Oistins, Open Air Pub, Barbados

Continuing with the theme of 'hot' paintings, this one was done in Barbados, near the town of Oistins famous for it's fresh fish, and weekly barbeque-dance parties. In Barbados it is 31C in summer, 30C in spring, and 28C in winter. On this day it was about 30C, and the sun was shining as usual. This bar was just on the road- side (there is basically only one road in Barbados, encircling most of the island), and as you may see in the painting, there were no doors or windows, just open spaces in the wall. I would like to see them do that in Montreal right now! An empty chair sits in the bar, inviting the viewer. The strong warm sunlight changes the colours quite a bit from what you may be used to in Northern America, everything seems a little richer with tinges of pink and yellow. At first I had a difficult time capturing the colours correctly, but soon I learned how to slightly exaggerate the colours for a greater effect. Look into the shadows depicted in this painting (the side of the building, the stairs) and you see that they are filled with rich warm tones. I also emphasize the chalky, pastel-like colour palette: the orange roof, the minty green wall, and the deep purple asphalt road. Uncharacteristically, I sign with a legible version of my name in this one. I think I may just have to fly back to Barbados right now and do another painting, just so I can fix a few little mistakes....and maybe have a beer at 30C. 

 Oistins, Open Air Pub, 7 x 10" cold press November 2001 (No. 1198)

Playa de la Malva-rosa, Two row boats, Valencia, Spain

In the midst of this massive snow storm here in Montreal, I feel the need to post a few beach paintings. Here, I was sitting on a very hot beach in Valencia, a big city on the Mediterranean, painting an interesting scene that includes several colourful boats, warm sand, and the emerald blue sea. The sky is a stark, baby blue with not a cloud or snow flake in sight. Has it ever snowed in Valencia? I'll pick up a bit on yesterday's blog where I described how to paint fire (without burning your brush), and explain how to paint sand. In fact, painting sand is a lot like painting fire, they are both very light values (value is a term that means the lightness or darkness of an object), and they both cast a lot of light on their surroundings. To paint sand I usually use a combination of a light yellow (aureolin or lemon yellow) and rose madder genuine (or permanent rose) with a little bit of emerald green (a thick, light green). Then I place a few little dark highlights to enhance the value contrast of the sand; In the above example I placed a few darker shadows on the sand, and adjacent, a few dark shadows of the boat and the dark cool sea. Finally, I fill the shadows under the boat with pale orange highlights to depict the hot sun reflecting off the beach. Now, can I paint myself into the scene? 

Playa de la Malva-rosa, Two row boats, watercolour 5 x 8" cold press, 1998 (No. 0891)

Stay Warm (Unleash your Creativity)

Aptly named for the current weather situation in Montreal, 'Stay Warm (Unleash your Creativity)' deals with the subject of keeping your skills sharp even when it becomes a challenge to do so. The message is universal, but I got the idea from my own philosophy of painting, which is to keep painting all the time regardless of life circumstances. A common excuse by many artists is that they do not have enough time and that they will actually paint when they retire. There were times I felt like this too, but I solved it by lowering my expectations about what I wanted to accomplish in a single sitting. If I sit and paint for 1 minute, it is a whole lot better than not painting at all. In the painting, the woman on the chair is staying warm (creative) even though her front door is open, the snow is blowing in, her floor is turning into icicles, and strange creatures are celebrating the cold outside. A bonfire in the foreground keeps the cold at bay. How can you paint 'fire' with watercolour? It seems like a contradiction in many ways. The key is to create the illusion of fire, in other words, the illusion that there is a bright object emitting light. To start, the fire itself must be a very pale pink/yellow...generally the pink and reds go near the bottom of the flame and the yellow near the top. Then, add little dark red or even green highlights into the flame, this creates a contrast effect that makes the fire appear bright. Next, make a colour fade around the fire, look at the example in his painting and you see the light orange ground near the flame fading to a cool brown. Finally, plan to have objects near the fire that will appear to reflect the light from the fire. In this work you see the angel in the foreground with a thin highlight of bright pink on its wing, and the legs of a dancing ghoul with reflected yellow light depicted. For another good example check out 'Elemental Equation' posted April 2008. 

Stay Warm (Unleash your Creativity), watercolour 11 x 16" cold press, 2007 (No. 1769)

Bench, Yellow Hydrant, Flowers, UWO campus, Ontario, Canada

Here is a small landscape I did when attending University of Western Ontario. At the time I was interested in painting regular objects like benches, fire hydrants and garbage cans, all of which appear in this example, done just in front of the hockey arena on the south part of campus. By keeping the subject matter rather simple, it put a lot of emphasis on the overall composition of the work and demanded an attention to detail. Each object, although not exciting in itself, fits together with the overall scene.

Around the time I was doing this kind of paintings I discovered a few basic tricks to create rich, colourful shadows. In this painting, the wall of the arena (with the diagonal lines going across it) was done with a mixture of cerulean blue (an opaque, sky blue) and rose madder genuine (a soft pink). While it was still wet I dropped in the lighter greens of the tree. The mixture of cerulean and rose madder is actually quite dark (compare the white edge of the painting to the wall), however I made it appear more luminous by putting really dark objects on it (the diagonal lines, the dark tree highlights, and the reflections in the glass windows). The end result is that the shadow appears colourful and light, and not dull and dreary.

Bench, Yellow Hydrant, Flowers, 5x7" cold press. 1999 (No. 0672)

Jack and His Sailboat

This painting was done on a lab retreat several years back, up around Mt. Tremblant north of Montreal. My whole lab was there swimming in the water, you can see one of the students paddling a surf board with his beers. In the distance there is a sail boat, my boss was sailing it with the father of the host. Even farther in the distance is a small yellow speck which represents the paddleboat with two other students. I also took the boat out after the painting was done, and actually tipped it over a few times. Ooops. The treeline in the background was done using a wet in wet technique. First I paint the sky, and while it is still wet I put in the green of the trees, which blends into the sky. In actual act the tree line looked sharper, but when you try to paint a sharp edged treeline it often comes out looking fake. By using the wet-wet technique the trees kind of blend into the background and give a better sense of depth. I also keep the detail pretty minimal on the distant trees, which also helps create a sense of depth, and allows the viewer to focus more on the main subject, the people. One small note on composition: the chair in the foreground was a huge risk as it actually dominates the painting (in terms of area), however in this case it works well because it really enhances the sense of depth, and also creates interesting shapes that break up an otherwise monotonous composition. 

Jack and His Sailboat, watercolour 10 x 11" cold press, 2006 (No. 1121)

Downtown Sculpture in Pink, London, Ontario, Canada

Here is a painting done awhile back when I was living in London Ontario, around the time when I would have just begun doing outdoor landscape (on-location) paintings. Ordinarily, as a rule I do not try to paint other artists' work, as is the case here, because the creative design would really belong to the artist, not me, the painter. However, what drew me to this scene was not just the sculpture but how it fit into the surroundings. The green stairs contrasted the reds in the sculpture, and the dull grey brick in the background (that awful concrete stuff they put up in the 70's) makes a good neutral contrast for the colours. I also liked the deep blue shadow you see in the middle structure. I may have discussed this a few times on occasion but it is worth going over again the concept of 'leaving white space'. In water-colour you can not overlap a lighter colour on top of a darker colour (unlike oil or acrylic where it is very easy to do), so to paint the delicate reds and greens in this painting which are lighter, I had to leave some white space when I painted the background. Then near the end I would have filled in the sculpture. On the other hand, you can start with the light colours and then paint the background around it, whichever you choose. But one could not have done this painting by laying down the background and then trying to put the pink and greens on top. 

Downtown Sculpture in Pink, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 1997 (No. 0707)

Happy Days (Alien Hand on a Post Apocolyptic Earth)

In the course of exploring various watercolour techniques I came up the painting seen here, 'Alien Hand...'. I wonder what people would think of this painting without the title? It kind of looks like an octopus trying to stick it's head into a vase, or some kind of incredible-hulk insect reaching for the sky. Hmmm, those sound like pretty good ideas for future works.
The main technique used was to apply a very wet wash (like a miniature pond) onto the canvas and let it dry. The next day I looked at it and tried to imagine what it could be. I applied the red-blue washes on top to create the shape of the hand, and finished with the earthy colours on the bottom that make the terrain, and put in a few dark trees on the horizon. I used a similar strategy for 'Dream Tree'.

Happy Days (Alien Hand on a Post Apocolyptic Earth), watercolour 11 x 5" cold press 2005 (No. 1497)

Lab Book #2: C451 The Bomb

Over the holiday I dug through my pile of old paintings and found a few that fit in the doodleism style. In this example, the composition was based on lecture-note doodles from my chemistry 451 course. Left-middle you see a bomb coming down on a ballerina who seems to welcome it. In the top middle is a character locked in a cage. Again, the theme of insecurity, failure, and being trapped comes through in the work. Did I really feel this way? At the time (4th year university) things were going pretty good so it is unfair to say I really felt these things. But I guess sitting in a boring chem lecture does invoke some depression.... In retrospect I decided to include this in the lab book series. Originally I planned to create new paintings for Lab book 1-3, but the discovery of these paintings seems to provide a logical fit. I will assign two more paintings to the lab book series (including , 'Caged Mind' which I posted last month, and 'Chem 453 Free the Monkey', which I will post shortly). The decision to put them in the series was primarily because they were done before the core Lab book paintings (which began with #4), and also fit well with the development of the overall design themes and evolving concepts of the entire series. In particular, the designs of the Lab book paintings begin with more 2-dimensional compositions and evolve into more 3-dimensional illusions, and the themes evolve from feeling trapped and insecure, to feeling free and confident. 

Lab Book #2: C451 The Bomb, watercolour 15 x 11" cold press, 2003 (No. 1748a)

Elliptical Horizon

Here is the original 'Elliptical Horizon' painting which came before 'Elliptical Horizon Reprise' posted December 2008. The actual Horizon was covered up in the painting, barely visible- it was scrubbed out and covered with the red wash near the bottom of the sky. The painting depicts a Kangaroo on a flying sled, blasting through a blizzard. She is heading 'somewhere' according to the signs on the twisty highway, and away from 'nowhere'. However, in the 'nowhere' direction lies a comfortable and warm looking house. Is the Kangaroo going in the correct direction? The title of the painting suggests that the directions are actually one in the same. The snow effect was a bit of a trick....once the colour wash is just about dry, you toss in some regular table salt and there you go, once it dries the snow effect is complete. The challenge was to keep the snow flakes looking similar in all the different colour washes. To do this, I make sure each colour wash had about the same level of moisture before tossing in the salt. To check the moisture level, I tilted the painting a little and looked for reflections. When a colour wash is wet it looks shiny, and when it dries it becomes more matte (dull). 

Elliptical Horizon, watercolour 10 x 11" cold press. Fall 2008 (No. 1398-2)