The Colours

The Colour's - oil on wood - 6x6

I've painted so many of our  town's nooks and cranny's over the years, and I love doing so, but I've quite neglected one of Kingston's landmark heritage sites; Old Fort Henry.  Today's painting(left) is one of a little group attempting to change that. It's not that I haven't wanted to paint it, but it's position on the landscape eludes me; it's like a tiger hiding in long grass.  

'Gateway' - the fort is up on the hill on the left here

'Sunset at Fort Henry' - watercolour

From above it presents itself as a grey architectural barricade, which is what it's meant to be after all...but from that angle it doesn't really give one a feel of what it's all about.  An aerial view tends to have the whole landscape as subject and not really the fort itself as focus, as you can see in these 2 other images from past paintings.  

When I paint, I'm most interested in how I feel about a subject.  So this week I have set myself a task of painting a group of little paintings that tries to do just that.  It's a bit of a challenge because although I love painting old stones and light, a Victorian era military fortress  presents it's own challenges...formality for one!  Things like weaponry and uniforms are not arbitrary subjects; yet my goal is to remain true to simple design and painterly application, not getting too caught up in the details.