Exterior Temperature

Exterior temperature was an experimental work based on a doodle, which was itself an experimental doodle. The name of the painting appears in abstract letters across the top, down the middle, and completing along the bottom mound. Spend some time interpreting it and you may see all the letters. I also wrote it on the side for good measure. When painting this one, I did not think at all about the surrounding elements, and when I was finished I realized that the painting actually had an interior, and an exterior. The interior which covers the left/bottom is a very warm red-orange that gives the impression of a fire in a cave. The exterior is the cloudy sky and cold looking landscape in the bottom/right, with the electric flower thing dominating the skyline on the right. So there is an exterior temperature represented here, mainly through sheer luck or instinct, or gut feeling.

This is the time of the year when a professor (like me) needs to do a lot of planning, organizing, and managing. It is funny because as life imitates art, so does my life, which often imitates my art, which is unfortunately a little bit unplanned and disorganized. Basically I'm trying to say that at work I'm an artist at heart sometimes feeling stuck in a "type A" career surrounded by type A people. The good news is that over the years as I grew as a professional at work, I think it spilled over to my art hobby. My approach to paining is much more refined, and somewhat more organized, although I still procrastinate like heck if I have a deadline!

8 x 11" cold press, watercolour, Sept. 2016

Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, Quebec

From the Eastern Townships comes a scene painted near lake Memphremagog at the St. Benoit Monastery. This was not the main building of the abbey, rather it is a small chapel nearby that had a small area inside to pray. I was sitting in the picnic area fighting off the strong wind was blowing left to right causing the paper to flop around a lot. I liked how the building foundation was embedded in the rocky outcrop and how the trees and flowers framed the structure.

Painting different shades of green is vital for outdoor painting. I used several combinations here, the grass in the front is a type of sap green with lemon yellow, while the pale blue pine tree to the left of the picture is cerulean blue with just a touch of yellow, and a purple-green for the shadows. The bush that dominates the center of the picture is a yellow/green colour-fade into purple tones, then finished with a turquoise. Colour-fade is where you let two bodies of colour mix together when they are still wet to allow blending. The red molding and trim was the perfect foil for all the green.

11 x 8 " cold press, watercolour, August 2016

Mount Saint-Hilaire view

Great views can be had in Quebec, this one was from atop Mount Saint-Hilaire a nature reserve and conference Center owned and operated by McGill University popular for hiking in the summer. The direction of this painting is roughly looking northeast, towards Sherbrooke and Quebec City, although neither are actually visible. Looking to the left slightly one could see Mount Royale and Montreal however there were too many bushes and tourists to get a clear view.

Painting on location is extra challenging one needs to find a place to sit and a nice view, not to mention some peace and quiet to reflect on the energy of the scene. In this case the mountain top was very crowded, so when I was painting this scene the entire view except for the rocks was obscured by about 30 or so tourists. Afterwards they cleared out and I could see that the river actually had a much more 'ess' shape to it, while in the painting it is more of a series of arcs, but it still gets the feeling across. Several people looked at this while I was doing it, they though I was famous!

Mount Saint-Hilaire view, 11.5 x 8 " (28 x20 cm) cold press, watercolour, September 2016 (No. 4317b)

Grapes

Grapes are kind of fun to paint, they are shiny and colourful and make for good practice as a watercolour painter. This painting is quite old so I forget if it was done from a photo or real life, it is possible that I did this one from imagination or perhaps it was a study for the large work called "Grapes of Tuscany." At any rate, the technique is fresh and full of energy, and the grapes feel like they are ready to fall off the branch and into a bowl. I can tell from the style this painting was probably 20 years ago, it wasn't until 2000 or so that I learned how to control those faded colour wash... you can see here they dried in places creating hard edges on the highlights. It kind of works though, the lighting effect is quite realistic.

Cold press, (1996?) 14 x 11 " Watercolour (No. 0023)

"Automatic Update", and "The Scream Too"

Its not often that I repaint an old painting, in this case a visiting friend of mine who is an art teacher recommended some changes to the original design, and so I went and made a new version called 'Automatic Update' inspired by those updates your computer does to make the software better. The main design change was the composition on the left side of the picture, the ghost is moved to the tree trunk, and there are three bushes instead of one, and the building/structure is de-emphasized. The atmosphere is also adjusted, the original was a foggy overcast, this one is a sunny partly cloudy day. Oh yeah, and I added a subtle sea-scape on the left to create depth. For comparison here is the original version:

There are things I like about the original for instance the eerie feeling and the surprise of the ghost but then again the most common mistake for art students is to have too many ideas in one painting, that is definitely something I loose marks for on occasion! I always thought that when I get old and don't have any ideas left that I would take the time to go over my old work and re do certain paitings with improvements. However, I still have some ideas left in me I hope.

Automatic Update: 15 x 11 " (38.5 x 28.5 cm) cold press, watercolour, 2016

The Scream Too: 15 x 11 " (38.5 x 28.5 cm) hot press, watercolour, 2010

Gare Central, Montreal, Quebec

Gare central was painted on location some 10 years ago down at the train station, this scene is of a restaurant that is right on the concourse, it has an open concept so there is no roof just some beams to create space. It is filled with buffet style food and tables full of fruits and muffins and flowers. I has some time to kill waiting for a train, so tried to put in as much detail as possible.

I talked about suggesting detail before in the blog, this is a good example of it, the bricks, the food the people, it is all done in a fast and casual way. By doing this the painting gets a fresh energetic look, not to mention you can get the thing done in a reasonable time. People tend to move around a lot too, so painting fast helps in that sense.

11" x14, hot press block, 2006

The Robot Lives (The last of Seven Pieces: Part 7), and bonus

Last but not least here is part seven of the mini series I completed in July, done in the doodleism style it shows a small Gothic village with rolling hills and futuristic sculptures in the background. This one was inspired by the original doodleism paintings done back in 2004, for instance "Spanky's Fantastic Cathedral". Stained glass has been a reoccurring motif in my work, there are dozens of paintings depicting stained glass in all shapes and sizes.

To paint stained glass I usually start with the outline of the window and the shape of the glass pieces using a light outline. Then I fill in the colours one colour at a time, so you can see the same colour glass in all the windows. As it dries I then do a different colour. When it is all done I'll overlay a darker outline to make the iron parts stand out. I'll also add reflected colour to the objects around the window to provide a glow.

11.5 x 7.5 ", cold press Watercolour, 2016

Oh yeah, I found one more piece of paper from the thing I cut up for this series, so here is part eight of the seven part series, it's the last one I promise! It is called "One Less Horizon" because I tried to simplify it a bit compared to usual, there is only one horizon...