The Naked Silo

Earlier this year, I painted 33 scenes of Prince Edward County along its portion of Highway 33 (AKA Loyalist Parkway) for 33 days. Many of these 20" x 20" oil paintings have sold, but a few still remain and twelve of them can be seen at the Devil's Wishbone Winery during this year's Wassail . What the heck is "Wassail"? Here's Wikipedia on the matter: "Wassail  ( Old English   wæs hæl , literally 'be you healthy') refers both to the salute 'Waes Hail' and to the drink of  wassail , a hot  mulled  cider traditionally drunk as an integral part of  wassailing , an ancient southern  English  drinking ritual intended to ensure a good  cider  apple harvest the following year." ...and here's what it means in Prince Edward County: "Wassail is an annual event held in Prince Edward County which celebrates another harvest and the laying of vines to rest. The event takes place over 3 weekends in November & December...

Having successfully completed 33 on 33 , my plein air painting journey across the section of Highway 33 that cuts through PEC, painting one site-specific oil painting per day for 33 consecutive days, I'm going to explore and study the subject of the County even further –going back to school, in a manner of speaking– learning what makes PEC so special to the folks who live here by asking the big question: "What's YOUR Prince Edward County?" Last December, I stayed awake for 100 hours and (due to a slight miscalculation) painted 101 black & white ink portraits of friends and strangers, and you can read about that project on the  Burning the Midnight Oil  blog. Here's a short video I made...and here's a  selection of portraits from last year's marathon: That format seemed like a good fit for my  County 101 project, so at 4pm on November 18 until 9pm on November 22 , I'll undertake another epic painting marathon, i.e. 101 black & wh...

33 on 33: Day 33 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My last day of painting: the Glenora Ferry. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: This was the fading, ghostly effect I initially planned for, but didn't really suit, the torn-down church on Day 27 , but it works quite well here. This is another of my favourites from this series.

33 on 33: Day 32 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My second-last day of painting: at the Glenora Marina. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: Despite not being quick enough to paint the scene of the sun beaming majestically through the morning clouds (see the full post for a picture), this tree island was still quite a sight and I think I prefer it backlit like this, rather than lit evenly like it was when Fred and I returned to the site later on. Interestingly, I had quickly blocked in a boat on the far right along the horizon, but painted it out for some reason...it turns out it was the Glenora Ferry and, had I known, I would have left it in!

33 on 33: Day 31 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My thirty-first day of painting: at Glenora Estates Road. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: Prince Edward County is surrounded by water, but I hadn't painted very much of it over the course of this project. I knew I would be painting water of some sort on my last day at the Glenora Ferry, but I wasn't certain of my stop for Day 32, so I decided to paint this scene to include Picton Bay just in case. And I'm glad I didn't "pan left" to include the cement factory.

33 on 33: Day 30 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My thirtieth day of painting: Rosebud at Picton Harbour. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: I didn't intend for Rosebud the tug and its reflection to be the most saturated elements of the painting when I started, but as I worked, it seemed the best way to treat the scene and I think it works very well.

33 on 33: Day 29 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-ninth day of painting: The Regent Theatre in downtown Picton. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: My experiment with allowing the rain to make streaks on the painting worked excellently here, making it look like it's raining in the picture. I added the wet reflections on the sidewalk afterward to reinforce this effect.

33 on 33: Day 28 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-eighth day of painting: The Bean Counter in downtown Picton. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: The paint was drying on the canvas because of the sun and heat during the few hours I was out painting, making blending a real challenge, but I was happy for another sunny day (expressed in that blueblue sky) and I did my best. This is yet another architecturally-based painting which I had to redraw several times to get it small enough to fit on the canvas...and I still couldn't get Buddha Dog (just out of frame on the right) in the picture!

33 on 33: Day 27 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-seventh day of painting: where they tore down the church to make room for the torn-down church. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: My initial intent was to render the ghost of the church in a fully-detailed way from the top down to about where the bottom of that foreground sign is and then fade it out to imply that it's no longer there (a look I achieved with the Glenora Ferry on my last day of the project), but when I blocked it in, I decided that simple red lines looked better and were less confusing than my original plan. I brought (now historical) photo reference with me and lined up my perspective here to match.

33 on 33: Day 26 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-sixth day of painting: in front of the Picton Metro, facing west. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: When you study things you're familiar with, you notice new things. For example, I've driven through this intersection probably hundreds of times in the past four years, but I never really paid attention to how the road dips and inclines so much; you tend not to notice these details while driving (or even walking...but biking is another story). I like the focal point of the pale yellow house –and I made sure to emphasize that glorious blue, sunny sky after all that rain!

33 on 33: Day 25 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-fifth day of painting: near the roundabout in Picton. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: Defiantly painting in the rain (in the van) I made the most of it this day and ended up pretty happy with this one, compositionally balancing the plants and the poles. The puddle (as in Day 21 ) is a reminder of the all-too-frequent rain during this project. Also, I've seriously really grown to love painting power lines.

33 on 33: Day 24 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-fourth day of painting: the Saylor Block in Bloomfield. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: I'm pretty happy about how this one turned out, and I think it's great that this and Day 23 are the only two paintings in this series that have subjects that face each other in real life.

33 on 33: Day 23 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My twenty-third day of painting: the Saylor House Café in Bloomfield. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: To me this painting evokes the best kind of spring rain: refreshing, gentle, making the greenery extra lush and making it nice and cozy to be indoors.

33 on 33: Day 22 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twenty-second day of painting: in Bloomfield. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: Like with the Fields on West Lake  barn, I had to redraw the building twice to get it to fit onto the canvas. I guess I tend to draw big when it comes to pointy buildings. In fact, this could be reduced a teeny bit more, but overall, I'm very happy with it, especially the great contrast between the white and the brown thanks to the wonderful sunshine that morning.

33 on 33: Day 21 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My twenty-first day of painting: between Slaven & Matthie Roads. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: I'm happy I was able to capture those furrows and that excellent puddle in this painting because that's what motivated me to paint at this site in the first place. Also, quite loose, but still descriptive in the rendering, so I'm clearly still learning/evolving a bit.

33 on 33: Day 20 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My twentieth day of painting: at Fields on West Lake. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: I had to redraw the barn three times, each time making it smaller, so as to actually fit within the canvas borders (the same thing happened at the weird Mac's ). Also, I was starting to get pretty tired of all the rain at this point. I would have liked some nice shadows on the barn...but I did my best with the overcast lighting.

33 on 33: Day 19 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My nineteenth day of painting: at Wellington Harbour. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: For a long time, I felt this painting was too dark and muddy (feeling like I did about Day 4 ), forgetting what it looked like when I painted it outside, having seen it only indoors for the few weeks leading up to the show, but, when I brought all the paintings to hang them at Blizzmax, I was pleased to see all the subtle blues and details once again, so I am now very happy with this one.

33 on 33: Day 18 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013, private collection My eighteenth day of painting: still in Wellington. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: I tried to capture the damp and cold of the day, but the morning fog (see the photos in my full post) had mostly lifted by the time I'd set up, so capturing that effect was, unfortunately, unlikely (unless I go from the photos for future paintings...which is likely).

33 on 33: Day 17 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My seventeenth day of painting: in Wellington. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: The drawing of the house may not be entirely architecturally accurate, but I think the foreground tree makes up for it. This is one of my favourites, mostly due to the colours.

33 on 33: Day 16 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My sixteenth day of painting: at Hubbs Creek Road. See the  Grand Map . See the  full post  for this painting. Afterthoughts: Staying loose here, but keeping the forms clear and now experimenting a bit with a limited palette and, hence, a rather monochromatic look...and I like these colours, they go together quite well.