Have a Ball, Washington DC, USA

Recently I was in Washington DC for a conference, near the hotel there was a little sculpture of the Amercian flag wrapped around a globe, not sure what the symbolism was supposed to mean but it made for an interesting painting subject. Normally I do not like to paint pictures of 'other people's art', for example, as seen here, a sculpture that somebody else designed. But in this case the sculpture was only part of the larger landscape, I liked the way the red of the flowers near the sidewalk played against the reds of the flag, and thought the fence line was interesting enough to carry the painting and make the sculpture an accessory rather than the main focus.

On occasion I have had to paint spheres, they most commonly appear in lamp bulbs, but similar types of shapes are found on cathedral domes, or in this case, globe shaped sculptures. There is going to be one small area of the sphere that is reflecting maximum light, you should decide where that is and make sure to leave it totally white (blank paper, as there is no white in watercolour). Around the white dot I then do a gentle fade from pale orange, blending it into the shadow part. Usually that never quite looks right so I puton a third layer or even fourth layer to get the shadow looking right. At the bottom of the sphere in this case, there is some yellow reflected up from the grass which I made with a few drops of lemon yellow and a touch of virdian (a deep green). Overall it is a high level of difficulty to paint a sphere, and in this case there was the overlapping flag elements, which I put on last. Then I wrestled with the thing for awhile, lifting paint here and adding shadows there. Fortunately it turned out okay in the end.

watercolour 5x7" cold press 2011

Petite-Ile, La Reunion

In the south there is an area called Petite-Ile, the water is very rugged so the beach there is not safe to swim at, in fact they had a sign saying that you could die here... citing shark attacks and rough water as the main potential dangers. The sand was cool too, it was a mixture of white coral and black volcanic rock, I took a small sample for the collection. This scene was up on the embankment, looking towards the south. The rain was just about to come on, so the clouds thick and the scene kind of grey, yet still warm feeling.

I have always tried to emulate Monet's technique that he used in his materpiece 'Field of Poppies' which of course was an oil painting. He placed thin layers of sky-blue on the field to give the feeling of the light from the sky reflecting off the grass. The same type of effect was needed in this painting, but it is impossible to put light blue on top of anything when you are doing watercolours, so instead I started by painting a purply/blue field, then waited for it to nearly dry, then on top layered on the greens and organges of the grass. Finally, I put on top some suggestion of grass texture, the details not too much, and a little palm tree effect too near the foreground. In homage to Monet, I also left in the little peach-red flowers on the shrub. Incidentally, I once copies the "Field of Poppies' using acrylic, it is the long lost Monet sketch that will one day be discovered and sold for millions, as long as nobody notices that Monet used oils that is....

Watercolour, 5x7" cold press, 2011

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal 2011

'Jazz Fest' as it is usually referred to by the anglophones, happens once a year in Montreal, situated in the downtown core in the newly renovated entertainment district. In the painting you see the new light standards, twisting and curling around eachother like cats tails. In the background is Place de arts, decorated with banners and signs. The usual crush of people is depicted in the middle ground, and for the few lucky ones, they are sitting at tables in the foreground, no doubt enjoying some brand named beer that sponsors the event.

There are several signs in the painting, three large posters on top of the place de arts, and a long banner just over the windows of the same building. There is also text printed along the umbrellas in the foreground. When painting landscapes, it is rarely worthhile to try and make the writing that you see on signs and posters actually readable. You're painting a landscape afterall, not an advertisement. At any rate, it is exteremely difficult to try and copy the writing you see, I have tried, and failed many a times. So I just kind of represent the letters as blocks and curves and circles, so you get the sense that there is somehting written there. As a strange fact, I also find it very difficult to write words when I am in the middle of painting a picture...the brain has switched into an abstract mode of colour-shape-line-feeling, and so when I have tried to write something into a painting, it feels like being a child again almost, and I make many spelling errors. There are more than a few obvious spelling errors in the painting titles (which I often write immediately after finishing, or during the making of the work), and some obvious attempts to correct the error (which is really hard in watercolour) can be seen in the titles too.

5x7" cold press, 2011