Tourist Destiny

Walking down a cobblestone path with your past, present, future, memories, and fears. From right to left, dancing, motion, colour contrast, then a maturation, procreation, a gradual easing, and then pale, lying down. The five characters became a metaphor for life, it wasn't what I intended when I started this painting, but it is what emerged from my sub-conscious. Every now and then I try a painting from scratch, a type of poetic free association exercise. The botanical biome and other-worldly design is reminiscent of the lemon sunset theme but I avoided putting the smiley faces in the windows because the tone of this painting is decidedly introspective.

I got a big surprise when I painted this- either the paper sheet was somewhat defective, or I may have messed up the soaking/stretching phase. The paint was absorbing strongly which de-saturated all the colours, and there was a rough texture all over making it looked like I sanded the whole thing or something, you can see by zooming in. In many ways, these effects are what led me to make the painting the way it is. Neutral, rugged, a little rough. In these free-association exercises you just go with the flow to reach your destination.

22 x 30" cold press, watercolour, 2018

Apple Eye, Shrimp in the Sky

Pastel shrimps flying through lilac clouds, psychedelic apple dude takes an evening walk with pet noodle dog. That was the original title of this painting (just kidding). This is actually a remake of a painting I did in 2008 called Apple Eye, Violet Sky, which was one of the doodleism paintings derived from Lab Book #10. I went through a phase of trying to remake some of my old favorites using a more open composition and better finish. It seems to have worked for the most part, but I always find that the original painting even with its flaws is better than the remake. Just like movies, the sequel is not as good as the original!

Naming paintings is quite fun. In some cases I think I know the title before even starting, like 'Four Elvises Hiking in a Mountain' which actually became 'Hiking Elvis'. In other cases I have no idea until its done, like 'Tourist Destiny' since I didn't even know what the painting would be until it was finished. I try to fit two words together in an interesting way, making it sound kind of like the name of a band, album, or song. Lucy in the Sky was an obvious inspiration here, while apple eye was just part of the name of the original painting from 2008. I already have in mind my next painting on large format, it will be called 'Saturation Costs' and will have some dramatic themes.

22 x30" cold press, watercolour, 2018

Monk Metro Station, Green line, Southwest borough, Ville-Émard

Down town Montreal and its surrounding areas are divided into numerous boroughs. One of the boroughs is called 'Southwest" located unsurprisingly in the southwest adjacent to the canal and the aqueduct. It seems that Lasalle is the main name of the area, I was unfamiliar with the term 'southwest borough' until now. It is a multi-cultural working class neighborhood that reminds me a lot of Verdun (which is adjacent towards the East direction). The first study is sitting across Monk street, looking to the front, main entrance. A lady looked on and said nice work to me in French, while respecting social distancing. If you look through the door and windows you see flashes of green, because there is a wonderful newly renovated sitting area and garden in the back. You wouldn't have known that looking at the station from the front, it doesn't look like much except, perhaps, to an artist. The bricks were a delicious ventian red with shades of hematite that I captured with near-exact pigments I have in my palette. The shape of the signage complemented the line of the roof, and splashes of colour here and there completed the scene. The promise of nature! 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2020

Just behind the station there is a relaxing healing garden with incredible landscaped plants, stone inlays, and comfortable benches (which made the painting a pleasure). Curious onlookers wondered what I was doing. It makes me just as proud to do art in Southwest borough, or up on Walkley street NDG, as it does when I painted the cathedrals in Salamanca. The colour of the park bench in the foreground was a heavily desaturated and darkened magenta. The same outrageous magenta I tested in PR122 purple magenta test, turns into a a dusty grey rose (concrete rose is what I am calling it). You have to take my word for it, but the colour of the bench in the painting is identical to the actual colour of the bench- I never would have believed it a month ago, but carbon black (previously a no-no paint to use), plus outrageous pink, gives you an incredibly useful colour when diluted. 7 x10" cold press, watercolour, 2020

Not done, I needed a close up of the white peonies, they almost look like antique roses. They surround the metro building (you can just see them under the yellow tree in the last painting in shadow), and I knew they would figure prominently in the finished work. I had to use my camping chair to get this angle on the peonies in the back of the healing garden, along with a prominent statue of Mother Teresa. Usually, I do not paint religious symbols in the landscapes but I have made exceptions from time to time such as in the Gas Station in Little Italy, and the view down Somerled Avenue. Creating a sense of space was important to fulfill the illusion of the hedge of flowers. Including a strong foreground element (the bench) and a strong background element (the house faces), and the statue in the middle, gives the viewer all the information they need to comprehend the flower shrubs which go up a small hill, and curve behind the statue. 7 x10" rough press, watercolour, 2020

During the paintings, I sketched out two other scenes along with some notes. I knew these would not make great paintings on their own, but I plan to incorporate all of the ideas into the final work, which will part of 'The 27 stations of the green line metro, Montreal.' series. Monk station is #2. I have a flexible plan for the next paintings in the series but it requires a weekend day since I am back to 'working from home' now. Here are the sketches, the note that is cut off from was talking about how the branches on the peony bush converges on the same spot and fans out.

Concrete roses, with paints from The Stoneground Paint Company

Keeping up with the blogging I will stick with talking art this time. As I have written about many times, floral paintings are a great place to start as a painter because the forms and colours can be anything you want, and you can practice a whole bunch of skills. In this example I used new paints I just bought from The Stoneground Paint Company (Regina, Canada), which are incredible, Canadian made paints that come in a wide variety of colours. Previously I tested their earth colour range in the Armenia, World Inspired Landscape, and  was very pleased with their performance. In fact I even ordered more of the grey ochre in a larger format since I can tell already it will be an important paint to use in abstracts and landscapes. The other new colours were ultramarine blue (PB29), ultramarine pink (PR259), victoria green (PG51), and manganese violet (PR16). The grey was used in the background, the outline, and some shadow areas, the pink was used to make the body colour of the rose, the violet in the smaller flowers bottom left, the blue and green in the foliage, and various combinations in the wet-in-wet background. Lemon yellow ochre (from the same company, that I had from before) was used in the flower centers. 7 x 10" cold press B side, watercolour, 2020

 Lately I have worked on the 'The 27 stations of the green line metro Montreal' series using watercolours and pencil sketches done on location. The sketchbook is the same one I had from high school 30 years ago which had about 50 pages unused. The first page contained a surprisingly familiar scene, and on the back is written 'nice rose' by my art teacher who graded the work. It might have been Mr. Clarke, there was also Mr. Philips as I remember. I included a scan here, it looks an awful lot like the one I just finished! 8 x 10" sketchbook, watercolour, 1991

Roman Black (PBk11)

Generating colour wheels involves a careful circle of colours to understand the attributes of each pigment. Most artists' guides will tell you this, and to try mixing the paints together in little blobs. I do this from time to time, but in some cases the colour mixing test comes alive and becomes a painting on its own. For example, I was testing out the new paint I got from The Stoneground Paint Company called roman black (PBk11) a dark iron oxide warm black colour. Maybe the black lives matter movement and the social situations was filtering through my conscious, and the COVID-19 pandemic conflating into one abstract, tension filled design. At Concordia University where I work, they have some identified problems with 'non-inclusive' areas where the photos or monuments depict white christian demographics. This can make students and professors who are increasingly diverse feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. I brought this up with administration repeatedly and progress was interrupted by the lock-down. When I gather the strength again I will raise the issue again. The students also circulated a petition to this effect, to remove non-inclusive racially or religiously themed displays form the institution. Concordia University, Loyola campus was originally (but no longer) a Jesuit college which makes a tangled web of issues to solve. If any University can evolve, I know it is Concordia University. Rarely do I talk politics in my blog, I have already said as much to administration and they responded in agreement, but action has to take place of good intentions if we want things to change.

7 x 10" cold press B side, watercolour, 2020 

Social Networking (Life on Venus)

Was this painting ahead of its time? It the bottom left it says 'Hold yourself Together" which was actually from a Nirvana song. By 2012 social media had pretty much taken over most people's lives, it was a digital revolution that forever changed socializing and working. The painting depicts a kind of evolution of humanity into a physical meld of flesh and bone. The paradox of the title is how can you socially network while living on venus. These days in the tail end of the lockdown (we hope), the feelings of isolation and dependency on social networking via the internet is at an all time high.

After 2010 I tried to 'open up' this style a bit by using brighter colours and introducing more open space into the design. For example, in the top center there is a white wedge shape of just paper showing with no detail. One of the characters looks into the void. Each doodle element also gets more space and has its own little segment of the design, whereas in my older painting done in this style the doodles are crammed in everywhere. The colour scheme is muted pastel primaries, it relies a lot on the fugitive red alizarin crimson in the tints. If any of my paintings like this (prior to 2020) are ever hung, they should be framed in UV coated glass and kept out of the direct sun. Since January I only use lightfast pigments, although there are still a few questionable ones I will phase out.

22 x30" cold press, watercolour, 2012

Where we Were (Ancestors)

In the doodleism paintings there are creepy-crawly imaginary beasts, animals, plants, humanoids, and everything in between. In this painting I included as many as possible, including a chicken-shaped apartment building on the horizon. As usual for this style, the time of day and the place are ambiguous, up in the top right there is a starry night and moon, in the middle there is an undersea creature, and off to the left bottom there is a sunset.

I noticed a lot of yellow and gold colours in this painting. At the time, I had no knowledge of how to paint gold, but seem to have pulled it off admirably with combinations of lemon yellow and neutralizing greens and purples. Gold is in fact a type of darkened yellow, leaning towards the yellow-orange shade. The metallic look of gold is due to sharply defined variations in the gold tone and lightness. Tying it all together are flashes of purple, orange and turquoises. Rarely would I plan out a colour scheme, instead I go with whatever feels right as the painting develops. Each section would have been more or less complete before moving to the next section, then in the end I might have adjusted things a little. This painting has a great finish to it, by 2013 I had been doing the style for over 10 years and concentrated a lot on making each part the best it could be.

22 x 30" cold press, watercolour, 2013