The Extruders, and The Deluge

Jumping up and down in celebration, this painting was completed just after Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal in 2010 Olympics for the Canadian men's team, and I made a marking to that effect on the center left of the picture. I was living on Clarke street in Mile End Montreal in a medium sized flat, the best part about it was that I had a dedicated room to use as a studio for the first time up until I moved in 2011. Conceptually this painting explored lines and forms, which construct and deconstruct throughout the design. In one passage, the image of a brick house reflects in an amorphous bubble. Another work from 2010 called The Woven World  used a similar concept of forming shapes with intertwined ribbons. 22 x 30 " cold press. watercolour, 2010

In  2010 I completed 5 large format paintings which was the largest output I had done up until then, in 2013 I would eclipse it with 6 large works. Part of 2010 was shifting the style away from dark and gloomy and more towards light and open. In between these two paintings was the "The 2010 Solution" where I totally opened up the design elements and reduced the amount of doodles. Following that, I did a completely spontaneous painting without using doodles called The Deluge, shown here. It had balance and colour problems in the composition although the effect was striking and the meaning was deep. The sky effect was created using large wet washes of alizarin crimson and letting them dry overnight. I first used that technique to great effect in Dream Tree.

22 x 30 " cold press. watercolour, 2010