"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: