Last summer we took a road trip around the East Coast starting out from our vacation home-base of Fredericton, up and east to Prince Edward Island (hitting Charlottetown, Cavendish, Summerside), looping down through Halifax (and Dartmouth then back to Halifax) and back to Fredericton. I took as many pictures as I could and I have been loving painting these in pen and ink and watercolour ever since.

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My first set of paintings focused primarily on PEI. I picked up this series again on New Year’s Day as a little break from my oil paintings. This time I’m focusing on a few great shots from Halifax harbour, from our first night in the city. This was also a great excuse to give my new Neewer light kit a try for filming. Watch me paint the Halifax Harbour at Night below then keep reading for more work from tonight and more details!

We arrived in Halifax on the August long weekend. We walked through the Harbour – the air smelled like the ocean and even though there was record-breaking heat during the day (it was seriously horrendously hot) the evenings were downright cold. Here’s my reference picture. Across the water you can see Dartmouth :).

Some painting close-ups:

I used my artist quality Winsor & Newton watercolour paints combined with my new set of Winsor & Newton gouache paints – the opacity was key for adding details in the night scene.

And painted on Canson Watercolour Artboard:

My painting set-up with Neewer light! Awesome! Ignore my cluttered table. It’s pretty multi-purpose these days.

I’m loving the Neewer light kit. I have to play with the angle and height a bit more for my video set-up but it’s a huge step-up from my previous arrangement of children’s alphabet blocks, wood board, and playing cards for leveling. Thank you to my sweet husband for the fancy Christmas light kit and to my in-laws for the Christmas gouache paints and artboard that made this painting possible 🙂 xoxo

It was so much fun to make this video tonight. Thanks for reading and watching everyone!