Trees in the Middle Ground

Someone asked, "How do you paint trees when they're near enough to see them individually, but far enough that you don't need that much detail?"

This sketchbook page from 2004 uses overlapping zig-zag rows of 'trees.' See the top right where two of these fringes meet.

"Calais" is another favorite painting done during the same period. It brings together many of the considerations mentioned in my Artist Statement: printmaking, realism, the strangely familiar... The loose "grid" and coloured lines in the foreground are printed directly from a found object - the glue traces on the back of a piece of bathroom wall paneling. So as abstract as the result seems, there's also a "quirky" realism.

Blue Cochrane

This is one of my favorite watercolours. It was done on site, in about 20 minutes. The cut-out look of the clouds is direct homage to Milton Avery, (American).

Blue Mountain

I sometimes use charcoal to get a 'scratchy or dirty' feel to the paint. Here is a great example from my sketchbook.

Urban Design

This is acrylic and collage on plywood panel. Note the comic strip on the left and the yellow advertisements on the right.

I did this while living in the basement of a skid-row apartment.

The urban landscape looks different from a basement window. At night I could see hookers on the corner, plying their trade. The traffic was constant. Sometimes I'd find condoms right outside my window or awaken to the sound of breaking glass.

One advantage of living in the basement was that I regularly used the hallways to work-on my larger paintings. Some of the paintings in the 'Monoprint' series were done in the furnace room there.

Mekkonan

It was also in 1995-96 when I met Mekkonan, a former tank commander who had to leave Ethiopia as a refugee, when the ruling party lost power.

I sketched Mekkonan's favorite animal, a tiger, as an under-drawing for this acrylic mixed-media and collage portrait from 1996.

Large Monoprints (more to come)

(click to enlarge)

1995 and 1996 radically changed my practice of, and my thinking about Art.



I was tired of straight forward 'Realism.' By that time I had been an illustrator for more than 15 years, and could draw anything I wanted. As I walked in the city I began to see beauty in the sidewalk cracks, and felt inspired by the persistence of the plants growing in them. "Nature can be resisted, but never tamed." The contrast fascinated me and I decided to try 'printing' several patches of cracked concrete.

I showed 10 of these large, enigmatic canvases at a public Art Gallery in September of 1996. And in 1998, I was an Artist in Residence, demonstrating my technique at 'The Works,' Art Festival .

Angelic Host

(click to enlarge)


Inspired by a book of Tony Onley watercolours (Canadian) , Angelic Host is done in acrylic mixed media on plywood panel. Note the way the feeling of space in the sky changes: using a line to shift to a lighter area is a trick from Charles Demuth (American).