Gibbet Hill painting (progress)

Production is winding down for t-shirts and crafts this season so I'm getting back to the easel. I started this Gibbet Hill painting back in the spring... finally returning to it. I'm remembering why it seemed so daunting: there are so many rocks!

The cats who stole Christmas

My cartoon for the December edition of the Northeast Avalon Times.

Craft Council Christmas Craft Fair

I've spent the last few weeks in production mode for this event... now it's here! Thanks to my father and my wife for helping me set up my booth today! (I'm going to owe them a dinner or two before the weekend's out.) I've had a lot of interest in my recent "Dominion of Newfoundland" shirts... I'll have a yaffle of them on hand as well as my copper work and linocuts. The Craft Council Christmas Craft Fair starts tomorrow (Thursday, 12-9) at the Arts and Culture Centre. I'm on the second floor mezzanine!

New still life

Painting has been on the back burner for a few months. I was glad to get together with a friend for a still life session last night. Flowers are not my usual choice for subject matter but I'm happy with the results after 3 hours.

Oil on canvas, 12" x 24"

Roads (or lack thereof)

My latest cartoon for the Northeast Avalon Times. Pick one up if you're in the area.

I know there are much worst roads in the province than those in St. John's, but the massive amount of daytime road repair/tear-up has been bugging everyone in town (including me) for months. Also, the city has been extraordinarily slow at re-painting the roads this year... it's mid-October and some of the busiest streets are just getting done. In a few short months (weeks?) they'll be covered with snow and the paint will be scraped away by the plows throughout the winter.

Let's hope everyone in charge of these projects have a better plan for 2015.

Copper rolls

Well it doesn't look like much but here's my latest copper order, all the way from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On the left is a 12" x 50' roll and on the right a 24" x 10' roll, both are 36 gauge. Looking forward to trying out some larger pieces with that wide roll.

Iceberg lino, 2nd colour

After a few test prints and few nips n' tucks of the plate, here's where I landed with the second colour.

Iceberg linocut progress

Above is the first of three colours printed for my latest iceberg linocut. Below that is a progress shot of the second plate as it's being chipped away. Pretty satisfied with the progress so far. The clouds gave me some pause as I didn't have a firm plan for them but I think I've got them sorted. Sometimes you just need to plow through the doubt and see what happens.

Bragging puffins

My latest silly contribution to the Northeast Avalon Times.

Linocut registration

I made a registration jig for my next 2-colour linocut. Crudely built with workshop scraps... it's not pretty but it should do the job. The idea is that the linocut is sandwiched into the same position for each pressing and the paper will be consistently hinged on the dowels. Now to cut the first plate.

The games people play

My latest cartoon for the August edition of the Northeast Avalon Times.

I've been making these digitally for the most part including using fonts for the text. But this one was strictly by hand with a fine point marker. (It does get scanned eventually as publishing is a purely digital operation these days. After the scan I cleaned up a few lines and added the greys.)

Formal Seal

This guy's finally off the easel. Off for a photo sitting and printing in the coming days.

Formal Seal progress

I'm still in the thick of freelance contracts, but I've been very slowly bringing "Formal Seal" into existence over the past few weeks. He's a ways off yet but he's getting there. (24" x 30" oil on canvas)

New embossings: fish and flowers

Some 4"x6" copper pieces I made this week for tomorrow's Sin City Crafters event at Rocket Bakery, downtown St. John's. Should be a great event! Get the details here.

Gibbet Hill painting, progress 2

Here's another progress pic of the Gibbet Hill painting. Doing lots of layers with this one. Still a ways to go but getting there. When the rock highlights come into focus it should really pop.

Gibbet Hill painting progess

Gradually bringing this Gibbet Hill painting to life. Using a pic from our recent walk up Signal Hill (I used photography as my excuse for frequent breaks). Mainly blocking out shadows at this point. Early stages.

Walrus progess

I've been picking away at this guy for the last few days. The first shot (top) is where he currently stands. The shot below (with lots of purple) is the underpainting I started a few months ago. Still a ways to go but he's getting there. Snout needs more work... and whiskers!

New Hava Java show

Just installed a new show at Hava Java: paintings and prints by myself, Nick Kokis and Kathryn Welbourn. If you're in downtown St. John's, drop by and check it out!

Plow Paranoia

My cartoon for the April Northeast Avalon Times! Pick one up if you're in the area.

Ice pans painting

Myself and a few other scallywags have been invited back to Hava Java (Water St. location) for another art show which we plan to install next week. I wanted something new to contribute so I started this ice pans diptych yesterday. I'm using acrylics this time in order to meet the deadline.

Hava Java show

I've got some paintings and linocuts showing at Hava Java's The Tower Corporate Campus location (that's the former Littledale facility on Waterford Bridge Road, St. John's). If you've got some business down that way, drop by and check them out! Nine pieces total including "The Daily Squawk"... should be up for the next month or so.

Newfoundland Gothic

My cartoon for the recent issue of the Northeast Avalon Times... pick one up if you're in the area! It's normally greyscale but I thought I'd add some colour for the blog.

Book Guardians oil painting

In a further effort to blow the stink of computer off me, I painted these gargoyle bookends tonight. Crude but colourful. Big bold strokes. Nothing but fun. Oil on 18"x24" canvas.

Toy truck oil painting

And here's the finished truck painting.

8"x10"
oil on canvas

Rusty toy truck

I've been preoccupied with pushing pixels lately but I'm itching to paint so I set this up as a possible still life subject. It's a cast iron toy truck, once owned by my uncle. He was a body mechanic and had a great collection of toy cars. Visually, I like the splashes of rust but I'll be cleaning it off before I put it back on the shelf.

Cod Liver oil vintage ad

I took advantage of yet another sleepless night to play around with a vintage ad (circa 1880s) as a possible 2-colour t-shirt design. The graphic shows an option for a light colour shirt and one for dark. I love the line "Palatable as milk" (though they had me at "hypophosphites").

Bottled

Got together with my friend for some painting tonight. We settled on some bottles as a subject and spent about 2 hours painting them. This is my effort... a little 8"x10" canvas with oils. (excuse the glare... kind of a crappy photo) And for some reason I chose to sign my name BIG and BOLD. Wrong brush, wrong colour. Bah. Doesn't matter... had a bit of fun.

Polar Vortex

My cartoon for the February issue of the Northeast Avalon Times! Pick one up if you're in the area.

Nick portrait

I've been trading tax info for embossing lessons with my friend Nick. Tonight we put those things aside and did some quick portraits of each other. I've tried this before with little success but I was pretty happy with the end result of this one. This was about 30 minutes total painting time.... real quick by my standards.

Potbelly stove

Testing out some new subjects for metal tooling. Given my obsession for the wood stove in our house, my wife thought a potbelly stove would be good. It's similar to the one I remember from my grandmother's shop on Franklyn Avenue in the 1970s.

Newsboy oil painting

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Well this one finished in a sprint compared to most of my paintings. He was fun to paint... lots of loose brush strokes seem to give him a lively feel. After he's dried and shot, he'll be available as a limited edition print.... hopefully for the next Some Good Market.

Extra! Extra!

I've been busy making things even though I've not been posting much. The first painting of the year came off the easel tonight, half done. It was bugging me so rather than getting frustrated with it, I gave it a time out. So I started this little fellow. He's just outlines at the moment but he's got some character. I wonder which newspaper he's selling? The Puffin Post? The Urchin Observer? The Atlantic Squawk?

Blackout business

My cartoon for the January issue of the Northeast Avalon Times... pick one up if you can!

Alphonse relaxes in the study

This is a little pen and ink yanked from the sketchbook and layered with a bit of digital colour. Alphonse relaxing between takes for his stamp portrait? Maybe. New paintings underway... will post pix soon.