This is from 2005... but remains one of my favourites. Here is the story...
I wanted to enlarge one of my favourite sketches. This scene is from the slopes of MacKenzie Mountain in King Township west of Schomberg and north of Toronto. We were hiking early one afternoon while on in Christmas vacation. We hiked to the real Mackenzie Mountain west of the 12th Concession of King Township. There was a tremendous amount of wildlife around the mountain. Coyote, deer, raccoon and possum tracks were everywhere. We punched through the middle of the swamp on the way to the mountain but found the real path for the way back. The deer preferred the path as well.
It was sunny and mild winter afternoon and the shadows of the trees across the snow caught my eye. I would not have been able to paint this from life as the sun would have blinded me before I could have finished it. The grays and browns of the trees were also intriguing. There were still a few beech leaves hanging on in defiance of the wind. There were also some very bright colours in the tops of the spruce trees where the sunlight filtered through. I also liked the way the multiple lines of the field, the tractor tracks, the shadows and the trees take the eye into and across the scene.
Even though it is a large piece with lots of canvas, I tired to stay loose and use the same size brush all of the time. The title is a bit of a pun as this is the son of "Winter Shadows" (#651) but the focus is the play of the sunlight on and through the trees and on the snow.
This painting brings backs a lot of great memories. Our Maine Coon Cat like to paint with me and I had her set up on a cushion in front of the wood stove. A throne good enough for the Queen that she was.... The smaller sketch that I painted from, #0651 "Winter Shadows" went to a client of the Algonquin Art Centre in 2008.
I wanted to enlarge one of my favourite sketches. This scene is from the slopes of MacKenzie Mountain in King Township west of Schomberg and north of Toronto. We were hiking early one afternoon while on in Christmas vacation. We hiked to the real Mackenzie Mountain west of the 12th Concession of King Township. There was a tremendous amount of wildlife around the mountain. Coyote, deer, raccoon and possum tracks were everywhere. We punched through the middle of the swamp on the way to the mountain but found the real path for the way back. The deer preferred the path as well.
It was sunny and mild winter afternoon and the shadows of the trees across the snow caught my eye. I would not have been able to paint this from life as the sun would have blinded me before I could have finished it. The grays and browns of the trees were also intriguing. There were still a few beech leaves hanging on in defiance of the wind. There were also some very bright colours in the tops of the spruce trees where the sunlight filtered through. I also liked the way the multiple lines of the field, the tractor tracks, the shadows and the trees take the eye into and across the scene.
Even though it is a large piece with lots of canvas, I tired to stay loose and use the same size brush all of the time. The title is a bit of a pun as this is the son of "Winter Shadows" (#651) but the focus is the play of the sunlight on and through the trees and on the snow.
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