Land Escape

Landscapes can be so much fun to paint when you are making them up in your head. I tried to draw on landscape motifs from things I have painted on location, to the left most is a classic beach scene with white sand and turquoise water, on the right top, you see rugged Canadian shield reminiscent of the work I did in Algonquin park years ago. In the middle of the painting there is a visual transition from the two types of landscapes, with the flying character sort of torn between the two (or is she tearing them?). The feathers of the character are woven into the landscapes, is she escaping, or being held back?

This painting was based almost entirely on doodles from my lab notes, but instead of following them to a tee, I introduced some visual elements that were necessary to convey the tension that the flying character was feeling. Firstly, the pine tree in the top right is dissolving into the sky and streaking into the form of the flying character, and the loopy lines on the foreground are flowing into the tail feathers making it look she is either trying to tear away, or the land is holding her back... I intended the message to have an ambiguity. As for the two characters in the bottom right, not sure what they are doing, but they look like they would also want to be on the beach....

22x15" cold press, 2011

Scene on the Seine, France

In Paris this spring I had the chance to paint late in the afternoon and the sun was rapidly going down so I headed to the Seine river, this scene would be looking onto the tip Ile St. Louis where a bunch of people were catching the last of the sun and in the backdrop would be Ile de la Cite, if the painting extended up and to the right a bit, you would see Notre Dame Cathedral. I took a bunch of pictures too, maybe one day I c an expand it into a larger work... the idea of putting Notre Dame cathedral in this small painting was rather daunting and the time was short.

Painting the water in the Seine was indeed an interesting challenge and quite the opposite to painting the Indian ocean or carribean sea, here the water is muddy and choppy, the buildings shadow a lot of it, and the boats going by constantly create a lot of waves. I tried to capture it best by laying down rather thick brushstrokes in a Monet-like fashion, or maybe like Tom Thomson in 'Jack Pine' where he used interlocking brush strokes to create the illusion of a sunset reflecting on the water. Here I use the technique to create the illusion of brown sludge reflecting off the water, mixed with highlights from the blue sky and white foam of the waves.

5x6" cold press, 2011