Austria, World Inspired Landscapes

 Rainy days are good for the plants but not good for the watercolour painting. I took the opportunity to do another installment of the world inspired landscape series, this time based on Austria. Since the library opened I Was able to borrow a book on Austria and learn more about the mountainous country. The library only allows reservations and pickup, they limit the number of people actually in the library. Austrian landscapes tend to be soaring mountains and lush turquoise lakes nestled between valleys. In the book, they had a picture of a motorcycle driving down a winding road paved in interlocking bricks which gave me the idea for a mosaic style. It was a way to breath life into a design that could otherwise look like a post card. There is nothing wring with postcard designs, but I am trying to go for some interesting stuff with the world inspired landscape series. There is a page with all of them, the pages are in the drop down menu, or on the sidebar menu. 

3 1/4 x 12" cold press, watercolour, Sept. 2020

Snow Scenes, Caledon

 

After seeing my recent abstract work on the blog, this is a dramatic difference! I used to go around Caledon and take pictures with my  hand me down film camera. After getting the film developed (remeber that?) I would sit down and make paintings in my bedroom. In fact, this was the first realistic looking landscape painting that I ever made. There were a few imagination paintings, but this one was the first to use a photo to recreate reality. I remember being so thrilled by this one that I did a second, almost identical copy of it. It is one of the many roads up in the forest near Bolton camp area. 

Bolton Camp, Snowy Trail, 9 x12" watercolour paper, watercolour, 1993, (No. 0078)

Here is a another one done using the same methods... walk in snow, take photo, develop photo, pick up developed photo, paint picture. Looking back on these, it was impressive that I could capture the correct snow shadow colour, tonal yellows and greens, and a huge range of grey and brown, all without actually knowing much about painting. By then I had about 4 years of practice under my belt, mostly with flower paintings.

Bolton Camp Snowy Road Curve, 9 x12" watercolour paper, watercolour, 1993 (No. 0086)

 

This painting was done from a photo I took on a family ski trip, my sister was actually in the photo, but I edited her out to focus on the trail and shadows. It was not a slight, just that my skill level wasn't at the point where I could merge a figure painting with a complex forest scene. My skill level is still not quite there and its 2020! Maybe I can find the old photo and try it again. 

Ski Trail in Woods, 9 x12" watercolour paper, watercolour, 1993 (No. 0077)

Abstract Letters

Here is the last abstract from my recent pile of scans, after this I am foing to show some early works, and blog about some of the old travel collections. In my laboratory notes I had developed this doodle style using abstract shapes to recreate the letters of the alphabet. There is no rhyme nor reason to it, just freestyle. You may be able to guess what this one says, I will put the answer at the end of the blog. 2.5 x 7.5" hot press, watercolour, 2018

 

On the back, I did a surrealism painting, it uses some Van Gogh motifs like the cypress trees and golden field. I call this one 'Toenail Lea'. A lea is a field, its a word I learned from doing crossword puzzles. This size of paper was not deliberate, I had cut out larger sized pieces from a 22 x 30" paper, and used the leftover cuttings for experimental paintings. 2.5 x 7.5" hot press, watercolour, 2018

 By the way, the first painting says 'Peter', and I called the painting 'Abstract Peter'

Falling Fish and Japanese bridge, Four sketches

Is four today's blogging theme? I just posted four abstracts I painted over the course of last winter. My idea was to redo some of my favorite old paintings using Van Gogh's and Hiroshige's style of painting and design. In this example I was working off 'The Fish Catchers' from 2007, the new sketch has a brighter colour scheme, and an elaborate perspective. 'Falling Fish 1' 5x7" cold press, watercolour, 2019

Clearly there needed to be more falling fish in this painting! Actually this one was painted first, and I decided to reduce the number of fish. The bridge is also further away here. By creating a 'bird's eye' perspective like this, it places the viewer up in the sky with the falling fish. This means you, the viewer, are one of the falling fish. 'Falling Fish 2' 5x7" cold press, watercolour, 2019 (on the back of falling fish 1)

 

And then there was one. The perspective here places the viewer (you) down on the shore, looking up at a falling fish. Maybe you are the fish catcher now? Just by changing perspective, it alters the narrative, the feel. In the first designs the viewer is falling from the sky, here, they are safely on the ground. 'Falling Fish 3' 5x7" cold press, watercolour, 2019

 The last version contains a background scene inspired by Hiroshige's Nihonbashi bridge print in his 'Great Tokaido series. It uses a grounded perspective suggesting that the viewer is one of the fish catchers. From these studies I learned that perspective can be manipulated to put the viewer in different situations. You can feel like a person, a bird, a cat, or even a flying fish!  'Falling Fish 4' 5x7" cold press, watercolour, 2019 (on the back of falling fish 3)

 There are also a large number of pencil sketches in my sketchbook that I worked on before (and between) doing all of these paintings. Perhaps this winter I will tackle it again and see if I can create a large, finished piece of artwork.

Four more Abstracts

 As I go through the boxes of paintings I am scanning them and making blogs. The first box is full of Canadian landscapes from Ontario and Quebec, the second box is full of small abstracts and travel paintings. I also have 4 portfolios stuffed with larger paintings. These paintings were done in 2018, probably after the trip to Europe judging by the energized colours. I make them small like this so that I can finish in one sitting, and to increase the quantity of ideas. From time to time I'll select a good one and make a larger version. This one is called 'Two Story Hut on Island' 5 x7" hot press, watercolour, 2018

 

Here is a little abstract painting containing a Dali-esque, Hodge-podge of items, like a doodlers garage sale. How is that for mixed metaphors?  'Autumn tree, ball, brick buildings' 4 x 6" hot press, watercolour, 2018

 

During the 2018-2019 winter I was studying and emulating the Japanese print makers such as Hiroshige, for example his famous 'Sudden Shower' print. I noticed that in his snow scenes in particular, he made the trees look as if they were catching the falling snow, kind of protecting the land. There may have also been limitations of the technique too, it is hard to get overlapping details in  block printing. In this scene an abstract hand prevents bad weather from descending on a grove of olive trees. Blue colour-contrast emphasizes the conflict. 'Stopping Weather' 5 x7" hot press, watercolour, 2019

 

And on the back I painted a rough sketch of a surrealist landscape. I was thinking of 'The 2010 Solution'. This one is called 'Sky Straw' text B side of Stopping weather

Palette Cleanser #31

 

One last blog for the day, here is another famous palette cleanser (My favorite is still the first one!). The idea behind this one was to create a campy lamp, like the ones consisting of a mannequin leg, or maybe a flamingo. It turned into more of a stone monolith with clouds, or an atomic explosion! Most of the painting was isoindo yellow (PY110) a warm, nearly orange yellow that I started using this year after reading Handprint.com (MacEvoy). I use this yellow so much, that I bought a bigger tube. Since I started using it to mix olive greens, I also decided this week to have benzimida yellow (PY154) and isoindo yellow each represented twice on my palette.That way I have yellows for warm mixes, and yellows for green mixes. Cleaning the paints helps too, hence the palette cleaning! 9 x 12" watercolour paper, watercolour, September2020

Observant Nature

Nature is watching over the world, trying to keep us safe. But we burn and pollute the planet with impunity. Trees grow evenly spaced on a circuit board, birds attached to the wire. Now things are in order, nothing can move, nothing can be ruined. Observant nature ever present will not let us fail. Watercolour, Hot press 2 3/4  x 7.5", 2018