Final Flames ?

It's been awhile since my last post- Fall is usually a little more challenging at the University and this is the one painting I finished lately. There is a larger one on the go too. As usual this style draws on notes I took usually at work, there seem to be no shortage of long meetings in which one can doodle a lot. Can you tell how I may have been feeling at the time of these doodles? The whole painting was based pretty much on one single doodle with a few additional items. The black-hole shape in the middle background was put in there as an experiment- I wanted the doodle to feel like it was on a piece of paper sitting on top of a dark table or something. On the right edge there is some light outlines of shapes. The other inspiration for this was exploring the idea of illness which affects many people- the character in the middle has many extra limbs emanating from it's body, and the fire is making things uncomfortable. The blue sky at the top shows the positive energy and hope for health.

Final Flames, 22 x 15" cold press. October 2014 (No. 3347)

Frog's Legs (Neon Pink Webbed Feet)

This is a small painting I did some time ago, it was likely done from my imagination on the spot (rather than copying prior doodles out of notebooks). The technique is a little rough in spots, but the colours are really fantastic. Notice how the pink of the frogs feet is reflecting off the rocks just below, this creates a luminous glowing effect. The burnt seinna sunset is a cool effects too. The colour combination in the sky (burnt sienna and ultramarine) is something I have used since the beginning of when I painted. At that time I only had about four or five colours. It is good advice for a beginner to start with just a few basic colours and then work your way up to using the more exotic colours.

Right now I am thinking about moving my style a bit towards a graphical look- something that would look good on a cellphone backdrop for instance. Lot's of contrast, bright colour, and strong design.

Frog's Legs (Neon Pink Webbed Feet), 5 x 7" cold press 2007 (No. 1468)

Origins of Original

The doodleism style typically follows a set of small drawings from my workplace notebooks and lab books, but in this case everything in the painting was conceived of as I painted. It actually took five months to complete this painting...which is longer than 'Construction at site 22, lab book#8' which took about 4 months. 'Construction' took so long due to the extreme amount of detail, but in this case the some slow progress was because of the challenge of coming up with original art on the spot, you sort of wait for the right time and feeling and then put the idea to paper. I also spent a lot of time on the quality of the finish, making sure the edges were well done and the washes smoothed out. The last thing I added was the trail of ants on the far left, partly to balance the composition there, and partly because I dropped some black paint there and had to hide it with something !

2014 (Mar-Jul) 44x30" watercolour ,

Floral Fusion (originally untitled)

This is a painting I did many years ago, the exact date is unknown but it was done some time in the early 1990's after my Mom had bought me some new paints and paper. When I first started I used student quality paints which have less pigment, the new paint was "artist quality" which has more pigment and better binder (the resin that makes the paint stick to the paper). This era was also a transition between the flower paintings that marked the first few years of my paintings, and the eventual switch into abstract. This one in particular was done from imagination but based on the many studies done previously from picture books. The box was an actual box I had, and still have, it is really old and used to hold pastels. This painting is a fusion of floral, still life, and abstract so I rename it here 'Floral Fusion' though it had no title originally. While the technique is rough in parts, my ability to create a realistic scene with volume, light, and shadow was already apparent. In fact, I remember being rather depressed from the results of this painting and considered cutting it up, but Mom always said to keep them all. Glad she gave me that advice!

22x30" cold press (300lbs). 1993 (?)

The Train Ride 2013

The date is not always obvious, but this time it says right at the bottom: 2013. The strange thing is that this painting was based on a drawing I did while on a train ride probably back in 2010 or so. I found the drawing while cleaning out a drawer one day and thought it would make a decent painting. The painting recreates the original drawing almost exactly except for the colours which were created afterwards (the original drawing being pen on plain paper). The inspiration was the idea of moving- when I did this painting my apartment was up for sale and a move was imminent! In terms of style this is a classic doodleism technique- strong outlines visible and plenty of whimsical characters, broken skylines, and mind-numbing creativity.

22x15" cold press, Nov/Dec 2013

McGill University, Montreal Canada

McGill University in the winter is very picturesque, with the snow on the ground and the trees in the background. This painting was done from a photograph that was taken I believe in October or Early November when the trees still had a bit of leaves on them. It was quite some time ago that I painted this one because I no longer work from photo very often, and also this painting was done on a very thick type of paper called 300 lb press. These days I use a lighter paper called 180 lb press, mainly because it is inexpensive, easier to store, and I am very used to it after some time. This year in fact marks the 25th year since I began watercolour painting- way back in 1989 when my Mom signed me up for a class in Bolton. It has been a long journey with lot's of twists and turns- I started by painting mainly flowers and then turned to landscapes by early 1990's, and then abstract in the year 2000, with the doodleism technique emerging around 2004. The last decade I have been exploring mostly the doodleism style although the current painting I am working on is more of a free-form abstract. Unfortunately no new art to show because the current painting is on an enormous piece of paper (44x30"). I guess it's time to listen to my Dad's advice and use bigger brushes!

22x20 cold press 300lb.  2005 (?)

Sidewalk Sidewalk

Long time no see! I just finished a big move, living in the west part of Montreal now near the campus. In the spirit of moving, I painted this one called Sidewalk Sidewalk because there is a sidewalk with sidewalks walking on it. The rest of the composition is an organic doodleism design flowing back and forth. The change from winter to spring is also suggested by the warm colours and yellow sunlight poking out here and there.

I used to paint every square inch of the paper- even backgrounds always had colour washes or details. I started consciously using blank space (no paint) in the background starting with the 2010 solution (posted May 2012), or perhaps even earlier with Higher Ground (posted July 2008) where I explained the influence of Chinese art in my work. The top left portion of 'Sidewalk Sidewalk' has no colour in the background... the blue tint is just from the photograph. The nice thing about the white background is that the objects on top really stand out. In the middle under the pyramids, and the sidewalk on the ground in front are also white or near-white, which helps create this sensation of bright light even though the skyline suggests night.

11x15 cold press. March 2014