Safety Lines

I used to play with 'tinker toys' which were round wooden pieces with holes in the side, you could connect them with sticks to create elaborate structures that were fun to jump on or throw down the stairs. This painting was inspired by the tinkertoys, except the sections are connected by cables. When I did this painting I had a pretty good idea as to what it meant, but alas I have forgotten. Looking at the painting it seems that people on their own little islands are none the less connected to one another by these safety lines. There are also various shapes on the platforms, one of which has fallen in the soupy-green water.

There are a lot of ways to create depth in your work, I have touched on a few points before. One trick is to put warm colours near the bottom, here the island in the bottom right is the brightest red, also the orange shape in the middle is very bright. Another trick is to fade you colours in the background, make the colours look a little paler to suggest atmosphere. The background segment (at the top of the painting) is done in pale pastels, creating the sense that they are off in the distance. To make paler colours, just add a bit more water to the same colour mixture you used for the bright part. In this way you have the exact same hue (colour) with a lower value (lighter).

11x14", hot press, 2001

C451, #3; The Lesson

This could have easily been included in the lab book series, it was based on note-book doodles from my 4th year chemistry notes. I did this painting around the same time as lab book #1-3, well before Lab book #4. I suppose what stopped me from including this one in the lab book series was that this painting has a lot of 'depth' to it: the audience in the foreground, the perspective of the classroom, the blue sky and trees seen behind the fence to the right of the chalk board, all contribute to a highly 3-D image. The depth, plus the colour scheme, and overall feel of this work puts in the same stylistic category as the lab book #14 series 'three ringed flying circus on wheels'. For those reasons I felt that this work did not represent the continuum of visual ideas , but was rather ahead of it's time in the Lab Book series journey. I have not talked much about the actual doodles that these paintings come from. Most of them are in the margins across the top or down the side of the note page. The doodles can often be long and narrow, as you may notice in this work, look around the left right and top and you see some wide or tall doodles that make up the ceiling and the walls. In terms of the doodle content, I sometimes draw things from my surrounding (the professor in this case, and some students) although most of it comes from my imagination. Most if the doodles are flowing and organic, stripes and twirls and dots, less frequently I make the doodles linear and mechanical. But I always strive to make the doodles different from each other. I suppose that is one feature that drives the creativity, if you always just try to make one drawing different from the last one, you end up creating something totally different and ever evolving. 11x 14" cold press, 2002-2003?

EDIT: At some point I retrospectively included this in the lab book series, Lab Book #3, The Lesson

Spinners

A group of blue people (grown up smurfs?) spin around in circles, but are they enjoying themselves or clinging on for dear life? At the top one of the ropes recoils, suggesting that one of them let go. I'm not sure what the message is, but I suppose "Life is exciting, if you can hold on." would suit the theme.

The people in my paintings are simple but get the basic message across. I expressed movement with extended arms and arched back, and used basic foreshortening techniques, for example the fellow in the foreground has a large head and small feet, giving the character perspective. In this case the people are solid blocks of colours, with no attempts at skin or clothes. My simple approach to painting people has a bit to do with lack of formal training, but also my style, especially at the time when this painting was done, was to do paintings fast....this one would have been finished in under two hours. Trying to put more detail would add hours to the work, which saps the enthusiam. As I mature I tend to spend more time on a work, see Cosmetic Makeup, where I went for more detail on the face, although not so much the body.

12x16, hot press, 2001

Orb Vine

Here is a rather strange painting I did a number of years ago, it kind of reminds me of an old science fiction movies or TV show, kind of like those fake looking sets they designed for the original Star Trek TV show.

I used a variety of brush techniques to create the various textures and washes in this painting. The background in the mid section which is a dark green/red, was 'lifted' using a clean brush with white water, and probably wiped a bit with a tissue to remove some of the paint. I did this to prevent a big dark area in the painting which is usually a bad thing. By lifting, I also revealed some of the green colour, and created a nice sandy texture. The Orbital part of the vine was done with a wet-wet wash, which I let dry and then painted the red 'veins' over top.

14x11" hot press paper, 2001

'S' Tree, Dominican Republic

Another from the Dominican Republic trip, this painting shows a palm tree that juts out towards the sea and then grows straight up. From this angle, looking out to the sea, the bend in the tree created an interesting S curve that crossed the beach and the sea into the sky. I also was drawn to the light reflecting on the bark of the tree from the white sand, as well as the rich purple shadow cast on the beach. This painting also served as inspiration for the colour scheme found in a painting I posted earlier called 'Life of an Onion'.

Here is another good example of how to create a luminous shadow by using value contrast. The purple shadow on the beach is fairly dark, compare it to the white border of the painting, but it appears to be very light and airy. To create that illusion, put a dark colour right next to (or on top of) the shadow, in this case I used the roots of the tree to provide the dark contrast. I used a similar strategy on the bark of the tree, note the dark lines which both create the feeling of palm-bark, as well as provide the dark contrast for the luminous reflections.

The other trick with this painting was the leaves of the palm tree-one of the more difficult things to paint- over the years I learned to depict the overall shape of the palm leaves instead of trying to paint every single leaf...it is tempting to paint all the leaves, but then it starts looking like a pile of hay or messy hair instead of a palm leaf. In this painting I started with larger blocks of colours, and then put just a few fronds in to give the feeling and energy of the palm tree without overdoing the details.

5x7" cold press. 2009