Final Flames ?

It's been awhile since my last post- Fall is usually a little more challenging at the University and this is the one painting I finished lately. There is a larger one on the go too. As usual this style draws on notes I took usually at work, there seem to be no shortage of long meetings in which one can doodle a lot. Can you tell how I may have been feeling at the time of these doodles? The whole painting was based pretty much on one single doodle with a few additional items. The black-hole shape in the middle background was put in there as an experiment- I wanted the doodle to feel like it was on a piece of paper sitting on top of a dark table or something. On the right edge there is some light outlines of shapes. The other inspiration for this was exploring the idea of illness which affects many people- the character in the middle has many extra limbs emanating from it's body, and the fire is making things uncomfortable. The blue sky at the top shows the positive energy and hope for health.

Final Flames, 22 x 15" cold press. October 2014 (No. 3347)

Frog's Legs (Neon Pink Webbed Feet)

This is a small painting I did some time ago, it was likely done from my imagination on the spot (rather than copying prior doodles out of notebooks). The technique is a little rough in spots, but the colours are really fantastic. Notice how the pink of the frogs feet is reflecting off the rocks just below, this creates a luminous glowing effect. The burnt seinna sunset is a cool effects too. The colour combination in the sky (burnt sienna and ultramarine) is something I have used since the beginning of when I painted. At that time I only had about four or five colours. It is good advice for a beginner to start with just a few basic colours and then work your way up to using the more exotic colours.

Right now I am thinking about moving my style a bit towards a graphical look- something that would look good on a cellphone backdrop for instance. Lot's of contrast, bright colour, and strong design.

Frog's Legs (Neon Pink Webbed Feet), 5 x 7" cold press 2007 (No. 1468)

Origins of Original

The doodleism style typically follows a set of small drawings from my workplace notebooks and lab books, but in this case everything in the painting was conceived of as I painted. It actually took five months to complete this painting...which is longer than 'Construction at site 22, lab book#8' which took about 4 months. 'Construction' took so long due to the extreme amount of detail, but in this case the some slow progress was because of the challenge of coming up with original art on the spot, you sort of wait for the right time and feeling and then put the idea to paper. I also spent a lot of time on the quality of the finish, making sure the edges were well done and the washes smoothed out. The last thing I added was the trail of ants on the far left, partly to balance the composition there, and partly because I dropped some black paint there and had to hide it with something !

2014 (Mar-Jul) 44x30" watercolour ,

Floral Fusion (originally untitled)

This is a painting I did many years ago, the exact date is unknown but it was done some time in the early 1990's after my Mom had bought me some new paints and paper. When I first started I used student quality paints which have less pigment, the new paint was "artist quality" which has more pigment and better binder (the resin that makes the paint stick to the paper). This era was also a transition between the flower paintings that marked the first few years of my paintings, and the eventual switch into abstract. This one in particular was done from imagination but based on the many studies done previously from picture books. The box was an actual box I had, and still have, it is really old and used to hold pastels. This painting is a fusion of floral, still life, and abstract so I rename it here 'Floral Fusion' though it had no title originally. While the technique is rough in parts, my ability to create a realistic scene with volume, light, and shadow was already apparent. In fact, I remember being rather depressed from the results of this painting and considered cutting it up, but Mom always said to keep them all. Glad she gave me that advice!

22x30" cold press (300lbs). 1993 (?)

The Train Ride 2013

The date is not always obvious, but this time it says right at the bottom: 2013. The strange thing is that this painting was based on a drawing I did while on a train ride probably back in 2010 or so. I found the drawing while cleaning out a drawer one day and thought it would make a decent painting. The painting recreates the original drawing almost exactly except for the colours which were created afterwards (the original drawing being pen on plain paper). The inspiration was the idea of moving- when I did this painting my apartment was up for sale and a move was imminent! In terms of style this is a classic doodleism technique- strong outlines visible and plenty of whimsical characters, broken skylines, and mind-numbing creativity.

22x15" cold press, Nov/Dec 2013

McGill University, Montreal Canada

McGill University in the winter is very picturesque, with the snow on the ground and the trees in the background. This painting was done from a photograph that was taken I believe in October or Early November when the trees still had a bit of leaves on them. It was quite some time ago that I painted this one because I no longer work from photo very often, and also this painting was done on a very thick type of paper called 300 lb press. These days I use a lighter paper called 180 lb press, mainly because it is inexpensive, easier to store, and I am very used to it after some time. This year in fact marks the 25th year since I began watercolour painting- way back in 1989 when my Mom signed me up for a class in Bolton. It has been a long journey with lot's of twists and turns- I started by painting mainly flowers and then turned to landscapes by early 1990's, and then abstract in the year 2000, with the doodleism technique emerging around 2004. The last decade I have been exploring mostly the doodleism style although the current painting I am working on is more of a free-form abstract. Unfortunately no new art to show because the current painting is on an enormous piece of paper (44x30"). I guess it's time to listen to my Dad's advice and use bigger brushes!

22x20 cold press 300lb.  2005 (?)

Sidewalk Sidewalk

Long time no see! I just finished a big move, living in the west part of Montreal now near the campus. In the spirit of moving, I painted this one called Sidewalk Sidewalk because there is a sidewalk with sidewalks walking on it. The rest of the composition is an organic doodleism design flowing back and forth. The change from winter to spring is also suggested by the warm colours and yellow sunlight poking out here and there.

I used to paint every square inch of the paper- even backgrounds always had colour washes or details. I started consciously using blank space (no paint) in the background starting with the 2010 solution (posted May 2012), or perhaps even earlier with Higher Ground (posted July 2008) where I explained the influence of Chinese art in my work. The top left portion of 'Sidewalk Sidewalk' has no colour in the background... the blue tint is just from the photograph. The nice thing about the white background is that the objects on top really stand out. In the middle under the pyramids, and the sidewalk on the ground in front are also white or near-white, which helps create this sensation of bright light even though the skyline suggests night.

11x15 cold press. March 2014

Constraints (-ed)

It has a strange title, at first I thought 'Contraints' and then I thought 'Constrained'. I am not sure what the motivation was for this painting although it was extremely cold that weekend (3o below) and I was up in St. Saveur at a conference- so maybe I was feeling a little trapped. The character is a sad looking conehead in a tye-dye sweater. This actually was not based on doodles, but done freehand and freestyle on the spot. It uses elements of the doodleism style including bold colours, strong lines, and the broken horizon. 

Lately I have been thinking about definitions of artistic styles. It's funny because most artists would not want to be associated with a particular style even though they often are. I have tried to define my own style of doodleism, which has a unique combination of elements borrowed from surrealism, cubism, fauvism, impressionism... all the fun 'isms'. I try to challenge the style every time. For example, in this painting I applied vertical red and orange brushstrokes on the face of the character- normally I would have blended these brushstrokes with the background in order to make the face more lifelike. It worked out though, those red streaks bring memories of Monet.

11x7.5" cold press,  Dec. 2013

The Ice Storm

This is a small painting I did over the holidays in Bolton Ontario during the big ice strom that covered everything in an inch or two of ice. The orange rectangles falling from the sky represent the ice. The thing in the front is simply a creative shape invented on the spot. I noticed the way heavy ice affected trees in Bolton, this is reflected in the dropping tree branches on the right.

There are several fauvist elements here- the red shadows and orange ice cubes for instance. Fauvism is basically a style where you put colours that shouldn't be there just for the fun of it and to surprise the viewer. The doodleism style is a mix of other styles including fauvism. Some aspects of doodleism are cubist- cubism is where the artist deconstructs reality into broken lines and shapes that are mostly two dimensional in appearance. Other aspects of doodleism are surrealist- surrealism seeks to portray fantastic and imaginary landscapes in a highly realistic, three-dimensional manner. Doodleism often contain imaginary landscape elements but are not intended to look hyper realistic like classic surrealism (Dali example). In doodleism abstracted lines and shapes with two dimentional appearances take the stage in an environment containing broken horizons, multiple viewpoints, and different seasons all at once. 

Is it ok for an artist to define his or her own style... normally that is what critics do. I suppose we are our own best critic after all.

11x7.5" cold press. December 2013

She Was...

She Was is an abstract painting done using variations on the doodleism style. The variations include surrealistic landscapes, dream-like forms, and a sense of free creativity. The surrealistic landscape is best seen in the middle right portion of the work, a psychedelic sunset and mushroom are on the horizon (are they related), and the colours are fauvist- or perhaps tie-dye?

When doing a large painting like this, there is always a temptation to overwork the detail in parts. In the old days I started on the bottom right with a lot of detail, and by the time I got to the top left I was bored of the painting and tried to rush it. The problem then, was that the attention to detail was inconsistent and distracting at times.
 After awhile I learned to begin with the focal point because when you begin a painting that is when your enthusiasm and creativity is at its peak. In this work I began with the center elements as well as the funky landscape in the mid right. As a result, the focal point has the most detail and complex techniques which holds the viewers interest.
 
These outer sections were filled in in a matter of hours, in fact the entire top left portion with the orange mountain and blue sky was completed in about 20 minutes, as compared to the central shapes which may have occupied over five hours each.

22x30" cold press. January 2014.

Peak Performance

It's been awhile my friends and family! Always difficult to take good pictures in the winter, this was taken on a flatbed scanner which looks ok. The painting is a typical doodleism style, derived from doodles done during one of our never-ending faculty meetings. They all know I doodle now but they still renewed my contract anyways. The coi pond at the bottom was an addition I made during the production of the painting not from the original doodle.

Fauvism is an art style where funny colours are used in funny places. Matisse, Gauguin, maybe Canadians like Milne and Carr used this technique. In my painting above I made all of the trees a bright red- the reason simply was to throw in some fauvism!
11x7 cold press 2014