Swan Lake, Copenhagen, Denmark

We took a detour from Sweden going down to Copenhagen by train, only 3.5 hours or so, there is this new bridge that goes across the sea. This scene was near our hotel, it is not really a lake, it is an old defensive water system that was turned into a kind of park, all around the water is a nice jogging trail, benches, and cafes. There were a lot of swans and seagulls in the water, probably because people were feeding them. The weather was very cold this day, a bitter wind gusting and low sun making it even colder.

There is always a balance between painting exactly what you see, and painting more or less what you feel. This brings in the concept of the 'artistic license'....the unofficial license that all artists are entitled to, to basically change things. I wont even say what I changed in this painting, other than to say that I wanted the scene to look cold, but feel warm. Ok, one little thing, I did omit several lamp posts from the bridge, it would have been to tough to paint them in there. This painting is also a good example of how to create the appearance of detail, the windows and roofs are done in a minimal way but the overall feel of the architecture still feels detailed and genuine.

7.5x11" cold press

Choice to Pursue

Definitely inspired by fall colours, this painting is a doodleism style painting incorporating images from some recent lab notes. I don't think there is any central theme to this one, but the fishing rod-like object in the foreground gave me the idea of the title which suggests a pursuit or fishing activity. When I look at this painting I almost taste cinnamon, like in those little red candy hearts they used to give on valentines day. I should have called this an alternate title: "Valentine heart-flavoured day at the fishing hole; the story of an ant."

I have not touched much on how I invent these often bizarre titles to the abstract paintings. In some cases the title is taken from words in the lab book, either before or after I finish the painting. When I know the title before I tend to work the composition with a bit more purpose, when I add the title last I study the painting sometimes for a few days before deciding on a title. In this example I included the title mid-way through the painting, and depicted it with block letters incorporated into the design. For the most part I inscribe the title in the margins though, often leaving a dent in the edge of the design where I can fit it in afterwards, so that when it gets framed one day the title is visible. Also, I never date my work as per some early advice I got.

22x15" cold press. 2010

Gothenburg, Sweden, Sunset on the Condos

The most challenging part of painting in Scandinavia was the relatively low light from the sun, it kind of always felt like morning even in the middle of the day. The other issue is that the cities are very dense and lined with 6 or 7 story apartments which cast shadows. I finally found some good locations to sit where the sun was on me, and the sun was evident in the picture. I did not want to produce paintings that looked drab and overcast, although it was still important to capture truth to the image. In this example the sun was setting, and the apartments in the distance and on the mountain top were highlighted. The additional challenge for a watercolour painter in these low light, humid conditions is that the paint doesn't dry fast. At first I tried to use multi-layer techniques, but it was taking too long to dry. If you inspect this painting you can see especially in the silhouetted building in the front, several bleed-overs (when two washes run together) that were un-planned. As I continued to paint pictures there I adjusted the strategy by trying to get the effect with a single layer. This requires more experience, you need to judge accurately on the first try your colours and values, but in the end it makes the painting look a lot fresher. 

Gothenburg Sweeden, Trees and Apartments 11 x 7.5" cold press. 2010 (No. 1221-1)

The Woven World

This is probably as close to a 'Dali-Doodleism' fusion as I have accomplished... the melting figures and low-azimuth (the tilt of the ground towards the horizon) is classic Dali, a 'homage' if you will, but the random assortment of objects ... the stop sign, the alien eye-ball beast on the right, and the prolific weave pattern are all elements of a doodleism style. Both styles, Dali, and Doodleism are basically the same thing... surrealism, which is defined by an imaginary, dream-like landscape. By no means did Dali invent it, although he and his contemporaries in the ealry 20th century popularized it, but if you look at Hieronymus Bosch who painted in the 15th century and you find some really bizarre paintings that are classic surrealism.

To establish the colourful weave pattern I started with colour washes done wet in wet so they blossomed and bloomed and bled together. Once dry I overlayed with the weave pattern, which I spent some time working out in my doodle books during some meeting or another. The weave pattern is highly variable, which makes it more interesting, rather than making it a mathematically precise kind of design. Once the weave outline dried I overlayed a grey wash to give the weave density, leaving the colourful parts to show through...I wanted there to be a surreal light coming from under the weave. Also, as in the beach painting presented last time, I put a red wash on the bottom of the picture to make the foreground warm and pop out... I do this is almost every landscape after I learned the trick in 2004 from an art dealer/critic in London Ontario at the Artisan's Alley.

15x11" cold press. 2010.

The Birds.... in Mexico

A scene even Hitchcock did not imagine... there you are resting on a tropical beach looking out on the blue water and seeing Cuba in the distance (the buildings on the horizon of the sea), and then along come a flock of killer birds. These birds were not very dangerous looking unless you were wearing a french-fry suit, although I am not so sure about the pelican...you can see one in the painting standing on the artificial reef. They eat human flesh don't they? Probably just fish.

Painting things that move when you are sitting on location is hard. Birds, cars, people. So often I keep the moving elements out of the main composition...if there are people I keep them near the bottom or buried in the foreground, if there are cars I usually just show one parked or scribble in one in the distance. These strategies down play the importance of the moving object in your composition. In this case however, I made the birds central to the composition, the arrangement of the birds form an "S" shape starting on the bottom left where the birds tail is off the picture. The "S" shape draws your eye around the picture. I also used the classic 'red on bottom' trick... notice the splash of red in the sand that makes the foreground warm (and thus it pops off he page) whereas the background is all cold colours. Together with the "S" composition, these tricks give a lot of depth to the landscape.

5x7" cold press 2010.