Small Study 2015

One theme in my work is shrubbery, not just any shrubbery but THE shrubbery, the one in Monty Python's Holy Grail movie that is requested by the Knights that Say Neep. Since 1990 I have used the same technique to paint the small bushes as seen in the middle ground towards the left of this small doodleism study. It starts with the yellow underlay, sometimes let blend into the background sky, and then, when the yellow is starting to dry, layer in some light green or bluish hues, let it blend and dry a bit, then overlay with a dark green, let dry slightly, then dark blue (red), and then red-green sepia. It takes practice to get the timing... let one layer dry too much and the subsequent layers do not blend and blurr, while if the layering is too fast it all blends together and you loose the gradation effect. The amount of water on the brush also matters, too much the colours run together, too little they wont blend. The same technique was used in the sky to make the cloud, and in the grass to create the electric shadows, and in the red sky to make it look like darkness is approaching. 


5 x 8 "  (12.5 x 20.3 cm) cold press, watercolour. 2015

Lemon Sunset #4

Another lost pieces painting, done from some cutouts of a larger painting that I had scrapped. This is the fourth version of "Lemon Sunset", it is actually based on a doodle in which I was trying to work out the composition. In the miniature it was more about the colours and trying the technique for the lemon sun.  

To paint the lemon I started with painting the sky around a blank space shaped like a lemon. The sky is in purples, which is complement to yellow. Then I added some yellow-green in the center and yellow orange around that, leaving the edge blank paper to make the lemon glow. When dry, I put some dark dots on to give the lemon texture.

3 1/4 x 2 "  (8.5 x 5 cm) 300lb cold press Watercolour

Stratford Jazz (updated)

Jazz happens everywhere including in Stratford Ontario in the park. This painting was done on location, it was some time ago because it was the year the Toronto Raptors went to the semi-finals and lost in game 7, which was the year 2001. While I was painting this one somebody wanted to buy it along with one of the others and so I sold them on the spot, just taking a quick photo before they went off in the world. It was tricky doing this one because everyone was moving and stuff, but it was nice to paint along to some live jazz music.

5 x 7 " (12.7 x 17.8 cm) cold press, watercolour, 2001

 There was a second painting I made in the same little park, and the fellow bought that one too. I made a second one quickly which is what you see here. It shows a cannon & lilacs. (Guns & Roses?) 5 x 7 " cold press, watercolour, 2001

 

Rockley Resort, Barbados

 

Awhile ago I took a trip to Barbados for two weeks and made a number of paintings under the bright Caribbean sun. The first few I did were bland and lifeless, probably because I had just arrived from London Ontario in February where it was grey, cold and overcast. A local person saw my paintings and told me to add more colour, to make them brighter. The trick was to exaggerate the colours and push the contrast as much as possible, and to channel the energy from environment to brush to paper. This was a little scene across from the motel I was at, near Accra beach. It goes to show how important it is for an artist to be on location to properly paint landscapes.

Rockley Resort, Barbados 5 x 8" cold press, watercolour, November 2001 (No. 1165)

The Lost Pieces Collection

Good things come in small packages or something like that. I found an old painting that was done on 300 pound paper, that is very thick like the cardboard used in boxes. It's 100% acid free rag, cotton, with a lifespan of over 200 years- not that we will ever find out. The initial painting was not very good in fact I had already painted on both sides which I do on occasion if a painting is bad or I want to try something experimental. There was a lot of blank space so I cut out all the white parts of the paper and made a number of small paintings on the pieces. The paintings are quite small, they are a composites of several small doodles made during a long meeting at work with a Dali-like surrealism. Here are the six of them, in my longest blog ever! Reading across they are: Boxes, Second Samples, Kappa, Safe T, Reverse Flow, and Lost Pieces.

Top Left: Boxes, 3 1/4 x 4" (8 x 11cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Top Right: Second Samples, 3 x 5 3/4 (7.5 x 14.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Center Left: Kappa, 3 1/2 x 5" (9 x 12.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Center Right: Safe T, 2 3/4 x 3 3/4" (7 x 9.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Bottom Left: Reverse Flow, 6 3/4 x 2 3/4" (16 x 6.5cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Bottom Right:Lost Pieces: 12 1/2 x 3 1/4" (31 x 8cm), 300lb cold press Watercolour March 2016

Rise Above It

Here is a small doodleism painting I completed yesterday, it is done on 180 lb paper which has the consistency of a thin cardboard. The doodle is composed from 2 pages of notes taken during a lengthy meeting in 2013, I was no doubt thinking about escaping. 'Rise above it' is a slogan I use to remind myself not to get too involved in small details, and to keep an eye on the big picture. That is not easy, it involves letting go a bit and trusting people, and not having the ego to think you can change everything. There is a balloon at the top that someone 'let go of', which is symbolic of the idea, and the tombstone, which is symbolic of change.

This painting is a great example of how to create depth. To create depth in a painting, put the bright colours in the front, and the pale blue colours in the back, and try to overlap things as much as possible. Notice the foreground element, the orange-yellow disk, is overlapping the middleground elements, which in turn overlap the distant blue background. The river also helps bring the viewers eye to the back. As an artist you want to think about where the eye goes when looking at the painting.

5x7" cold press, watercolour. March 2016

Outdoor Painting Gear 2006 (updated)

This is the kit of gear I used back in London Ontario for painting watercolours on location. There is a plastic cup for water, a palette with the colours on it, some brushes ranging from 3 centimeters to a few millimeters, the box with 5x7" paper,  and the drying rack. The box is very old maybe 100 years, and is being held together by duct tape, it used to hold pastel sticks. The drying rack is meant to allow the painting to dry while the box is closed, without it the painting sticks to the top and paint comes off. That way when I finish a painting I can pack up and move on to the next location. At my best I was doing eight paintings a day, but that was in Spain with me traveling solo... wake up eat, paint all day, eat, go to bed, repeat for two months. The painting you see in the box looks like something I did in Florida while on a conference, probably in Orlando. Update: it seems to be from a trip I took to Stratford in 2006 according to something I wrote on the back, although I was living in Montreal at the time I may have gone back to visit.  Here is a close up of the 4 pylons painting. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour