House View, Reunion Island.

This is the last blog of 2016, it has been a good year for painting, I did less large works and more small works. Over all I probably painted a lower number of paintings but concentrated on the quality. In this post I am showing an old painting done on location on Ile de la Reunion in the Indian Ocean in the town of St. Denis. The old volcano is visible on the horizon. They call it the old volcano because it is no longer active, as opposed to the one to the south of the island which is quite active. At least this paining reminds of warmer times in the midst of a cold and snowy winter up here in Montreal.

Complementary colours are important to emphasize, in this painting the organe awning complements the blue sky. There is also a purple shadow on one of the houses that complements the yellow tones. I rarely think about complements in a literal way, instead I just try and feel the colours. Another trick I used here was to put some dark lines over the window in shadows to give it a luminosity.

5x 8 " 2011 Cold press watercolour.

Stress Fix

We all need a little stress fix now and then, sitting on the bottom of a pond under pressure, negotiating the creepy crawlies. This painting was done from a doodle that I did during a conference that was very stressful, in fact the conference was actually on stress, as a scientific topic rather than a set of feelings. The painting is pretty much the drawing as it was composed and detailed in the preliminary work.

I have often tried to create the eerie glow of the bottom of a lake or ocean, in this case it ended up looking more like the bottom of the pond due to the green and yellow glow and idea that there was a strong sun over top. It was not intended to be an underwater painting at all but somehow the combination of the kelp, and the wavy sand at the bottom, and the fact that one of the creatures looks like a fish, all combined to give it an underwater appeal.

7 x 9.5 " (17.5 x 24 cm) watercolour, cold press, Dec. 2016

Camoflage

An angry hamburger might have been a good alternate title for this painting. Or pink slime perhaps, the synthetic version of beef that fast food chains sometimes use. Soylent green also comes to mind. My work often depicts eerie landscapes and creepy creatures.

Red and green make up the classic complementary colour scheme. In this painting, the main object has the two colours featured, as does the background element in a more pastel fashion. Most of the brown is also made up of red and green combined.

8x 10 " cold press Watercolour. Fall 2011

Sideways Trees

Is looking at a painting sideways while it is right side up the same as looking at a painting right side up when it is sideways? This painting attempts to answer that question using some visual trickery and clever design. I was somewhat inspired by that painting of the guy with the apple in front of his face.

Painting things that appear to be sideways is not so hard, you tilt the paper on an angle while doing the art, and when it is finished, you put the painting back to being upright. 

11 x 7" cold press water colour 2016 Nov

Montreal Neurological Institute (Journey Southward)

The most common type of commission painting is a painting of a pet, a family member, an old house, or a vacation photo. In this case the project was to depict a transition of a colleague from one University (McGill) to another in the US. The painting has scenic elements from Montreal in the top left, the Institute in the central portion, and a symbol of the family going for a hike in the foreground. The tree colours were a bit of an embellishment to make the feeling of a fall scene. Unfortunately the colours are a little washed out in the photo of the  painting because I had to take it inside, using conventional lights instead of taking the photo outdoors in the full sunlight as I would normally.

This painting was extensively planned. For every hour of actual painting I spent about 2 hours planning, for a total of around 20 hours. This included meeting with the client and working with online resources to get the proper imagery. There was also several sketches and a preliminary mockup to work out the final design and colours. In the end it came out pretty much the way I had hoped. The painting was framed and given to the colleague at the end of a conference with a large audience. I gave a little speech and explained the work. People had been complaining about the weather and the relatively gloomy fall we had, so I made a quick joke about artistic license and how there was no rain in the painting.

22 x 15" cold press watercolour. October-November 2016

The Shadow Fisher

When you need to go fishing an old legend says that you need to lean over the water to cast a shadow and the fish will congregate there for easy pickings. That might work for minnow fishing but probably not for big ocean fishing. This painting was based on a doodle done a while ago, it depicts an abstract character fishing for ideas. I liked the name shadow fisher because it was like somebody fishing for shadows and that seemed impossible.

Painting shadows is actually ideal for watercolour as compared to other types of paint since the watercolour paint tends to blend into the background and it makes for nice translucent layers. Here I made the shadows for the trees using wet-in-wet techniques, then when that was just a bit dry I added the second layer. I used plenty of sky-blue to get that shimmering effect on the shadows. Also made the share line and waves a bit darker where the shadow fell.

8 x 10" (20.5 x 26 cm) cold press watercolour, October 2016.

Thanksgiving, Bolton, Ontario

Bolton is a small town north of Toronto filled with trees and house-farms (suburbs). This view is from the back deck of my parents home, looking into the valley at the willow trees and fall colours. The Canadian flag sits lazily in the breeze. It was quite cold at this moment but the sky was blue and the sun clear and strong. This was done on thanksgiving weekend, the turkey was excellent, thanks mom! 

Texture is important in any kind of artwork. Sometimes in watercolour texture gets forgotten a little, just because the paint and the water when combined really give a smooth and easy effect. When it dries, you can put paint on top to make the texture using a slightly less moist mix. I used texture to create the effect of the willow trees in the background and to create the pine trees in the middle ground. Also the top railing needed a wood grain effect so I used some dry brush to give it that linear wavy pattern.

7.5 x 11" cold press. October 2016

Desert Appliances (Applications Unclear)

As time goes by a person is sure to pay more taxes, get wrinkles, and accumulate more and more kitchen appliances. In this painting an oddball assortment of shapes and forms are strewn about the desert. What are they good for? What is that frappachino maker good for sitting in the back of the cupboard? These are questions that can not be answered. I suppose in some ways this was a painting about science, why we do it, what are the applications.

This painting had kind of an unusual composition to say the least, there is a strong horizontal line going through the middle of the painting, it marks the bottom of the two mountain shapes and the swirly thing in the middle. The car is driving along the axis. Three other objects are intentionally crossing this line, the orange phone booth on top of the headless flower-duck, the alien-plant can opener on the ring mound, and the squid shape emanating from the ground behind the car. I did that on purpose to break up the strong horizontal. But I liked the idea, and left the whole central part of the picture more or less blank just to accentuate it. What I just described breaks just about every rule of the 'art book' and should never work, but like they say, rules, and appliances, are made to be broken.

22x 30" (55.8 x 76.2), cold press, watercolour, Sept. 2016

Exterior Temperature

Exterior temperature was an experimental work based on a doodle, which was itself an experimental doodle. The name of the painting appears in abstract letters across the top, down the middle, and completing along the bottom mound. Spend some time interpreting it and you may see all the letters. I also wrote it on the side for good measure. When painting this one, I did not think at all about the surrounding elements, and when I was finished I realized that the painting actually had an interior, and an exterior. The interior which covers the left/bottom is a very warm red-orange that gives the impression of a fire in a cave. The exterior is the cloudy sky and cold looking landscape in the bottom/right, with the electric flower thing dominating the skyline on the right. So there is an exterior temperature represented here, mainly through sheer luck or instinct, or gut feeling.

This is the time of the year when a professor (like me) needs to do a lot of planning, organizing, and managing. It is funny because as life imitates art, so does my life, which often imitates my art, which is unfortunately a little bit unplanned and disorganized. Basically I'm trying to say that at work I'm an artist at heart sometimes feeling stuck in a "type A" career surrounded by type A people. The good news is that over the years as I grew as a professional at work, I think it spilled over to my art hobby. My approach to paining is much more refined, and somewhat more organized, although I still procrastinate like heck if I have a deadline!

8 x 11" cold press, watercolour, Sept. 2016

Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, Quebec

From the Eastern Townships comes a scene painted near lake Memphremagog at the St. Benoit Monastery. This was not the main building of the abbey, rather it is a small chapel nearby that had a small area inside to pray. I was sitting in the picnic area fighting off the strong wind was blowing left to right causing the paper to flop around a lot. I liked how the building foundation was embedded in the rocky outcrop and how the trees and flowers framed the structure.

Painting different shades of green is vital for outdoor painting. I used several combinations here, the grass in the front is a type of sap green with lemon yellow, while the pale blue pine tree to the left of the picture is cerulean blue with just a touch of yellow, and a purple-green for the shadows. The bush that dominates the center of the picture is a yellow/green colour-fade into purple tones, then finished with a turquoise. Colour-fade is where you let two bodies of colour mix together when they are still wet to allow blending. The red molding and trim was the perfect foil for all the green.

11 x 8 " cold press, watercolour, August 2016

Mount Saint-Hilaire

Great views can be had in Quebec, this one was from atop Mount Saint-Hilaire a nature reserve and conference Center owned and operated by McGill University popular for hiking in the summer. The direction of this painting is roughly looking northeast, towards Sherbrooke and Quebec City, although neither are actually visible. Looking to the left slightly one could see Mount Royale and Montreal however there were too many bushes and tourists to get a clear view.

Painting on location is extra challenging one needs to find a place to sit and a nice view, not to mention some peace and quiet to reflect on the energy of the scene. In this case the mountain top was very crowded, so when I was painting this scene the entire view except for the rocks was obscured by about 30 or so tourists. Afterwards they cleared out and I could see that the river actually had a much more 'ess' shape to it, while in the painting it is more of a series of arcs, but it still gets the feeling across. Several people looked at this while I was doing it, they though I was famous!

11.5 x 8 " (28 x20 cm) cold press, Watercolour, September 2016

Grapes

Grapes are kind of fun to paint, they are shiny and colourful and make for good practice as a watercolour painter. This painting is quite old so I forget if it was done from a photo or real life, it is possible that I did this one from imagination or perhaps it was a study for the large work called "Grapes of Tuscany." At any rate, the technique is fresh and full of energy, and the grapes feel like they are ready to fall off the branch and into a bowl. I can tell from the style this painting was probably 20 years ago, it wasn't until 2000 or so that I learned how to control those faded colour wash... you can see here they dried in places creating hard edges on the highlights. It kind of works though, the lighting effect is quite realistic.

Cold press, (1996?) 14 x 11 " Watercolour (No. 0023)

"Automatic Update", and "The Scream Too"

Its not often that I repaint an old painting, in this case a visiting friend of mine who is an art teacher recommended some changes to the original design, and so I went and made a new version called 'Automatic Update' inspired by those updates your computer does to make the software better. The main design change was the composition on the left side of the picture, the ghost is moved to the tree trunk, and there are three bushes instead of one, and the building/structure is de-emphasized. The atmosphere is also adjusted, the original was a foggy overcast, this one is a sunny partly cloudy day. Oh yeah, and I added a subtle sea-scape on the left to create depth. For comparison here is the original version:

There are things I like about the original for instance the eerie feeling and the surprise of the ghost but then again the most common mistake for art students is to have too many ideas in one painting, that is definitely something I loose marks for on occasion! I always thought that when I get old and don't have any ideas left that I would take the time to go over my old work and re do certain paitings with improvements. However, I still have some ideas left in me I hope.

Automatic Update: 15 x 11 " (38.5 x 28.5 cm) cold press, watercolour, 2016

The Scream Too: 15 x 11 " (38.5 x 28.5 cm) hot press, watercolour, 2010

Gare Central, Montreal, Quebec

Gare central was painted on location some 10 years ago down at the train station, this scene is of a restaurant that is right on the concourse, it has an open concept so there is no roof just some beams to create space. It is filled with buffet style food and tables full of fruits and muffins and flowers. I has some time to kill waiting for a train, so tried to put in as much detail as possible.

I talked about suggesting detail before in the blog, this is a good example of it, the bricks, the food the people, it is all done in a fast and casual way. By doing this the painting gets a fresh energetic look, not to mention you can get the thing done in a reasonable time. People tend to move around a lot too, so painting fast helps in that sense.

11" x14, hot press block, 2006

The Robot Lives (The last of Seven Pieces: Part 7), and bonus

Last but not least here is part seven of the mini series I completed in July, done in the doodleism style it shows a small Gothic village with rolling hills and futuristic sculptures in the background. This one was inspired by the original doodleism paintings done back in 2004, for instance "Spanky's Fantastic Cathedral". Stained glass has been a reoccurring motif in my work, there are dozens of paintings depicting stained glass in all shapes and sizes.

To paint stained glass I usually start with the outline of the window and the shape of the glass pieces using a light outline. Then I fill in the colours one colour at a time, so you can see the same colour glass in all the windows. As it dries I then do a different colour. When it is all done I'll overlay a darker outline to make the iron parts stand out. I'll also add reflected colour to the objects around the window to provide a glow.

11.5 x 7.5 ", cold press Watercolour, 2016

Oh yeah, I found one more piece of paper from the thing I cut up for this series, so here is part eight of the seven part series, it's the last one I promise! It is called "One Less Horizon" because I tried to simplify it a bit compared to usual, there is only one horizon...

Egyptial Tale (The last of Seven Pieces: Part 6)

Here is part 6 in the series, it depicts an Egyptian scene with a mouse dangling from the hair of a god like character. Unintentionally, the character ended up looking like it has a US flag on its face. There is no theme between the paintings in the series that I know of, although you never know what the subconscious mind creates. These doodles were all done when I was at a stressful science conference !

The fire effect is a combination of techniques. It starts with the blue background of the sky wet, and then drop in a strong yellow letting it bleed around. Then I put the red outline on top when the under layer dries. This effect gives the feeling of an eerie glow. To further enhance the illusion of fire, I made yellow reflections on the body of the mouse and the hair of the character.

 19 x 28 cm (7.5" x 11.5), watercolour cold press, 2016

Psychological for Dummies (The last of seven pieces part 5)

This is part five of the seven piece collection, based on a group of doodles done in 2013. The style is doodleism, which fuses doodles with surrealism and cubism, which makes for a lot of isms. When I paint there is no real strategy or purpose, which is a little unusual for an artist's mentality. Perusing the internet for contemporary art one sees a lot of paintings depicting people and the human condition, or traditional themes like florals, landscapes, and animals. Where did I go off the rails with my art? I started with florals, then immersed myself in landscapes for a decade, and then in 2000 switched mostly to abstract. The feedback on the doodleism style has been so-so to date, the most viewed work so far was Potato Beach! View counts can be tracked on this blog, and the counts are way higher when I link the blog to reddit. Imgur is also a strong tool, I just checked today and almost every imgur image I link on reddit gets over 1500 views. That is pretty cool because it's like having your paining at a busy gallery!

19 x 28 cm (7.5 x 11.5 ") cold press Watercolour, 2016

Algonquin Park Scene from a Lake

This was a painting I made a long time ago from a photograph of a lake in Algonquin park probably Pog lake or Canoe lake, the scene is pretty typical for the area. The sun was just coming up, and the reflection in the water was spectacular. I can imagine the sound of a loon and the smell of fish.

This was done on a piece of hot press paper on a block, that is a stack of paper bound together by a latex seal around the edge. Blocks are easier to use because they do not really need to be stretched like usual. On hot press the layers are crisper than cold press, and the details are sharp, which really helped give this painting a sense of atmosphere. 

Watercolour, hot press paper, 11x 14 " crop

They Live (The Last of Seven Pieces: Part 4)

The fourth installment in the seven pieces collection, this one ended up looking quite extra-terrestrial hence the name. Uncharacteristically, there are no characters in this painting, compare this to Part 3 of the collection. In these seven paintings (they are all done now), I tried to explore different techniques with each one that I have pioneered in previous works, and also I created unique colour schemes for each one. In this case I avoided making too many sharp outlines by using a very pale blue to make the outlines. This idea first came up in "Paper Chase; No More Outlines). There is a also a diffuse-light monochrome look to create the feeling of an alien atmosphere, similar to what appeared in "Birdman".

Watercolour paint can be wild and crazy, which frustrates some beginners. Over time, the medium can be controlled, sort of like Neo in the matrix who learns how to control the world because it is all computer code anyways. In this painting I used a strong wet-in-wet technique to create the shadow underneath the central focal point (the tree). The trick there is to wet the paper just enough with clean water, and then drop in the shadow colour at the right moment, with the right moisture in the mix. It takes practice to develop a feel for it, there is no real rule or anything. The same technique was used in the sky, and for various shadows and layers throughout. Like the other doodles from this era (doodled in 2013) this painting fits the theme of escapism.

11.5 x 7.5 " ( 28 x 19 cm) Watercolour, cold press, July 2016

Plant Migration (The Last of Seven Pieces: Part 2)

Second in a series of 7 paintings, this one depicts an introspective sunflower going for a walk at sunset, perhaps heading home after a hard day of photosynthesizing? Chlorophyll aside, this humorous take on migration was based on some doodles I made back in 2013, during a very stressful time in my life. Many of the drawings have that element of introspection and escapism.

I'm often inspired by impressionism paintings or paintings done in that era. There was a movement in France just before impressionism where the goal was to depict normal people in their communities usually farms, working laborers instead of debutantes and rich people, or Greek mythology themes, as the academic painters of the 18th century and earlier preferred to do. As a result, there are some incredible paintings of farmers fields, with the most spectacular light and shadow affect, for instance Millet's "The Potato Harvest". I learned a lot of this stuff in art history class in high school, a notable teacher was Mr. William Clarke. In this painting, I tried to capture that feeling in the field underneath the sunflower.

7.5 x 11" (19 x 27 cm) cold press Watercolour, July 2016

Primoridal Growth (The last of Seven Pieces Part 3)

The third in a series of 7 paintings done on the back of an old painting that was the last of seven pieces. Confusing enough? Anyways, this one depicts a number of creature and creepy crawlies on an African Savannah. I wanted this one to be organic and primary (blue, yellow, red) colours.  Here I just tried to do the doodleism style as best as possible, using outlines and colour washes to build up volume and energy. The Savannah was created with a wet-in-wet technique where the sunset is laid down, and then the trees are put on top as the underlayer dries slightly. Add alizarin crimson when doing this because it stains and so creates a nice separation of colours.

 7 x 11"  cold press Watercolour, June 2016

Involvement of Fin (The Last of Seven Pieces: Part 1)

This is part 1 of a seven piece collection painted on the back of an old painting that I cut up into seven pieces. Actually there were eight but one had some marks on it. The 'last of seven pieces' refers to the fact that the original painting was a composite of seven paintings that were meant to be assembled into one large wall arrangement, with the theme of flowers in an abstract style. I never finished that so now I am using the back of the papers to do these smaller scenes. Hopefully that explains the title! The involvement of fyn was a note in the book where this doodle came from, the word fyn is an enzyme that controls how the immune system works, so here I adapted the word to mean 'fin' like a fish. As usual the doodles made at these kinds of meetings is a mix of claustrophobia and feeling trapped! I scanned the back side too so you can see what it looks like.

I've done quite a few underwater scenes before, one of the lab book series (The end of colour) comes to mind. When depicting underwater scenes, it is good to include lots of blue and green, and splashes of light and shadow, keeping the colour register in the neutral and pastel tones. Also good to add visual cues like seaweed and fish!

7.5 x 11 " (19 x 28 cm) cold press B side, watercolour, 2016

PS, here is what the 'back' looks like:

Courage to Grow

Courage is part of every artist's palette, it helps to get over the fear of a blank piece of paper and the thoughts of what other people may think about the work. It also means the artist is not afraid to expand stylistically and try new themes. In this painting, an abstract tree clings for life on the edge of a rocky crag, it reminded me of an old line of poetry 'he clasps the crag with crooked hands.' which upon further googling I see is from a poem by

Tennyson: "HE clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls."

Just change azure to pink and it was like I made this painting to illustrate the poem!

5 x 7 " (12 x 18cm) cold press, watercolour, 2016

Caledon Tree (Vanishing Landscapes)

One more for old times sake, this was done from a photo of a tree on one of the back roads where I used to ride my bike and where my Dad still does ride his bike, and my Mom too. I was painting the rural scenes in the area because they were picturesque, but also because they were slowly vanishing at the hands of building developers. I'm not sure if this tree is still there or not, it was not looking very healthy last time I saw it.

Painting from photo is tricky because the camera flattens out everything including the colours. Shadows that are normally filled with life become dark and neutral. Here, the shadows are clearly very dark which brings out more contrast but then looses a bit of the reflected light that would have come of the road and from the sky. The sky also takes on some strange tones in a photo and it is often really quite turquoise the farther up it is. Anyhow, this painting does capture the feel of the scene, I can almost feel the legs burning getting up that hill!

5 x 7 " (12 x 18 cm) Watercolour, cold press, 1996

Olympic Park, São Paulo, Brazil

This is a painting from São Paulo done two years ago it predates the upcoming Olympics and has nothing to do with it in fact. The locals call it that because the park is filled with sports equipment and has a sports complex there too. Surprisingly there was many pine trees there and pine cones on the ground the same as you would see here in Canada. São Paulo used to have a very temperate climate with lots of rain and cool weather in the winter. Now a days it is quite hot and arid the year I was there it had a drought. This one was done at Christmas time (the seasons are opposite there, in the Canadian summer it is winter there).

Painting outdoors is different every time, the humidity is one of the biggest factors that will affect the way the paint behaved. When humid, the colours dry slowly making layering difficult and details fleeting. When the air is dry the paint dries quickly making layering easier and details feasible, but then the edges get really firm. On this day it was dry but pleasantly coolish with a breeze, although the air temperature was over 30 Celsius and the sun was punishing. I had to sit in the direct sun for this one because there was not shade in the area, so the clock was ticking so to speak. Sitting in the open sun like that is not so good for the Peter, he is made for a cold climate! Anyways, that reminds me of Gibraltar 1998, I sat on top of the Rock in full sun painting this crazy scene looking down the mountain, I'll have to post that some time.

5 x 7" (13 x 18 cm), cold press watercolour, December 2015

Constant Scribble

Recently I have been working on doodles done back in 2013 three years ago. There was a stretch of doodles where I was depicting letters and words in the drawings, but not so that you could understand the meanings, just a kind of artistic gibberish. Here the sky has a few symbols and scribbles hence the name, the rest of it is an imaginary landscape.

The water effect was similar to the recent painting made on lac de deux Montagnes in Quebec, it is a good example of how some knowledge gained from location painting can be re-purposed for use in abstract painting.

7 x 11 " (18 x 28 cm) cold press Watercolour, June 2016

Broken Associations

Broken associations was a painting that almost did not get a name because I forgot to add it and also forgot to sign it. Just before scanning it today I completed the title and signing after taking a quick look at the original doodles from which the design came from. This title was written in the doodle book so it was easy; sometimes there is no title or words with the drawings and so I make something up based on the imagery.

As an artist it helps to travel in your life because it gives you ideas and impressions to draw upon when creating art. All of the doodleism paintings are done in doors from imagination and the source doodles (which are also done in doors) so you are relying on experience to create the natural looking scenery. In this case I was thinking about Donostia, a small city in the north of Spain also called San Sebastien. There you will find towering tree covered mountains around a beautiful white sand beach. I made those paintings on location there many years ago, and in this effort, completed yesterday, I tried to channel the energy and lighting of the scene.  Maybe I will post some of the old Spain paintings in the future, there are over 200 to pick from.

11 x8 " (33 x 20 cm) cold press, Watercolour, June 2016

Birth and Death (One Afternoon I Contemplated the Universe)

The world is full of contradictions, you say goodbye and I say hello according to the Beatles. Red and green, white and black, hot and cold, winter and summer, day and night, tomato and tomaaaaato. Okay most of those were actually contradictions. Life and death are the ultimate contradictions but then life brings death and in some belief systems death brings life. I represented a common theme in First Nations People's art, the connection between life and the land, which is depicted in the lines connecting the animal representations and the landscape and the elements.

In the traditional English method one does not use white paint or black paint, instead the white is from the paper itself and black is created from mixing complements, in this case red and green as seen in the middle central area where the red and green overlap. In this example it is optical mixing, because the two layers (red and green) are completely pure, dry, and the light passing through these two layers mixes to create the near-black tone. In contrast one can mix the two colours on the palette, but with watercolour this usually produces a faded and flat look. Optically mixed paint layers are shinier and have a lot more 'bite'.

22 x 15 " cold press watercolour. (56 x 40 cm) 2003

Apartments, São Paulo Brazil

Gone are the trees, replaced with the concrete elephants that have a hundred eyes and ears, hungry to eat everything around them. This is a scene just down the street where Cilei's parents and brothers live. I sat on the corner under a tree making this painting on a very hot day, some locals came by and they though that I was also a local person who knew Portuguese. I had to finish this one quick due to the heat. In the front you see the Brazilian flag on a building, in the middle there is a soccer field and some tennis courts.

When you are trying to finish a painting quickly the timing is crucial, I started with the sky in the background knowing it would need more time to dry so that the buildings would not bleed into it. Then the foreground washes, let them dry, first layer for the buildings, let it dry. By then it all looked thin, so second layer on everything the heat is drying the paint real fast. Last is the greens and the filler in the middle and details like bricks and light stands and highlights. Over all a painting like this can be finished in about 35 minutes.

6 x 8 " (15 x 20 cm) cold press, watercolour, 2015

Flower Painting No. 26

Back when I started painting watercolours the main subject matter was floral, which was a great way to learn about colour and technique without worrying too much about the exact form. Not to mention it was quite successful from a commercial standpoint as I ended up selling many of them including the second one I ever painted. Anyways, this subject was not as interesting as a became a University student, that is when I switched more to landscapes, and then abstract surrealism. Flowers have still shown up in a lot of paintings such as the last one I posted Rose and Wing. This one is in my parents collection.

14 x 11", (35 x2 8 cm) hot press watercolour, 1996

Rose and Wing

Here is an abstract painting I did, in this one, a rose is dangling from a winged claw-like limb or structure. In the distance on a grass plain is a small house and tree on the horizon. This painting is a tribute to Salvador Dali, inspired by his use of wide open spaces and surrealistic subject matter. I had visited the Dali museum in St. Petersburg Florida shortly before this one. I also had obtained the material to paint on at Artisan's Alley a gallery on London Ontario that used to carry some of my work around the same time.

Directional brushstrokes are useful when trying to draw the viewers eye into the focal point, in this case, it is the place where the orange shape meets the grass. To break the symmetry the orange shape is curved, and the two other centers of interest are in the upper right and lower left corners. Painting on the mat board was unusual in that the paint was absorbed almost instantly, it did not easily blend together so some of the three toned washes are choppy, but it helped with the detail on the rose and feather.

22 x 13 " (56 x 33 cm), Watercolour, white mat board. 2002

University of Western Ontario, campus view

An example of an old painting I did back in the day when attending UWO, probably completed in the summer of '96. That sounds like it should be the title of a rock song or something. Anyhow, the painting is rather rough in quality but I like the energy, it really conveys an energetic summer day with hot sun and a blue sky. There is a painting on the back of this one too, a recent doodleism effort, the one that is all in reds with a tree in the front, the name escapes me for now.

There is no signature on this painting which probably means I didn't personally like it or think that it was complete, probably due to the lack of windows on the building. I practiced painting windows that summer just to get better, but did not get back to the painting at hand.

22 x 15" (56 x 37 cm), watercolour 140lb cold press, 1996

Flamingo Heaven

Where do flamingos go when they die? A front lawn in Florida apparently. They have some garden gnomes and smurfs to keep them company. This painting was inspired by a  trip I took to Florida a long time ago, the car in the parking spot complete with faux skull in the back window (flamingo hell?) was an actual vehicle I saw in Pelican Cove St. Petersburg Fla. There were also these reflective balls on pedestals all over the place, so I put a few in here too.

Depicting bright colours when painting is all about the contrast, you want to put the bright colour up against some neutrals and contrasting colours, in the case the earthy green of the front lawn and the cool blue of the sky present the perfect backdrop for the candy-pink flamingos. I also faded the pink in birds near the house, and kept the pink at maximum saturation for the birds in the foreground. I wish one day I can paint flamingos in person, that is sitting in front of them. I wonder what they smell like, bubble gum?

14" x 11" (35 x 28 cm) Cold press Watercolour 2002

Bolton Farmhouse, North Hill (Vanishing Landscapes)

A while ago there was a farm near the suburb where my parents live, near the road was the farmhouse and some other small barns. I wanted to capture these scenes before they were demolished, in fact the bulldozer was already there ready to go. It would not be long before the house was razed, and the nearby barn actually burnt down. This is part of the 'Vanishing Landscapes' series of paintings done in the late 1990's around Caledon.

The signature I use on the paintings was developed a little before the time of this painting. When I started in the late 80's I used a PD initials with the year in a circle. Apparently putting the year on the painting was bad for business according to a friend of the family, so I started using the scrawl, without a date. Inspired by Monet and others, I wanted a signature that was impossible to read, it could be Paul Daton or anything with a PD and small t ! Just around the year 2000 I briefly used a new signature, which was my name in upper case printed neatly using blue paint. In 99.9% of my paintings the signature is in some shade of blue, usually meant to complement the sky or highlights.

5x 8 1/4 " (12.5 x 20.5cm) cold press. 1997 or 1998

Rooted Up

Here is a doodelism painting done with a slightly different technique, using a dark, almost black paint for the underpainting which includes the outline of the drawing. The colour is called "neutral shade" and it is kind of a warm transparent ink-like hue. It lifts off the paper easily which allowed me to create some light areas after the paint was dried by using a moist brush with clean water. I was inspired to buy some nearly black paint after the recent visit to the National Gallery and then to the Old Port in Montreal where there was a lot of large oil paintings. One common factor, whether it was from a classical painting from antiquity, a renaissance painting, an impressionist, or a contemporary, was that they  used a lot of bright colours and contrasting black and whites. In watercolour this is more difficult to achieve since the paint is thin and transparent, but I think the near-black paint here makes the drawing pop out a bit more. Normally I use the traditional English method for watercolour which states no black and no white paints are allowed to be used. I think this has a place, I'll try to use the black outline in the future but more for metallic or solid shapes.

6 x 8" (15 x 20 cm) cold press (B side) watercolour, June 2016

Lac des Deux Montagnes, Auberge Willow Place Inn

This is a view down the Lac des Deux Montagne, sitting in the garden of the Auberge Willow Place Inn restaurant where people go to hang out on the best patio in town. Cilei and her sister and boyfriend were chilling out on the patio having a cold one while I was sitting down on a small and uncomfortable rock among the reeds doing this scene. We had visited the National Gallery in Ottawa the day before and the memory of Monet and colleagues was fresh in my mind when I took on this painting. The composition was meant to show off the water as much a possible, with a Lauren-Harris kind of background with a church steeple and rolling mountains. The water ripples are modeled after Monet's brilliant brush stokes, and the directional effect of the waves was all part of the illusion. At the bottom I put in the little reeds and weeds for a splash of colour and to maintain the sense of depth in the picture.

8 x11" (20 x 28cm), cold press watercolour , May 2016


I then turned by brushes to the patio itself... here was an energetic and lively scene bathed in hot sun and good cheer. Loud voices and music, all there mixing with the historic old building and brilliant sun-brellas.The trick here was to put most effort into the background and supporting elements of the picture, namely the building and the lawn in front. The focal point: umbrellas, people and seats and tables were all done rather quickly to maintain a sense of energy and vibrancy. Parts of the central section are actually just blank spots left to create negative tension. Note that the feeling of scene should match the brush strokes and colour choices. In the top painting of the lake, it is meant to be calm, serene, with a mild breeze...so the colours are neutral and the brush strokes are solid and flowing. The patio painting on the other hand is dynamic, contrasting colours, and lots of jagged, unfinished lines that all come together to make the energetic feeling of a patio party.

To note, both are B sides done on the back of the old flower grid thing I tried to do ten years ago.

8 x11" (20 x 28cm), cold press watercolour , May 2016

The Clown Fish

There was a story in the news about a group of divers who went into a cave and then two of them got stuck near the bottom. It was kind of sad and tragic. When I went to make this doodleism painting that idea was still fresh, and influenced the design here which shows a watery-body full of fish and aquatic creatures, with a low lying ceiling of rocks over it like a cave. A little face appears at the bottom in a window, reminiscent of the original lemon sunset painting.

Creating the eerie glow on the rock overhang involved several layers of wet-in-wet applications. I start with a thin layer of clean water, then drop in some medium-wet peach colour, let it dry. Do the same a few times using increasingly darker tones, making smaller and smaller washes to get the shadow effect. Then put in a few tiny brushstrokes of dark. To finish the effect 'scrape' on some darks to create texture.. this is done with a fairly dry brush of paint, used on a steep angle, almost sideways.

7 x 11 " (17.5 x 28 cm)

Letter Be, Hue Too

The title, definitely inspired by the Beatles, as was the design, a crazy theme park in the desert with a giant elephant in the background. The other one, below, has got a similarly glib title, meant to convey the two colour composition of purple and yellow. These are the final two works in the lost pieces collection, mainly because I have run out of lost pieces (of paper) to paint on. It was kind of fun doing miniatures for a change it got the creative juices flowing again. I just finished a larger one, when the sun comes out I can take a picture and post it. Painting small paintings is a great way to learn faster than if you paint large paintings. That is how I started, with small works.

Letter be (left) 7 x 15 cm, Hue Too (below) 18 x 7 cm, 300 lb cold press, Watercolour, April 2016

Cyclist, suggestion of detail

Working from photographs is always a little more challenging than in real life except when things are moving like here where the scene is of a mountain biker riding away into the sunset. In this case it was an advertisement that I was working from, from a Mountain co-op flyer or something like that. Painting sun highlights is done by leaving the paper blank, so all the halos on the helmet, the arm and legs, and the tires are the unpainted paper. To make the highlights look bright you juxtapose dark colours, such as the dark suit of the rider, or the dark highlights of the background foliage. The main challenge when working from photo is trying not to overwork the details too much; in this painting I simplified the ground and there is very little actual detail on the bike, just a suggestion of detail. This was sold to a friend of the family having been framed, the mat is visible in this scanned photo of the original.

4 x 10 " (10 x 25 cm) cold press, Watercolour 1995?

Small Study 2015

One theme in my work is shrubbery, not just any shrubbery but THE shrubbery, the one in Monty Python's Holy Grail movie that is requested by the Knights that Say Neep. Since 1990 I have used the same technique to paint the small bushes as seen in the middle ground towards the left of this small doodleism study. It starts with the yellow underlay, sometimes let blend into the background sky, and then, when the yellow is starting to dry, layer in some light green or bluish hues, let it blend and dry a bit, then overlay with a dark green, let dry slightly, then dark blue (red), and then red-green sepia. It takes practice to get the timing... let one layer dry too much and the subsequent layers do not blend and blurr, while if the layering is too fast it all blends together and you loose the gradation effect. The amount of water on the brush also matters, too much the colours run together, too little they wont blend. The same technique was used in the sky to make the cloud, and in the grass to create the electric shadows, and in the red sky to make it look like darkness is approaching. 


5 x 8 "  (12.5 x 20.3 cm) cold press, watercolour. 2015

Lemon Sunset #4

Another lost pieces painting, done from some cutouts of a larger painting that I had scrapped. This is the fourth version of "Lemon Sunset", it is actually based on a doodle in which I was trying to work out the composition. In the miniature it was more about the colours and trying the technique for the lemon sun.  

To paint the lemon I started with painting the sky around a blank space shaped like a lemon. The sky is in purples, which is complement to yellow. Then I added some yellow-green in the center and yellow orange around that, leaving the edge blank paper to make the lemon glow. When dry, I put some dark dots on to give the lemon texture.

3 1/4 x 2 "  (8.5 x 5 cm) 300lb cold press Watercolour

Stratford Jazz (updated)

Jazz happens everywhere including in Stratford Ontario in the park. This painting was done on location, it was some time ago because it was the year the Toronto Raptors went to the semi-finals and lost in game 7, which was the year 2001. While I was painting this one somebody wanted to buy it along with one of the others and so I sold them on the spot, just taking a quick photo before they went off in the world. It was tricky doing this one because everyone was moving and stuff, but it was nice to paint along to some live jazz music.

5 x 7 " (12.7 x 17.8 cm) cold press, watercolour, 2001

 There was a second painting I made in the same little park, and the fellow bought that one too. I made a second one quickly which is what you see here. It shows a cannon & lilacs. (Guns & Roses?) 5 x 7 " cold press, watercolour, 2001

 

Rockley Resort, Barbados

 

Awhile ago I took a trip to Barbados for two weeks and made a number of paintings under the bright Caribbean sun. The first few I did were bland and lifeless, probably because I had just arrived from London Ontario in February where it was grey, cold and overcast. A local person saw my paintings and told me to add more colour, to make them brighter. The trick was to exaggerate the colours and push the contrast as much as possible, and to channel the energy from environment to brush to paper. This was a little scene across from the motel I was at, near Accra beach. It goes to show how important it is for an artist to be on location to properly paint landscapes.

Rockley Resort, Barbados 5 x 8" cold press, watercolour, November 2001 (No. 1165)

The Lost Pieces Collection

Good things come in small packages or something like that. I found an old painting that was done on 300 pound paper, that is very thick like the cardboard used in boxes. It's 100% acid free rag, cotton, with a lifespan of over 200 years- not that we will ever find out. The initial painting was not very good in fact I had already painted on both sides which I do on occasion if a painting is bad or I want to try something experimental. There was a lot of blank space so I cut out all the white parts of the paper and made a number of small paintings on the pieces. The paintings are quite small, they are a composites of several small doodles made during a long meeting at work with a Dali-like surrealism. Here are the six of them, in my longest blog ever! Reading across they are: Boxes, Second Samples, Kappa, Safe T, Reverse Flow, and Lost Pieces.

Top Left: Boxes, 3 1/4 x 4" (8 x 11cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Top Right: Second Samples, 3 x 5 3/4 (7.5 x 14.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Center Left: Kappa, 3 1/2 x 5" (9 x 12.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Center Right: Safe T, 2 3/4 x 3 3/4" (7 x 9.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Bottom Left: Reverse Flow, 6 3/4 x 2 3/4" (16 x 6.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Bottom Right:Lost Pieces: 12 1/2 x 3 1/4" (31 x 8cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016