turning out. I have a lot more leaf work, the sky and the focal tree trunks left. I need to add some dimension to the orange leaves, they seem just a little too flat compared to the rest of the painting I think. The painting is also starting to build up some texture as well - I love textured paintings :)

For those wondering, the painting is 8x8" (just a small one), on 1.5" gallery canvas. I really enjoy working with the gallery canvas, because when it's all done it's not necessary to frame and to me things always look better with the nice thick edge. It also makes it easy to place in your house - you can hang it, or just set it on a shelf, since it's able to hold itself up!

Autumn Oil Painting

My painting is coming along nicely. It's wonderful working with such vibrant colours, and the brush work is very loose and relaxing.

Autumn Oils

With all the colourful inspiration around me, I had to paint some autumn trees with my oil paints. I was inspired by an image that I took while visiting my parents in Northern-ish Ontario:


I don't ever really paint the exact pictures, it's always just a guideline for the direction which I take. I always love closeup pictures of the brush doing it's work:

Road To Rain Progress

It's been a VERY long time since I've posted on here. But, in all fairness - my camera was having a slow death, and I can't take pictures of the oil paintings - they take forever to dry, and so my scanner is not an option.


For this painting update, it was mostly the hydro poles that I did. I added some more white to the whiter areas of the sky to get some more contrast. The last hydro pole and lines are still a little wrong. I tried to fix it, but didn't have luck. So I'll wait until it dries and then try again.

Road to Rain Progress

It's been awhile since I had posted a progress picture of my 'Road to Rain' painting. That's because number one, I was waiting on some more white oil paint (I didn't realize how quickly I would go through that one...but now I have a huge tube to last me a long time, or maybe at least a month). As well, I was on a watercolor painting binge...both commissions and autumn-themed pieces for my store.

Well, since my last post. I have added hydro poles - not sure if I like them though. I've been pondering them before I add the lines. Although really, it might be the lines that make them look at lot better. I've also added more yellows. I'm not sure about the ditch that runs along the hydro poles, but I'm 99.9% sure that it's working and that I like it.

My fellow artists, I'm sure you'll agree - it's so hard to be completely happy. And even when you are, the next time you look at it you see something else that you would like to change.

The remaining to-do's: hydro lines, fix that last poles (it's a little thick looking), adjust the colouring of the poles, add more colour to the lighter green field (it looks a little too transparent on the canvas)...not much, right?....

White Flowers Meadow

This is just a quick oil painting that I did. It has a lot of texture in it. I think that I should have made the tree line have more impressionism to it, since it seems a little out of place. But this was just a quick study painting :)

It is available for sale on Etsy, here.

Road to Rain progress

So I gave up on the 'dirt road' concept, and it is now a paved road. Which looks just as good. I think the gravel road would have been too warm of a colour, and the paved grey seems to work better with the sky, since it's a lot cooler.

So all that's left is the hydro poles / lines and touch-ups (nothing specific right now, just whatever I think might need a little adjustment as I look at it longer).

Eeee, almost done my first 'great' piece!!!

Road to Rain Progress

The landscape is going much better than I had anticipated! Hurray!


But I discovered a new nemesis: the road. I have absolutely never done a road before. And, as easy as it seems, it's not. Here I'm trying to make it into a 'dirt road', but the two tracks just make the road look odd. Common, let's all admit: this road is horrible!

So, I'm turning it into a paved road. I think the gray pavement will look better with the hues in the sky as well. The brown is just so out of place.

I'm having trouble making the road not look so flat. I will look up some techniques and try again once it dries a little.

What's left: some yellow on the roadside, hydro poles (possibly another nemesis), and correction of the road. I'm getting there! I think it's been 12 hours invested into this piece so far, so it's going quite well!

Painter's Shirt

Every (messy) artist needs a smock. Mine is an old dress shirt from my youngest brother.

Unfortunately, a couple of my better shirts and a pair of pants met their demise before I acquired this shirt. Well, better late than never!

You can't see the quite large amount of the paint that has already been deposited on the shirt - it's mostly at the bottom near my lap. Maybe in a couple month's I'll just photograph the shirt.

Road to Rain Progress

So I have come up with a name for this piece, "Road to Rain". I think I'm pretty sold on it, but if it changes, you will all be the first to know!

Here are some more progress shots:


I was scared to start the actual scenery. All my 'failed' paintings were going good with the sky, and then plummeted when I started the landscape portion. But the scenery is going okay, so far...

Dirty Fingers

I don't think my hands have been as dirty when I painted with my acrylics and watercolors - I actually don't think my hands are ever dirty with the watercolor.

I know I should be more careful, but I just get so into the painting and sometimes even use my fingers for a smuge here and there. I know good enough not to eat until this mess is all cleaned up. But it's sort of like a by-product work of art lol. I've been having to paint my nails all the time too - in order to hide the paint that I can't get out from under my nails so it doesn't look to dirty lol.

This paint takes some scrubbing to get off...

Progress photos

I've started my first 'formal' piece in oil this weekend. I say formal, because it's on gallery canvas, and it's 12 x 12" - so it's an investment in materials, and the largest oil to date that I have attempted.


The sketch. I felt that I needed to plan this piece more than the others, since it was larger and is more complex. (Well, to me it seems like it will be more complex)


I do hope that this piece does not end up in limbo...I have a few smaller canvas boards, where the process just halted because I don't know what to do with them, or I think I should develop my skills further before progressing with certain aspects.


To me, the sky is the easier part of the painting right now. I do it first since it's the 'furthest' back in the piece, so the more challenging parts are ahead of me.

I really do hope that I'm not biting off more than I can handle with this piece! But I'm finding it easier to work on a larger scale.

Prettied Up!

I just added a banner, and chose a more corresponding design. So now this blog doesn't look so plan - Hurray!

I might still end up changing it again, that's just me. But I have to give it a day or two to see if it's what I'm liking :o)

Flax Fields

Flax Fields - Original 6x6" Oil Painting

This is one of my first oil paintings that I'm selling, and I'm quite proud of it! I was inspired when I was visiting my parents in Northern Ontario. They have started growing flax up there - and when the fields are in bloom it is just gorgeous! Just sprawling fields of purple. There's not many of these fields up there either - from what my dad told me, there was only one farmer in their specific area that was tacking this plant. But I am thankful someone is - it was just so pretty.

I added a little 'smudge' of brown in the sky as well, to give it an 'old' / Polaroid feel. Sort of vintage-like. I hope you enjoy this painting, and I hope that I have many more to share with you!

It is available for sale in my Etsy store.