House View, Reunion Island.

This is the last blog of 2016, it has been a good year for painting, I did less large works and more small works. Over all I probably painted a lower number of paintings but concentrated on the quality. In this post I am showing an old painting done on location on Ile de la Reunion in the Indian Ocean in the town of St. Denis. The old volcano is visible on the horizon. They call it the old volcano because it is no longer active, as opposed to the one to the south of the island which is quite active. At least this paining reminds of warmer times in the midst of a cold and snowy winter up here in Montreal.

Complementary colours are important to emphasize, in this painting the organe awning complements the blue sky. There is also a purple shadow on one of the houses that complements the yellow tones. I rarely think about complements in a literal way, instead I just try and feel the colours. Another trick I used here was to put some dark lines over the window in shadows to give it a luminosity.

5x 8 " 2011 Cold press watercolour.

Stress Fix

We all need a little stress fix now and then, sitting on the bottom of a pond under pressure, negotiating the creepy crawlies. This painting was done from a doodle that I did during a conference that was very stressful, in fact the conference was actually on stress, as a scientific topic rather than a set of feelings. The painting is pretty much the drawing as it was composed and detailed in the preliminary work.

I have often tried to create the eerie glow of the bottom of a lake or ocean, in this case it ended up looking more like the bottom of the pond due to the green and yellow glow and idea that there was a strong sun over top. It was not intended to be an underwater painting at all but somehow the combination of the kelp, and the wavy sand at the bottom, and the fact that one of the creatures looks like a fish, all combined to give it an underwater appeal.

7 x 9.5 " (17.5 x 24 cm) watercolour, cold press, Dec. 2016

Camoflage

An angry hamburger might have been a good alternate title for this painting. Or pink slime perhaps, the synthetic version of beef that fast food chains sometimes use. Soylent green also comes to mind. My work often depicts eerie landscapes and creepy creatures.

Red and green make up the classic complementary colour scheme. In this painting, the main object has the two colours featured, as does the background element in a more pastel fashion. Most of the brown is also made up of red and green combined.

8x 10 " cold press Watercolour. Fall 2011

Sideways Trees

Is looking at a painting sideways while it is right side up the same as looking at a painting right side up when it is sideways? This painting attempts to answer that question using some visual trickery and clever design. I was somewhat inspired by that painting of the guy with the apple in front of his face.

Painting things that appear to be sideways is not so hard, you tilt the paper on an angle while doing the art, and when it is finished, you put the painting back to being upright. 

11 x 7" cold press water colour 2016 Nov

Montreal Neurological Institute (Journey Southward)

The most common type of commission painting is a painting of a pet, a family member, an old house, or a vacation photo. In this case the project was to depict a transition of a colleague from one University (McGill) to another in the US. The painting has scenic elements from Montreal in the top left, the Institute in the central portion, and a symbol of the family going for a hike in the foreground. The tree colours were a bit of an embellishment to make the feeling of a fall scene. Unfortunately the colours are a little washed out in the photo of the  painting because I had to take it inside, using conventional lights instead of taking the photo outdoors in the full sunlight as I would normally.

This painting was extensively planned. For every hour of actual painting I spent about 2 hours planning, for a total of around 20 hours. This included meeting with the client and working with online resources to get the proper imagery. There was also several sketches and a preliminary mockup to work out the final design and colours. In the end it came out pretty much the way I had hoped. The painting was framed and given to the colleague at the end of a conference with a large audience. I gave a little speech and explained the work. People had been complaining about the weather and the relatively gloomy fall we had, so I made a quick joke about artistic license and how there was no rain in the painting.

22 x 15" cold press watercolour. October-November 2016

The Shadow Fisher

When you need to go fishing an old legend says that you need to lean over the water to cast a shadow and the fish will congregate there for easy pickings. That might work for minnow fishing but probably not for big ocean fishing. This painting was based on a doodle done a while ago, it depicts an abstract character fishing for ideas. I liked the name shadow fisher because it was like somebody fishing for shadows and that seemed impossible.

Painting shadows is actually ideal for watercolour as compared to other types of paint since the watercolour paint tends to blend into the background and it makes for nice translucent layers. Here I made the shadows for the trees using wet-in-wet techniques, then when that was just a bit dry I added the second layer. I used plenty of sky-blue to get that shimmering effect on the shadows. Also made the share line and waves a bit darker where the shadow fell.

8 x 10" (20.5 x 26 cm) cold press watercolour, October 2016.

Thanksgiving, Bolton, Ontario

Bolton is a small town north of Toronto filled with trees and house-farms (suburbs). This view is from the back deck of my parents home, looking into the valley at the willow trees and fall colours. The Canadian flag sits lazily in the breeze. It was quite cold at this moment but the sky was blue and the sun clear and strong. This was done on thanksgiving weekend, the turkey was excellent, thanks mom! 

Texture is important in any kind of artwork. Sometimes in watercolour texture gets forgotten a little, just because the paint and the water when combined really give a smooth and easy effect. When it dries, you can put paint on top to make the texture using a slightly less moist mix. I used texture to create the effect of the willow trees in the background and to create the pine trees in the middle ground. Also the top railing needed a wood grain effect so I used some dry brush to give it that linear wavy pattern.

7.5 x 11" cold press. October 2016