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