A few recent works

10 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air, Snow, Still Life, Windsor, Winter

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Canada, City of Windsor, Landscape, Outdoor Painter, Plein Air, Plein Air Artist, Snow, Still Life, YQG

: Thin Ice, 8 x 10 oil on cradled panel

: Still Waters, Ojibway stream 8 x 10 oil on Ampersand Gessobord panel

: Wee Pond Oil on Ampersand gessobord 11×14

: Ann’s Manniquin, Still Life 11×14 Oil on Ampersand Gessobord NFS

: Open Water, Ojibway creek. 8×10 oil on cradled panel.

: Winter Walk, Tall grass prarie Ojibway 11×14 oil on Ampersand gessobord panel

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Recent Paintings

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Acrylic, Art, Flowers, Landscape, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Ojibway, Plein Air, Snow, Windsor, Winter

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Art, botanical, Canada, flower, Flowers, Landscape, Oil painting, Ontario, Plein Air, Plein Air Artist

Just a quick update. To view availability and prices click on the image. Direct inquiries to PaintPleinAir@gmail.com

Last Snow, Ojibway Park 12 x 9 oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord. $350

Ann's Garden 8x10 Ann's Garden, Oil on Ampersand Gessobord $275.

Ann’s Garden 8×10 Ann’s Garden, Oil on Ampersand Gessobord $275.

In the Pink 8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, $275

Hands Across the Water, 24 x 48 Acrylic on Canvas. Sold at Nancy John's Gallery Juried Exhibition 24x48

Hands Across the Water, 24 x 48 Acrylic on Canvas. Sold at Nancy John’s Gallery Juried Exhibition 24×48

Kicking Back, 11x14 oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord. $425.

Kicking Back, 11×14 oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord. $425.

Guard House at the Navy Yard, Oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord 9x12 $350

Guard House at the Navy Yard, Oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord 9×12 $350

Pensioner's Cottage in the Spring. Oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord 9x12 $350. — at Navy Yard Par

Pensioner’s Cottage in the Spring. Oil on Ampersand Art Supply gessobord 9×12 $350. — at Navy Yard Par

Corner Gas" 8x10 oil on Ampersand gessobord. $275. $25 from the sale of this painting will go to CTMHV.

Corner Gas” 8×10 oil on Ampersand gessobord. $275. $25 from the sale of this painting will go to CTMHV.

Wishing You all a Happy Holiday!

13 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Gimp, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air, Snow, Still Life, Windsor, Winter

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Animated Gif, Art, Canada, Christmas, Gimp, Happy Holiday, Landscape, Limited Palette, Oil painting, Ontario, Outdoor Painter, Plein Air, Plein Air Artist, Windsor Ontario

Here’s wishing all my family and friends a very Happy Holiday and Blessed New Year.

Elizabeth

News

Weather

I’ve managed to get out every week to paint, except for this week. I scheduled a paint out at Willistead for Monday, but the fog had other ideas. Many of our group members are from the county. The last thing I want is for someone to drive in that mess. It looks like December’s weather is going to continue to make things difficult for painting outdoors. We can paint in most weather, however, rain is a pain!

Heritage Villiage

I’m happy to say we did get out and paint in the first snow of the year. We went to the Transportation Museum and Heritage Village. They were decorating the museum and village for Christmas. We had planned on a group breakfast in their 50’s inspired diner. Little did we realize that they had changed the diners hours for the winter. How disappointing! However, the kitchen staff was there cooking up lunch for the volunteers, so they kindly opened up just for us. We were blessed!

I painted a wee log cabin that day. It was originally owned by the Clark family. They were some of the original settlers in Essex County. The family still lives in the area, as do many who were granted land by the Crown. I went to school with the descendants of the family who lived in this tiny home. I had no idea that was the name of the cabin until someone mentioned it on Facebook. Funny thing, my maiden name is Clarke. Call me silly, but it made my day.

snow, oh no!

It was a chilly day, and while I was painting it started to snow. Regular oil paints would not be budged in this weather, but I paint with water soluble oils, and they don’t like to get wet! Like the Richard Harris song, you don’t want to leave the cake out in the rain. I had to quickly turn the painting upside down. I ran off to get my van and umbrella to try to shelter my work from the snow. I did manage to continue painting in spite of the snow. I wanted to complete it on site. Almost all of my work is done entirely on location. I live in a very tiny house, and as a result I have no indoor studio space. The great outdoors in my studio.

Experiments

I made the painting into a holiday gif, that you can see above. That was NOT easy! I had to learn how to do it. I looked up the tutorials online and worked on it for days, in a free program called The Gimp. The Gimp is much like Photoshop. I struggled with the tutorials, and it just was just not working. Eventually, just did it my own way. Guess what, it worked! You can see the original painting without the snow below, and soon on my available paintings page.

Limited Palette

On The Clark Cabin painting, as well as many of my paintings, I used a limited Palette. On the Clark Cabin palette included: Yellow Ocher, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow Light, Quinacridone purple, a dab of Cadmium red on the bow, and Titanium White. I’m sure those strange colour names can be a bit confusing; artist quality colours are generally named for their ingredients.

New Habits

A limited palette is a challenge many artists impose on themselves. The goal is to see how well you can mix colour. For Plein Air Artists, the less paint you have to carry in your gear, the better. A back pack can get heavy very quickly. If you are flying with your gear you really have to watch your luggage weight.

I’ve taken up this challenge many times. I’ve not always recorded what paint I used. I’m embarking on a new habit of photographing my palette before and after the finished painting. A three colour plus white is the ultimate limited palette. This palette usually includes some form of the three primary colours of Red, Yellow and Blue, but there are many shades, and hues of these three colours and knowing how to work with them is the challenge.

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In the slideshow above you can see the limited palette I used on the painting, Malden Hiltop, along with an on location sight size photo. Sight size is another very common method of painting which I will cover in a future article.

Recent work

Other painting locations last month include: Studio, still life Pear Study, Lakeside Park in Kingsville, and McAuliffe Park, in Tecumseh. (Click on any image to see details.)

Pear Study, Still life, Oil on 4″ x 4″ x 1″ gallery wrap stretched canvas. Limited pallette, 3 primaries and white. $75. no frame required

Noon Sun at Lakeside 5 x 7 Oil on Ampersand Museum Gessobord $175 framed

Shagbark Hickory Afternoon Shadows; McAuliffe Park, Tecumseh 8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand Museum Gessobord $275 framed

Clark Cabin, Heritage Village 11 x 14 Oil on Ampersand. $425. framed (Donation given to Heritage Village upon sale.)

Fall, My Favourite Time of Year

08 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Charity Event, Event, Exhibition, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air, Windsor

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Art, Landscape, Nikon D90, Oil painting, Outdoor Painter, Photography, Plein Air, Plein Air Artist, Windsor Ontario

I’d like share with you what I’ve been up to in the last few weeks. As always, I’ve been busy organizing paint outs with my group, framing paintings to exhibit at Artilicious, painting, entering paintings in contests with the Oil Painters of America, delivered a painting to its new home in Amherstburg, cleaned up a flooded basement, (yah that happened) and went to three fundraisers in one week. Yep, I never stop.

I sent a photo to Arms Bumanlag the weather reporter at CTV Windsor that he used on his Facebook site on October 27th.

Arms Bumanlag used my image for the weather Oct 17th

I Painted a few paintings

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Delivered a painting that I painted at the Doors Open event in Amherstburg.

: Pensioner’s Cottage Sold

: Pensioner’s cottage at the Park House Amherstburg Navy Yard park.

Had a great time at Artilicious, the Kidney Foundation fundraiser at Caesars Windsor

Thank you to Eric Bonnici from “eyes on windsor” for posting this great photo of me at Artilicious on his Facebook community page here: https://www.facebook.com/EyesOnWindsor

Thank you to Rodney Denis photographer of BIZ X magazine for publishing my photo on their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/BizXMagazine/

I entered these two paintings in the Oil Painters of America Online Showcase.

: Leaning Tree, Plein Air Ojibway Park. 8×10 Oil on Ampersand panel. $275 framed. Entered in the OPA Online Showcase Oct – Dec 2015

: Peaceful Plantation, Sold Dexter Quick Draw 2015 -8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand Gessobord OPA Online Showcase Oct – Dec 2015

Donated a painting to a fund raiser to help a family with three children who are going blind.

Title: Well travelled Path. Location: Ojibway 8 x 10 framed Donated to Rankin Family Fundraiser.

People say I’m busy. I guess they are right! Thank you for following my painting journey.

Historic Gibson Gallery

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Event, Exhibition, Flowers, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air

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Amherstburg, architecture, Art, Art and Music Festival, Art Reception, Art Show, Art Show and Sale, Artgallery, artifacts, Artisan shop, Artisan shoppe, artist guild, Artspeak Gallery, Canada, flower, Flowers, Food, Gallery, Gibson Gallery, Historical architecture, historical landmark, Historical Railroad Station, historical treasure, Landscape, landscape artist, Memorabilia, Michigan, Michigan Central Railroad Station, Nostalgia, Oil painting, Ontario, Outdoor Painter, Plein Air, Plein Air Artist, railroad artifacts, Railroad Station, Railroad terminal, Romanesque architecture

The Gibson Gallery 8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand gessobord $275. framed.

Painting the gallery on location .

Say hello to my latest plein air piece. This is the lovely Gibson Gallery located in Amherstburg, Ontario. My group, The Windsor & Essex County Plein Air Artists group exhibition “Painted on Location in the Great Outdoors.” is currently on display there until August 2nd. This painting will be one of over 35 paintings featured in my solo exhibition at ArtSpeak Gallery in Windsor, Ontario. This exhibition opens on Monday July 20th, and runs to Saturday July 25th. ArtSpeak Gallery is located in the historic neighborhood of Walkerville. It is my extreme pleasure to be showing my work in the gallery during the 13th annual Art Walk & Rock Festival. This festival is one of two annual art walks, and by far the best attended. There will be dancing in the streets to the rock bands. and foodies in the cafe’s sampling local wine, and craft beer. An event not to be missed!

…This former Michigan Central Railroad Station, ca. 1896, has been renovated to its original Romanesque glory featuring towering ceilings, hardwood floors and beveled glass windows. A full season of exhibits showcasing Essex County artists, traveling exhibits from Ontario museums and galleries and an unique Artisan Shoppe make this heritage building a vital center for the visual arts, offering art and craft lessons, an artist guild and three needle art guilds. A railroad museum, featuring artifacts and memorabilia, is housed in the attached caboose. ~Gibson Gallery

Solo Show Windsor & Region Arts Council, Art Speak Gallery during the Walkerville Art Walk & Rock

One Tree Three Times

18 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Acrylic, Art, Botony, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Ojibway, Plein Air, Trail, Watercolour, Windsor

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Acrylic, Art, Bible, Canada, Corporate greed, Death, determined, Disgrace, Do not go gentle into that goodnight, dogged, dying, dylan thomas, Forgive, Forgiveness, Genisis 1:28, God, Grandmother, indefatigable, insistent, Land grab, Landscape, life, Nature, Oil painting, Ojibway, Ontario, patient, persistent, Plein Air, resolute, Revive, Spiritual, Spirituality, staunch, steadfast, Strong, strong-willed, tenacious, Threatened woodland, tireless, Tree, unflagging, unshakable, unswerving, untiring, unwavering, unyielding, urban sprawl, Watercolor, Watercolour, Willow, Windsor Ontario, Wisdom

I’ve actually painted this old willow more than three times. I’m continually drawn to it. It’s tenacity to remain upright no matter how much the storms and age try to take it down, intrigues me. With broken limbs, and burled trunk she sprouts new leaves every spring. Each time I set up in front of her, I study her many bruises. I think how much we also get bruised and battered in life. Hopefully, we hang in there like this strong tenacious willow.

She is respectfully known as “The Grandmother” by the Ojibway natives. She resides at the beginning of the northern trail at Ojibway Park. She, maybe broken, but her spirit is strong. No one who passes by, can ignore her. This park is currently threatened on all sides by urban sprawl. Stand tall Grandmother. Stand your ground. Speak of all that you’ve seen in your long lived years. Speak to the world a wise word of warning.

Genesis 1: 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. ~NIV

God help us. What have we done? Forgive mankind for our disrespect of your precious gifts. I pray it’s not too late.

Battle Scarred, Image size 7 x 10 1/2 Watercolour Framed $125.

Battle Scarred Two. 12 x 16 Acrylic on Canvas $150.

Rain on Me, Painted en Plein Air in the rain at Ojibway Park 8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand panel$275 framed. (On display at Arts Council July 2015)

Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

A Few Paintings I Missed.

17 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air

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Art, Canada, Landscape, Oil painting, Ontario, Outdoor Painter, Plein Air, Windsor Ontario

Chance Encounters of the Marine Kind at Gil Maure Park, LaSalle, On. 9 x 12 Oil on Canvas panel. $350 framed.

Through the Ravine at Ann’s 8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand panel$275 framed.

Shores of Tecumseh, Lake St. Clair. 9 x 12 Oil on Panel $350. framed.

One thing preparing for a show will do for you is get you organized. Seems that these paintings were not on my blog. I seemed to have missed one from Fall, Winter, and Spring. So here you go, enjoy!

July is Crazy! Especially this year!

17 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Exhibition, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air, Windsor

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Art, Art and Music Festival, Art Council Windsor and Region, Art Exhibition, Art Festival, Art Reception, Art Show, Art Show and Sale, Art Walk, Artist, Artspeak Gallery, Canada, Canadian Artist, Color, Colour, Creative, Creativity, Exhibition, Festival, Festivals, Fine Art, Food, July, Landscape, Live Rock Bands, Local Food, Music, Music Festival, Nature, Oil painting, Ojibway, Ontario, Outdoor Painter, Patio, Patio season, Plein Air, Plein Air Artist, Public, Rock Festival, Sale, Summer, Summer Fun, Walkerville, Walkerville Art Walk & Rock 2015, Windsor Ontario

So many things happening this month. Oh the EXCITEMENT!! I’m finally having my first solo exhibition! Next week should be quite interesting. Over a year ago I booked our local Art’s Council. I actually booked last week, but they called me and said they had to move me one week ahead, did I mind. Actually, I did mind as there was another event that I like to attend every year, Explore the Shore. Moving the date would mean missing that weekend. There were no other openings, so I had to take it or loose out on the gallery all together. Little did I know what would happen.

Every year the neighborhood of Walkerville has an Art Festival. I happen to live in this great historic neighborhood. This is a pretty exciting weekend. They close down the streets. Rock bands play, patio’s fill up and there is a great deal of excitement. You never know what weekend they will choose. Well, what made this so exciting is that my show just happens to be running during on the weekend of this great event! I did not plan this, but mind you, I had hoped. This means that the traffic in the gallery will be quite high. So, think of me next week, and come visit me at the Artspeak Gallery. My show runs from July 20th until July 25th.

ArtSpeak Gallery,
Arts Council Windsor & Region
1942 Wyandotte Street East
Windsor ON N8Y 1E4

Solo Show Windsor & Region Arts Council, Art Speak Gallery during the Walkerville Art Walk & Rock

So what else is happening?

As you may or may not know, I run the Windsor & Essex County Plein Air Artists group. We have a group show in the lovely town of Amherstburg at the historic Gibson Gallery. The show has 12 fantastic artists participating in it. The work is simply phenomenal. Our opening was a great success with a full house. We have been asked to hold the show over to August 2nd, and we are planning a closing reception on that Sunday afternoon. So if you missed the first reception, you have the opportunity to attend the 2nd. Join us from 2 until 5 at the Gibson Gallery in Amherstburg, On.

the Gibson Gallery
Fort Malden Guild of Arts & Crafts
140 Richmond Street
Amherstburg, ON N9V1G4

Month long Windsor & Essex County Group exhibition at the Gibson Gallery in Amherstburg.

Lavender Festival

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Event, Landscape, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air, Uncategorized

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Art, botanical, Botony, Canada, flower, Flowers, Landscape, Oil painting, Ontario, Plein Air, Windsor Ontario

The Lavender Festival was a two day event. Our group was supposed to paint on location in the lavender beds on Saturday, but mother nature decided to dump torrential rains on us once again. Will it ever end?! I know California could really use some of this rain. Fortunately, Sunday was a much better day. It was a bit windy, but their were bright fluffy clouds, and beautiful sun.

Serentity Now! 9 x 12 Oil on Ampersand Gessobord $350 framed

Location image at Serenity Lavender Farms, Lavender Festival

Pelee Island Plein Air with Friends

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald in Art, Botony, Flowers, Hike, Landscape, Landscape, Nikon D90, Oil, Oil painting, Photography, Plein Air, Portrait, sunset, Uncategorized, ViewNX

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Art, Beach, Birds, botanical, Botony, Campfire, Canada, Fire, Flooded farms, flower, Flowers, Food, Friends, Harbor, Harbour, Holiday, Jiimaan Ferry, Lake Erie, Landscape, Leamington, Nikon D90, Oil painting, Ontario, Pelee Island, Pelee Island Winery, Photography, Plein Air, Portrait, Windsor & Essex County Plein Air Artists, Wine, Winery

It was my first trip to Pelee Island, Canada’s most southern Post. I am so blessed to have good friends. My Plein Air group the Windsor & Essex County Plein Air Artists is chock full of wonderful people. I could not be more grateful. One of our members and incredible artist Vera Graham, invited the group to spend the night at her cottage. Two of us, Kathy Hudak and I, were able to take advantage of her generous offer.

A large backhoe barely fits in the Jiimaan hold.

It was an early day Monday. We had to be at the Leamington dock by 9:00 to board the Jiimaan Ferry to the island. It’s amazing what this vessel holds! A huge backhoe on a trailer bed, large trucks, a garbage truck, a cherry picker lift, and many other smaller vehicles.

Life jackets … check
Life boat … check

It was a full and heavy load. The ferry listed on the Port side from the incredible weight of the trucks. I’m sure she was never in any danger of capsizing, but I was very grateful for calm seas. Just to be sure I made note of the life jackets and lifeboat locations!

Bon Voyage!

Once we’ve boarded we headed up to the deck to watch the boat leave the harbour.

The one and a half hour cruse was pleasant. The brisk breeze was refreshing. I could hardly contain my joyous anticipation of what the two days ahead would hold for us.

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OOps! We got into a bit of trouble. We walked down a set of stairs into a restricted area. Well they didn’t have any signs, and the steps were not roped off! How were we supposed to know? The equipment was just so COOL!

OOps! Ship’s hand chased us out of here, but not before I got this great photo of a huge winch. They need better signage!

We reach the Island docks.

First order of business snacks! Chips, salsa and Pelee Island WINE!

Relaxing on the beach.

Then off to paint.

Vera’s Refuge 8 x 10 Oil on Ampersand Gessobord $275.

Painting Vera’s Refuge on the East Beach, storm incoming

The rest of our 2 day painting holiday was filled with a great beach bonfire, nighttime thunder storms, hiking on the beach, hiking in the woods, sack lunch at the winery, snacks at the cottage, and good friends.

Chairs positioned to catch the last rays of the day.

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Monday’s sunset is an incredible light show.

Monday’s sunset is an incredible light show – looking west

Looking back to the North and heading home.

No trip to the cottage is complete without a good campfire. One on the beach is the best!

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Tuesday’s tour of the island saw that Monday night’s storms flooded much of the farmland.

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A walk through the forest at the south west end of the island.

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The southern most tip of Canada, which is the south west tip of Pelee Island.

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The harbour lights signal we are home again.

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A beautiful end to a wonderful 2 days. Sunset on the north shore of Lake Erie.

Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald, Plein Air Artist

~ Extreme Outdoor Painter

Category Archives: Oil

A few recent works

Recent Paintings

Wishing You all a Happy Holiday!