Holiday Post!

Here it is.. a holiday post! I figure if I can't get anything posted during the normal year I can at least post something now when I have a little free time so here it is...

I usually don't give paintings as gifts but I painted this painting for a good friend of mine who has also been a great supporter of my work and she really liked it - success!!

Atmospheric Study No. 3
14x14 inches
Mixed Media on Paper

Anyway I've been home in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia the past week spending some time with family and friends. It's been a lot of fun but I am really anticipating getting back up and painting again! In the mean time, I've been drawing with watercolours, graphite and oil pastels to tie me over, and while I have figured out nothing concrete so far, it is on its way. Oil pastels are a new medium for me, and I must say my previous experience was limited to brutal crayon-like concoctions when I was a kid - an experience that had majorly tainted my thoughts on them in the past - but I had faith in the power of artist-quality materials and bought a set of senneliers (assorted landscape set if you really want to know) and as anticipated I love them!

I can't wait to get to Loomis and Toles tomorrow in Halifax and buy from their open stock. Hee!!

Watercolour is another media I don't use much, but I picked up a travel set to use with my pastels while on the road this winter. I have yet to find the same love for watercolour, although granted I bought cotman series windsor and newton which are considered student grade, with presumably less pigment load and more fillers. I still prefer the colour intensity, immediacy and qualities of the acrylic paint that I use, but I'm also impatient. I have a hard time wanting for watercolour to dry so I can build up the next layer of colour in an attempt to build the extreme contrasts that I love in my work. So perhaps I will like them more once I run out of the paints I have now and slowly start subbing better quality paint. Or perhaps I will discover its all just a pipe dream and I'm destined to just not like watercolour. :p

Anyway, I have a camera and should have things to post later.

Until then!

Drawings Inspired by Europa

I have similar tendencies of many other artists I talk to - start millions of projects and never get around to finishing them.

Actually this is only a half-truth for me. I have a pretty good success rate when it comes to starting and finishing things, and I have no problem about sacrificing the things that just aren't working out in favor for a fresh start. I actually prefer to have many many works on my plate at one time; my painting process requires a lot of drying time, and for me to make the most of my studio time, I pretty much need to have many things to occupy my mind and time. I assume this is similar for many prolific oil painters and count my lucky stars that I don't work with that media. The draw of acrylic paint for most artists is the very quick drying time, but I often manage to find a way of prolonging this greatly.

The most productive times for me involve finding a balance between painting time, drawing time and computer time. I don't have internet access at my studio anymore and I guess that time has actually been replaced with other part-time work time anyway, but I've gotten back into doing several hours in the studio until all paintings are wet, then a few hours drawing at a coffee shops afterwords at night (also means I don't sleep as well but maybe I should just do decaf instead! Lucky for my body, the nearest cafe is only open to 9 most nights unlike downtown where everything was open 11 pm or later).

I started getting back into the habit while working on my last illustrator drawing (okay while this is computer work, it actually counts towards the art/drawing side of things in my mind), then started on some miniature drawings of... well I don't know what to call them yet. They are just heavily inspired by drawings I've done in the past of fossils, as well as images in my mind of various planet topography and memories of rock like shale and petrified wood:

1.5x1.5 inches
Graphite on Paper

I finally was motivated to work on these drawings, Drawings Inspired by Europa which I posted way back (Feb '09 oh my..)..How embarrassing! But here they are anyway:

Drawings Inspired by Europa 1,2,3 & 4 (in that order)
6x6 inches
Graphite on Gessoed Paper

These drawings have been clipped to a wall in my studio since I moved in, begging to be referenced in other work. This has yet to happen.

Also..

I have the worst work to photograph! Jesus.....

Never comes out right.

I never use black.

Smaller works on Paper

On top of doing small studies on masonite, I've also been doing some mixed media works on cold press watercolour paper. I have 2 more to finish up and then I'll be taking off over the winter - first back to Nova Scotia to visit my family over the holidays.

Atmospheric Study No. 1

2 parts both 4x30 inches
Mixed Media on Paper

Atmospheric Study No. 2
9x30 inches
Mixed Media on Paper