Skating on the Dufferin Marsh

"Skating on the Dufferin Marsh" oil on canvas 20x24

Every year in February the local Dufferin Marsh Committee organize an afternoon of skating on the frozen marsh. The marsh is in the centre of Schomberg and the committee with the assistance of the Township keep as environmentally clean as possible.
The painting was inspired by several photos I had taken over the years, here you can see scenes from 2005 and 2010.
It was cold on both occasions and the time was late afternoon getting close to sunset.
One of the many challenges was getting the people to look like people but not to look like portraits , all of the participants look cold and ready for the hot chocolate!
The overall cold blue took several coats before I got it to my liking.
The sky was also awkward and I did exaggerate the purple to bring out the lateness of the day and the cold.
The poor trees look like they are impatient for Spring!
Hope I caught the feeling of a day in Ontario in mid February
John

"A Main Street Christmas"

"The Parade of Lights" 16x20 oil on Canvas

This year Schomberg celebrates the 17th "A Main Street Christmas" and I thought a great challenge to create a couple of paintings. the one above shows the commencement of the "Parade of Lights' a wonderful event organized by the local farming community and features all kinds of agricultural equipment all decorated in multi coloured lights.

"Carol Singers on Main Street" 16x20 oil on canvas.

A variety of entertainment and food is featured on Main Street and this is one of my favourites that expresses the feeling of the evening, an old fashioned Christmas Spirit.

"A Main Street Christmas"  this year is on December 3rd.

Portrait of Ron

"Ron" 10x14 oil on board

A fellow aspiring painter at our weekly Art Class, this is my attempt at capturing Ron on canvas. He is such a pleasant, kind person with an interesting and 'open'
face, I hope these qualities are apparent in this, my third portrait so far. I'm told the way to learn is to copy the masters, which is my next challenge, but with Ron I wanted to try my hand at a real sitter, plus photograph, and believe me I learned plenty!



Jo