2011: A good creative year

This is an underpainting for a work in progress. Even though it’s barely begun, I’m calling it my 40th painting of 2011. (Just because 40 is a nice round number to end the year with.)

I realized in 2010 that if I wanted to become a better painter, I had to stop my periodic dabbling and make a point of painting regularly. I set a goal to produce 50 paintings this year. Though I fell short, I’m happy with my output. I think I’m ending the year as a much improved and more confident painter.

For the painting above I’m using a Gros Morne photo by my colleague Chris Hammond. He’s generously offered up a slew of his landscape photos for me to use as reference. I expect this little collection will result in quite a few landscape paintings in the coming months.

I’ll leave you with a link to great post by Chase Jarvis called 10 Things Every Creative Person (That’s YOU) Must Learn. It’s written for photographers but applies to all creative types. Instead of making resolutions this year, I think I’ll just revisit this list periodically.

Happy New Year!

Rose

An oil painting in progress. Waiting for  it to dry before the next layer. I laid the paint on thick so it might be a while. Should end up with some nice textures though.

Frenzied flock

This is a detail from a large acrylic painting I’ve been picking at over the last few months. The image is of a frenzied flock of birds evacuating the area as a storm moves in. Unfortunately, it didn’t really come together as planned. I was thinking of painting over it but I might just build a smaller frame and transfer the canvas, cropping out all the crappy bits.

Prussian Peaks painting

More mountains. They’re not quite out of my system yet. I’m currently eyeing my largest available canvas and thinking about the big empty wall in my dining room.

Probably going to happen.

BTW, these peaks are only Prussian because I made them with Prussian blue. Their resemblance to anything in reality is pure coincidence.

This diptych consists of two 12” x 16” masonite panels.

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Blue peaks painting

My mountain peak iPad doodles have evolved into a triptych oil painting using three masonite panels each measuring 8” x 10”. I like the result. The panels had a warm acrylic coat over the gesso so I simply wiped away the blues to expose the highlights.
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Blue peaks

More iPad peaks. Much like the last. Except bluer. And peakier.

Mountains

Raid party

So I’ve had this gag comic series bouncing around in my head for quite a while. A polite descriptor would be to call it a gardening comic but really it’s about the insects imbibing on pesticides.

Siri and Santa

AKA “Santa’s got an app for your crap!"

Glass bottles

Pushing pixels on the iPad again. Some imagined bottles.

Xander

Did a quick doodle of our much-loved lard-ass, Xander.

I’ve gotten pretty good at translating 'cat' over the years. Here he’s either saying “Why are you not rubbing me?” or “My food bowl is not overflowing... make it right."

Cecil

I started this one in my painting class with Greg Bennett. Greg insisted he needed a name and christened him Cecil.

I know, he’s a bit intense. But Cecil’s not a hater... he’s a protector: he’s got your back.

Cecil has made it into the shop. Lucky bugger.

Cecil
Oil on canvas
18” x 24"

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