Doug Rutherford

It’s a few days late, but I made a bit of a milestone anniversary the other day. I am now on year 6 of the painting a day challenge. Year 5 saw me do 383 paintings. Yes, that’s more than one a day, although there wasn’t a day where I didn’t paint in that year. Actually, the last day without a painting was December 25, 2023.

Anyway, here is the first painting of Year 6, done on March 21st. I don’t think it’s quite finished. Note that the sunken tree may look a little like the kraken emerging from Lake Laberge.

Reflections on a cold morning. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day 1848.

I have to pack up my gear to spend 4 days as Artist in the Window at Yukon Artists @ Work gallery starting Tuesday. Before that, I had to figure out what I’m painting this week. I also had an errand to run today, so I wanted something special.

This is Mount Haldane, near Mayo, Yukon, Canada. It’s one of my favourite mountains (if I can have a favourite stove burner, I’m entitled to have favourite mountains). Depending on where you view it from, every face has its own rugged character, and I am a sucker for textured in mountains. This a view from a spring evening.

Mount Haldane. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day 1843.

This morning, it was overcast with light snow. Suffice to say, it was a bit depressing this close to the spring equinox, when camping season and fishing start to become major topics of concern.

I decided that it wasn’t the best morning to do a winter scene.

I rooted through my photos for some near-solstice sunsets, since I took quite a few such photos last year. This is one from early June, when it was still light at 11:35 pm.

(Near) Midnight Sun. Watercolour on paper, 8×10 inches.
Painting of the Day 1842.

I have been thinking about how loose my painting style is and haven’t been overjoyed with that particular consideration. So today, I strived to be a bit more loose in a painting. This was handy since I was having some trouble deciding what to do for the painting of the day, and needed something reasonably quick since I have an appointment later.

I settled on this spring view of Kluane Range mountains near Destruction Bay. I think I’ve achieved my aim, working on loose painting and colour harmony, although I did have some sky issues and it ended up a bit muddier than I wanted. Conveniently, I’m doing an online course with Andy Evanson on painting skies so my sky issues may go away.

Twilight in the Kluane Ranges. Watercolour on paper, 8×10 inches.
Painting of the day 1832.

I am working on paintings for an upcoming exhibit in July, and while I have picked some to go in it, a lot of these are winter paintings. I do need a bit of a variety for the show, so I have been trying to do a few more summery scenes.

This is from one of my favourite hiking trails in town. Miles Canyon has a wide range of scenery to choose from. This is a view from the middle of the bridge across the Yukon River, looking north.

View from the bridge, Miles Canyon. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day #1827.

I have been working into doing some larger paintings over the past while. I bought a pad of inexpensive paper for practising, since I’d rather mess up a $4 sheet of paper than a $30 one. I felt like working on a larger one today and poked through my photo collection to find a suitable subject.

This is from a camping trip to Marsh Lake Territorial Campground (no, Google Maps, it is not a “state” campground.) It was taken down on the shore on the path past the cook shack shelter. I really don’t like this particular paper, but I need to use it up.

Marsh Lake twilight. Watercolour on paper, 16×20 inches.
Painting of the day #1824.

It’s a rather nice feeling when you start with a blank piece of watercolour paper and fill it with something you really like. My taste is different from that of anyone else, of course, and I’ll often get comments on how a good a painting was on social media after it’s been converted into a dozen pieces of scrap in the recycling bucket.

This was one of those paintings that, as you work through it, make me rather optimistic about the end result and I’m quite content with how it developed. And, although the exhibit is in July, a nice winter painting is always in fashion.

This is from a photo taken in the woods just off the Fish Lake Road (N60° 43′ 21″ W135° 11′ 00″).

Sunset off the Fish Lake Road. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day #1822.

After decades of teaching, I still agonize over doing workshops.
What should we do? Is it within the skill levels of the participants? Will it take longer than the allotted time? These questions are only the openers and I usually worry about more.

I have a workshop coming up for the end of next month and after several hours of trying what to do, I think I’ve settled on this painting. The theme is sunlight coming through trees. I did this one this morning, although I suspect we’ll make a few alterations in the final version.

This one has a lot of spattering, which in a workshop with 1o people, should be somewhat… entertaining.

Morning in the forest. Watercolour on paper, 8×10 inches.
Painting of the day #1821.

I have an exhibit coming up in July, tentatively called Against the Horizon.

The name and theme is a bit of a joke. I’m a member of a Facebook group of reference photos for landscape artists. I submitted a few photos the other day, but they were declined. The rationale was that, since they were of moon shadows on the snow and fox tracks under a tree, they had no discernible horizon and therefore, weren’t “landscapes.” I’ve never seen that criteria in any art dictionary.

Anyway, joke aside, here are two potential paintings for the exhibit.

Moonlit trees. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day #1817.

Mount Martha Black. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day #1818..

I think I may actually be tiring of winter. I like winter, but the last few days have been windy with -30°C wind chills and it hasn’t been pleasant. Therefore, it was obviously time to do a non-winter painting.

This is from a photo I took on a photo run a few years ago. I went out to Dezadeash Lake, took a LOT of pictures, and have probably done more than 80 paintings from that one trip. This is the view from the highway look off by Kathleen Lake.

Mount Worthington. Watercolour on paper, 11×14 inches.
Painting of the day #1812,