Collaboration With Jean Pederson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.