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