Open Skies

I had some leftover plywood from my storage cabinet project kicking around the basement. While cleaning up last week, I thought it would be fitting to use the scraps for painting, so now I’ve got 10 12" x 12” gessoed panels ready to go. It’s not evident in the photo but the plywood has a great wood-grain texture that comes through in the painting. My thinking is that I’d use them for a series of sky paintings. This is the first though I’m not sure it’s quite done yet. I’m setting it aside for now... I have other projects I need to finish first.

Gover House, Trinity painting

Here's a painting I finished a few weeks ago as a belated wedding present to my sister-in-law and her hubby who were married this summer in Trinity, Newfoundland. This is Gover House where they stayed and where the parties took place. The yellow deck is where they had the ceremony. The red building partly showing on the far right is the Artisan Inn restaurant where we had the wedding dinner... stellar food! The town is small, extremely picturesque with a very active theatre scene in the summer. Highly recommended!

Gover House, Trinity
Oil on canvas
18" x 24"

Watchful eye

A contribution for Illustration Friday’s “tree” theme.

Little skullies finale

I had a chunk of Das left over from the props I made a few months ago that was burning a hole in my pocket. So I made this little skull relief on the weekend, a finale to the skull doodle marathon I had last week. I painted it with bronze acrylic with a dark glaze for the patina.

Little skullies

According to my iPad output this evening, my brain badly needed to purge itself of cartoonish skulls. Tim Burton, I cast you out! I think the red one is my fav. Might make cool wrapping paper.

Cow (progress painting)

Moooo. This has come a ways since the outline but still has a ways to go. Hoping to finish this on the weekend so I can get some other jobs underway. I’ve got a cartoon deadline next week and a Christmas commission painting to start.

Midnight Slumber linocut

I took a few days away from my cow painting (moo) to fiddle with this image as a linocut. I’m still pleased with the figure but I’m not happy with the sky. I may jigsaw a new sky or I might just start again. I did a quick test print last night and, based on that, spent some time cleaning up the plate today. The extra prep time made this evening’s printing session very smooth and satisfying -- no troubleshooting, great ink coverage, etc. For the first time, I used a rolling pin as my “press” and I think it contributed a lot to the excellent ink coverage.

The top image is a shot of the print on a dark background so you can see the paper fibres. The lower image shows the print alongside the plate.

Figurative study

I’m hashing out some ideas for a figurative piece I’d like to paint.   This image is a pencil sketch with some digital colour added. I might explore this further with my new pastel set this evening... or I might just dive right into the painting.

Moo. That is all.

The poured paint was a-flowin’ on Friday night but the end result was a spectacular failure. So bad I could only laugh at it. Not only was it boring, the canvas wasn’t level on the table so when I returned to it after a break, most of  the paint had poured off. Apparently I bought very spiteful paint.

Anyway, that whole mess was gessoed over on Saturday. And tonight, to ensure the fiasco was well and truly covered up, I parked a cow on top of it. No one’s getting past this cow.

It’s just some shadows and outlines right now. More to come.

Moo.

The perils of reenactment

My latest cartoon for the Northeast Avalon Times... pick one up if you’re in the area!

A history of violet

My wife is enabling my paint pouring addiction... she bought me a gaggle of fluid acrylic colours for my birthday. I did three last night. One was dud but I was happy with these two.

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Gnarly trophy

This afternoon I spent a few hours at my buddy’s place chainsawing trees felled by our recent storm, Leslie. We came across this burl which I snagged as a trophy. Right now I’ve got it out in the sun slathered in linseed oil.

Theatre flats finished (?)

For a little context, these flats will be sitting behind a set of French doors on stage. As a background piece, I think it works pretty well and my wife is pleased with it (phew!). I can’t help feeling like it’s crying out for a little more though. A flowerbed, garish fountain, statue ... something. Needs something to tighten up the composition and bring a little more colour. (Hence the question mark in the title.) There’s still plenty of time before opening night so this might get a little more lavish in the coming days. Otherwise, it’s finis.

Progress shots can be seen here.

Theatre flats in progress 4

Got the rail well underway this afternoon. The green grass took a beating while I was sponging texture on the rail but I can clean that up later. Later’s a great time to do things. I park most of my tasks there.

Got your tickets yet? No, not to the gun show... my wife’s show: Self Help. Just a few short weeks away!

(See previous progress shots of the flats here.)

Acrylic Chaos (poured painting)

Can you see the surreal, snaggletoothed Bugs Bunny in here? Check the teal rising up from the bottom centre. Or maybe it’s just me.

Because the brain is wired to make sense of visual input, these pour paintings cause it to work overtime. While staring at the image (or parts thereof), familiar images emerge from nonsensical shapes and patterns. Faces and animals seem most evident to me. All twisted and surreal, of course.

My poor (pour) brain... if it were a unionized organ, I’m pretty sure it would be filing grievances by now.

This piece has no title yet... I’m still digesting the acrylic chaos.

Acrylic Chaos
acrylic on canvas
24" x 16"