Illinois River Lock

Last weekend, Craig and I had a lovely get away at Starved Rock State Park. The park is right on the shores of the Illinois River. Craig and I brought old Leaky and ended up canoing on the mighty Illinois, barge traffic and all. But that's a different story. On one of our afternoons, we spend several hours watching all the barge traffic going through the locks.


Barges, two wide and three deep are stuffed into the lock. The tow boat has to wait until the next water flow to go through. There is no room in the 600' lock. These babies are huge!



The science behind these locks is really ancient technology. The doors actually float so they are relatively easy to open and close. They are shaped so that the water in the lock holds the door closed so very little energy is needed to run the whole operation.

Craig and I had a short chat with one of the barge workers. We asked him how the traffic moves thorough the lock if the tow boat has to wait outside. He said the whole gaggle of barges is pulled along with a chain, that sits just above the water line next to the barges. If you look up and down the river, there can be many barges waiting their turn. Sunday was a busy day for the lock tenders.

Barge traffic is a very efficient way to move goods. One full barge carries the same pay load as 58 large semis and 15 jumbo hopper train cars. This is all good news for global warming and new leaner balance sheets for businesses.

Anyone else live near locks? Please feel free to add links in the comment section so we can "visit" you local lock.

The Journey to the sea

Flooded path sketch

9 x 12 watercolour

We don't often think about the origins ocean water and how it is continually fed by rivers and streams and rain. Its one of those things that is taken for granted without thinking about the journey from land to sea that water takes and its shape changes along the way.

It all starts with a drop of water...


While the ocean environment has conditioned every aspect of the Newfoundland and Labrador experience, the province also has ample fresh water, the source of which is abundant precipitation. More than 8% of the area of the province is occupied by lakes, slightly greater than the average for Canada, and as elsewhere water is also stored in the soil, either close to the surface where it can be used by plants or deeper in the rock as groundwater where it may be tapped by wells or returned to the surface in springs.


Besides lakes and groundwater, Newfoundland and Labrador also has many rivers. These rivers show marked seasonal variations of flow. Throughout the province peak flow occurs in late spring or early summer as the result of spring run-off, when winter snow melts and runs over the surface directly to the nearest stream. Some of the melting snow infiltrates into the soil (if the soil is not frozen), moving slowly downslope. Some of this soil water percolates deeper to the groundwater, moving even more slowly.

This Google map shows Flatrock and the abundance of freshwater ponds and lakes that are in the area. I don't think I'll have a problem with my well drying up anytime soon.

I would like to track one small trail of water as it searches for its way to the Atlantic here in Flatrock. The journey starts with groundwater, which is my water source through a well. Also the groundwater feeds some of the ponds close to my house. They in turn spill over into rivulets of water that wend their way through forest, meadows and ditches and feed my pond.

One of the wetland areas near my house is a small lane to the marsh. Its rarely dry and until the heat of summer dries up the flow, the path is like a river itself, if only a static one. I have painted this path several times and wanted to try it again, but in watercolour, to get a more delicate version of this rocky, muddy piece of semi-aquatic landscape.

I will continue to track the water as it heads towards the sea and show you where it takes me along the way until we reach the Atlantic ocean.

Van Gogh's fountain

I like studying what sort of marks artists make when trying to depict water. Here's an example of how Vincent van Gogh drew a fountain when using pen and ink. I spy ripples drawn with a variations in the weight of line plus dappled shade and spray!

Bear in mind he's an inpatient at the hospital at the time!

Fountain in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital

Vincent van Gogh - 1889
Van Gogh Museum (Netherlands)
Drawing in Black chalk, pen and ink
Height: 49.5 cm (19.49 in.), Width: 46 cm (18.11 in.)

Step back in time: The Cutty Sark

When I first started painting and printmaking I did quite a lot of pieces of old ships. I would walk down to Greenwich and sketch the Gypsy Moth and Cutty Sark. As a member of the Canvas Club of the National Maritime Museum (they are still around, but hard to find info about - ask at the Friend's desk at the NMM) we had special access for sketching days in the stores. You would be amazed at the ship's models that are in storage! Hundreds at least.

It was the start of my sea fascination in my artwork, and tied in well with my non-abstract style of the day. (If you'd like to see my large Cutty Sark linocut it's on my own blog today! It's about 1 meter high.)

Sadly, as most of you probably know, the Cutty Sark was devastated by a fire in 2007. What is left of it has been under wraps for a couple of years while they reconstruct it.

Yesterday, rooting through boxes of photos in search of some coast images from Kent, I stumbled upon photographs I took of the Cutty Sark I can't remember when! They were filming the remake of "The Four Feathers" in Greenwich and had the village trussed up like Victorian England and the Cutty Sark even had sails on. What a sight!


(I've made these images Creative Commons, so feel free to use them for your own artwork if you like.)

Painting Water: Book Review

Painting Water by Francis Dowden

Even though I am moving into oil painting for my Waterways Project, I found this watercolor book helpful. The author discusses such topics as how to make water look wet, dealing with issues of shallow water, rippling water and still water.

When I first began the Project, I was intimidated by all the various visual elements present in a waterscape...still am! But I found just plunging in by sketching, photographing but most importantly using the "gaze" many of us artist's talk about.

When observing water, it's interesting to see how various lights pick up and distort reflections and shadows. Shadows are darker than reflections and depending on the light can make beautiful cross patterns on the surface of the water. The sky reflection, just like the sky itself, has more color saturation as it moves forward in the picture plane.

It's nice to know the rules even if I disregard them or subvert them when the picture requires it.

Canvas and Paint Process 4

Final touches. The details need to be brought to life, minute touches of paint describe the form of ropes and canvas. The blue vinyl cover of the front boat must be "shinied" up and the water needs its sparkle added...

This is when I start nearly closing my eyes to see what to do, that and rushing to the mirror to "see" it all fresh and spot the glaring mistakes. I also try to dredge up the smells and sounds of the place, I want to give it that and I know of no other way other that intense concentration. If I get interrupted at this stage I am horrible!
Sometimes, right at the end of a painting I might make glazes of colour to adjust tones. To do this I use Liquin, you can also use Linseed oil. When you have used Liquin it will dry shiny but that can be sorted out by the final varnishing when all is dry.

So here it is, finished and dry. I will seal it with a matt varnish, two coats carefully applied with a soft brush. After that it is off to the framers. I use Sully's in Penryn. I was totally amazed at his work, a frame makes a huge difference and when I get this back I will take a picture and show you.
For this painting I have used small brushes, mostly flats, I have a couple of cats tongue shaped ones, nothing above a size 4. I tend to but packs of soft brushes, ones that say they are suitable for oil and acrylic, I find hogs hair too scratchy for my style. I will also use pieces of card or paper to almost print lines and little shapes onto the painting.

Finally I do try to spend some time really cleaning the brushes well with brush cleaning soap and then rinsing well and letting them dry flat on a tea towel.

You can see the EXACT location of this painting if you go here: Paintmap

I hope that you have enjoyed this sneaky peek into how I work and also that you have found it useful and informative.

Canvas and Paint Process 3

Now I am starting to block in colours. Each layer is slightly transparent so it is still possible to see the white under painting which will serve as a guide to the more fiddly bits.

Even though the sea beyond the boats will be very light in the finished painting I begin to block in the darkest of the colour that I can see in the sea! For most of the time with oil painting I like to work from the dark towards the light, this however, is only a general rule, I often break it.

And here I have done just that, painting in the lightest areas on the rowing boat and the covered boat. Painting what appear to be white areas is difficult and involves a lot of colour soul searching... when is white white... not very often in my experience. I tend to keep "tube white" (i.e. straight from the tube) to the very last moment, to give that final flourish. The tiny dabs of paint that make a painting spring to life. I have also begun to work into the blues. You can make a blue almost luminous by glazing one blue over another, for example a curealean blue first with a glaze of ultramarine, try it and see. It is important to mess around with colours to see what they do to each other, watercolours especially have different effects.

Every day I have a new pallet. I believe that this keeps my colour mixing up to the minute. If there is a grey mixed I might be tempted to use it rather than bother to think and make a judgement for each tone and hue.

Now I seem to have gone right back to a pale blue on the water. Indecision of just a change of heart? Not sure. I think the most important thing to remember is to keep an open mind, try things out, experiment, even right up to the last minute. Sometimes the wash or glaze that you sweep on at the last sitting is the one that transforms the painting.

The next and final post will include a paint map link to the site of these boats. See you soon.