Spring Has Sprung.  - There is no continuous theme in this posting- just a few paintings and drawings finished over the past few weeks.


You CAN dress up a hockey player.  Here's J LeL, home from economic exile in Alberta and weekending at his cousin's wedding over in Prince Edward Island.  Oils on canvas.

October in Shubie- The Shubenacadie canal cuts across Nova Scotia and Shubie park is named for it.  The little brook on the left is one of the overflows from the canal.  This was my first attempt at painting a sunny day in a forest as a preparation for the next painting.  It definitely needs people.  Acrylic on canvas.

Explorers- So this is the painting which followed October in Shubie.  The same spot, same day, my good friends OPL and HCL and I.  I think I back dated my hair by a few years :-)  There's a smidge more gray in it than this shows!  Acrylic on canvas

DeeDeeS on Deck-  One of my young neighbours was home visiting her parents, so I did this quick graphite sketch for them and washed in over with a few strokes of watercolour.  Here it is before and after the watercolour wash. Graphite and transparent watercolours on (dry media) sketch paper.

Sloshin' to school- Taking pictures of our local school crosswalk as part of a plan to get drivers to park further away from the white lines, I kept getting schoolkids and their parents in the picture.  The nerve of them!  Watercolour on Curry's 200 lb. wc paper

His Beak Can Hold More Than His Belly Can-  ZMB was on her holidays in Florida and sent me a snapshot of herself and flying friends.  Charcoal on drawing paper

KML as Tintin.    KML was almost completely blind at this point in his life but never lost his great, ironic sense of humour.  Here he is sharing a laugh with his brother.  A few months later we lost him to cancer.  A lesson for us all to enjoy each day as he did.  Charcoal on sketch paper.

A Rude Awakening- Another practice painting.  This one is for an upcoming show on the theme of "Awakenings".  I've just started the next version, trying to concentrate the image showing only the central portion but on a larger canvas- if that makes sense.  The osprey is giving a "Rude Awakening" to the poor fish.  Acrylic on canvas

That's it for now.  I hope you enjoyed these latest pictures. - Joe

"A" Pencil portraits...OK, a lot of these are charcoal, not graphite pencil, but the idea is the same.  I try to draw a charcoal or graphite portrait sketch every day.  I'm hoping it will help my ability to closely observe people and other images and then render a good likeness.  So these are essentially practice sketches from my notebooks although I sometimes snip them out and give them to the subject people.  The ones that look more like their cousin than the actual subject, stay in the notebook.  My computer organizes them alphabetically, so here are some of the "A" listers.

AL and RL-  A mother/daughter pair- dyed in the wool Cape Bretoners!  Graphite pencil on sketch paper

AD was at her sister's wedding when I snapped a photo for this sketch.  Graphite on sketch paper

A and S- A lovely, young couple who live in our neighbourhood.  Both very athletic, he was an olympic athlete for Canada at the Beijing games.  Charcoal on drawing paper.

AMS - Flowers in her hair.  She too, was at HER sister's wedding. Charcoal on toned drawing paper.

City of Lakes

This little city of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, part of the municipality of Halifax, has almost two dozen lakes and a goodly chunk of harbour and Atlantic Ocean coast line.  Here are a few pictures featuring those waters.



In Friendship We Grow-  The motto of Dartmouth  (In Amicitius Crescimus).  This unique piece was created for the kitchen of some friends.  One of them is Irish so the pottery is Carrigaline earthenware as made in County Cork.  The red and white stripes are a generating station over the hill in Tufts Cove, near where the Halifax explosion occurred in 1917- the largest pre-atomic manmade explosion.  The ship represents our Coast Guard base.  Acrylic on canvas.

Don't Look Back-  Paddling, canoeing and kayaking are big sports in Dartmouth, where we have hosted many national. international and three world championship regattas, one juniors and two seniors.  Half way down the course the temptation is always there to check on the opposition.  Acrylic on Canvas

Sullivan's Regatta-  Some of the regattas here are crewless.  Radio-controlled sailboats are raced every Sunday on Sullivan's Pond, part of a canal system which runs across Nova Scotia, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Bay of Fundy.  Home of the world's highest tides.  Watercolour on 200 lb Curry's paper

Bobbing for Shriners-  Still on Sullivan's Pond you can see these large fez-shaped stone structures which were canal markers showing the entrance to the locks at the upper end of the pond.  A dozen geese and dozens of ducks, mergansers, terns and you name it are always about scrounging for food.  St Peter church is in the background.  The shady stripe down the middle was a gift of our old scanner, now in electro-heaven.  Watercolour on 300 lb Arches paper

Moonrise over the Coast Guard Base-  For over 100 years there has been a base for the icebreakers, search and rescue and navigational aids vessels of the Canadian Coast Guard at Dartmouth Cove.  The tiny boats are fast rescue craft heading out for a nighttime exercise.  Acrylic on Canvas

Osprey at CCG Base-  A repeated pic here, but I thought I'd include it in this water-based entry.  The Osprey is the provincial bird of Nova Scotia and they can be seen around the lakes and harbour any day once the snow disappears in the spring.  Acrylic on Canvas

MEM at Lawrencetown-  The beautiful ocean beaches at Lawrencetown, Cole Harbour and Cow Bay are all only a few minutes from Dartmouth.  Swimming in the summer and surfing year-round mean there's always something paintworthy going on out there.  Acrylic on tiny canvas (5"X5")

R's First Masters' First-  Back to Lake Banook to finish our tour.  When paddlers get into their twenties, they usually stop paddling in the national events which lead to the olympics where a number of our Dartmouth athletes have done well.  Many then take up the sport as masters, a great way to keep having fun and staying fit with your friends.  This was R's first, first place finish as a Master.  Watercolour on 300 lb. Arches paper

HCL- The three-year-old down the street and hydrochloric acid might have the same initials, but it's no match for her power to melt your heart.  'Might be one or two repeats in this post, but there it is!  She's worth it.

HCL as P3- From a photo by her dad entitled Three Peas.  Age about 14 months.  Watercolour on 300lb. paper

HCL in Sunshine- Caught in the afternoon light of their living room by her dad.  Age 18 months.  My most popular painting.  The blurry section on the right was the result of an accident.  Many watercolour artists will tell you accidents are often the unexpected cause of a successful painting.  Watercolour on 200 lb paper

HCL aig a'Ghluine (At the Knee)  Title from an old Gaelic phrase.  This was a graphite study for a three figure image in the landscape.  Age 27 months.  Her mom's knee.   Graphite on paper

HCL in Pink-  A tiny (4"X5")  portrait  from the sketch above.  Age 30 months.  Oil on masonite board

HCL at Shubie-  Checking out the slide alongside the historic Shubenacadie Canal here in Dartmouth, NS.  A rather quick, charcoal sketch with a dash of pastel colour.  Age 38 months.  On paper.

HCL at TIBS-  Like their dad, her five-year-old brother loves to photograph people.  Whenever he tries to catch her, she throws one of her crazy poses.  In a local coffee shop on the hottest day of the summer which resulted in a "bad hair day" image.  Age 39months.  Semi-hard pastels on smooth paper 

HCL in Fall Sunrise.  I roused HCL and her mom early one fall morning to pose for a picture they weren't even going to be in!  I just needed a little girl and an adult to get the scale right.  Like the troopers they are, they turned out on the front lawn.  I did this quick pastel sketch as a practice piece on smooth paper.  Age 40 months

HCL- Hey Look!-  This picture one from a previous post seemed a good choice as a close out of this Mini-show of one of my favourite subjects.  It was the day she and her brother discovered Cow Bay, near Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia.  Age 39 months.  Acrylic on canvas

HCL on the Harbour Trail-  Out for a walk with Mom, big brother and I.  Her brother snapped this pic of HCL on the Dartmouth side of Halifax harbour.  Looking across in the afternoon sun sun your can see the towers of downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia and behind them the banks and parapets of the Halifax Citadel, Canada's most visited historic site.  Age 39 months.

A few charcoal portraits.  These are mainly monochrome charcoal drawings, but some have a small dash of pastel colour to brighten them.

JW at the Corner-  One of the talented (and beautiful!) musicians living in our neighbourhood at a birthday party.

JS san t-Seann Sgoil-  A visiting scholar from Scotland at the old schoolhouse in the Nova Scotia Highland Village.

RAG outside Broad Cove Chapel-  That Cape Breton sunshine brings out the squint in everyone.

SH on the Field-  Even the occasional Dutchman shows up at the Broad Cove Concert in Cape Breton.

You go First- A conversation between a telephone pole and a fireplug in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  Acrylic on canvas

You Go First (side view)-  This painting was done on a gallery frame canvas, so it's worth seeing who's driving that bicycle.  Acrylic on canvas.

Seumas Chun a' Chladach- One of Cape Breton's foremost proponents of Gaelic culture standing in his stomping ground, opposite the Nova Scotia Highland Village in Iona.  Charcoal on toned paper

Gaelic Day at St FXU-  MI at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS.  This was my first attempt at an "alla prima" (all at once) portrait.  Approx 8" X 10 ", finished in one hour and fifteen minutes.  Oil on canvas.

Highland Wedding-  A wedding portrait of two friends on a hilltop in Iona overlooking the Barra Straits in central Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  Watercolour on 200 lb paper

Here Comes the Bride-  SML turns her head to see the bride, shown above, coming up the aisle.  Oil on  canvas

MN in Iona- Another guest at the wedding.  Charcoal on toned paper

SJ in Iona - Another guest at the wedding in Iona.  Charcoal on toned paper