The Amazing Baloon Act

I'm not sure where (or when exactly)  this painting came from, possibly a combination of doodles and abstract ideas. It is a good example of how I sometimes combine the landscape technique with abstract. The landscape was no doubt inspired by some of the sunset work I have done on location.  As for the poor guy in the basket, he's probably wondering where the baloon went.

The colour scheme for this one is for the most part a purple-yellow complementary scheme. Generally speaking you want to have some kind of colour balance, red-green, blue-orange or purple-yellow, you can also do triads (three colours) if you have a colour wheel. Personally I try not to think about it too much, rather, I listen to my instinct... the colours are a way to convey your emotion. In this painting the overall feeling is sombre and everything in it contributes to that feeling... the colours are mellow, the tree has no leaves, the man has his shoulders down, and most of the lines are smooth and flowing. I was probably feeling sombre at the time. Whether you plan it or not, it is important to try and match your emotions with the theme of the painting, if you can do it, the veiwer will not just see, but understand. Sounds like a fortune cookie.

5x7" cold press watercolour, 2007

Downtown St. Denis, Ile de la Reunion

Most of the paintings I did on Ile de la Reunion were intended to show the relationship between the urbanity and the natural landscape, with the exception of this one. I searched the downtown for an hour trying to find a scene that would show the green-topped mountain and the emerald-coloured Indian Ocean, but when you're down town all you see are these kind of run-down looking white plaster buildings. Everything has a thin layer of moss on it due to the humid tropical climate, the streets all smell a little oily from the diesel cars, the sidewalks are narrow and crowded, and it is hot, really hot. Finally I found this scene with the sign for a Chinese food store, powerlines, and an array of yellow and red tones. There is no nature in this painting, just the building, but it really captured the swelterin chaos of the place, it is very reminiscent of a painting I did in Kyoto, Japan posted Nov 20 2008 on my blog.

Making a painting is kind of like being on a roller coaster. You get the idea for the painting and then feel a little nervous... is it the right scene, can I do it, will the sun come around too fast, will the store owner kick me off their front step? Then you just start it, sort of like getting on the roller coaster, where the first part hauls you up this giant ramp, with that ticking sound as the roller coaster car moves up the tracks a sharp angle. Then at the top you look down the other side with terror and it lets you go and scream and it pulls you all over the place, and then just like that it's done. I forget what my point was with the analogy, but basically, when you are in the middle of making a painting everything is twisting and turning and you're not quite sure what comes next. I remember this one being just that, I was convinced that it was going to be a disaster until I put the brush down, and presto, it worked out. Time to take the ride again!

5x7" watercolour, August 2011

The Roland Garros, Ile de la Reunion

The Roland Garros is a restaurant in St. Denis, right near the waterfront of the Indian Ocean. From the patio, the waves can be heard crashing against the rocky shore. You can also hear the cars and trucks going by, but with the sun and fresh air you hardly care about it. In the distance is the old volcanic mountain that is populated by houses, if you zoom in there are some little houses depicted on the mountain crest just over the roof. What inspired me was the way that the natural environment was encroaching on the restaurant, it was as if the building was swimming in a sea of jungle foliage.

When composing a picture, 'balance' is always a crucial element. Balance of course is an optical illusion because everything in a painting is flat and has no weight, but your brain is always finding ways to estimate the volume and mass of an object. In the Roland Garros painting the restaurant is dominating the bottom left of the picture, this is a very heavy visual 'weight' that would normally create an imbalance.  To offset this imbalance, I created a strong element on the right of the painting: the towering tree, and the distant mountain behind the tree. Creating an illusion of distance is a great way to balance the other 'heavy elements', the old chinese masters used it all the time, in fact they often kept half of their paintings completely blank, which suggested a blinding, distant horizon.

7.5x11" cold press watercolour, July 2011.