Tropical Vibe

Tropical Vibe

16" x 16" - acrylic on canvas - $150

Roadside Attraction II

Roadside Attraction II

16"x 20"  - acrylic on canvas paper - $150

I seem to have an artistic 'season disconnect' as we head into spring. For whatever reason I am finding inspiration in some photos I took last fall when the colours were at their height in Ontario. I am sure I will catch up soon to spring, but in the meantime here is a second painting based on one of those photos from last September. This too was largely painted with a palette knife but the textural creating larger, flatter areas of colour. 

Roadside Attraction I - Autumn Foliage

Roadside Attraction I

16.5" x 22"  - acrylic on canvas paper  - $150

Lately I have become enamoured with 'mark making' while I paint, and have become more experimental in making a wider variety of them in my work. Painting with a brush is still a joy, but recently I have been using a palette knife as well. In this painting I began with the brush, but as paint layers were built up, the knife work created such wonderful texture, suggesting foliage, that I left it more intact than usual. 

The composition (and hence title), and even the colour palette was inspired by a photo I took last October when the autumn colours were at their most intense. It was a beautiful season.

Landscape Prism

Landscape Prism

24" x 30" - acrylic & oil on canvas - $400

I finished this painting last April, but with other things happening I did not have a chance to post it. It evolved out of another painting based on a similar landscape design that featured 'foreground trees in front of a body of water, with a distant shore in the background'. I worked on both of them at the same time, but this one took an entirely different path. Below are the first three stages.

At this point I started attending a Master Class with painter Tom Stephens at the Sarasota Art Centre. The idea was that you would bring your current work and paint in a collegial environment and receive critical feedback- in other words - coaching. As someone who paints alone I was feeling in need of some peer review, so I signed up. This is the painting I took with me to the group on the first day, six weeks ago. Among Tom's comments was the important advice that you just have to dig in and push the paint around to see what happens next. It was the same advice I would have (and have) given to students, so I did, mostly going with my intuition. 

The result was a simplification of the design into fewer, larger and more interesting shapes, and the toning down of some colour areas with some neutral greys. The surface of the painting became more nuanced, layered and interesting. Eventually all the areas were resolved, with the final touches of oil paint, applied liked icing on the cake. It was not how I imagined the painting would look in the beginning, but I was very pleased in the end. 

At the Hob Nob Drive-In, in Sarasota

At the Hob Nob

24" x 30"  - acrylic on canvas - $450

This is not my usual subject matter nor style, but one seemed to demand the other. 

The Hob Nob is a 'Sarasota landmark', and its oldest drive-in diner, having been around since the 1950s. 

Several years ago I was with friends touring some artist studios in that area and we stopped at the diner for lunch. While eating a very interesting looking man in full leathers and wearing a helmet that matched his motorcycle, pulled up.  I had to take some photos, surreptitiously of course, and since then have been thinking about painting him. I finally did it this spring. Though my original photo did include all of his motorcycle, I felt the cropped composition worked better on this sized canvas. A fun painting.

Des Nuages Orageux

Des Nuages Orageux

16" x 16"  - acrylic on canvas - $150

As I was painting en plein air near St. Saturnin-les-Apt, last September, storm clouds - des images orageux - were forming in the distance and approaching our group. Everyone kept painting, and happily the storm passed us by. Later that day I painted a small version of the approaching storm, and recently decided to tackle the the subject again. It was a dramatic 'big weather morning' and that is what I wanted to capture in this painting.