Rex Beanland

My Art Blog Has Moved!

2011-03-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

My new art blog is up and thriving on my own web site rexbeanland.com. I'm also pleased to announce that I have live, free videos of art instruction on my site. Click here to go directly to rexbeanland.com

Grey Owl

2011-03-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited by this portrait. It's the first portrait I've ever done in the opaque acrylic style. It was a culmination of all the stuff I've been reading and practicing so just to have it work out was a big moment. I think the main thing is that I had a process clearly in mind and just went at it one step at a time. I'm including the first stage which was where the difference in the opaque approach was really evident. No more thinking in a watercolour manner and building things up and preserving the whites. I just got the whole surface covered in various darks. After that it was just a matter of refining it.

Grey Owl
acrylic on paper
8.5" X 11"

Grey Owl

2011-03-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Again today while the class worked on their self portrait I had time to do this portrait of Grey Owl. I liked the value pattern of this photo. I'm studying portraits in acrylic at the moment and I like the strong contrasts in this photo so I think it may work well in acrylic. This week we had a discussion about the changes in fashion portraiture. Frequently, today models are photographed with very flat, even lighting which may emphasize the perfection of their skin (after a few touch ups) but it definitely lacks character. I've studied the portraits from Vogue and other fashion magazines and in the past the lighting was used to accentuate the character of the model. I recently saw the cover of a fashion magazine that featured the top 20 models of the year and they were indistinguishable right down to their pouty look. This portrait of Grey Owl (Archie Belaney) has lots of character.

Sheila's Friend's Granddaughter

2011-03-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

While the Basic Drawing Skills class was working on their self portraits tonight I did this portrait of Sheila's friend's grand daughter. I haven't done children before and this was a fun one. A very cute photo.

More Figure Doodling

2011-03-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of an image from the Serge Hollerbach book. I've really enjoyed studying his approach to acrylic painting. He does these little doodles all the time, in ink, pencil or acrylic. It's just about playing with the medium. I completely enjoyed laying on the opaque layers of paint.

Figure Doodling

2011-03-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

I have done head and figure doodles for years. They are often very fresh and interesting drawings but I have never done anything with them. I've decided to try to realize them in acrylic. This was a little drawing I did yesterday at the Kingsland Farmer's Market. It's a great practice to do these studies in a situation like that because people keep moving and you need to draw quickly and make effective use of memory.

Composing In Acrylic

2011-03-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

I've enjoyed reading Serge Hollerbach's book Composing In Acrylic. It's a very different style from anything I've done but it definitely got me thinking differently about acrylic. He emphasizes big shapes, fairly simple but definite brushwork and working quickly. This painting started with a little study exploring the use of pure colours surrounded by neutrals (see post February 20, 2011). This makes the pure colours 'sing'. From that little study through an organic process came the idea of the street scene. Adding some simple figures gave the whole image a story. This painting was both fun and a learning experience.

Verona Street
acrylic
18" X 18"

Currie Barracks

2011-03-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

I'll be sorry when the Currie Barracks area is redeveloped and I'm in the process of documenting some of it. This is my third small plein air sketch that I've done and the second one of Currie Barracks. It was overcast again and there was not a lot of contrast. This particular subject also had little contrast which I took as a challenge to create some movement in the image when there isn't really a lot going on. I was definitely trying to focus on the big shapes and I think the design is OK. Still it was fun to give it a shot.

Currie Barracks
acrylic
6" X 8"

Basic Drawing Skills - Charlie Parker

2011-03-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Charlie Parker was someone who blazed like a shooting star for a time and while he was at the top of his form he changed the face of jazz music and had an impact world wide. Unfortunately, he was heavily fueled by heroin and died way too young because of his addiction. This image seems to portray the focus and passion that he brought to his music. In the Basic Drawing Skills class this is the last of our 6 portraits and it is, I feel, a fitting end. The improvement and development of the drawing skills of the students has been inspirational to see. One of the skills that seems to take longer to develop is value, having a full range of values from light to very dark. This portrait is all about value with extensive areas that are basically black juxtaposed with areas of white. It makes for a dramatic portrait and forces all of us to push our concept of dark to a new level. I think one of the reasons for our reluctance to go really dark is that a dark stroke can't be taken back. It's a bold and definitive mark that is unequivocal. Often our comfort level is with lighter less assertive marks that we can change and modify or simply take back. Not so with these bold values. So this portrait challenges us in a slightly new direction and since everyone has demonstrated such high levels of drawing ability it's neat to face this particular challenge.

Currie Barracks

2011-02-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

I went out again today, even though it's freezing. I'm becoming interested in doing some thing to remember the Currie Barracks area before it's all redeveloped. This is the entrance to the building that faces the parade square. It was a snowy overcast day so there weren't strong contrasts. My goal was to capture that pale light. Unfortunately, for the second day in a row I forgot to take white with me so I had to sketch it and then rush home to try to paint it while the image was fresh in my mind.

Totally aside from the quality of the painting I'm enjoying this small format 6" X 8" and doing these very quick plein air studies. It's teaching me lots about the acrylic medium.

In fact, I'm thinking of celebrating the launch of my completely updated web site "rexbeanland.com", in a few weeks, by doing a regular series of these small daily paintings. Some people I know have done 100 paintings in 100 days. I don't know that I can be that consistent but I like the idea of doing perhaps 30 in 30. I'll announce it in this blog when it's going to happen.

Currie Barracks
acrylic
6" X 8"

Plein Air in Glenmore Park

2011-02-26T16:17:00.000-08:00

This was a fun piece. The book I'm reading at the moment suggests concentrating on the big shapes and get them down quickly. This was a little plein air sketch done this afternoon in North Glenmore Park. This is the first time I've worked in opaque acrylic plein air but I found it a lot of fun.

Washroom At Glenmore Park
acrylic on canvas board
6" X 8"

Sunset On The Elbow Pt2

2011-02-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

This is an image I began a while ago. This was an early attempt at acrylic. The colour in the cliff was originally done in acrylic but in a watercolour approach and I liked it. I ran into trouble reconciling the watercolour-like section with the more opaque sections. I'm just reading a book by Serge Hollerbach an artist that also began as a watercolourist but switched to acrylic. He recommends that while you can use acrylic in a watercolour manner it's greatest benefits come from using it in an opaque way. I'm quite interested in following that advice so this picture was redone opaquely. I used the fan brush and some techniques from Hollerbach's book to get the blended sky. It's a much more dramatic picture now.

Sunset On The Elbow Pt2
Acrylic
16" X 20"

Basic Drawing Skills - Girl With A Pearl Earring

2011-02-23T20:17:00.000-08:00

I've been reading about Vermeer a bit lately and my respect for him has grown considerably. Apparently, his output for his life is about 40 paintings. He disappeared from public awareness for a couple of hundred years after his death and was "rediscovered" only in the late 1800's. He is now considered by many to be one of the top hand full of artists for all time. This, of course, is one of his most famous images and is a most beautiful painting. This image is a reference for students in my Basic Drawing Skills course. To see samples of the students work please visit the class blog.

Those Swatches Again

2011-02-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

Once again what began as just practicing colour mixing lead to what I feel is an interesting painting. I think fairly soon I'm going to listen to what this approach is trying to tell me.

This time I was just making bright colour swatches to illustrate how much more effective the brights are when surrounded by neutrals. This just makes the bright colours sing. When I added the dark neutrals certain shapes began appearing and before I knew it there was a story.

It's Not Good News
Acrylic
14" X 12"

Christmas In The Country

2011-02-17T19:51:00.000-08:00

This image is a farm we passed just going up to Big White in Kelowna. I choose a very long and lean format to emphasize the small human habitation up against the very large presence of nature. This is part of my on going efforts to gain comfort with acrylic and I'm finding that I like using it as watercolour, at least in the early stages of the painting. In this image I was pleased with the watercolour-y way that parts of the trees came out. I also enjoy the colour scheme. This is the first acrylic painting that I have done by just playing around similar to what often happens with watercolour, so I'm very pleased with it because of the process.

Christmas In The Country
Acrylic
16" X 7"

For information on this or any other painting contact me.

Basic Drawing Skills - Profile #2

2011-02-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

This second profile is of a woman who seems to possess a great deal of happiness and wholesomeness. I found that this profile with her looking down presented a significant challenge. I really enjoy the fact that because of the sequential build up of skills that we have experienced this portrait was just another challenge and everyone handled it very calmly. It's the first portrait where the area of greatest contrast is not the eyes. This forces the viewer to go first to the highlight on the cheek and then carry on to the eyes. The flowers in the hair add interest and a secondary centre of interest. The hair is also a change to just let go and create some rhythm and excitement.

Woman In Profile

2011-02-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

This portrait began as a pencil sketch for my Basic Drawing Skills class. I just didn't feel like shading the entire background in with pencil so I threw some watercolour on it. I liked that but then the pencil work seemed a little overwhelmed by the paint so I painted right over all the pencil shading. I really liked that but unfortunately I had just done it on regular paper so I redid it on watercolour paper. This is that image. Two things that interested me were to have the greatest contrast (light against dark) not on the eyes but on the cheek. The second was to create some interesting rhythm in the hair. After I had painted the hair I did some calligraphic strokes with white gouache. I like the energy but I'm still deciding if those white strokes are too strong and overpower the actual subject. The beauty of following through on ideas that come to me (like the white strokes) is that now I can live with them and the painting will reveal if they are too much.

Happy Thoughts
watercolour
8.5" X 11"

Coming Down From The High Country

2011-02-11T15:59:00.001-08:00

I've been working on this image for a while. It came from our trip last Oct to Waterton National Park. We were advised to 'be at the flats' at 6 pm because they thought the elk would be coming down from the mountains to their resting area. We, along with quite a few others waited and did see some elk. The painting began with a really fast, wet acrylic wash which established all the shapes and values. All the rest of the time has been working completely opaquely and trying to refine that initial wash. The only reference was a small colour study in my sketch book so I had to invent the shapes in the mountains. I'm finding that I enjoy the watercolour approach to acrylic a lot and that I haven't yet found the same comfort level when working acrylic opaquely.

Coming Down From The High Country
30" X 12"
acrylic

Basic Drawing Skills - William Haines

2011-02-08T21:27:00.000-08:00

William Haines was an actor from silent movie era. This is our first profile. Profiles are a little more challenging because the symmetry that makes a frontal portrait easy is missing in profile. I like the value pattern on this profile with the highlights along the edge of the forehead, nose, lower lip and chin. Getting the shape of a nose in profile is often difficult. Sometimes it helps to use the concept of 'negative space' to get the right shape for the facial features. The lighting of this portrait is very engaging.

Acrylic As Watercolour

2011-02-06T23:06:00.000-08:00

I'm still painting exclusively in acrylic but this image seemed to call for a watercolour type approach. The image was from our trip to Kelowna at Christmas time. Just between Revelstoke and Golden we turned off the highway and went down this back road into a real winter wonderland. These trees covered in hoar frost were an exciting image and I thought a very wet in wet underpainting would be the way to capture the frosty tree shapes. I feel that this particular technique was fairly effective in capturing the feeling I was going for. This is a study that I intend to lead to a larger studio painting.

Acrylic
12" X 8"

Spontaneous Mark Making

2011-02-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned before that I've found it a very creative experience to just start making marks on the paper without any preplanning or preliminary drawing. The only artist I know that does this consistently is Brent Laycock. Interestingly his work has a look that is unlike almost anyone else. For me this spontaneity comes when I'm practicing mixing colours and just putting swatches on the paper to see the colour . Because I'm focused on something else (the colour mixtures) the marks themselves are completely spontaneous. This image was done that way. This is only the second image I've done using just casein. I began with random swatches which became the 3 groups of people. Everything else was just playing around those marks and it ended up as a middle eastern image. Unfortunately, I did over work the image a bit but it was still fun and definitely different for me.

Casein

12" X 10"

For information contact me at this link.

Basic Drawing Skills - Sylvia Sidney

2011-02-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I hadn't heard of Sylvia Sidney. She was a actress in the late 1920's and 1930's. She worked a lot with Alfred Hitchcock. She often played the penniless girl. She certainly has a bit of that look to her. But quite intriguing anyway. Again this drawing is a example of one way of doing this portrait for the people in the Basic Drawing Skills class. I'm enjoying the shading style that I'm using. I look at the shading as painting with a pencil. I generally do an underpainting with a light layer of shading and then I go in and add a second, third layer to create the darks. I think one reason that she has this vulnerable look is that her eyes are wider apart than the 'normal'. The challenge here was the hair mostly because it was so difficult to see in the reference material. I've erased some highlights to create a little interest in their. If I were to take more time I would work mostly on the hair. I love the right eyebrow (her left). I used the kneadable eraser to blot out a bit of the eye brow which lines up with a highlight just below it and gives a neat effect of light hitting there. I feel that I did capture her vulnerability.

Tapestry - A Collaborative Effort

2011-01-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

This is a little fun piece. When I began playing with acrylic a few weeks ago I was once again practicing colour mixing by making swatches of colour. (I can't believe how many fun and creative works I've done that began as simple colour swatches. I think it is because when I'm doing colour swatches I'm only concerned with the colour and my actual brush stroke is completely spontaneous. Then when I look at the shape of the swatch I start to see all sorts of possibilities in the shape.) Anyway, this was some acrylic colours splashed on a paper. My wife, Susan, as she often does takes these little practices or knock offs and goes over them with marker. Many of them are brought to a new life by her application of ink. This was one that she turned into a real work of art with a story of it's own.

Acrylic & Ink

14" X 2"

For information contact me at this link.

Still In The Shed

2011-01-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

Someone asked what is wood shedding. It's actually a term from the jazz world where players retreated to some space and just worked non stop on their playing. It's a period of intense learning. I've heard that the great Charlie Parker in one of his first forays into playing with a band was so embarrassed when the band kept changing keys. He had learned everything in just one key. Anyway, he turned his frustration into motivation to take a year or so to just practice and learn all about his instrument. He emerged a much more confident and fully formed musician. My recent emphasis has been similar though not as prolonged. For the last 3 weeks I've put the watercolour away and just practiced everything I could think of in acrylic. I'm now starting to understand it more and I feel the beginning of a feeling of confidence.

This image is another of Yarnell's atmospheric paintings. I love that misty background. It's too early to say the word but I could see how this acrylic thing could become 'fun' down the road. Confidence grows by having more techniques under my belt and being able to think more concretely about how to proceed with a painting.

Channelling Yarnell

2011-01-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

I've been reading one of Jerry Yarnell's many books. He is a TV & DVD teacher who really simplifies acrylic painting to fit into his TV episodes but he has a lot of interesting techniques. This is a version of one of his images. It's done in an opaque style. Applying the acrylic paint was fairly enjoyable this time and by the second day of working on it I was starting to feel comfortable. I think of everything I've read in the last week the thought that stays with me is not to think of acrylic as a form of watercolour. It's a different medium and requires different thinking. I realize that when I have tried acrylic in the past I kept looking to match the wonderful blending of colours, wet in wet, that you get with watercolour. Acrylic isn't as much fun at least not for me , yet. Another very interesting thing I'm experiencing is using the same colour theory I've worked on in watercolour and transposing it to opaque acrylic. Colour mixing is a different feel when working with acrylic.

Basic Drawing Skills

2011-01-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

This portrait of King Tut's burial mask is again a sample for the people taking Basic Drawing Skills. I really enjoy the graphic nature of this portrait with all the details of the head dress framing the face and leading the eye into the subject. There are a number of changes I made to the reference material in order to make it a better work of art. I've downplayed the value of the entire image around the edges. This serves to lead the eye right into the picture. I've also changed the value of the reference material to create the greatest contrast (centre of interest) at the eyes. Again this is done to draw the eye of the viewer to the eyes which are the most important area. Also in this portrait they aren't shadows as much as they are reflections since the original is made of gold. This is noted particularly with the dark bands reflected onto the cheeks. This image is a suggestion for one way to approach the shading.

Double click the image to see a larger version.

Basic Drawing Skills

2011-01-25T21:46:00.000-08:00

This drawing is one of the introductory activities in my Basic Drawing Skills class. It's a way to practice the proportion of the face. After the drawing is done the second part of the assignment involves shading it. I've posted this image just to offer one way to do the shading. I've left the shading fairly simple so the strokes are clearly visible. In general I'm using strokes that follow the contour of the face. There was no smudging used in this picture. If this was a real portrait I would take the shading to a more finished level by applying more layers. For most of my life I used the smudging technique which produces a beautiful soft look. I now use this modified cross hatching method mainly because it's faster. It's also a lot of fun getting into the quick rhythm of applying the strokes. I guess ultimately it feels a lot like the process of painting but using a pencil.

If you double click the image you'll see an enlarged version where the shading strokes are more visible.

Still In The Wood Shed

2011-01-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

I'm working my way through some books on acrylic painting. I've come across an artist William Hook who I was unfamiliar with but I find his opaque approach to acrylic to be very interesting. This image is one of his that I just love. I'm trying to work out how he painted it. This is just the barest approximation of his painting. Coming from watercolour which, for me, has the most enjoyable process for applying paint, I'm struggling with the plastic feeling of the acrylic. But as I step back I can just see some of the potential that this image holds. I believe that if I just commit to doing it that I'll be able to reach a level of satisfaction and possibly even fun with opaque acrylic. I do notice how important the areas of neutral tone are to make the colourful sections really stand out.

Wood Sheddin'

2011-01-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

I've decided to take some time to just play, practice and experiment with acrylic. Over the years I've done a number of paintings in acrylic and some very nice ones but I've never been master of acrylic technique like I have with watercolour. In fact it's often been a love / hate relationship. Sometimes acrylic is a lot of fun and other times I'm really fighting the paint. I've just taken a whole bunch of books on acrylic out of the library and I'm doing some practices from examples I see in them. One thought that I've read in a couple of books is that it's best not to look at acrylic like watercolour or oil and not to try to mimic your techniques in those media with your technique in acrylic. In other words learn what acrylic does best for you. These images are my first studies. The only rule I was following was to have little or no water on the brush. So this is paint straight out of the tube with some mixing and some white. Coming from a watercolour background working opaquely like this is still something I'm still getting used to.

The Return Of The Blob People

2011-01-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

This image was just the result of playing around. I'm going to concentrate for a while on painting with casein and in this case I was just trying to explore mixing darks with a palette of some green, ultramarine blue, yellow, cobalt blue and cerulean blue. I would make a mix of some combination trying to make it as rich a dark as possible then I made swatches of the various mixtures on paper. When I looked, one of these swatches looked a bit like a person so I then played with that idea and turned each of them into a person. The purer, brighter colours that I painted between these darks just started to sing when surrounded by the neutrals. It was a lot of fun and the first time I've done anything solely with casein. I usually use it as an addiction to my acrylic paintings. The title refers to a much earlier post with a painting called The Blob People.

Casein
14" x 4"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Winter Cottages, BC

2011-01-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

This studio version of an earlier post is a painting that came together very quickly. I like the strength of the blue orange colours. I was also very pleased with the mountains. I like the way they definitely stay in the background but they do have a nice feel to them as objects in their own right.

Watercolour
18" X 24"

For information on this painting contact me at this link.

Winter Cottages, BC (Study)

2011-01-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

On the way home from our Christmas trip to Kelowna we passed these cottages just south of Sicamous. I loved the orange trees against the winter landscape. It's also another chance to do reflections in watercolour which is where the medium is at it's best. I like the casualness of this piece.

watercolour
12" x 8"

For information about this or any other painting contact me.

Make It About What It's About

2011-01-12T00:28:00.000-08:00

An idea I heard at the Stephen Quiller workshop I took 2 summers ago was, 'make the painting about what it's about'. To me, this meant, identify the main idea of the painting and emphasize that. A few days ago I posted an image, Cascade. When I lived with that image I came to realize that the main idea was the interplay of the colourful tree and the more muted background. A lot of the original image, particularly the left side of the painting wasn't really adding anything to the painting. This cropped version of that image is, I feel, much stronger.

For information about this or any other painting contact me.

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Morning Mountains (Studio Version)

2011-01-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

I'm very pleased with the colour harmony in this picture. The dark brownish colour is a mixture of cad red light and either permanent green light or viridian. It makes a lovely brownish hue and certainly makes the cad red light of the mountains stand out even more. It also guarantees that there will be harmony between the mountains and the trees. I started a few months ago working with a much more limited palette, basically a warm and cool of each primary with a few extra colours. This forces me to mix colours and it's in the mixing that I'm learning what each colour is about. This approach to colour is the basis of my new class Basic Drawing Skills Pt 2: Colour. It's all about mastering your palette and with too many choices it's very hard to learn the properties of any particular colour.

Morning Mountains
watercolour
18" x 24"

For information on this or any other painting contact me.

Cascade (Studio Version)

2011-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

This is a studio version of this mountain scene from just outside Banff. It's a motif I quite enjoy and I think there may be some more versions in the future. I like the monumentality of it. I think the composition may need a little further refinement. I'm really excited about the possibilities of mixing watercolour and gouache. I love the spontaneity of watercolour and then having the potential to add some lights over the darks with gouache is very freeing.

watercolour & gouache

18" x 18"

For information about this or any other painting contact me.

Morning Mountains

2011-01-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

This is a view is see fairly frequently as I take my morning walk along 37th St. I love the pink in the mountains. Yesterday, when I saw them I quickly came home, got the camera, took a picture and did this study. Each time I walk into the studio and see it it takes me right back to that morning. The pink I used was a combination of cad red light with a little titanium white watercolour which is an opaque pigment. I washed this pink over various areas of the painting. The brownish colour is my new favourite mix: red & green. A wash of blue covered the snow.

Watercolour

11" x 5 1/2"

For information on this or any other painting please contact me.

Back Alley Series

2011-01-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

This image is from a series on back alleys that I did during the big snow fall we had a couple of winters ago. I just up dated it recently. I like the two wet tire tracks that lead right up the painting to the couple at the top. They were a left over from my romantic period. This painting was updated with a much bolder use of colour. I enjoy cityscapes and I particularly like scenes with a different point of view. In this image it's the juxtaposition of Calgary's rich public face and then the other side of Calgary.

Calgary, Looking Up

Watercolour

14" x 11"

For information on this or any other painting contact me right here.

Cascade

2011-01-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

This image is one that I am developing for my new art class called Basic Drawing Skills Pt2: Colour. I was attracted to the composition and the sense of majesty. I've analyzed it to have a full range of values. Value 1, the lightest, is the entire snow covered highest block of mountains. Value 2 is the next shape down, the larger darker rock band plus the lowest and closest rock face at the bottom of the page. The tree line on that lower rock face is a value 3. Then the lone tree is the value 4 ie the darkest and most intense colours. I helped me to just keep those values in mind. I tried to add other colours to the Value 1 shape but I kept saying, "It has to stay a very light value".

I really getting excited to actually start teaching this class in the spring.

Cascade

Watercolour

9" x 9"

For information about this or any other painting contact me here.

Mountain Meld

2010-12-31T22:08:00.000-08:00

This image is from our recent visit to Big White Ski Resort at Kelowna. The chalet looked right across a valley to these hills. My attempt here was to meld the sky and the distant hills. As much as I enjoyed the very wet in wet approach used here the painting ended up much too dark overall. As per usual we turn to mixed media and bring in the opaque mediums to add lights over some of that dark. In this case I used gouache. I was enjoying the rhythm of the gouache marks and they are starting to lighten it up. I think it may need even more lightening but for now I'll just live with.

Watercolour

15" x 22"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Contrast And Mood

2010-12-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a well know painter from BC and she said that if the sun isn't shining she won't even go out to paint. She is looking entirely for the bright contrast that you get with full sun and that's the only mood she is interested in painting. I think all painters are in love with the interplay of light, shadow and colour that comes with lots of light. I certainly enjoy that as well but I do notice that often I'm attracted to more subdued scenes with less vivid contrast and a more tranquil mood. I remember once painting at Sunshine Meadows with a group of very experienced painters and I was taken by the interplay between a foreground group of trees against a background of a wall of green trees. I asked one painter how she would do the scene and she said she wouldn't because there was so little contrast. She wanted the blue sky against mountains and dark trees. My painting actually didn't work out but I believe it could have if I had been more patient and more confident. Anyway, I think a lot can be learned from the more subtle interplay of values and colours in low light conditions. This is all by way of explanation why I was attracted to these cloud studies from BearsPaw. I look at these as doing my homework, really trying to see the differences of value and colour.

For information about these or any other paintings contact me at this link.

Re-evaluation

2010-12-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

I've lately become very aware of how much I need the insights of others to see my work more accurately. I tend to be too dismissive, thinking things like, "It was only a practice", or, "It doesn't say what I wanted it too". Sometimes these thoughts lead me to miss what's actually in front of me. I've been thinking a lot about this lately and I am, therefore, trying to be less judgmental. This image is an example. I saw it as just another study of this waterfall in Waterton Lakes Park and was ready to dismiss it. I'm now trying to give it it's own due and I have to admit that it has a certain energy that I like.

Watercolour

16" x 12"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Low Clouds Over Mountains

2010-12-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

This is the view from our chalet at Big White Ski Resort. In the morning there was a beautiful sunrise then as the day progressed the clouds descended until almost the entire mountain range was obscured. This particular image is when the clouds were just starting to cover things. The details and colours are all muted. I really had fun painting this and at first I called it one of my sloppy paintings. Now, I don't think the word sloppy is appropriate (even though I enjoy being sloppy at times) it's really a painting that was done very wet in wet. I tried to get in some colour notes but again they are muted. I like the feel of this painting very much.

Watercolour

12" x 9"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Chalets At Night

2010-12-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

I took these photos at night of the scene used in the previous post. I didn't have a tripod so some of them have focus issues but I like the colours and values of them. It's an interesting exercise to try to paint night scenes. It's a different arrangement of values and the different thinking needed to pull off a night scene help us to see ordinary scenes in a new way.

These images are from the Chalets at Big White, Kelowna.

Chalets At Big White

2010-12-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Just returned from a family event at Big White, the ski hill at Kelowna. This is the afternoon view from our bedroom. After a day of skiing it felt good to stay at home and paint. There is actually a solid row of Chalets and I tried to pick out just 2 to give the feel of the road leading up from our place. All the colours were done intuitively but I tried to be faithful to the values of the actual scene.

Quick Sketch Portraits

2010-12-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

Today was the final day of my Basic Drawing Skills fall class. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. While the students were working on their final self portrait I had some time and did these quick studies. One is a portrait of my mother sunning herself and the other is the daughter of one of the students. Since I've been working so much on portraits lately I'm kind of in the zone and it was a lot of fun to just jump in and do these studies. I find that one's ability to judge proportion, and to accurately draw the features, like everything else, improves with practice.

To see the students' self portraits take a look at the class blog.

Snowy Morning In Bear's Paw 2

2010-12-13T12:36:00.000-08:00

I liked much about the painting from the last post. I loved the colours and the wet in wet technique. I had a problem with the composition, however. The lower part of the painting seemed unresolved. I felt cropping might help but instead I redesigned the image. This one, I feel, has a much stronger underlying structure with the 3 bands (the sky, the house & trees, and the foreground) forming a stronger composition. Now, I am just deciding what I thing about all the stuff going on in the foreground.

Just on another note, we had a very enjoyable visit with Sharon Williams the other day. It was so refreshing to really get into and knock about some ideas about art. Very inspiring. More please.

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Snowy Morning In Bear's Paw

2010-12-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

I've been reading a book on photography and the author emphasized often how important it is to capture the light in the early morning or evening. I set off for Bear's Paw at 5:30 this morning not really realizing that it doesn't get light until quite a bit later (try almost 8 am). I also ignored the fact that overcast days have quite an effect on the light. Anyway, I was there early, I waited and I did this picture which captured that overcast, snowy atmosphere. In spite of all it was an enjoyable experience.

Watercolour

21" X 10.5"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Coming Down From The High Country (Study)

2010-12-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

Another idea from our trip to Waterton National Park. We along with about 10 other cars waited for an hour because we heard that the elk would be crossing this field to their night range.

Watercolour & Casein

12" X 4"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Lake Of The Woods Plein Air

2010-12-07T21:53:00.001-08:00

The view just a few metres away from Orihel's cabin. This painting was done as a live demo. I was inspired by a technique that I picked up at Stephen Quiller's workshop. The 5 green trees in the front row were completely lifted out from the painted background. I'm always impressed by how clean the colour can be even though the background was originally a dark wash. It's necessary to lift out while the background paint is still very wet. Quite a sloppy technique but I like the feel especially the reflections in the water.

Watercolour

19" X 14"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Orihel's Place

2010-12-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

This is a painting from my Lake of the Woods Series. We spend a couple of weeks a year at our cabin there. This plein air painting was done on the first day after all the crowds of people had left. It was painted from the Orihel's dock and half way through the rain came which had quite an effect on the painting.

Watercolour

17" X 14"

Collection of A. Fogg

Cowboy Trail

2010-12-03T20:00:00.001-08:00

From our recent trip down Highway 22. I loved the way the road recedes into the mountains.

Watercolour

14" X 10"

For information on this or any other painting contact me at this link.

Snowy Morning In Springbank

2010-11-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

A scene from early this morning. Very simple, atmospheric.

Watercolour

11" X 4"

For information on this or any other painting contact me.

Weaselhead with Snow

2010-11-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

I am a believer that you don't need to go too far to find inspiration when you paint en plein air. It also helps me to think of these 'on location' experiences as information-gathering sessions rather than trying to produce a 'masterpiece'. This way I can relax and just throw the paint around.

This image was a quick reaction to the view from the parking lot overlooking the Weaselhead on 37th St. I feel that it is a companion piece to "A Snowy Morning In Springbank".

Watercolour

9" X 4"

For information on this painting or any others please send me an email at this link.

Bow Valley Still Life

2010-11-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

On a recent painting trip in Banff National Park, we spent a morning along the Bow Valley Parkway. We stopped for a picnic lunch and this was the scene I kept staring at as we ate.

Watercolour

11" X 9"

For information on this or any other painting contact me.

Cameron Falls

2010-11-24T08:01:00.001-08:00

From our recent trip to Waterton Park, this falls is just off the road to Cameron Lake. I was much influenced by the photo I took with a long exposure time.

Watercolour

10" X 8"

For information on this or any other painting contact me.

Banff Connections

2010-11-16T10:43:00.001-08:00

This is my first attempt at using oil paint. Originally this was a watercolour but as often happens it needed some adjustments and I decided to modify it with oil. As much as I love watercolour I appreciate the ability to add lights over the darks with an opaque medium. I'd always been interested in oil but was turned off by odour issues. For this work I used walnut oil and found that there weren't any odours in my studio. I guess that by eliminating the turpentine or paint thinners it is possible to enjoy a good work environment. I had tried some odourless thinner before but it was far from odourless. Anyway, the way that oil paint can be pushed around was neat and if it is possible to keep fresh air in the studio I'll certainly try it again.

Banff Connections

Watercolour & Oil

16" X 20"

For any further information please contact me.

Bow Valley Expressions

2010-11-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

I was intrigued by this scene on the Bow Valley Parkway during a recent painting trip to the Banff/Kananaskis area. I must admit I had in mind some of the Group of Seven's paintings of burnt out areas.

Bow Valley Sevenths

7" X 7"

watercolour

Basic Drawing Skills -Horse Portrait

2010-11-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

A particularly attractive composition. Very interesting to try a different type of portrait.

Basic Drawing Skills - Humphrey Bogart

2010-11-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

By the time I did this, our last portrait, I was well into the groove and it came together quickly. I think this one, of all the portraits I did for the class, most closely combines accuracy with expression.

One of the many benefits I derive from teaching Basic Drawing Skills is that I get to put some concentrated effort into drawing and drawing really is at the heart of all art. As mentioned in a much earlier post, I am an experimenter and I have to put in a lot of effort to explore, learn and progress and this class is a major dose of that effort.

Basic Drawing Skills - Audrey Hepburn

2010-10-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is my second attempt at this beautiful image. This time I was much more in tune with the image and not so concerned with accuracy. As a result the picture is a better likeness and has a fresher sense.

The quality of the students drawings was outstanding on this portrait. To view their work visit the Basic Drawing Skills class blog.

Basic Drawing Skills - live, in class demos

2010-10-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

I have become captivated by this image of Audrey Hepburn. Her class, and humanity seem to shine through. I'm also very interested in the fact that these two drawings I did, very quickly, live in class on the overhead, both seem to capture her personality whereas, the official version I did in the studio (in the next post) has completely missed her personality. I think there is a bit of a message in that.

Basic Drawing Skills

2010-10-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

This image of actress Helen Menken was done for my drawing class. Because the students in the class are progressing so quickly we now take accuracy for granted and are working on expressing the feeling of the portrait. This particular image speaks to me of quiet contemplation. I'm also experimenting more with a cross hatching approach rather than my normal method of smudging the graphite for shading. I started trying this in order to speed up the process and am finding now that I really enjoy the more direct nature of cross hatching.

For information on the Basic Drawing Skills class contact me.

To see the students' work visit the Basic Drawing Skills Blog.

Elbow River Colours

2010-10-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

The same bold colour approach applied to a scene we came upon while hiking along the Elbow River.

Watercolour 9" X 12"

Let There Be Colour

2010-10-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time looking at Eleanor Lowden Pidgeon's DVD and her bold use of colour. The sun hitting the hedge in our front yard seemed tailor made for a bold use of colour as the sun sparkled in the yellows and reds of the hedge. I like the feel as if someone has just been sitting in the chair and has briefly left the frame.

Watercolour 20" x 13.5"

Basic Drawing Skills

2010-10-13T13:13:00.001-07:00

This image was a true pleasure to do. I wanted to try drawing on a toned background and letting the toned background be the mid values so I only needed to add the dark values and then the white highlights. It was done on a pastel paper with a pronounced circular texture. The entire drawing tool only about 45 minutes 30 of which were for the drawing. The shading was fast and easy and when I added the white charcoal it just came to life. I was literally blown away by this process and will definitely be trying this again.

I've started a new blog dedicated to my drawing class, Basic Drawing Skills. Check out the students work at this link.

Basic Drawing Skills

2010-10-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

Our second portrait was of Don Knots from his days on the Andy Griffiths show. I was very surprised that some of the younger people even knew him, though he also was on some more modern shows like Three's Company. Anyway, for this portrait I enjoyed the surface used which was matt board. There is a very definite texture which allows some of the white board to show through. I used a different shading style just because I didn't have the time to do my usual smoother smudging technique. I've used a cross hatching style which was much faster to do. It's a little more muscular than smudging. These two approaches to shading with graphite are very different but each is equally effective, it's all about finding which approach you enjoy more or perhaps it's best to know both so you can use the most appropriate one for the particular drawing you are doing.

Basic Drawing Skills

2010-10-04T12:03:00.001-07:00

I'm posting this portrait of King Tut again because I've added a new layer of shading and I think that it has a greater depth. For artists who are beginning in their study of value (shading) it's useful to see it as a process. I did the initial layer of shading based on my first impression. A few days later when I came back to it I was able to see a greater and more subtle range of values in the shading. This drawing is the result of that process. I can continue to come back to it and add even more layers of depth. It's useful to keep in mind, however, that more and more doesn't necessarily make it a better drawing. It's all about what you want to say. For example quick, spontaneous drawings often carry more feeling and spontaneity even if they are not as 'finished'. In this class it's about discovering how you want to interpret your subjects, no one way is always right.

Just for those who are interested, in total to date, I've put in about 40 minutes to draw the picture and about 90 minutes for the shading.

Neighbourhoods_Calgary

2010-09-30T11:23:00.001-07:00

Those of us who originate from eastern Canada often lament the lack of bright reds in Alberta's fall colours. There are actually quite a few red accents in the fall colours here but they are mainly in hedges, bushes and minor characters. I've become increasingly aware of them this year. This is a view from our front yard.

I did a colour study, en plein air, and then came right in and did a studio version. I like the freshness and rhythm of the image. I love plein air painting. I particularly enjoy it when it's right at my door step like in this case.

Basic Drawing Skills

2010-09-28T21:33:00.001-07:00

This portrait of King Tut was done in graphite on watercolour paper. The texture of this paper allows a lot of light speckles to shine through creating a pleasing effect. I made a conscious effort to direct the eye of the viewer to Tut's eyes. So I have down played the darks of the head dress at the bottom and the false beard in order to direct attention to the eyes. I have also made the darks of the head dress that are above the eye, darker as they move into the picture. Again I'm trying to direct the viewer's eye.

I created the darks by adding more layers of lightly applied graphite rather than by pressing harder with the pencil. I find that creating darks this way gives them much more subtlety and life. Pressing too hard will damage the surface of the paper and gives a very flat dark. This particular portrait with it's wonderful design elements and strong value contrast would make a lovely painting. I certainly plan to try this at some point.

P.S. I would love to have some comments. Just click on the 'comments' link below this post. Another window will open and chose 'Comment as > anonymous', write your comment, then click 'post comment' and that's all there is to it.

Understanding Acrylic with Brent Laycock

2010-09-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

My wife and I have a video production company, WhitePine Productions. We are very proud to produce the finest art instruction videos in Western Canada. Our latest video is Understanding Acrylics with Brent Laycock. Brent is one of Canada's most original landscape painters. His vibrant and deeply personal work is instantly recognizable and he has received the highest possible national recognition . Contact us for more information or to order copies of Brent's DVD.

Collaboration With Jean Pederson

2010-09-24T22:03:00.001-07:00

I've just completed collaborating with Jean Pederson on her excellent Farm Fragments Installation at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. I was there for the opening on Sunday, Sept 19. The exhibition includes paintings, collages, installations and objects illustrating life on the farm going back over 100 years. I created a video that complemented Jean's vision. It was an enjoyable challenge to combine images of abandoned farms with interviews of people who grew up on these farms. The audio track also included many nature sounds that I recorded. It was a very creative project that allowed me to stretch out videographically, so to speak.

The exhibition continues at the Red Deer Museum and will, hopefully, be travelling to other locations in Canada. If you are in the area definitely stop by to view it.

Plein Air Lake Of The Woods

2010-09-13T14:22:00.001-07:00

I just got back from an incredible time at our cabin on Lake of the Woods. I had just a couple of days to do some plein air painting. This was one of the pieces I finished, a view just beside our cabin. I enjoyed the interplay of the dark rocks and reflections with the very subdued water. I also tried to paint the rocks with out resorting to my usual habit of mixing ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to make the grays that were every where in the rocks. Instead I mixed quinacridone rose and thalo green to get what I thought was a very attractive gray. This mix was further modified in places with some yellow and in other places with some blue. I was very pleased with the value range and the composition and as always plein air paintings just seem to acquire a greater feeling of spontaneity and directness.

Time For A Break

2010-08-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this older image because I'm coming to appreciate it more and more. With watercolour, the first wash is the best opportunity to get luminance and freshness into a painting. I enjoy the fresh feeling that I get from this image.

I'm also using this image to give me a chance to pause. I will be away from any computer for a few weeks.

Until I get back

may the force be with you.

Dealing With Darks

2010-08-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

What I enjoyed about this studio version of a plein air sketch of the Vermillion Lakes at Banff is the richness and variety of values and colours in the dark shape of the distant trees. There was a freedom in the application of paint in this area. I also enjoy the sense of light entering from the right especially in the grassy area between the water and the darker green trees. The darks in a painting really make the lights stand out. Paintings start to find their voice when there is a full range of values.

Converging On Banff

2010-08-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

This is the studio version of the previous plein air study. It's tidier than the plein air study but that doesn't necessarily mean it's better. Having said that I feel that it works very well both compositionally and in terms of the colour. As a friend said, "(It) is nice and fresh."

Banff Plein Air

2010-07-31T10:17:00.001-07:00

I took a painting trip to Banff yesterday and it was just wonderful. It took me back to my last period of intense plein air painting when I went out every morning and did a 2 hour painting and then another 2 hour painting in the afternoon. In Banff I did this painting in about 1 and a half hours in the morning. I had visited this spot and taken photos a month ago. I'd even worked out a value study but to be there plein air and to be in the moment is something special.

As I drove away I noticed this second scene about 40 metres from the first one. I felt compelled to stop and do a second painting. The feeling of immediacy when painting on location can't be duplicated in the studio. It was just a rapid fire process: observe, make a decision and apply paint.

After this experience I avoided asking myself the obvious question - why don't I do this more.

Royality

2010-07-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is the third in a series of large format irises. In this one I wanted a light back ground with the value contrasts in the flower itself. The original background was done in watercolour and got too dark. I used acrylic to white out the entire background and do a new one in acrylic. So this painting is a true mixed media, half watercolour and half acrylic and I'm very pleased with the painting. I think they get along well.

Value Study

2010-07-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've started painting in acrylic again. I'm interested in exploring using acrylic in a watercolour style since I love the effect of paint and water but also want the ability of adding lights over darks and acrylic seems like it might fit in with this approach very nicely. I'm also being very consistent in doing preparatory work for each new painting and this is a value study of a scene of a little creek just on the edge of the Banff town site. This is the next image I want to tackle.

The Case For Experimenters

2010-07-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

I've just read another very interesting book by Malcolm Gladwell. He writes of everyday events and processes and makes us look at them in a very different way. The piece I just read was comparing different styles that painters can follow. He points out the example of Pablo Picasso who burst on the scene at about age 20, as a fully formed new voice. His new vision captured the public imagination immediately and he experienced financial and critical acclaim right away. He also did some of his best work early on. Gladwell contrasts this with the group that he calls 'experimenters'. These artists, and his example is Paul Cezanne, take years and years of experimenting and struggle before they finally clarify their vision and achieve their own voice. This analogy caught my attention because I am definitely an experimenter. I have to play with ideas and seemingly take many detours and deadends before I finally achieve the ability to say what I want with my own voice. This is one reason I'm enjoying revisiting some of my earlier paintings. Since I originally did them I've studied lots, practiced lots, made lots of mistakes and figured some things out. But through it all there has been progress and I see things now that I wasn't ready to see earlier. This painting from the Lake Of The Woods is a perfect example. The only thing that remains from the original is the main rock. The beauty of Gladwell's observations is that though very different neither approach is 'better' or more valid than the other they are just different. We just need to stay true to our own journey and that way we can't lose.

Central United

2010-07-06T11:21:00.001-07:00

I've always really liked this image of downtown Calgary from a different perspective. This began as a fairly tepid painting then was left for over a year. Inspired by the class I've just completed I did a major reworking, feeling much freer. As a result of this it is beginning to develop it's own story.

If you want any information about any of the paintings or would like to purchase one please contact me at this link.

School's Out For Summer

2010-06-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

I began this blog as a travel through my year long watercolour class with Sharon Williams and this class just finished a couple of weeks ago. It was an incredible experience for me and I really learned a lot. Most beneficially it dealt very clearly and practically with areas that I had weaknesses in mainly to do with composition and value. I now feel much better prepared when I approach a painting. I look forward to the next year when I can continue to assimilate a lot of what I learned and put it into my work. It's appropriate that this image is my latest painting because it represents the year for me. It is a composition that I developed for one of our assignments. I call it Alberta Flats. This work was an attempt to take a little watercolour sketch and do it large, 30" X 20". It didn't really work as a watercolour so this final version is mostly acrylic except for the purple mountain. I had to work pretty hard at it but I feel that most of my decisions have improved the work.

I plan to keep this blog as a journal of this new year and look forward to continued artistic development.

Basic Drawing Skills

2010-06-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

I just completed the latest session of my drawing class: Basic Drawing Skills. It was a really great class and a lot of fun. I am constantly learning from teaching this class, learning about the process of drawing and also about the connection between drawing and who we are as people. Realistic drawing seems to touch us at a very deep level.

In this class we practice the drawing skills that are taught by using them in portraits. I very much enjoy trying to draw accurate portraits. I did this profile of Willie Nelson after the class was over simply as a challenge. I admire him as a person and I wanted to render a wrinkled face without allowing the wrinkles to dominate the face. I also like this type of lighting, with the highlight area not being the eyes. The eyes are so significant that they draw our attention anyway but with this type of lighting we take a little trip before we get to the eyes.

I will be offering this class again in the fall. If you are interested in improving your drawing skills or would like information on this class click here.

Colour Study Two

2010-06-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

This picture was a real experience. It was done in 6 hours in one day. It was done with complete focus and concentration. An almost endless stream of decisions had to be made and in this case most of them worked out. I really like the feeling, especially the rhythm as the viewer can bounce all around the picture. I also like the colour unity. I originally planned an almost black background but this one with it's flecks of light helps the rhythm of the piece. For me it's also a large painting 30" X 24".

I attribute the success of this painting mainly to the liberating process of doing colour and value sketches. These are the 3 studies I did. Because of them I was able to concentrate just on applying the paint. Composition, value and colour decisions were already made.

To see more examples of my work check out my web site.

Iris From The Value Sketch

2010-06-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

This image of irises is based on one of the value sketches from the previous posts. At first there were too many different colours but a little reworking has brought the image a little more under control. The more I look at it the more I'm starting to like it. It was done on a full sheet of watercolour. It's worth an entire post just to talk about the difference between doing a small painting and a large one. It really is a different mind set. Now to try to do another one using the other value sketch. Once again I have to appreciate what I've learned this year especially in terms of the process that I now go through before I actually paint the image. The compositional, value and colour studies are so important in making the final image successful. These little sketches are a very easy way to resolve any issues and then when I start to paint I am much more able to be in the moment and respond to what the paint is doing on the paper.

Floral Design & Value Sketches

2010-06-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

I have frequently struggled with florals particularly finding a balance between the flower and the background. I often visualize the flower as being bright and vibrant but to get a background that accentuates that has been the problem. My backgrounds have tended to compete with the flower and diminished the effect I was trying to achieve. This week we worked on florals and what is really helping is to do value sketches to resolve the background/foreground issue. Here I have done 2 value sketches. One with a very dark background and the flower containing a range of the other values. The contrast here is a little distorted because of the background is black paint and the other values are in pencil. In the other sketch I have put the darkest values in the flower and worked the background around that. It was very helpful to do this and it helps me to see a wider range of options.

Listening To The Painting

2010-05-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm still mining many nuggets from my week at Stephen Quiller's studio last August. One thing he said many, many times a day is to listen to the painting which means to be focused on the painting and what's happening on the paper and responding to that. Kind of like being in the zone. I mention this because this portrait of my wife, Susan is actually the third version. For the first two I couldn't get out of my mind my recent success with my own portrait (see the last post). In spite of my best efforts I kept thinking about how I had done my portrait and I was much too caught up in that effort so that I wasn't 'listening' to this painting and not surprisingly both efforts were a bit lack lustre. I decided then to try to get that previous experience right out of my mind. So I took some paper and soaked it and lay in some bright acrylic washes of red, thalo blue and cad scarlet. I let this run at will and as it dried I added more and brighter colour. I also splattered. So I was left with a very colourful, random background wash. On top of this I sketched Susan's portrait and then working in a negative way I painted the lights with gouache. The darks and most of the hair are that original acrylic wash. I also collaged on construction paper for the entire left hand background.

Finally, I was caught up in listening to this painting and it is, for me, a very original and exciting painting. It really has the sense of a very hot day in the sun. And for all it's unconventionality (for me) it still reveals the personality of Susan.

Self Portrait

2010-05-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

I really like this painting done in about 1 1/2 hours during class yesterday. I haven't done portraits for a number of years and something is clicking now that I didn't understand back then. It's very liberating to just slosh the paint on. It's a real compromise because about 50% of it is my control of the medium and 50% is the paint and water doing their own thing and this balance makes it an exciting process. I used a limited palette of Cad Scarlet, Quinacridone Rose, Naples Yellow, Ultramarine Violet and a little Viridian. I began by soaking the paper except for the white on the cheek, nose and the beard. Then I just washed in gobs of the yellow and cad scarlet and took it from there adding darks as things began to dry. The ultra violet and viridian are colours I've adopted only in the last year primarily because of the Stephen Quiller workshop I went to last summer. I find them both very useful colours. For some chemical reason that I don't understand they are both what I would call 'weak' colours by which I mean that you have to use lots of the paint to get any kind of darker value. It's easy to go through tubes of these 2 colours quite quickly. As opposed to the way I've traditionally done self portraits (using a mirror) this one was from a photo that I took to try to get a more interesting pose. Anyway the hour and a half to do this painting just flew by. Finally, when things are working well in watercolour it seems like you can't do anything wrong. In this painting I just felt like adding a little splatter. After taking a deep breath I just flicked the brush at the paper a few times and it seemed to add a nice touch especially in the beard.

Sketching From Life

2010-05-06T12:40:00.001-07:00

Interestingly, my class with Sharon Williams is presently doing some portrait drawing very similar to my own drawing class. As a result I am doing quite a bit of portrait drawing lately. It's an activity that I really enjoy. Of the many things I learn from doing this is that the more I do it the better I get meaning that the portraits start looking more like the person as well as having some sense of their personality. The other thing I'm very focused on now is to spent as much time as possible intensely looking at the subject that I'm drawing and to spend less time looking at the actual drawing. I believe that so much of our drawing is controlled by past experience and the symbols we have developed to represent facial features. It takes effort and practice to break through that system and to really see what is in front of us. Activities like pure contour drawing and blind portrait drawing allow us to see things with a total freshness and immediacy. This portrait of Sharon was done mostly by looking at her and checking the drawing occasionally except for adding the shading at the end. It's a fairly good likeness but that's not what's important about it. What's important is that it is a visual record of intensely studying the subject. Drawings like this shouldn't be judged as a finished product but as a record of the process of learning to draw.

Drawing Class

2010-04-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

I am offering a drawing class through the Calgary School Of Art. This class is a continuation of the drawing lesson I did for years as a public school teacher. It is designed to teach and practice the skills of drawing: lines, shapes, perspective and shading (value). Because of the specific and unique exercises we do in this class we are able to really unlock and develop the innate ability that all of us have. The improvement that participants notice in a relatively short time is generally dramatic. It's not because of my ability that this happens (much as I wish it was) but because truly we all do have the ability to be very good at drawing and art. To be a genius might be God given but to be very good, to sell and feel confident about it is within each of our reaches. If you are interested in further information or to register please contact me.

Live Model Study

2010-04-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

This was a fun exercise. A five minute pose with a live model. I did it standing up and being quite free with the paint. I took the first few seconds to just view the model and she seemed to be filling up the space in a very confident manner. I did some light sketching and then went at it. What I really like is that I caught that confidence of the pose. After finishing this I really appreciated the fact that the background was lighter than the figure so the attention goes to her. The study I did just before this had the background with a stronger value than the figure and it wasn't nearly as successful. Another fact that I was strongly reminded of during this session with a live model is that the first few (or even quite a few) efforts are really just warm ups and for me it's only later on in the session that the images start to look like the model. It's good to know this so I can take the pressure off the first efforts and just do it and enjoy it because those first efforts are important to get to the final product. Live model studies are something I do occasionally but always coming away from thinking how valuable they are.

Revisiting The Past

2010-04-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is actually an image from 4 years ago. Today I had occasion to think about this painting. It's the first work that I've ever had people vying to buy. Looking at it now it seems to be right in line with my current preoccupation: bold use of colour and/or value . . . kind of makes you wonder.

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Alberta Flats

2010-04-16T22:16:00.001-07:00

Alberta Flats began as a watercolour which was only partially successful. It was turned into a much more effective painting only after the addition of an opaque medium (in this case casein).

The opaque accents are starting to give the painting a nice rhythm.

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Portrait Of Susan

2010-04-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited about this portrait of Susan. It combines my new interest in portrait photography with a different approach to watercolour. I feel that it captures a feeling of quiet strength and emotion. I began it by literally flooding the paper all over with orange, red and a little yellow. This time I didn't wait for it to dry but went right in with dark blues. The paint was running more than I anticipated and I immediately thought that I'd gone too far but decided to keep at it and see what I could make of it. I let it dry completely and thought that it was bold enough but it needed more contrast so I added more dark blue and some details. I added a few touches of gouache at the end. I'm considering darkening the hair a bit since it seems to attract the eye too much.

Overall this was an extremely satisfying piece.

The Benefits Of Time

2010-04-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

For me, with many paintings, I need time to live with a painting for a while so I can get rid of all preconceptions and start to see what is actually there not what I think is there. This image is an example. It is a couple of years old and I've liked much about it but it was always lacking. I recently took it down and did some extensive reworking. I feel that it has improved quite a bit. For example, where the far bank meets the river used to be a very straight line. I never realized how distracting that was and the painting is improved by a little variation in that line. Now, if I live with it a while longer I'll know if it needs anything else. This work began as a watercolour and now is primarily gouache.

Go Bold Or Go Home

2010-03-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

My goal with this image of Charlie Parker was to do it in a bold, spontaneous manner. I had recently seen a video by Don Andrews and I love his style of laying on the paint. In my attempt I feel that I was quite successful. I started out with a red wash over the entire paper except the white areas. Then while still wet I laid in some strong darks particularly in the background. As per usual I then wanted to let that wash dry so I could evaluate things. This is my comfort zone in painting. I had a real moment of insight when Sharon Williams suggested not to wait for it to dry but keep working it, laying in more darks and linking the background with the darks in the face. All of a sudden the light bulb just turned on. I could see myself pushing through my comfort zone and just letting it go. I think that would have given the painting even more spontaneity an most importantly I would have learned something really new about painting and about myself. I find this idea incredibly exciting and intend to do some real exploration of this approach. It's moments like this that keep me moving along this art journey. So I really like this image for what it is but I'm most inspired by where it might lead.

The Power Of Community (and extra sets of eyes)

2010-03-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

I am posting this image again because after undergoing a fairly rigorous critique and by making a number of changes I feel it has improved substantially. This reminds me of the power of having other people give their thoughts and evaluations. We artists spend so much time with with our noses right up against the work and often with our minds locked in our own notions that we can be blind to elements that are already on the paper and unaware of other directions. Some works just seem to come from some other place and almost paint themselves but for me the vast majority of paintings are works in progress. I take them to a place where I need to stop and live with them for a while and then, hopefully, I will know how to proceed. For this particular piece the entire process was speeded up by listening to other peoples feedback. Painting is a solitary pursuit, the art journey is not.

Blob People

2010-03-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

As an introduction to figures I just blobbed paint on the paper with no drawing and no preconception of figures. Some white spots were left. Then this mass of various colours is refined partially while still wet but primarily when dry. I tried to visualize figures in the colour and sort of teased them out. You get a very spontaneous and effective grouping of figures. I created the dark background just to accentuate the figures. In this painting I added gouache to give more definition to the proceedings. This is a very enjoyable process in part because you need to give up control which is liberating.

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The Art Of Abstraction

2010-03-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

Using a reference photo that I have mined for an entire series of images I tried to take it further 'out there' into abstraction. I simplified, rearranged, modified and changed to create the above image. When I first imaged what I wanted to do I envisioned a scene with all these rounded shapes and a sense of enclosure. I feel that this image does have a real sense of place. I'm still debating about adding more to the background, and more leaves but at this stage where it's about 80% done I like to live with it for a while until I know what it needs. The palette was predominately warm and uses watercolour and gouache. The colours used were Indanthrene Blue, Manganese Hue, Emerald Green, Alizarin Carmine and Winsor Orange.

The Process In Action

2010-03-04T10:42:00.001-08:00

I've posted this image because it is a good example of the painting process that I have been studying. I had an old photo I'd taken of a little creek right that's right beside Elbow Falls. I've used this image for a painting before but at that time I just took the entire image with a few minor adjustments. This time I was looking at it and and focused on a tiny section of the photo and it gave me an idea. I quickly did a small compositional sketch then a larger value study. The tall and narrow format came because I had a frame that size. Anyway the next day I did this painting. I used thalo blue and cadmium scarlet almost entirely. I like the painting which I call Chance Encounter since it's a little scene that I often happen upon and it has, for me, that feeling of seclusion. What I really enjoyed about this painting was having and using a process to go from reference material to a personal statement.

As a little aside I also used the idea from this same photo for the middle ground in the scenes shown in some earlier posts called 'Analagous Colour Schemes'.

Introduction To Abstraction

2010-02-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

This week we began looking at abstraction. This was done by creating a composition of objects that have some significance for my wife Susan, over which I layed a grid (the letters 'Susan'). Then in painting it, basically, whenever I came to a new line or shape I painted it using none realistic colours. Also the paper was prepared by creating a random background wash which was allowed to dry before beginning. It was interesting in this painting because I wasn't sure how to create the original composition of objects that meant something to Susan. There was a random shape that seemed to mirror the head of the large central figurine so I began by drawing it to fit with that background shape. This became the figurine's head. I really enjoyed doing this and I certainly like the results. I'm not sure if it's finished but if I continue I will probably use gouache or acrylic so that I can add lights over the darker colours.