Vendome, Montreal/NDG, Quebec

Here is a rare painting of Vendome, rare only in that there is probably not too many paintings out there of a busy metro station at the edge of Montreal. The paper I used was different than usual, it was from a pad of paper given to me as a gift. It was different than the usual rag paper I use which is typically 140lb press cold press. This paper was flat on top and lower absorbance so the colours flowed around a lot and it was more difficult to build up the layers. I remember too that there was plenty of wind that day and the page kept blowing around. Lately I have been wanting to paint more of the local neighborhood here in NDG. After having gone through all of my old paintings of London and other places in Ontario it inspired me a bit to do a few more local landscapes.

11 x14" Watercolour. July 2017

Oka Beach, and Cap St. Jean Park, Quebec

 Recently we took a vacation week and visited some local places, such as Oka Beach on the north shore of Lac Des Deux Montagnes. It was a surprisingly long beach with brilliant golden brown sand, seemingly endless we walked on it for an hour. There were lots of people there, kids and adults and families swimming and having fun in the sun. We settled on the quieter parts of the beach where I made these two paintings.

   
The other painting here is from Cap St. Jean Park, there are really cool walking trails and picnic areas, as well as a historic house to look at. In the top of the Cap is an organic farm, and a sugar shack. The painting is looking east, towards Pierrefonds. The colour of the water was much different, around the Cap it was deep fast flowing, while near Oka Beach it was shallow and not moving as much. As a result the colour of the water was much different, in Oka Beach it was a purple-orange hue tinted by the sandy bottom, while at Cap it was a cooler lilac colour. It had been awhile since I painted watercolours on location. 5 x 7" Watercolour Aug 2017

Sympa Para Lympha Hema

Science and art combined into one creation! This painting was meant to provoke thought on how the body integrates various systems including the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the lymphatic system, and the cardiovascular system. Can stress alter an immune response? This work was done in several steps, beginning with the purple fibers (sympa) and then the red-orange fibers (para), followed by the blue-green (lymph), and finally the pinkish tracts (hema). Lastly I put in the background which is a three layer glaze. The background is a soft fleshy colour. I wanted the work to have an anatomical feel, like you were inside an organ of the body. At the same time channeling Jackson Pollock the great American abstract painter. It is also similar in some ways to "Love and Fear", an old painting I did in 1998 which depicted a being inside of a lymph node. 

22 x 15" cold press, watercolour, June 2017

The 20/10 solution in frame with LED lighting

This is a new frame that we got, it was Cilei's idea to hang some of my paintings in the hallway of our condo. Every month or so I have been changing the painting to keep it fresh. The painting here is  "The 2010 Solution" a turning point work that I did in 2010 after being dissatisfied with the recent doodleisim results. In this work there is more use of 3 dimensional space and free-flowing watercolour technique. The name is also a nod to the Seven Percent Solution a Sherlock Holmes book by Nicholas Meyer, the solution in that book referring to the heroin which Sherlock Holmes was addicted to. In my painting the drug of choice is alcohol as you can see in the well stocked bar sitting in the midst of a dream-like landscape. The lighting is a simple music-stand light that I got off Amazon, it has two strengths and uses led lights. Only problem is that I painted most all of these paintings under the old fashioned incandescence light bulbs that had a soft amber glow. Led light is a ghostly pale blue which puts off the intended colour. I hope in the future should people wish to hang my works they can find soft amber lighting to preserve the yellow that was intended to be there. On my blog every photo in the last few years I have yellow-enhanced to represent on the computer screen what it really looks like when viewed live, under proper lighting. Since real painting lights run in the hundreds of dollars, I will just stick with this for now!

20/10 solution, 22x 30" cold press, watercolour 2010

Lemon Sunset #5

This is the fifth version of Lemon Sunset, painted not long after our trip to São Paulo Brazil. Many of the elements were inspired by São Paulo, like the big condominium buildings across the landscape and the rolling green South American hills. Happy people are living in bunkers buried under sand. I did a painting a long time ago called Chicken #5 which kind of started the whole motif of giant chicken-shaped living quarters. This was in part from advice of a customer who was shopping at an art gallery that I volunteered at. He suggested that an artist, in order to be famous, had to develop a catchy motif that would be unique and original. As an example he mentioned chickens, off the top of his head rather than in a serious way. I gave it a try, Chicken #5 painted in Bolton at my parents house was posted in a blog on Monday July 7, 2008. Now, I wonder, has this idea of an apocalyptic future full of poultry-themed apartments and happy stick-figures living in yellow submarines become my original motif?

watercolour 22x 15" cold press. 2017

Le Jardin du Luxembourg, France

The parks in Paris are really something to behold, you can walk all day in them and always see new things and be amazed. In this park there are metal chairs all over the place that you can pick up and move around, so people can sit together in groups or just on their own. That came in pretty handy for a painter like me because I had a decent chair to sit in for a change. I used to bring a little tripod stool to sit on but over the years stopped doing that because of the airport security, so I would have to find somewhere to sit on location. The year for this painting  I am not totally sure about, I'd have to check the other paintings from this time, I would guess it was my third trip to Paris in 2010. The other time I went were 1998, and 2007.

5 x8 " cold press, watercolour, ~2010

Still Life, Red Peppers

This is one of the first still life paintings I ever did, albeit with some help from the teacher who I remember was Sue Coleman. She brought in various object to each class and we all tried to make a painting of them. There is a technique in the cloth where small drops of water were added to create shapes. From the look of it, the teacher did that part because it took me years to really master and control that technique. The paper was rather thin, an acid-free rag paper in a spiral note book made by Bienfang premiere collection. Thinking of mom today, it was her and my late grandmother who bought all of the art supplies for me early on the hobby. I just scanned this today, part of several bags and portfolios full of old paintings that bring back memories. 

9 x 12" watercolour, hot press. 1989