The Art Of Zan Barrage

Solitude – In Tom Thomson’s Footsteps

2012-01-16T17:10:00.001-05:00

One of the moments that I will never forget on my trip to Algonquin Park last week, was when I left my companions who headed back to the motel and drove deep into the park until I got to the end of the road on the shore of Opeongo Lake. I am sure that during the summer, the spot is busy with campers and day visitors who come to enjoy the crystal clear waters, but in the middle of January, with the lake frozen and snow covered, the sense of solitude was a feeling I had not experienced before. Not to that extent.

For miles around me, there was not a single human being. I stepped out of the car hesitantly and could not paint for a while. All I could do was experience the vast wilderness and me alone in it. Can I tell you a little secret? I felt an acute sense of anxiety. I have heard and read many stories about people who have spent days and years even secluded and away from human contact. Then there is the whole idea that the worst punishment you can impose on a pack animal like man is isolation. Isolation. That’s what I was feeling. Solitude is a gentler term for it I guess, but isolation is what gave me the anxiety.

Thankfully I had my paints and a car that I knew (hoped?) would take me back to where other humans were. A bit later as I was painting, my thoughts went to Tom Thomson, who painted not far from the spot I was at and he also did it in winter. He was made of better metal than I am of course, but he must have felt the melancholy of isolation at these moments I think.

For all the anxiety, I am glad I was there though. You have to experience this at least once I guess. Next time – given a choice – I would prefer the company of humans. Does that diminish me in a way? I don’t know. Some are loners. I thought that I could be… I know better now.

What about you? have you ever felt isolation? solitude? were you anxious about that?

Winter Plein Air at Algonquin Park

2012-01-14T23:11:00.001-05:00

I took off early on Monday morning to beat the city rush hour and got to Whitney at 10:30 after crossing through Algonquin Park. I checked into the old style East Gate Motel took a small break and headed out exploring. I had studied the area of Whitney in Google Maps, so I knew the spots that I wanted to explore, but there is no substitute for first hand scouting. I checked out a few spots, all were excellent, and then I settled down and did a watercolour off the dock in Whitney.

Galeairy Lake, Whitney. Watercolour on Paper, 9”x12” ($98.00)

That was followed by another one off of Airy Road. The evening was festive with 6 artists telling tall tales and enjoying the warmth and a glass or two or more.
Tuesday was park day. I headed into the park with a couple of other artists and we were told that they were expecting us and had freshly ploughed the road all the way up to Opeongo Lake. I drove in all the way and did three 8”x10”s on the lake shore. The seclusion was amazing. My two fellow artists chose spots about two km back and I was alone on the lake. At first I couldn’t paint at all. All I wanted to do was take in the feeling of being all alone in a vast winter wilderness. Breath-taking and humbling. It was getting dark by the time I gathered my gear and headed back to Whitney. Along the way out of the park, I had a brief encounter with a moose crossing the highway. Thankfully I will driving slowly and we ended up just eyeing each other while I waited for her to cross.

Distant Shore, Galeairy Lake. 8”x10” Oil on Panel, ($300.00)

The next day I chose to paint in the outskirts of the park along old highway 127 and Airy road. We had a nice bright day and I did another three 8”x10”s. Back for a quick shower and dinner with the hope of another half day of painting before heading home…
Alas, that was not meant to be. I woke up on Thursday to heavy snow coming down. The town was happy to see the snow because it meant the start of the snow-mobile season. For me and the other artists, it meant a hasty retreat back home before the roads became impassable and we were stuck as unwelcome guests.
The trip was exhilarating. I am battle hardened and ready for a few more months of winter and winter painting on weekends. Stay tuned!

Winterizing The Plein Air Gear

2011-12-31T12:40:00.001-05:00

We finally have snow, which means that the winter plein air season can finally start up here. I am getting ready for a trip to Algonquin park for a few days of winter painting soon. So it is time for me to winterize my gear.
Winterizing the pochade is one of the essential rituals of the season. I love working on a glass palette in the summer, but glass is not a good idea in winter at all. Glass and metal are out of my gear in winter. They conduct the cold too readily and when you are out in the snow, that can make your paints harder to work and your painting experience shorter and less enjoyable.
So off comes the glass (notice the nice value setup below the glass. I will miss that), and on comes a fresh piece of plywood.

Next I season the plywood with oil and later with leftover paints in several layers:

There are times though when painting while standing in the elements is just not possible. Its not really the cold, One can dress up for that. Its the wind or the snow that drives you back. In cases like that, it is a great idea to paint from the comfort of the car. For that I have a simple setup that consists of a steering wheel easel and a passenger seat tray that holds my open pochade (used as a palette), brushed, tools and of course the turp can.

I actually have a can screwed into the tray and I simply slot my portable turp canister into it (where the coffee cup is now) . It is much safer that way. I don’t get any tipping accidents. Speaking of accidents, this whole setup is placed over a large drop cloth that covers everything from steering wheel to seats. It is too easy to get oil paint on the interior and i just don’t want that.
Here is a quick look at the back of the steering wheel easel. I keep it very simple because I don’t use the setup much, but it works very well and the simple clip on the top is all you need to hold a panel in place while you work on it.

Outdoor Winter painting

2011-12-27T00:16:00.001-05:00

Winter has always been a time when I have enjoyed outdoor painting. Mind you it is not always easy to paint outdoors in winter. Sometimes you have to retreat to the comfort of the car to paint from behind the wheel. For that I have devised a steering wheel easel that I don’t leave without. It is always better to be out in the open though, but sometimes it is just not possible.

First Thaw, Oil on panel, 8”x10”

You may think that the temperature is the deterrent. It isn’t. I have painted in –25C with not much difficulty. The temperature is not the issue. Wind though is a killer. A still cold crisp day is a blessing. But any sustained wind will test even the hardiest of winter outdoor painters.

It has been a mild winter so far with not much snow down here in the GTA, but I hope to making up for that soon. I am heading to Algonquin park in the second week of January for a few days of winter painting. That should be a lot of fun! I will be staying in the town of Whitney – minutes from the park’s east gate.

Being outdoors in winter is knowing how to dress for the occasion. I hope to post a full description of my winter gear soon. When you are out there and comfortable, there is whole world of colour and harmony to discover and enjoy painting. But comfort and safety are key to a successful outing. No use loosing a finger or an ear to get a painting done… I am no Van Gogh

Art Installations… Art?

2011-12-04T18:49:00.001-05:00

Have you been keeping track of the latest mishaps in installation art around the world?

It seems that the almighty Damien Hirst had one more twist in his on-going saga with Cartrain, a teenage collage artist. Damien had ripped a concept of incrusting a skull with diamonds from his friend John Lekay who in 1993 made a skull incrusted with crystals. Damien’s “For The Love Of God” sculpture was made in 2007. When Cartrain made a collage of the diamond encrusted skull, Mr. Hirst was able to confiscate the work by bullying the kid’s gallery owner to release the collage to him or face legal action.

The kid recently retaliated by going to Tate where an installation by Mr. Hirst called Pharmacy was on display. Part of the display was a box of HB pencils which the young Cartrain swiped and subsequently put a note of ransom for in exchange for his collage. Hirst then sent Scotland Yard after the kid and they charged him with swiping the pencils. The value of the pencils somehow became half a Million British Pounds because they were in the installation!! Yes folks I can’t make this up. The 17 year old kid was charged with swiping a box of HB pencils that somehow ballooned in price from a few dollars to half a million British Pounds. Hirst also claims that his installation was irreparably harmed by the removal of the HB pencils. Oh my! The installation is worth 10 Million British Pounds!!! I say the kid was in his right to artistically express himself in a performance art as a parody of the installation no?

Fast forward and jump a few miles east to the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund, Germany where a cleaning lady cleaned a bucket that was part of an installation art that seemingly cause £690,000 damage to the bucket. You see the bucket was supposed to be dirty. The artwork in question was a Martin Kippenberger installation entitled 'When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling'. Again I am not making this up. I simply don’t have the imagination or the boldness to value crap at that high a price!

Now do me a favour and watch this Youtube video of a TED presentation. Interesting commentary on installation art and the state of art today eh? Tell you what, I am with the cleaning lady too. But what I most want to know is who values these installations? How do they value them? And who in God’s name is paying for this crap???

Traverse In Blue Minor

2011-11-13T20:40:00.001-05:00

I was recently asked by a friend and collector to paint a small work with a blue theme. I love blues. They are so rich and varied and moody. After a moment’s hesitation (a commission is a tough thing to do well and keep everyone happy), I said yes.

I started by asking my friend to help me define the colours that she wanted. I was looking for a mood and a general idea of what colours interested her. There are so many blues and so many variations that you could fill many pages with swatches of blue. I sent her a swatch of blues and a few accent colours and she chose the ones that she liked.

Once that was done, I had to marry the colours to a theme.

Many themes came to mind Sea scape? Winter snow scene? Or my favourite: Rain? I did a few sketches and them sent her a scan of a rough pencil sketch of a rainy urban scene. This would form the theme of the painting. The details would have to build their way in the work itself.

Work in progress:

So here is the final work after a few weeks of letting it brew in my mind. It took me three sessions to complete this one.

The Mood: Its a cold rainy afternoon. You are heading home from work or shopping. The crowds on the street are starting to get thicker. At the crossing, the cars come to a slow stop. You can hear the swish of the water on the tires and you can hear the humming of the idling engines.

I love the mystery of a rainy day. Something about the umbrellas and the hushed crowds attracts me to it like a cup of warm coffee. So… What do you think? Does it take you there?

Going On a Bounce–Evening @ Bus Stop

2011-11-04T23:01:00.001-04:00

This is a bit of a departure for me from the usual landscape works that I love doing to an abstraction of an urban moment. I loved doing it and I am still on a high just looking at it. It may look like my cat did it, but honestly, it was a thrill just letting go.

Evening @ Bus Stop, Ink and Watercolour on paper, 5”x7” (NFS Yet enjoying it too much)
I call it Evening @ Bus Stop. I wonder what you think of it?

Painting In The Rain

2011-10-29T09:41:00.001-04:00

Earlier this summer I spent a rainy morning at Glamour Lake in the Haliburton Highlands in Ontario.

I woke up to a thick fog with a faint drizzle. Most people would have called it a day and made other plans, but I felt it was a nice challenge and a change from the pervasive greens of summer. So I headed out towards Glamour Lake hoping that the fog would not burn off too quickly and that I would capture its effect when I got there.

The fog stayed and the drizzle turned to a heavy downpour. After thinking things through for a couple of minutes, I decided to rig up the back of my Santa Fe so I could paint in shelter. I opened the hatch and rigged my umbrella to the end of it for extra cover. I then set up my pochade took a deep breath and started working.

As I mixed the colours and tried to get as close as possible to the feel of the day, I realized that I could probably work on multiple scenes at the same time. If the weather was not changing, the colours and shadows if any, were not changing either and that would allow me to do much more.

So I prepped three panels and focused on what I was trying to accomplish. The scene in front of me was moody and full of subtlety. A small wooded island in the middle of a vast lake in the poring rain. I could have done a diptych and to be honest that is what I had in mind at first, but in the middle of the creative process, I decided to let loose and paint what I felt was the most compelling view at the moment.

The result were these three works below. Mind you I have to be fair and say that in one of them, Mina - my camping cat companion who travelled on the summer camping trip - was a contributing artist. She sat on one of the wet panels and rearranged my composition. When I tried to “save” it, I realized that the way she reshaped the negative space was much better than the way I did it, so I accepted her contribution and continued working on the panel as she had modified it!!

These three would work well together on a warm coloured wall I think. In fact a deep red or burnt sienna wall would really make them stand out.

You are Cyber-Invited!

2011-10-15T23:08:00.001-04:00

I just finished putting the final touches on my online exhibition. I hope you will like it. The initial feedback from the previews has been great.

The concept is a bit of a leap in to science fiction really. It is a cyber exhibition made to look and feel like the real thing. To enjoy it in the best way, close your email and any other pages on your computer, put on some good music, grab a glass of white or red and click on the link below. I will be in the chat room at the end of the hall (cyber hall) waiting to answer any questions between 7pm and 10pm on Sunday. I will also be giving away around 15 works to visitors who share a link on Facebook. I hope you will be one of the ones receiving one of the gifts.

See you there! http://zanbarrage.com

The link will go live at 6:55PM!

Plein Air Painting Challenge–Unionville

2011-10-09T21:08:00.001-04:00

Today I participated in the Ontario Plein Air Society Unionville Plein Air challenge. This one my first. I had organized and ushered the one OPAS had last month at the JEH Macdonald house so I couldn’t really participate.
This one was a real treat. The Varley Art Gallery as well as the city of Markham and the Markham Art Council worked with us to make a superb event. We all got together at around 11am for registration and hit the road at 12pm. We had two hours to come back with a framed painting and display it on the grounds of the Varley Art Gallery. Here is my meek effort:

Unionville, Oil on panel 8"x10"

We all had a great time and what a crowd showed up!! Hundreds of people viewed the works in progress and finished on display. We all had the pleasure of enjoying a heck of a fall day in Unionville.

Creative Opinions Wanted

2011-09-28T19:04:00.001-04:00

My third online exhibition is fast approaching ((October 16 is the online opening)) So I am in the process of planning the web pages and perfecting the colour matching on images. I want to give you the best possible experience online and come as close as possible to a real-life opening as we can get while at the same time being in the comfort of our own homes/Wi-Fi place.

I need your help.

What would you like to see?
How would you like the art to be displayed?
What would you like the experience to be?
What are your pet peeves that I should avoid?
I am planning on doing live chat to answer your questions or discuss some of the works. What else can I do to make this a live experience?

All comments are welcome here or on Facebook. Let’s blur the line between live and web. We can do it!

Reflecting on Dead Computers

2011-09-22T21:59:00.001-04:00

Last month we bid one of our computers at home good bye. Actually it is still sitting there. We haven’t yet figure out what to do with its body, but it is dead.

Today while driving home, I was listening to TED Talks, two in particular (see below) and it really got me thinking about our dead friend.

If you care to join me on this mind trip, please listen to these brief talks and read below after:

So after listening to these two great minds my humble one went wondering back to our computer. Was it alive? Is it dead? Did it LIVE? I am not a scientist and can’t delve into the areas that these two fine brains mastered, but on a more philosophical level, If the experience of life is a series of memories and experiences that we go through and share, what is it that lived in that box? If the existence of something can be defined by its opposite – light is defined by darkness, life by death – what do we say when something stops functioning? Something that has memory something that shared your thoughts, your exploration your pictures and your family? That witnessed your children grow and kept memories of them deep in its heart? This thing that remembered what you did yesterday and asked you if you wanted to go there again, or saved and sometime – all too humanly – lost some of your memories? If life is defined by needs or growth, what do we call this thing that told you when it was low on juice or daily asked you to update its programs and vulnerably asked you to please check if it is sick or has a virus?

When the young technician – like the young Doctor – says the hard drive is fried and that the “motherboard” is dead. That you can revive but the quality of its life will not be the same. You unplug it and the electrical impulses that made it think are silent. Will we not be there as well some day? When you take it home and place it in the corner not yet ready to say good bye to it but knowing that it will never again share your moments the way it did. Was it alive? If not, why not?

A conversation about my art

2011-09-05T12:57:00.000-04:00

Studio Idea

2011-09-03T11:12:00.001-04:00

I have been painting up a storm in the past few weeks, but I have decided to keep most of the works away from the public view so that you can enjoy them all in my online exhibition in October.

So this blog has been silent for a while, and I thought I would share an idea that has made a lot of difference for me in my studio.

You see, my studio is tiny. A little corner room in the basement. Lighting is an issue especially since I am accustomed to working under outdoor light, but what is really important to me is to see my work 6-8 feet from the surface. That is how the work will be viewed on a wall so I must be able to see it from that distance while painting.

What I have done is to set up two mirrors one to the side of my home-made easel and one in the back about 5 feet away. I angled the mirrors so that when I am painting, I can look to the side of the easel and see the work without having to step away. I have even gotten into the habit of painting while looking in the mirror.

The photograph shows the image in the mirror much smaller that it really is when painting. Oh, and I am sorry about the mess

Two exhibitions back to back

2011-08-16T22:57:00.001-04:00

Sorry I have not been writing lately, but I am preparing for two exhibitions back to back.

The first is our OPAS (Ontario Plein Air Society) annual show

The second is my 3rd online show with an interactive opening night and hourly art gifts for visitors!!

You don't want to miss either.

Art Camping VI

2011-07-30T21:04:00.002-04:00

Today was the last day of pure plein air for the week. The TRIBE (frequenters of The Brush With The Highlands) came in on Thursday and the event started on Friday. Tomorrow is the juried show and 40 of us are painting a mammoth plein air all together.
Tonight is camp fire night with singing and celebrating going on to the wee hours of the morning. It is ouir way of celebrating the summer event and spending time with palette friends.
I am ready to go home. I ended up with about 10 show-able pieces and the same number of duds :). That is actually a very good average. Although most artists won't tell you, we don't bat much better than the average baseball player.
I made a lot of new friends and spent some quality time with my camping cat Mina. We will both be happy to be in our comfy bed tomorrow though.
Doing around 20 paintings in a week has been exhausting but the growth has been tremendous! I will clean up the works in the next couple of weeks and have a cyber-show for you all to enjoy with me.
Thanks you for following my adventure with Mina. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Art Camping V

2011-07-29T21:15:00.001-04:00

I headed out at dawn to glamour lake today there was a heavy fog over the lake and then the rain came. After a few days of green it was such a joy to get moody and airy atmosphere.

I set up right on the lake and got to work like a mad-man. I was painting three at the same time. Even Mina got into the act. She stood on one of them and edited it nicely for me! When I finished fixing it, it was even better than before. I guess that one must be noted as a joint effort!

The rain stopped around mid-day and the day turnerd beautiful. I did one more of the lake, then I jumped in for a swim.

I came back to camp for a small rest then I headed out for a hike and painted another one from a bridge near by.

5 in all today! That is my record.

Enjoy your art
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Art Camping IV

2011-07-28T20:29:00.001-04:00

Today I didn't have the chance to paint because I was giving a workshop to a few wonderful girls about the age of my daughters. I miss them a lot. I missed them especially today as I was working with the girls on painting a near by lake.

I ended up being out bargained by one of the girls. I gave her my demo painting and had to pay her $5.00 for her's!! But I think it was an outing they will not soon forget.

I love teaching kids. There is something about the way they see that is magical and we sadly loose that as we grow older.

Off to Glamor lake tomorrow for a full day of painting. I hope to have something to show for it. Stay tuned and...

Enjoy your art!

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Art Camping III

2011-07-27T21:23:00.001-04:00

Last night I was invited by paint at Glen and Debbie Sheeney's property. Glen offered to take me to the top of the ridge on his estate and promised a great view.

So this morning I drove the short distance to their property and took my minimal gear for the trek. It was well worth it. The view was out of this world. The lake below and the hills beyond formed a magnificent view. Later Glen took me on a tour and we walked through thick woods until we got to an enormous white pine that towered over the fields.

Mina - my camping cat- was content to spend the time in the car enjoying the gentle breeze from the screened windows.

Only one painting today but it was a great experience. Tomorrow I am giving a plein air workshop to a few young ones so that should be fun as well!

Enjoy your art!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Art Camping II

2011-07-26T16:24:00.002-04:00

Both Mina (my cat) and I are still adjusting to camping. It all went well most of the night.
This morning we headed out to Loon Lake. I painted the lake on my way home last year in pouring rain. Today the sky was threatening but we managed to do this one before the rain came.
In the afternoon I went to Barns farm and did a sacrificial one. It will go in the camp fire this weekend.
When I got back I decided to move my camping site and get closer to Daryl and Tracey's house. Reason? The outhouse is closer and its an open but shady spot so the mosquitoes will be less than they were in the wooded spot I was in before.
More tomorrow.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Art Camping

2011-07-25T16:34:00.001-04:00

Day 1:

It finally rained today and the heat wave has broken. Just in time for the camping trip to begin.

I arrived in Wilberforce around noon with my cat Mina - my companion on the trip this summer. I pitched the tent and took her on a walk around our spot. She ate some grass and then had some food and water. I took a nap after the long drive and woke up to write this post.

I am not sure if I will paint today, but the week is just starting. A bear was spotted recently on the property so while the tent is up, sleeping will be in the hatch of the suv. The pads and sleeping bag fit nicely and Mina likes it better anyway.

More tomorrow!

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Private Island Plein Air

2011-07-17T13:06:00.001-04:00

Yesterday a member of OPAS invited us to paint on her private island in the Muskokas. Rose Island is a lot-sized rock on Kahshe Lake just north of Orillia, ON. The views from the Island were just magnificent. You can make a painting from almost every angle along the shore.

While I missed the morning light because of the late arrival to the lake, and also the evening light because I didn’t want to over stay my welcome, I managed these two paintings with what ever light I was given.

The first one was towards mid-day and the light was flat, but I was able to give a feel for the distance I think. The area is known for its crop of rocky islands and evergreen pines. The smell of pines on the island was so beautiful. It reminded me of my childhood days in the mountains of Lebanon.

Small Island, Kahshe Lake, oil on panel, 8”x10”

The second was towards the mid-late afternoon and I decided to zero in on a corner of the scene and accentuate the light. Notwithstanding the buzz of the annoying sea-doos, the lake was so peaceful. A real spiritual experience with loons calling in the background just for good measure.

Towards The Mainland, Kahshe Lake, , oil on panel, 8”x10”

Farm Road Down

2011-07-13T19:31:00.000-04:00

Trees have a lot of character! You know how you sometimes look at dogs and can picture a human face to their look? Trees are like that, but they assume a whole body look. So when I look at trees sometimes they either make me happy or they make me sombre. This one was definitely on the happy side. Stuck at the tight edge of the road it had the feel of someone who is avoiding being splashed by the mud on the driveway!

This is the second painting I did at Scotsdale Farm last weekend.

Farm Road Down, oil on panel, 8”x10” Plein air.

Up The Hill–plein air painting at Scotsdale Farm

2011-07-11T20:35:00.001-04:00

Summer is finally here. The tentative spring yellow-greens have turned darker and richer and the fields have moved to the yellows and reds around the farms and hills. It is glorious and hot and muggy and oh so sweet. I love it!

This is the season for all day painting. Out in the fields or better yet closer to running water where you can dip in to wash away the heat and refresh your soul.

I was out all day last Saturday at Scotsdale Farm, one of my all time favourite sites to paint. It is a heritage site that has been left to go back to nature and the themes here are endless. I did three paintings that I hope to share with you in time. Here is the first one that I did in the morning.

Up The Hill, Oil on Primed Panel, 8”x10” $300

I am really happy with the abstraction in this one. The economy of brush strokes and the dancing shapes really bring out the feelings and spirit of the day.

Catching up! A couple of paintings

2011-07-04T22:26:00.001-04:00

I have been busy between work on the one hand and taking advantage of the reasonable weather we are having lately to paint. I went to centre Island two weekends ago and did an 8x10 plein air of the lagoon dock there. Then last weekend I went to Paris Ontario for to capture some of the feel for this nice small town, but alas the artwork was a dud… it happens!

So instead I will share an 8x10 oil pastel that I did at home!

Here are the two works!

Lagoon Dock Centre Island Toronto, Plein air Oil on Panel 8”x10”

Meadows, Oil pastel on panel, 8”x10”

I hope you are enjoying your summer!

Art Newsletter–Art Winner for June!

2011-07-01T13:49:00.001-04:00

As promised, I am giving away an artwork every month to subscribers to my Art Newsletter. June’s winner is: Cheryl Dodds Keegan!! Congratulations Cheryl! Give me a call and we will arrange delivery of the below painting.

If you haven’t subscribed to receive my art newsletter yet please do so here:
http://eepurl.com/dZS9b

You will automatically be subscribed to win. You will – of course – receive my art newsletter. Here is an example from last month.
http://eepurl.com/dL1Wg

If you are already subscribed, please consider liking this post or inviting your friends who may enjoy art to subscribe.

I am sorry? What??

2011-06-19T14:50:00.001-04:00

This blog post is in response to an article in the June 3 issue of the wall Street Journal entitled: The Art Assembly Line. (please read the article if you wish).

Artists – Real Artists – around the world, have been stoically absorbing the gutting out of art among the elite experimenters and marketing gurus who call themselves art critics, connoisseurs and of course gallery owners and dealers. These intruders have infested the hallowed halls of art for over a century now. First advocating and marketing deformations of genuine and genius abstract art and now moving further to selling the virtues of factory art. And guess what? They will get away with it.

Remember the art slave factories of China that churn hundreds of hand made copies of classics a day? Remember how that was frowned upon and considered plagiarism and outright theft? You can still buy those at every decoration store from IKEA to Home Outfitters. Artists have sort of accepted this anomaly and moved on. We sort of made peace with the idea that there will be people who want to hang a fake Monet on their wall even if it is a knock off, rather than hang a poster of a Monet. Of course the poster would show an image of the true details and work while the fake is an inferior rendition of the work, but to some people that does not matter. They want a canvas on the wall and they will never figure out the difference because they will never go to see a real Monet.

As horrible as the idea of a Chinese slave painter is, what is happening now is even more outrageous. While the slave paintings are relegated to the home décor stores, these new ghost paintings are actually being peddled by art dealers and galleries. Listen to this:

[Mr. Gorlizki lives in New York City. The paintings are done by seven artists who work for him in Jaipur, India. "I prefer not to be involved in actually painting," says Mr. Gorlizki, who adds that it would take him 20 years to develop the skills of his chief Indian painter, Riyaz Uddin. "It liberates me not being encumbered by the technical proficiency," he says.]

Say what? What exactly is Mr. Gorlizki? A Paris Hilton of the art world? He is essentially commissioning art in the slums of India and stamping his name on it! The spin doctors then come in and do their magic and make this work part of his “genius” and sell the works for over $10,000!!

Thank God there are still galleries and art lovers who refuse to swallow this as art. But we must all be vigilant so that the likes of Gorlizki do not become the norm in art.

Beaver Dam, Watercolour on paper

2011-06-06T18:49:00.002-04:00

The weekend turned better than expected especially after the deluge of Saturday. It really looked like it was going to be a washed out weekend. But Sunday was a blast and Monday (I had the day off) was summer at its best
Too bad that I had chores to do and wanted to stay close to the family. I could have gone for a quick plein air either day, but its ok. Summer is just beginning up here.
This afternoon while everyone was busy doing their thing I decided to do a small watercolour just for the fun of it. Since I started working in oils a couple of years ago, my watercolours have been mostly collecting dust except for the odd small work. I hope to do more of them this summer. They are really fun for me.

Beaver Dam, Watercolour on Montreal hand made paper, 7”x9”. $85.00

The Time Of Bees

2011-05-27T23:10:00.002-04:00

Life is coming back to nature up here in Canada. It is wet and oh so green! When I am out painting very early, there is nothing that I enjoy more in the silent stillness of the morning than the whispering buzz of bumble-bees. I miss them in the winter.
If you spend time in nature you soon tire of the birds. At first their songs are refreshing and uplifting to the spirit, but soon they become repetitive and annoying. Not the bees. they whisper a quiet conversation humming along as they do their morning chores.
The time of bees for me is early morning when the due is still on the grass. Birds are still groggy but the bees are fast at work. The global gardeners.

The Time Of Bees, 11”x14” Oil on canvas panel, $400

New Intimate Art Newsletter

2011-05-20T21:46:00.006-04:00

I finally decided to accompany this blog with a monthly newsletter. The newsletter will speak directly to art collectors in general and will have information and stories that I would rather share with a subscriber base than with the whole world out there.
I will also be using this newsletter to give you heads up and sneak peaks at news and artwork before I post it on my blog when I can.

The Credit River Spring , Oil on panel 8"x10"

In order to help you decide to join my art newsletter, I am drawing a winner in June for this 8”x10” oil on panel painting. The winner will be drawn at the end of June. If you subscribe, you will automatically be entered to win! I will also be having seasonal give-aways and draws to subscribers only. So what are you waiting for? Please take 15 seconds to subscribe in the form below!

Postcard Size Works for Fair

2011-05-15T23:20:00.001-04:00

I promised my wife that I would share a table with her at a local art fair. She is publicizing her fledging “Art Just For Me” Business. A great concept of teaching kids art in a playful atmosphere all in French! I helped with one of her workshops recently and it was a blast! The kids loved the art, struggled with the vocabulary, but ended up winners on both ends!

Most of my recent works are in a show in Brampton, so I am scrambling to get a few pieces together for the table.

My plan is to set my pochade close by and do a few demos for passers by. In that vain, and because in these venues you shouldn’t expect major sales, I decided to create a bunch of poster size works (3x4, 4x6, 5x7) for sale at less than $50 a piece. Here are three done today.

Stand 4”x6” Willow 3”x4” Windy & Warm 4”x6”

Enjoy!

White House On 9th & Derry

2011-05-04T23:45:00.001-04:00

	This is an abandoned farm house close to my home. I often pass by it and wonder what wonderful happy days it must have held in it. There is so much to paint in this picture and one of the mistakes I often do is to paint it all when I am outdoors painting en plein air.
	After looking at all the possible compositions in the picture I finally settled on a small portion of the house. You have to guess that this extension was added at a time when the family was growing and they needed more room for everyone. But what happened? Why is this beautiful house sitting empty and falling apart?
	Here is the composition close up and framed. Some of the elements in the picture will be simplified and some will be removed all together, but the basics are here.
	I did a very subtle but important change from the image above. Can you guess what it is? Yes I narrowed the white area (siding). It occupied a lot of the image and had to be limited.
	Still in photoshop, I turned the image to black and white to start seeing the abstract shapes. Right here and in the image below you can see how strong that dark triangle is. It has to go. If this was an abstract painting, I would have probably kept it and played with the hard edges, but for the purpose of this painting it is too distracting .
	Here you can see it even clearer. It just sucks all the attention. If I was doing this painting en plein air, I would probably have realized this later in the process and had to correct for it. One of the nice things about painting in the studio is that you can contemplate all of these things over a cup of coffee on your laptop before you even touch a brush!
	Satisfied that I had the basics done, I took a 14x11 panel and started laying out the shapes to see how it looks. I also decided on the colour scheme for the painting. I want it to be earie and cold on the outside with a bit of warmth on the inside while avoiding the Kinkaid plague (no glowing lights!!).
	More layers and now I am starting to negative paint the trees. I am also starting to drift on the angle of the extension. It will be a while before I figure that one out and fix it.
	I didn’t like the way the trees where looking so I went back and filled the whole area up again. I also started working on one of the near trees. (The roof of the extension is still drifting!!)
	I added a couple of more trees in the foreground and built up the negative shapes in the back (sky) to bring out the background trees and branches. (The roof of the extension is still drifting!!)
	This is the moment when you want to just throw the thing in the garbage and give up on painting. Everything is in. Now is the time to start asking why? Why are these elements in there? Do they have to be? (The roof of the extension is still drifting!!)
	Ok so I finally saw what the roof was doing and gave it a lift before it just collapsed on the extension. Still. That little tree looks like hell! Do I really need it? Why did I put it there?
	I took the little tree out and I feel it opened the painting up.
	I finally cleaned up the branches and sharpened the edges where I could.

Rural Spring

2011-04-26T21:18:00.002-04:00

UPDATE:
Yep... I did it again :) after posting a painting as a finished piece, I decided to work on it again. I really didn't like the way the road was up close. It seemed to take too much of the canvas and impose itself on the painting. So after looking it at hanging in our den for a while, I decided to take it back to the studio and do some road work :) I like it much better now. I hope you agree.

Rural Spring, Oil on canvas, 24”x36” deep edge canvas.

Winter was difficult for plein air painting this year. It seemed that almost every weekend came with either a snow storm or bitter winds or a bone chilling cold spell. I only managed to go out twice. One was a scraper and the other was a pleasant success.
I did some work in the studio though and managed to go larger than my usual size for a painting. I usually paint small because of time constraints, but lately, I have decided that it is OK if a painting takes me a few weeks to finish as long as it kept my interest and stayed spontaneous.
I had the urge to paint this one after a cold spring morning drive in rural Ontario. The light captivated me. I had no sketch book, paints or camera with me, so I parked the car and just sat their absorbing the colours, light and watching the scene change in front of my eyes. I am actually glad I couldn’t record it. I was forced to experience it and observe it fully.

Rural Spring, Oil on canvas, 24”x36” deep edge canvas.

The composition was also almost perfect, I could have sat in my car and painted the scene without the slightest correction. That weekend I went to the art store and picked up a 24”x36” Winsor and Newton deep edged canvas (the largest I have ever painted). I took it home, and after an initial sketch on the canvas in charcoal, I started this painting.
A few weeks have passed since I first started it, and in this time I have revisited the site many times at the same time to capture the light. I deliberately did not take pictures or bring a sketch book on my subsequent visits. I was determined to make it work from impressions that stayed with me and not from recording the actual scene. I like what happened here. Admittedly the scene was not this dramatic at any one point. The light was there the mood was there but it wasn’t all there at the same time. I made it happen and that was important to me.
The feeling I was going for was that moment when light breaks through the clouds when the whole atmosphere is pregnant with rain that is about to fall. It is not really a warm light, but rather a cold yellow one. That kind of moment is also usually hushed. Birds know that moment well. If you are in tune with nature, you will usually notice a flurry of activity from the local birds and then they all disappear. They know what is coming and they huddle somewhere to ride out the rain. I hope you enjoy it!

Of Art and “Art”– A discussion of what is and isn’t

2011-02-24T20:26:00.000-05:00

A Facebook friend brought up a thorny subject the other day, and I thought I would start a discussion here about it. In effect his questions fell into the subject of “What Is Art?” A question that is probably as old as art itself.

The nuance of the question is when does art become less or more than itself. When does commercialization sap it of its genius and when does genius or experimentation transform it to something other than art?

Put another way:

Why is the work of Thomas Kinkade not considered art? One friend compared his work to dollar store Christmas ornaments (ouch). Mind you it looked lovely in the Disney movies, but something happened when these works started being sold as collectors items and people actually started to collect them. We all know how that ended.

Why does the work of Robert Rauschenberg (white painting for instance) create such controversy? As one blogger explains “Rauschenberg painted the White Painting as an intentional attempt to see how much content he could strip out of a painting and still have it have meaning.” this sense of “meaning” though, is it art? If it is, is it visual art or experimental art? Is the use of a canvas meaningful or incidental? Is it, in other words a “painting”?

We could discuss of course people like Bob Ross and other TV follow along individuals. We can also discuss the handful of method artists out of the mountain area in the USA who all seem to have breath taking works until you see enough of them and start realizing that you can’t tell one from the other because they all follow the same “process”.

Or we can stay away from the negatives and discuss what makes art art for you. After all, that is what matters, the rest lives around the edges and behind the canvas.

I’m opening this up both here and on Facebook, so take a stab and please… why don’t you let us know how you really feel

Plein Air Again!

2011-02-20T22:17:00.005-05:00

I finally packed my pochade and paints and headed out today. Keith and Helen, fellow OPAS members had planned a paint out in the Markham Village, a lovely area of Markham with historic buildings and a true old style village atmosphere.
For the last couple of years, my themes have been mostly rural farms and landscapes. This was clearly going to be an urban outing and it was either going to be a challenge or a disaster. I made peace with the idea that I may very well come home with a scraper (a panel that is painted and then scraped clean because it was too hideous to keep).
We met at Helen and Keith’s home and business at Wilson Street and fanned out in the area around the village. After looking around for a while, I finally settled down in a parking lot at the intersection of George and Church Street. Helen and Tom joined me in the parking lot as well each painting a different view. What caught my eye was the light and shadows playing off of a small garage and shed just across the street. I went to work quickly to capture the light and spent the rest of the time fine tuning the values and sharpening the composition. My focal point of course was the morning light hitting the structures, but I also wanted to place the shifting planes around the light in focus. The result was this little gem. I am really pleased with the light and the warm feeling that vibrates through the painting. I could work on it some more, but I feel it deserves to remain as is, a first impression, full of life and with no deliberation.
Now I need your help. I am stomped for a name for this painting. So here is the deal: consider this a call for a competition for the best name for this painting. If you come up with the winning name (post it as a comment on the blog or on Facebook) I will send you a 3”x3” oil on panel mini gem as a thank you! So what are you waiting for? Put on your creative thinking cap and lets go!

(La Maison Sous Les Arbres) Oil on primed panel 8”x10” $300
PS: If you go to google to look at the street view, you will find that the view that I painted is hidden behind a truck!! You will need to move back a bit from that corner to see a bit of the view unfortunately.

After many wonderful and welcome suggestions, I chose "La Maison Sous Les Arbres" as the name for this piece. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions :)

Please Complete The Survey

2011-02-05T11:41:00.001-05:00

I am just curious about what people are buying and what they would like to see on blogs. Please complete the below 7 questions. I will share the results once the survey is closed.

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River Bank Sunset

2011-02-04T21:17:00.002-05:00

I haven’t done watercolours for a while now so I decided to take out my gear and see what I could still do. This is a little one (5”x7”) Done in the studio of course.
It is amazing how each medium has its own joy and method. I am sure if I try to do the same scene with oil it will never come out the same. I wanted to push the colours and make the scene warmer. All I had to go on was an old pencil sketch, so I felt free to play with colour and let my imagination go wild. After all, even the sketch was done from my imagination so why not let things develop as they may? Although small, I really like this one. What do you think?

River Bank Sunset, watercolour on paper, 5”x7” $45.00

To post or not to post…

2011-01-15T22:10:00.001-05:00

Maybe it is a phase... I don't know, but After writing in this blog for over 4 years, I am at a point of divergence. I am not sure where to go with this, but as I am getting more serious about my art and more thoughtful in how it develops, I am not sure how to keep the blog up.

For one, I feel I want to contemplate my art a lot more before I let it out. I want the freedom to mould it, brood on it and change, create and destroy it if I need to. So my habit of snapping and posting the paintings on the blog before they are dry to share them here has become a problem in many ways.

Sketch – Snow Field – After Eaton, 4”x6” Oil pastel on primed panel.

Before blogging, before we all went digital, the only way to see an artist’s body of work, was to visit their studio or wait for an exhibition. Today you can Google an artist and instantly see every piece of art they ever put online. That is fantastic on the one hand, and sobering on the other. We all know that just like batters in baseball, a 50% ration of good work to bad work produced per year is glorious! Heck, many of us are way below that ratio! We also go through growth in our work and in the phases where growth is happening, works are disastrous. Remember the funny clumsy way you felt when you were about to shoot up a few inches when you were young? It works the same in art.

Sketch – Sunset Abstraction – 4”x6” Oil on canvas panel

So how do I reconcile the competing gains? I want to share my art and have a presence on the web, but I don’t want to leave a trail of works on the internet that I do not wish to be represented by. Sharing sketches such as the ones in this post, unfinished art or art that has not ripened yet so to speak can send the wrong message about where I am on my art path. If this blog is a window into my art, how can I make sure it looks onto the best of my art and not the laundry room?

One way is to stop archiving posts. I am thinking very seriously about that. I would start another blog for my how-to posts and kill the long-term memory of this blog. With galleries pages being the place to see my work. That may work well, but it will take away from the enjoyment of seeing the development in my art and thoughts. Perhaps we can’t have it both ways. What do you think? If you are an artist, have you run across this problem too? If you are an art lover, how would you feel about a blog with no long-term memory?

Gary Morning–Brooklyn Bridge

2010-12-29T17:09:00.006-05:00

PS: Again I did what I had promised myself I wouldn't do. I posted a painting before I was fully satisfied with it. I have since been reworking this painting and the colours have changed significantly. I am not sure how to use this blog anymore. I really don't want to show art that is not ready anymore but I also want to keep this blog alive. I am lost for ideas!!

It has been some time since I last posted here. Sorry about that. I have been painting and enjoying the family and something had to give way. This blog was it.
Over the past few days – on holiday – I have been cooped up in my studio working on this 16”x20”. I can’t make the photo stop averaging out the colours and allow for the subtle variations. Somehow only bold colours make for good viewing on the screen. This one is all about subtle moody colours and light. With almost no hard lines and a lot of atmosphere. A moody painting for sure.

Gary Morning–Brooklyn Bridge, Oil on Canvas 16”x20”

About Painting Trees

2010-12-02T22:38:00.002-05:00

Trees are a ubiquitous element in plein air painting. They represent a major part of most works whether they are the focal points or a part of the general landscape. As an element in nature they also represent the most prolific group of growth out there. It is therefore worth while studying them and their growth and characteristics so that we can portray them convincingly in our artwork.

When it comes to studying tree one of the best sources is an Eastern art that is focused on trees: Bonsai. Bonsai is the art of growing trees in pots. These are normally small to medium sized dwarfed trees – kept small but constant pruning of leaves, branches and roots. The art form is highly stylized, but offers a very helpful categorization of tree forms and types. Each style of growth in Bonsai is derived from careful study of the tree types, how they grow and what characters they develop from youth to old age. Trunks and branches are carefully pruned and shaped to comply to natural growth patters in normal trees so that these small trees echo their older larger cousins in every way, and form a stylized, but true representation of them.

There are many aspects to pruning and branch placement and development that if studies carefully would be very helpful for the artist interested in depicting trees, but we will focus on the general styles or shapes of bonsai and try to relate them to our art-form of painting nature for now.

In Bonsai there are several formal types that represent the classical characters that trees take in nature. Each type tells a story of growth and life. I have taken each of these types and matched them with a painting of a tree so you can see how these Bonsai stylized forms actually work with our art form:

Formal upright

Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine

Broom

Vincent van Gogh Mulberry Tree

Slanting

Claude Monet The Esterel Mountains

Informal upright

Tom Thomson, The Pine Tree

Windswept

Fred Varley, Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay

Driftwood

Arthur Lismer, Pine Tree and Rocks

Literati

Claude Monet, A Meadow at Giverny

Forest

Charles Warren Eaton, The Last Gleam

Twin-trunk

Claude Monet, The Olive Tree Wood in the Moreno Garden

Multi-Trunk

Tom Thomson, Autumn Birches

Clinging-to-rock

Arthur Lismer, Old Pine, McGregor Bay

Cascade

Frank Carmichael, October Gold

Each of these styles would be worth a lot more study and understanding both from Bonsai and from nature itself. There are key elements in these styles that work to achieve believability and representation of a living natural trees. They come from centuries of careful observation and minimization of the forms. By studying these Bonsai tree styles and keeping them in mind, you can ask yourself the next time you are faced with a tree to paint: What Bonsai style is this tree? What is its form? How does it grow? What story does it tell?

For more on Bonsai styles look here:
http://www.bonsaiprimer.com/styles/styles.html
http://www.bonsai-bci.com/b_styles.htm
http://www.why-bonsai.com/bonsai_styles.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai

Retreat at the Opeongo Mountain Resort

2010-11-29T20:11:00.000-05:00

Last month I had the pleasure of taking part in an Ontario Plein Air Society weekend art retreat at the Opeongo Mountain Resort on Lake Clear in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario. The retreat was an unbelievably generous invitation by Chris and Bob Peltzer, owners of the resort to OPAS members.

I got to the Opeongo resort and met with Chris and Bob for the first time. A lovely couple who run the own and run the resort as a family business. I dropped my stuff at one of the cabins that I was sharing with David and went for a walk along the lake. The lake itself is worthy of many days of painting. It sports several islands with lots of character and has a road that goes around it giving you many view points to chose from. Here is a view of Lake Clear from the Opeongo Mountain Resort:

OPAS members started showing up slowly throughout the afternoon and that evening we had a feast courtesy of the Peltzers. Wine was flowing and we talked about art and painting and simply had a ball.

The next morning we woke up to a dusting of snow. That was not going to deter us. We headed out to the hills above the lake. After viewing a private painting of AY Jackson at an undisclosed location (the owners are very private) we scattered and painted at a local farm overlooking another private lake. It is amazing to see how several artists looking at the same view would interpret it so differently!

Noon came and I was reluctantly opening my cold canned lunch when a warm VERY WELCOME soup was delivered to all the artists courtesy of Opeongo Mountain Resort again. Talk about hospitality! WOW!

After finishing my unsuccessful sketch from that spot, I headed back down to Lake clear and did another so-so sketch from the side of the road looking east towards the islands.

The sun was coming down, but there was time for one more from a spot that AY Jackson painted at with a view of “Big Rock”. I was totally spent! tired but satisfied (despite not coming up with anything to show, I headed back to the cabin and took a small cat-nap.

The night was full of comradery and fun as we gathered in the Opeongo den around a cosy fire and drank wine and shared a pot-luck feast. We then had an informal critique of our day’s work with Mikulas and Kathy leading the discussion.

The next morning I was hoping to do a painting or two before heading back home, but unfortunately we woke up to wind and rain. We gathered once again in the den, said our goodbyes and headed back home. What a weekend!!

It is amazing but somehow I have learned to accept that if I manage to get one good plein air work out of three or four attempts, I am very happy. This weekend was not going to have keepers, but what was a true treasure was making wonderful friends. Worth more than anything else that could have happened that weekend

Holiday Web Show and Sales (12 Days of Christmas - 12 Plein airs!)

2010-11-21T20:39:00.001-05:00

Not many weeks left for the holiday shopping, so here we go: Following on my last very successful web show and sale earlier this year, I have opened three gallery walls here on the blog with 12 plein air works to go with the 12 days of Christmas theme. These are mostly very recent works. Some I have never posted to the blog before. And you may not have seen if you follow my posts. Please visit the gallery pages and take a look. I would love to get your comments there. (Links are above just below the banner).

The paintings are all framed in really nice Palladio Black/Brown archival plein air frames. I love these frames. they are simple and really give the art a good weight. If you like one of these, please click on the "own it" button and you will be taken to Paypal for quick payment. I will have them in the mail fast so you can enjoy them, or share them as a gift for Christmas. If you don't have a Paypal account and do not wish to pay by credit card through Paypal (you don't need to open an account with them), you can just email me and we will figure out a way for you to own the paintings you like in time for the holidays.

I have created a 2011 Calendar that includes all the paintings in this show. You can buy one here if the paintings are out of your budget.

I also made some Christmas cards and a stocking stuffer calendar with a painting I did of St. Michel de Sillery close to Quebec city. You can find all these here.
UPDATE: Get 25% off your calendar purchase by using Coupon code: FLURRY
I hope you enjoy all of these and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Rain On Loon Lake

2010-11-17T21:52:00.007-05:00

Rain On Loon Lake, 8”x 10” Oil on Canvas board, Plein air US$340

Loon lake is in the Haliburton East Highlands in Ontario. I painted this during a heavy down pour. I was on my way back from a weekend of painting when the heavy rains started. I had to park on the side of the road to wait out the worst of it and this was the view from my car window. I did this one in the car and glazed it a few times when it dried.

I love the way the haze turned out in it. Just what I was hoping for. A moody dreamy little gem.

Warming up - Plein Air

2010-11-06T22:15:00.000-04:00

No the weather is not warming up :) It is the title of one of the paintings I did this summer at the Brush With The Highlands Plein Air Event. I finally got around to taking photos of a lot of the paintings that I did in the past few months and will start getting them on here.

It has been some time since I last posted. And it has been a very busy month. First I got to go to a great retreat for OPAS on Lake Clear. We were invited to Chris and Bob's Opeongo Mountain Resort where a good group of us spent the weekend painting away. Met a great group of OPAS members in the Ottawa valley. They will be opening what promises to be one of the most active chapters of OPAS ever! (More about this in another post to follow soon).

And now I am neck deep in preparation for the OPAS show at the JEH MacDonald house which opens next Friday. This is our first show and it promises to be a great one. over 100 artworks will be on display in this historic and hallowed ground for Canadian artists. We also have a great opening coming up on Friday with Susan MacDonald, grand niece of JEH MacDonald opening the show for us. You don't want to miss this one. It is going to be great. I will try to tweet from there.

Here is Warming up. I painted this one early on a summer morning in Wilberforce. The sun was still making its way up and the air and ground were still cold. The colour of the light had not yet turned warm as it does on hot summer days. It was still a cool light - warming up. This one will be on display at the

Warming Up, Plein Air 8"x10" Oil on Linen on board

Rouge Park Fall Plein Air

2010-10-10T23:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I met with a group of other OPAS painters at Rouge Park to capture the fall colours en plein air. It was a glorious day. A bit nippy in the morning, but not uncomfortable at all. The park was a busy place with several groups taking advantage of the warmth and having events, as well as walking tours that passed by us almost every hour. Note to self - next time at Rouge park, stay off the main path where hundreds of people pass :).

Six of us set up close together at a opening that had a beautiful view of the Rouge river while others scattered around the park. I was not entirely happy with my location, but I enjoyed the company, something that I usually avoid when I am painting.

My main focus was a few lovely trees in the foreground along the river, but I wanted to keep in mind the depth of field (aerial perspective issues) that is so hard to focus on with fall colours. You see, warm colours usually spring forward in a painting while cold colours recede. In fall, with warm colours everywhere you look, the temptation is to fill the painting with warmth, but then you loose the depth. I exaggerated the depth by dulling the background warm colours and heightened the chroma on the closer warms. I hope that worked to give depth for you the viewer.

All in all a successful day I thought, and just great to be out there in the fresh warm sunny open air one more time before the snow starts falling!

A Boxcar Anyone?

2010-10-04T22:09:00.003-04:00

”Well, James, my boy, down on your knees and give great gobs of thanks to Allah! Sing his praises, yell terrific halleluiahs. That they may even reach into His ears – we have a car awaiting us on the Algoma Central!!!”
(Peter Mellen The Group Of Seven, P.80)

That is how Harris broke the news to JEH MacDonald about the boxcar that they were to use on their painting trips to the Algoma

At the end of WWI, a group of painters who later called themselves the Group of Seven, loaded their gear on a train trip from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie. There, they were to meet up with another train on the Algoma Central Railway that was to pull and then unhook and park their specially equipped boxcar at various locations in the Algoma wilderness of northern Ontario. They would stay there for several weeks painting and sketching the pristine views, from The canyon near the Agawa River, to Hubert near Montreal Falls, to Batchawana.
Thanks in no small part to Harris and the invisible hand of Dr. MacCallum, the Algoma Central Railway furnished this boxcar, namely boxcar A.C.R 10557 with the painters’ every need. It was in fact a studio on wheels. It was fitted out with windows, lamps, bunks, stove, water-tank, sink and cupboards was their home away from home. A true luxury in the middle of the wilderness.

The works that they produced on these trips – yes they made a few from 1918-1925 – would become national icons and would etch their names in national Canadian history.

Last month a train retracing the same route took a group of tourists as well as art workshop enthusiasts through a trip in time. This event, sponsored by The Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains sparked my imagination. While this is a wonderful event for their cause and indeed opens the Algoma area to added tourism, I had often wondered if it was possible to recreate the boxcar trip for plein air artists. Not as a day trip, but as a sketching trip for a week or more of painting in the Algoma wilderness.
So after reading about the tour train I went googling and finally stumbled across the answer.

YES

You can actually book a boxcar similar to the one that housed the group of seven on their trip. A train will take you to several locations on the Algoma Central Rail and drop the boxcar and you in camping grounds in the Agawa Park. The boxcar can accommodate up to four passengers and can be booked for 5 days (4 nights) for a reasonable rate of around Cdn$800 per person. Now when you add a flight to Sault Ste Marie and back, the trip becomes a bit hefty but it is not one that you do every day.

I am hoping that someone reading this blog post will decide that they would like to sponsor 3 or 4 OPAS members (Me included of course) on a trip like this next summer. We could arrange for payment through works painted up there and an exhibition to recoup some of the costs. Anyone interested in becoming a true patron of Canadian Art?

Painting Fall Colours En Plein Air

2010-09-05T20:16:00.000-04:00

Fall is almost here. The kids are getting ready to go back to school and there is a nip in the air and a crisp feel to the colours and sky. Fall is a tempting season for painting outdoors. The natural display of magnificent colours that we are privileged to witness here in Canada plays no small part in this of course. We are all tempted to dip into pure colour and record the dazzling display of yellows and reds all around us. And here lies the problem.

Fall is - in my experience - one of the more difficult times to paint convincingly and in an unsentimental manner. In J.F. Carlson's classic book: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, John Carlson lays down one of the most enduring principles of value distribution in painting landscapes. Simply put, he divides the landscape into planes with varying degrees of light hitting them and affecting the values on a simple 4 value scale.

The sky of course is the lightest value since it is the source of light
The flat land is the second lightest since it receives the most uninterrupted light from the sky
The sloping planes (Mountains/ hills) are the third lightest because they receive less direct light than the flat planes
The upright planes (Trees/ cliffs) are the fourth on the value scale because they receive the least direct light since they are perpendicular to the light source in the sky.

Of course there are many assumptions that mitigate the principle such as time of day and water/ snow etc...

Fall is one of those tricky mitigating times where Carlson's principle has to be carefully navigated. Below is an image of a field with three of the four planes showing (1 - 2 - and 4). As you can see from the graphically rendered image, the division of planes corresponds nicely to Carlson's principles.

Even where there are highlights in the trees, the values are lower than those in the flat land making the separation of planes neat and tidy and the composition simplified and easy to capture.

Now let's look at a similar image in the fall. Again I tried to find an image with three of the four planes showing. The distant hills value 3 will remain the same. As you can see here, the values in the upright plane 4 (trees) and the flat land plane 2 (land) are almost the same with the highlights in the trees actually lighter than the ground.

In my personal experience if you stay true to the values that you see here in the fall picture, you will end up with a jarring pretty picture but not a true representation of nature. The oranges and reds will pull forward (warm colours tend to come forward) and the image at best will be flat and won't read right. In my opinion (and I am sure others will have their own ideas) you have to dull the colours down and push them back to Carlson's order while keeping the colours as true as possible and rich. Confused? Yes it can be very confusing and tricky. That is why Falls is a tough time to paint en plein air. It is beautiful and in your face but also hard to render and tricky to translate at the same time.

Canadian Brush Strokes

2010-08-17T14:00:00.000-04:00

I am not a big fan of art magazines. Frankly I feel ripped off every time I buy one with promising headlines. More times than not, the headlines fall short of what the articles deliver. So and So reveals his method. Yaaa NOT! What he/she reveals is that you can get his method if you buy his book or attend his workshop. And so the whole magazine, including its articles becomes a catalogue and not a magazine really.

Such is the case in every magazine I have purchased except for the free Canadian Brush Stroke magazine which is delivered to your email as a PDF file every other month. The Magazine is published by Jensu Design and publisher Susan Blackman out of Leduc Alberta. It features Canadian artists, seasonal contests and showcases art across Canada. The quality of the magazine is superior with meaningful articles and exposes about artists. It caters to a Canadian audience while maintaining a high standard for graphic and editorial control.

The fact that it comes to my email every other month, is a huge plus for me. I can - and do - print it because I like to read it at lunch at work or when otherwise occupied ehmm. But more importantly it is an ingenious idea and a forward looking method of magazine distribution. It by-passes the printing press and the costs associated with that and shipping and allows the publishers to maintain a standard because they don't have to skimp on paper, size or quality of colour. All that, and it is free!

No they did not pay me for this LOL. I don't even know them although they did publish one of my paintings last year in a showcase of plein air art across Canada. The reason I am writing this is to encourage Canadian art and art related businesses such as Canadian Brush Stroke Magazine. You can get your free subscription by filling out the form here. The next issue will be in your email box in September :)

A Brush With The Highlands - Day 3

2010-08-06T20:26:00.002-04:00

Sunday August 1, 2010

Once again the pushy rooster had his way. I was up at first light and after a good breakfast (Daryl made eggs and left-over steaks) I headed straight to the Barns farm. Here I set up at the far end of the farm path and did an 11x14 of the hills around the farm. Bill painted close by and I shared some of my yogurt drink with him. For anyone working in the heat, the drink is a very refreshing concoction that is strange, but as old as rocks in the eastern Mediterranean. You simply mix ½ yogurt, ½ water and salt to taste. Not exactly what you expect from a drink, but so fresh and keeps you hydrated very well due to the salt. The last thing you need in heat is sugar, while salt actually retains water in your body which is a big plus. Back when I was in high school, I worked one summer as a translator for a Dutch company in Saudi Arabia. We were set up in the desert building a pre-fab town from scratch and we would take a salt pill every morning as a requirement before heading out.

I finished the 11x14, moved some 300 meters into the farm and looking back, painted the pathway. The light was perfect with shadows and lovely darks against lights. Tricia and her friend were painting close by and we shared ripe Ontario peaches with Dan and Bill who joined us around lunch. I took a small cat nap again, and then headed up on Essonville line to catch the afternoon sun beating on Esson lake. I set up on the side of the road behind the railings for safety but that meant that I was on a steep slope and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the view was grand and I was happy to capture it despite the fact that I knew I was going to have to work on it later on due to lack of time and comfort. The road rises over the lake and the view is long, something I was missing in the other paintings.

Colours come more easily after two days of fine tuning your eyes and living with the blobs of paint in the pochade box. Somehow mixing colours becomes more instinctive and on the mark. The day was a bit breezy and much warmer than the days before which meant that we all got some good sun. Thankfully most of us travel with some sort of sun shading (umbrellas or sunscreen are a must). Back at the camp, I found David putting finishing touches on a lovely painting he did at the Barns farm as well. I set up in my corner and did the same until the mosquitoes forced me to abandon the effort.

The night was going to be a quiet one. No guitars, no rowdy bonfires just a calm fading away with the last light. The humidity was rising though and sleeping in a closed car was tough. Opening the window or door would mean that the mosquitoes would get a feeding. Closing everything would mean a stuffy hot sleep. I chose the later, but next year I will figure out a way to install a screen on one of the windows to get some air in while keeping the vampires away.

A Brush With The Highlands - Day 2

2010-08-04T21:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday July 31, 2010

When you sleep in the woods, you wake up with the dawn... or in this case when Daryl's rooster decides to call 33 times in a row!!!!!!!! But hey! Time is wasting away! I opened my eyes to see an image straight out of a Tom Thomson painting. Orange mist through tangled trees and branches set contre-jour against the orange sky. I quickly got dressed (in my sleeping bag) and headed out to Ron's camp site where he was making his usual eggs and bacon. Coffee from David later (yes I am a moocher) and I was on my way. I checked out the Painting site at Barns Farm, but decided to leave that for the afternoon. The light was just not right for me then. Besides, the creek just off Saunders road was calling to me again to paint it in Oil this time. I set up on a small slope just next to the creek and did a small 8x10 while fighting the mosquitoes.

(painting still wet I will post later)

Then I headed to dam on the Essonville Creek and did a very unsuccessful 11x14 in mid-day. The scene was a good one with a large tree all lit up by the sun set against a dark recessed forest, but I just mixed the wrong colours and got my self in a corner that I could not get out off wet-on-wet.

Not wanting to end the day's efforts on a bad note, I took a cat-nap in the car and headed back to Barns farm to paint the vista from there. On reviewing my day, I should have stayed at the farm and done a few from there. There was so much to see and do there it was a shame to leave.

(painting still wet I will post later)

By now I was covered with paint and sweat and bugs and dirt. I felt tried and spent and it was time to head back to camp. I took a shower courtesy of Tracey and Daryl's generous hospitality and felt like a million bucks! It was just in time for the BBQ and games. A steak and a couple of beers later, I was ready for the pillow. I left the others playing the guitar and singing and headed in the dark towards my sleeping bag. A day full of emotions spent and painted. I can't remember how I slept, but all I know is it was morning again the next day.

Sorry for not posting any of the paintings today, I promise you will see them all, but they are still wet and I would like to touch up a couple before I show them to the world. I promise to have them all posted by the weekend :)

A Brush With The Highlands - Day 1

2010-08-03T22:00:00.000-04:00

Friday July 30, 2010

I woke up early today, dressed and packed the rest of my stuff in the SUV. Then I checked to see that everything was loaded. Sleeping bag, matres, two backpacks (Oil /Watercolours), an overnight bag with change of clothes, a cooler for water and yogurt drinks, hat, bug spray etc...

I headed out through the rush hour of Toronto, but this time I wasn't heading for work, I was on a 3.5 hr trip to Wilberforce, the site of A Brush with the Highlands one of the best plein air events in Ontario. I took my time on the road and got there just in time to help set up the panels for the show on Monday. Then I escaped, to the camp site and found a spot right next to my friend David. That was a great idea since David is a much better camper than I am and came equipped with a stove and everything! I was thinking canned food, but had eggs and coffee instead! You can’t beat that!

After heading out to the town for a last check of the local store for some cold drinks, I headed out and did a small watercolour as a warm up for the three day painting marathon. It wasn't much, but it got my brushes loose and put me in the right mood. Then I came back to the camp at Tracey and Daryl’s property in time for the bonfire and to meet old painting friends from last year. 16 of us were camping there with about as many other scattered around the B&Bs and hotels in and around Wilberforce.

Saunders Road, Creek, Watercolour on Fabriano Rough 300g, 9"x12"

The night was cold and sleeping in the SUV was comfortable if a little stuffy. I should have built a screen for my window so I could crack it open a bit and let air in, but no matter. A good night sleep was in order. Tomorrow is a big day and I needed all the rest I could get.

Blogs delayed!

2010-08-02T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm back from my 4 day plein air painting and camping trip to Wilberforce for A Brush With The Highlands only to find that the posts that I made from my Blackberry didn't make it online :(

Instead of dumping them all on you in one day, I will post them over the next four days as a diary from Wilberforce.

I'll start tomorrow... too tired tonight.

Plein Air Painting All Day Long At The Farm

2010-07-19T12:13:00.001-04:00

I spent the day on Saturday at Scotsdale farm just north of Georgetown Ontario. I love this place. Everywhere you turn is another painting. I packed well with a ton of water in a cooler and snacks to last me through the day. I was determined to paint several pieces as quick as possible. Usually, I get out there and work on one painting for several hours, but after studying the works of some plein air masters, I made a decision that doing more, in this case, is better because you can’t overwork any. Besides the light changes so fast and if you are spending the day working on one, you end up working from memory or blocking in the shapes and waiting for the right moment to paint the light.

I started with this 11”x14” early in the morning. I need to photograph this one again because the glare on the near trees is very distracting. In reality, the trees in the foreground are in almost total shadow and are dark framing the passage of morning light through the meadow.

At about 11:30, I started this little one 4”x6”. I didn’t want to begin working on a larger one in the mid day heat and besides I needed to break for lunch as I was getting hungry and tired of standing.

After lunch, I took a long walk through the farm making notes of where to paint next. I found several locations with magnificent views for my next trip (this weekend I hope). I might bring a piece of plywood with me to stand on so that I can avoid being stationary in the tall grass in some areas. I just don’t feel at ease not knowing what is at my feet LOL. Maybe I should think of a painting carpet instead. Hmm… I will think this through.

The afternoon started getting interesting as the clouds rolled in and rumbles of thunder echoed from the distance. I did this one standing at a small bridge looking south-west towards a hill. For me this one held the most information that I could use for in-studio work. The colours and values are right. I finished this one at about 4:30 took a break, walked around a bit to stretch my back.

Then just after 5, I started on this one. Again I was close to the little bridge looking south-west. This time though the thunderstorm was getting closer and a different sense of colour and atmosphere took over the farm. I was racing with the approaching storm. You don’t want to be on the farm through a thunderstorm. Lightning may be a remote statistical calculation in the cold calmness of an excel spreadsheet, but out there, you don’t want to tempt fate. I was painting fast a furious through this one. When I finished, I quickly put my gear away as the cold wind was ushering in the advance guard of the big rain droplets. As I drove off the farm the heavens opened up with a torrential down pore. I was so glad I timed it

Some Thoughts on Landscape Composition

2010-07-04T21:45:00.014-04:00

This is just a quick personal take on landscape composition to show how I would compose a scene from this view. You may find a better composition of course, but I am trying to share the thought process in the hope that it will help some readers.

Most of the time if one is standing on the spot, one would see a much wider vista than the one in the picture below of course. The temptation is to paint it all. We are captured by the vastness of nature and our first instinct is to document the beauty before us as it is. How can we improve on something that just too our breath away?

So the fact that we are looking at this limited view picture is already an edit of the vast vista that we are standing in. Some may think this is a perfect picture. And why not? It has three levels of value changes in the areal perspective and interesting angles and planes.

If we squint (Picture below) we can see clear lines that make out the outlines of the planes. They look majestic!
But if we look closely, there are some traps in the scene that some painters will only recognize once they are too far into the painting process and perhaps too late to correct and work their way out of them.

Here I have simplified the planes and set them in a gray scale. Something that you can do in the field using pencil and paper. Can you see the problems?
No? Well let's go over them in the picture below:

Parallel Lines
Escape highways
Symmetrical slopes
Resting spots too close
Almost equal height towers

Moreover, away from the sloping lines and the resting spots, there is little that is of any interest to us. What if we were to narrow our view to the area below?

We still have the problem with the slopes, but we have reduced all the others.

Now let’s say we reduce the angle on the middle slope and bring up the tree line higher in the picture.
Here it is in gray scale

Let’s add some highlights

And finally let’s pull the closest tree line higher and flatten the farthest plane a bit.
For me, this is a much more successful composition than nature gave us. More powerful as a painting. What are your thoughts?

Summer Solstice on the Credit River

2010-06-27T16:51:00.009-04:00

Another rainy weekend!! Sigh!

So I took out the reference photos that I had taken last year on the banks of the Credit river and I chose this one to work on.

I saw a very nice composition in it and I felt it was a nice project for a small 6"x8".

I spent some time photo-shopping the picture so I could show you the thinking process behind building this painting. Then I mixed the colours that I wanted to use and off I was with the camera running for your viewing pleasure. I also had the USTREAM camera going. I will have that camera on any time I am in the studio and you can access it here on the blog in one of the tabs above. Why don't you join me when you are online? I will try to let you know when I am going to be on if I can do that ahead of time.

Summer Solstice On The Credit River, Oil on Canvas board, 6"x 8", $100 Own it now

Plein Air Painting In the Rain at Scotsdale Farm

2010-06-17T11:47:00.000-04:00

The mist and darkened sky over the vast hills and fields of Scotsdale Farm were punctuated with the hushed figures of six OPAS painters huddled under trees and umbrellas ready to paint. Strange, but what nature takes away in terms of colour and value on a rainy day, it gives back in aerial perspective and harmony. The subdued colours of the trees, sky and fields sing together in a grayed and blued dance.

Our paintings were interrupted by occasional downpour but all of us knew what we were getting into long before we slept the night before. We were determined to come away with, at the very least, some well earned experience. That, I know we all did.

I came out with a dud of a painting to be perfectly honest. Nothing about my sketch of the pond was worth while, but the experience and the understanding that I gained of the atmosphere of the day was worth every minute of it. Others were much more successful as you can see from the pictures in this post.

Every moment that we spend painting outdoors feeds our observation and expands our understanding. Not every paint-out will result in masterpieces for everyone, but every paint-out will be one step closer to another successful work.

The practice of plein air painting does not need to be cloaked with the mystique that seems to engulf it nowadays. It is simply the study of colours in nature and the act of painting or sketching within the environment. That is not to say it is easy. The senses are heightened and the bewilderment of colour, light and motion rakes havoc with ones senses, but the experience has no equal. I urge every artist who has been dwelling in their studios for the winter, to take their easels out - even to their back yard - and paint from nature. It is exhilarating.

Remembering Brummana

2010-06-09T18:29:00.006-04:00

A long long... Loooong time ago, I went to a boarding school in a wonderful mountain town named Brummana. The view of the mountain slopes and the city below is, I am sure stamped forever in the minds of everyone who spent time there. I can still remember the late afternoons as the fog crept slowly up the mountain until we were all engulfed in it. And who can forget the sunsets? Everyday was a symphony in colours. The cloud formations were breathtaking and the carpet of pine woods that stretch below were heaven.

Mediterranean Pines are not the same as the pines you see most of the time in North America. They are umbrella shaped with a mass of foliage on top and dancing trunks that meander their way as they stretch to the sun. Poetry in their own right.

I could paint hundreds of these paintings from memory. I see them in my mind as sure as I can see this screen and the words that I am typing. This one I did from my memory. I know the spot even. For those who have been there, this would be from the stairs next to the lower tennis fields (primary school) looking towards the city below.

Brummana Look Out, 4"x6" Oil on canvas board. $45.00

Additions to the home made Sojourn Pochade

2010-06-05T21:14:00.005-04:00

Today I finally published the latest pdf of the Sojourn Pochade plans. The plans now include:

1) The plan for the Sojourn Pochade (15 1/2" x 12 1/2" x 2 1/2") carrier 11"x 14" panel

2) The plan for the Portage Wet panel Carrier (15" x 12" x 3") carries 6, 11"x14" panels

3) The plan for two Panel Dividers for the Sojourn pochade. These allow the Sojourn pochade to carry either two 6"x8" panels or one 8"x10" and one 5"x7" Panels instead of the 11"x14" panel that it was sized for.

The updated plans have been sent to those who purchased the original plans so they can add the dividers to their project.

I could make other plans for a smaller pochade and wet panel carrier based on the Sojourn, but I will wait to hear from you on your needs first.

It was a lot of fun building and planning this pochade, and I hope many people try it and spread the word about it. I would seriously suggest that it is a better pochade than many commercial ones that are out there.

Mastering Color

2010-06-02T21:03:00.006-04:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I am not in the habit of endorsing art classes or materials. When I do, it is because I am convinced they are of value and I think other will benefit from them. That is the case with Richard Robinson's DVD class, Mastering Color.

I have been looking for a disciplined way to shift gears with colour and expand my skills. I have been painting for years, but as I said in my previous post, playing with colours and exercising with colour mixing and seeing are the fundamental blocks that all artists should work on at all times in there careers. Just like other endeavors, you can't just show up for showtime and forget about practice. For artists, one of the main "practices" is exploring colour and colour mixing.

There is no shortage of options for study guides to working with colour. From books to sites online to DVDs, you will find a bunch of alternatives. I have looked at many of these and while some are good and tempting, I chose to go with Richard's class for several reasons.

His DVDs (downloadable so you don't have to wait for them to be delivered) looked professional and pleasing to watch. You may think that is a frivolous reason, but believe me, you don't want to spend the next few weeks watching a badly made DVD and trying to follow something you can't hear or you have a hard time seeing.
I needed not just a well done DVD lecture, but a study guide that would compel me to work - not just watch. I wanted a well designed course that I could halt, explore, do exercises in at each stage and move at my own pace. Richard has a tone of exercises that come with each chapter of the class in separate pdfs. These recap the DVD class and then move you to exercises that expand and reinforce the class.
Richard's class is full of very helpful tools that I will take with me far beyond the class into the field as I go painting.
Richard is an accomplished artist and colourist. His paintings show a mastery of colour which leads me to confidence when working with his class.

In the next few weeks, and without stealing Richard's thunder or taking away from his class, I will be sharing my progress through the class with you here. If you would like to join me, click through to Richard's website and for starters look at his free first class (really an introduction). If you like it, you may want to do what I did and download the first few classes. The first two are laying the foundation. The core of the work starts with class four, but I wouldn't suggest that you skip any.

Yes, I guess I am wholeheartedly endorsing Richard's Class :)

Playing with colours

2010-05-29T21:41:00.007-04:00

Now that spring is here, you would think I am out painting every chance I get. Actually gardening comes first in spring, so do other chores around the house that must be taken care of before I can head out with a clear mind.

But I have been doing something very important for my art. I have been playing with colour. Yes, I have been mixing up a storm and enjoying the heck out of it. I have been doing the equivalence of piano scales with colour. testing, pushing, playing and exploring.

While this is a fun exercise, it is in reality a very serious and important element of growth as an artist. Just like practice is important to the pianist and the ballerina - you can't just get up on stage and play or dance and you can't always play Chopin or dance full ballet as practice. You have to go back to the fundamentals and do your scales or stretch your muscles. Playing with colours does exactly that. It stretches your colouring muscles without the limits of having to paint a motif. If it has been some time since you got close and personal with your colours in this way, I would strongly urge you to have a go at it. You have no idea where it will take you.

As I play, I have become even more aware that there is so much to revisit. So I have also been looking around for a good course on colour. I really don't want to go painting with a teacher. Although that could be fun and I have a few painters in mind whom I would love to learn from, what I really want right now is a method or course that would walk me back to the future. Back to fundamentals so I can spring forward. Does anyone know of a good course on the market that does that? Either books or DVDs will do. I plan to devote an hour a day to this pursuit.

The Ultimate Do-it-yourself Pochade Box

2010-05-24T15:54:00.005-04:00

Ok! I finally did it. After weeks of planning and researching, I think I have built the ultimate pochade box. Here is the launch:

The Sojourn pochade
and Portage wet panel carrier
A Canadian everyman’s pochade

The Sojourn is a plein air pochade box designed for artists who demand versatility from their tools and expect value at a low price. A one day garage-bench project, the Sojourn - which comes with its own wet panel carrier the Portage - can be built using the minimum of hand tools that are found in most suburban garages. It cost less than $90 in material to build this 12 1/2” x 15 1/2” x 2 1/2" slick pochade box and wet panel carrier, and what’s more you don’t have to be a workshop master to build the Sojourn. Everything you need is readily available at your local hardware store. Just take the shopping list that is provided and check-off the items as you place them in the cart. The detailed easy to follow step by step instructions below along with the diagrams will guide you through the project and help you finish your dream pochade in one rainy day.

The Sojourn Pochade has no equal in the market. Designed by a plein air artist for plein air artists, it is a light weight box (less than 6Lbs) that comes with its own slick wet panel carrier – the Portage. The Sojourn can carry one 11” x 14”. For longer trips the Portage wet panel carrier can carry up to 6 panels. Drop the Sojourn Pochade and the Portage wet panel carrier in a backpack and you are ready to go. I will be adding plans for partitions so you can turn the carring space to 6x8, 8x10 etc... soon so if you buy the plans, you will also get the partition plans as soon as I have them ready.

I have worked hard to document this pochade and help others build it from everyday material that you can find at the hardware store. As a matter of fact, the shopping list which comes with the plan is all you need to buy to get the project done.

To get the plan, please send a token contribution of $20.00 to my paypall account here:

I will then send you the PDF plan and will be available to answer your questions while you build the pochade. It's that simple! For a total cost of less than $120.00, you will get the best pochade you can build. Others are paying more than $400.00 for similar ones that really don't hold up to the Sojourn.

If you build it according to my instructions and you don't think it is worth it, I will refund you the $20.00. I believe in Karma!

Update on the pochade project

2010-05-16T22:22:00.003-04:00

The best plans will change as they get executed... So I learned.
This weekend, between fighting a bad cold and keeping up with our growing OPAS group, I went to the hardware stores armed with a detailed shopping list. I had worked out a detailed plan for building my new and superior pochade box and the shopping list was extracted from there.

BTW, as soon as I have it built I will have the plans available but not before. Until it is built, things will remain fluid and I may change things around for a better build.

Anyway, I went to the store armed with a shopping list and once there, I made changes and more changes so that the shopping looks nothing like it did when I started. It is funny, but once you have a clear vision of what you are trying to do, new ideas are easy to incorporate and new directions are not as difficult to adjust for. I must have walked through every isle and looked at most gadgets to see if they would help. The idea is to make this pochade something easy to build with items off the shelf!

All to say I have all the hardware I need now sitting in the garage and all in all the cost is under $100. That includes hardware for both a 14x11 pochade and a wet panel carrier. I also have a brand name for the pochade :) No I don't plan to manufacture, but I do plan to sell the plans at a symbolic price so the name is an identifier and I think it fits. What is it you say? No no no. Not yet :) All in good time.

Alone with a Brush

2010-05-12T19:56:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago, I went out on my own to paint along a dirt road off of 6th Line road and 5th Side road in Milton. I wanted to sketch mount Kelso across the highway and I thought that dirt walkway to the edge of the highway was a good vantage point. It wasn't, but that is not the story.

I parked where 6th Line road ends and took the foot path to the edge of the highway. There, I put my backpack down and started to sketch the scene. All of a sudden, I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise. I was not alone. I looked back at the pathway to see a big man with a sizable stick walking in my direction. I felt trapped and uneasy about the situation. Here I was alone in the woods literally with a stranger approaching me with a menacing stick in hand. The only way out of the area was to go past him, and I was not about to test his willingness to use the stick.

Instinct took over and I called out a big hello.
No answer. He kept walking towards me.
He stopped about 15 feet away and asked me what I was doing.
"I am waiting for some friends to arrive" I said. We are sketching Mount Kelso from this spot.
"Why?" I added to engage him.
No answer.
"You shouldn't be out here alone." He finally said.
Gave me a long look while tapping the stick on his leg and finally walked away.
Needless to say, I waited for this man to leave, packed my stuff and headed back in a trot to my car. The spot was too close to the face of the escarpment to see a good vista, and anyway, I was too perturbed and conscious of my surroundings to let myself enjoy the creative flow of colours and strokes.

Painting is a solitary endeavour of course, but being out in the wild alone is not a wise thing to do. In my years of painting outdoors, I have not had such an experience before, but this one time was enough to convince me that unless I am heading out with others, it may be wiser to stay close to well trodden paths where one is likely to meet many others. Better the many interruptions of curious onlookers than the single one from a menacing visitor… Human or other.

There are many values that a plein air group like the Ontario Plein Air society can bring to its members, but un-interrupting silent company; the knowledge that while you are painting alone and focused on your work, there is someone that you know who is close by, is by far one of the most important benefits that a plein air society can bring.

Coming soon: A step by step of how to build a pochade box and wet panel carrier

2010-04-28T20:50:00.001-04:00

If you are thinking of building your own pochade box this summer you are in luck. I am putting the finishing touches on a new state of the "art" pochade and wet panel carrier and will be making plans and videos available here soon.

The total cost of both the pochade and the carrier will be less than $100.00 and I will have a detailed shopping list for you form your local Lowes and Home Depot stores complete with item names, codes and approximate costs.

This will be a simple project with no need for power tools. Just follow the instructions and you will have it done in a weekend. I use an electric drill and a sander only, the rest are manual tools that you can find in most garages or borrow from your neighbour.

So if you are planning to build a pochade for the summer, tune here again soon and I will have something useful for you. I might ask for a small contribution for the plan... I really worked hard on putting it together in details so you can build it even if you have no workshop experience.

Farm Shack In Winter

2010-03-14T21:42:00.005-04:00

Last week a small group of OPAS painters headed out to our favourite place: Scotsdale Farm near Acton. It was a glorious sunny day. So warm and sunny that the ice I started out standing on soon turned to water and I was standing in a couple of inches of water for the duration of my paint out!

I had seen this shack on many occasions but that day was perfect for it. I finished most of it on location, but that sun was so bright that I ended up tweaking the values back in the studio. I hope you enjoy it!

Farm Shack in Winter, Oil on canvas board 8"x10" $350.00 Own it now.

Coping With Value

2010-03-13T16:45:00.003-05:00

Managing value in the bright outdoors is a difficult thing to master. I have seen accomplished artists fall pray to a bright day and lose control of value in their work. Of course you can always adjust things when you come back to the studio, but what about a devise to help us cope with value in the bright and colourful outdoors? Here is an easy and simple solution that I came up with:

March 5 from 6-9pm EST

2010-02-28T17:36:00.004-05:00

Please make an effort to join me on March 5 from 6-9pm for a one-of-a-kind web exhibition opening. Please bookmark this URL and be there :) http://www.marayagalleries.com/welcome.htm

What is in store?

More than 30 paintings to choose from - priced to sell!
Hourly prizes
Grand prize of winning your purchase for free!
(Win miniature canvas paintings or win your purchase)
Painted guests (guess who they are and win)
Live chat, video and Twitter (ask all the questions you want before you buy)
A selection of wonderful Jazz to listen to
A design that will set the bar for online galleries (Thank you Maraya Galleries)

But you have to be there! The exhibition will be on until April 2, but the fun will be had on Friday March 5 from 6-9pm. You can't miss it!. Also PLEASE Tweete, Facebook and email everyone you know to be there. The more people, the more fun we will have! Of course I would like to be shipping the 30+ paintings on Monday, but we will have fun along the way.

Creek in Winter

2010-02-15T19:20:00.005-05:00

I have been busy painting up a storm in my studio and keeping some of these as surprises for when I finally open up my online gallery. It will be a sort of cyber-opening so I will expect all to grab a glass of wine and go through the works once it is ready. I will, of course, send invitations to all who are following this blog.

Creek in Winter, 5"x4" Oil on Canvas board.

I didn't want to leave the blog idle though, so here is a small work that I did yesterday.

Last winter I went on a plein air session in the Niagara Falls area and stopped to sketch this creek as it was thawing. I took some reference photos for future use as well. I picked this photo up yesterday and played with a sombre split complementary to interpret the scene. Colour and music! Nothing can covey a mood any better.

Shadow Of A Willow

2010-01-24T15:24:00.000-05:00

Most of my painting efforts lately have been in oil en plein air. I have only used my studio for final touches and clean-ups. Yesterday was the exception. While everyone at home was busy with their own goings-on, I decided to escape to the studio. At first I spent some time tidying up my mess (I am very messy and the space is small!) but then I opened my watercolour drawer and the colours called me to take them out for a spin... so I obliged.

Shade of A Willow, Watercolour on 140lb cp paper, 6"x8"

I picked up a reference photograph of the credit river that I had taken last July, and riffed off this little piece. I say riffed because it bares only a slight resemblance to the reference. Jazz painting :) I never do well when I slavishly copy either nature or references, but to take the basic scale and then let the imagination and colours flow is a delight.

Twins, Orangeville

2010-01-17T23:08:00.001-05:00

It’s the wind, stupid!

Yesterday a bunch of OPAS painters headed out to Orangeville to paint en plein air. The weatherman had promised a mild and partly sunny day. Just what we need; a thaw to help us paint without our fingers falling out. Orangeville is an hour's drive from my home so I headed out early to meet with David for a coffee before the paint out. As soon as I stepped out of the car Orangeville I knew what the weatherman forgot to mention. Yes it was going to be a warmer day and sure the sun will shine, but the wind was going to make this day tough one for us.

We headed out north of Orangeville to the escarpment area and stopped on top of a hill that looked down on a dream valley below. There were two trees on top of the hill that really caught my attention and imagination. I was hooked, but this was the top of the hill and the wind here would be HELL! We drove around for a while. The others decided to double back and find another venue, but I decided to brave it and paint the twins. I decided to sit in the hatch of my car and paint from there. I could protect myself from the wind a bit that way. That didn't work too well. The wind was blowing from the west and straight into the hatch. I tried moving the car, I even parked diagonally to the street but there was no escaping the wind.

Twins, Orangeville, 6"x8" Oil on canvas board
Given the situation, and not wanting to head back defeated, I pulled out a 6"x8" panel (smaller than I usually paint on) and began painting. I decided to do 10 minute streatches. Using my egg timer I set it to 10 minutes and every time it rang, I took a break in the car and a shot of hot coffee. The wind made it very difficult to work though. My eyes were tearing and my four layers of clothing were no match for the wind chill. Still I toughed it out. Shaky hands and rattling teeth and a few hours of unrelenting wind later I packed up and headed home with a decent result.

Lesson learned: It’s the wind stupid! I have painted on very cold days but I have been blessed with calm winds. From now on, I will listen carefully to the weatherman and if the wind is blowing... I am not going!

Morning Field, Winter

2010-01-09T18:03:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, January 2, 2010, while everyone else was nursing the customary New Year hangover, a group of 8 OPAS (Ontario Plein Air Society) painters headed out to Scottsdale Farm north of Georgetown in Ontario. We were determined to start the year with a bang despite the cold (-17c) temperature.

The bone-chilling cold day started with a blazing sun dancing off of the brilliant snow. I set up my pochade box and quickly captured the essence of the field knowing that we would not have the company of the sun for long. Sure enough, a bit later, the sun gave way to clouds and the snow started falling. I put away the painting that I started (This one here) and began another one (unfinished yet) that reflected the changed atmosphere. It is very hard to paint a bright sunny day when the colours around have changed to subdued pastels. Better finish that one in the studio and start a new one. And that's what I did.

I hope you enjoy this one. I call it "Morning Field, Winter". I am hoping to capture this field through the seasons this year.

Morning Field, Winter, Oil on board, 8"x10"

And so a new year starts; full of promise and wide horizons. Happy New Year to all my readers, and thank you so much for always coming back and sharing my journey in art.

Savage Winter, last plein air painting in 2009

2009-12-30T11:24:00.001-05:00

This is my last plein air painting for 2009. I did this one at Scottsdale Farm in a four hour session, and added finishing touched in the studio after thawing out.

My style has been changing for a few months now, and this painting marks a pivotal stage in that change. It is a slower way of painting with several layers and a lot of texture. The process is not deliberate or studied it is very spontanious, but require more work and focus. The texture and the feeling that I get when I look and work on my painting in this style is invigorating. It represents my own voice and my style.

Savage Winter, Oil on artist canvas board 8"x10"

I tried very hard to match the colours in the photograph and the video, but there are so many subtle colours here and they are being averaged by the cameras.

2009, some thoughts.

2009-12-29T00:04:00.001-05:00

What a year it has been! I will limit my comments here to art of course, but it has been eventful across the board.

It started of with my work shifting from Watercolours to Acrylics and then on to Oils. As much as I love watercolours and as comfortable as I am with them (I have been painting in watercolours for more years than I care to share here), they were starting to feel limiting and with the kids growing, and a move to a new house where I had a cell space to call a studio, I felt I was ready to try something new.

At first, Acrylics seemed a natural step in the opaque media direction. It is water based and it seemed at first easy to handle. After months of struggling with the medium to make it act “like Oils”, I finally raised the white flag and moved on to Oils. Acrylics are beautiful don’t get me wrong, but each medium has its character and one should not assume that any medium can replace another. It took me a few months to control the Oil paints, and I am by no means a master at it yet, but I am getting there and I can finally say that I have found my voice in oil paint recently. I have not given up on Acrylics though. I will continue to use them in a different direction that I hope to start showing here soon. As to Watercolours, there is no way I can abandon them of course. I can still remember my first watercolour box at age 6 or 7. It was a metal box with many pans of magnificent colours. It had a goofy cartoon design on the front, but it was a very important thing for me. I spent many hours painting with it. I will always feel at home with my Aquarelles, but I love my Oils and Acrylics as well.

It is funny, but it took me some time to get over the feeling that as an artist I had to be medium specific. I have no idea where that notion came from, but it is prevalent in art circles at least in North America. One is a Watercolourist or an Acrylic painter or an Oil painter. Last week I was painting with a friend and he told me a story about his first encounter with his mentor. His mentor asked him one question: Do you want to be a painter or do you want to be an artist? Yes, there is a difference. Being an artist is a state of mind. You could make art with cloth, chalk, and even sand if you had to. Many artists do. The medium is your tool not your religion. Mastering the tool allows you to express complex ideas and feelings. I think this is where most "painters" fail to grasp the liberating nature of working with multiple media. Moving freely between media does not harm your skills or slow down your learning in any way. Just like knowing several languages can help you think differently because you can grasp something more than words when you absorb a language, so with art media; your study and exploration of multiple media heightens your awareness of each medium's powers and limitations.

So next year, I will work with every medium I can get my hands on. Oil pastels, (not pastels because they affect my asthma), charcoal, coloured pencils, conte, pen and ink, the lowly HB pencil; you name it, I will hope to use it. I may meander along the way a bit longer while doing that. I will not be on a super (insert a medium here) highway to success, but that’s OK. There is a poem that I have carried with me for over 30 years now. I like to think I am living by its words. I will share it with you here and wish you a magnificent 2010.

Ithaca
Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

As you set out on the way to Ithaca
Hope that the road is a long one,
Filled with adventures, filled with understanding.
The Laestrygonians and the Cyclopes,
Poseidon in his anger: do not fear them,
You’ll never come across them on your way
As long as your mind stays aloft, and a choice
Emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Laestrygonians and the Cyclopes,
Savage Poseidon; you’ll not encounter them
Unless you carry them within your soul,
Unless your soul sets them up before you.

Hope that the road is a long one.
Many may the summer mornings be
When—with what pleasure, with what joy—
You first put in to harbours new to your eyes;
May you stop at Phoenician trading posts
And there acquire fine goods:
Mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
And heady perfumes of every kind:
As many heady perfumes as you can.
To many Egyptian cities may you go
So you may learn, and go on learning, from their sages.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind;
To reach her is your destiny.
But do not rush your journey in the least.
Better that it last for many years;
That you drop anchor at the island an old man,
Rich with all you’ve gotten on the way,
Not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave to you the beautiful journey;
Without her you’d not have set upon the road.
But she has nothing left to give you any more.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca did not deceive you.
As wise as you’ll have become, with so much experience,
You’ll have understood, by then, what these Ithacas mean.

River Bend

2009-12-12T18:00:00.002-05:00

This will be the last one with the greens of summer for a while. I am ready for the winter and snow in my painting, but I just wanted to fit in one more of the credit in the summer this year. I did this one in my studio and recorded it live on USTREAM. If you where up early this morning, you could have joined me and watched live with coffee in hand while I painted away. It might have put you right back to sleep though LOL.

Anyway, here is a 5min accelerated video of the painting process. At one point my internet signal faded in the studio and I lost about half an hour of painting, but I think it is OK.

River Bend, Oil on canvas board, 4"x6"

2010 Calendar

2009-12-05T09:31:00.003-05:00

The 2010 Calendar is now ready to order. It holds 12 of my recent works in full colour and will hopefully fill your year with joy :)

Please go here to purchase one or a few! Oh, and please spread the word if you can. Thank you!

Live feed From My Studio

2009-11-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

In my on-again off-again experimentation with technology and the arts, I have started a live video feed from my studio. The plan is to turn it on every time I am in the studio so you can join in if you wish to. We can even chat while I am there... well sort of. That might not be practical if I am concentrating ;). I tested it yesterday and it works well. The first thing I need to do though is clean up the studio. It is a mess.

How does it work? Actually it is very simple. If you look at my blog, you will find the USTREAM window in the top right hand corner. When the feed is live, you will be able to click on it and join me. I will try to save some worth while sessions that you can review when the feed is off air.

Barn, Late Afternoon

2009-11-21T13:56:00.006-05:00

Late fall is a special time for sunsets. Up here in Canada, the sun is low on the horizon and the warm orange glow turns everything in shadow to hues of purple, violet and lovely blues. By now, the fireworks of autumn leaves is a memory. It is a time when local colours are erased away. Atmosphere is all that remains and the sun, clouds and sky paint the landscape as they please. The more I paint the more I realize that there are no local colours or that even if there are, they don't really matter. There is just atmosphere, light and shadows. Each one of these defines the other in a dance from day-break to sunset.

Barn, Late Afternoon, Oil on canvas board, 4"x6"

Morning On The Cabot Heights

2009-11-17T19:23:00.011-05:00

I wish I could say I know the Canadian Maritimes as I would like to as an artist. Someday, I would like a grant to spend a summer painting the area. I think it would be a dream. But then where would I spend the most time? Newfoundland? PEI? Cape Breton Island? I have had the good luck to visit Cape Breton Island about a year ago. I spent a day on the Cabot Trail going around the island. It is a magnificent place with views around every bend and changes from moment to moment. One minute you are at sea level gazing at a salt marsh that you could paint for days and with every subtle change of the light and the next minute you are on top of a towering cliff overlooking the Atlantic ocean miles below. But a day is not enough for a place like that. Still I have kept a few images in my mind and my note book from the day trip. Here is one that I just translated into colour.

Morning On The Cabot Heights, Oil on canvas board, 4"x5"

Escarpment Summer

2009-11-14T20:57:00.003-05:00

A late look at the escarpment before the snow starts flying. This is a small one that I did this week. While I promised myself that I would paint mostly larger works this year, I am fond of these small bijou size works. They are easy to do out doors and softer on the pocket of would be collectors!

Escarpment, Summer Day. Oil on canvas board, 4"x5"

Rapids revisited (Oil and Acrylics)

2009-11-06T10:45:00.004-05:00

A few months ago, I painted a small 6x4 of rapids in acrylics (Below). To be fair to the Acrylics medium, I was going through a colour identity crisis. I was having a hard time foreseeing what the colours would dry as with the shift in acrylics.

Rapids, Acrylic on canvas board

Last week I pulled it off the shelf and decided to use liven up the colours using oil paints this time (below). As you can see the difference is amazing. I know artists are passionate about their mediums and I know a lot of acrylic painters are going to be upset with me for this post. I am sure I could have livened the colours up using acrylics just as well as oils, but frankly the fact that oil colours dry with the same colours as the ones you place on the canvas allows you to be the master of the painting as opposed to trying to forecast what paints will do and how they will shift your work when they dry.

Rapids Oil over Acrylics, 4x6 canvas board

Yes, it is fall

2009-10-12T16:42:00.003-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone... well Canadians at least ;)

Small Field In Fall, Oil on canvas, 8"x10"

Up here, fall is in its full glory... and miserable, cold, wet, and windy as well. We all want Autumn to be a colourful Indian Summer of course, but given the real summer that we had (wet, cold, and windy), why should we expect anything better for this season. *sigh*

Anyway, I decided some time last summer not to wait any more on nature for permission to paint. With layers on, and a deep breath, I spent the last two mornings out in the cold with my paints and brushes. Saturday was not too bad actually. Cool, but you could easily spend the day outdoors. Yesterday, on the other hand was hell. The wind just didn't stop and it was COLD. Football weather cold I mean.

Still, I managed to turn out these two. These took a couple of hours each, and I reserve the right to tweak them in the studio. I have not signed them yet. Small Field, was done on Sunday in the cold. Credit From Streetsville was done Saturday. There are subtle colours in the sky in both of these that I am not sure shows through in the photos.

Credit From Streetsville, Oil on canvas, 8"x10"

Farmland Fall, Halton, ON

2009-10-03T14:54:00.004-04:00

Farmland Fall, 8x10, Oil on canvas board

I went out early today. Everyone was fast asleep, and I needed to get some fresh air and put my mind into auto pilot. I get my best thinking done when I am out painting alone and today was no exception. I picked up an Extra large double C at Tim Horton's and headed North. This scene was perfectly placed close to a large shoulder on the road, so I stopped and waited for sunrise. I watched the sky change and the land go from gray to colours. I then spent around two hours working on this one.

I have to start limiting the time I spend on works en plein air. For starters, winter is on its way and I won't be spending a day out there leisurely painting away. Winter is a plein air guerrilla operation. In and out. I did that well last winter, but this summer has been one of long days spent in nature. I have to readjust fast, or suffer as the snow starts blowing.

2009 Goals update

2009-09-30T18:42:00.003-04:00

It is amazing what happens when you set goals. I have not looked at this post since January, but the fact that I posted my goals back then for the year was enough to get me started on the. So here is a check with three months to go in the year:

Art Goals for 2009:

I will join a local art society
There are two in Mississauga that I would like to be part of: Visual Arts Mississauga and Mississauga Art Council.
NOT YET. I am not sure which one to join really.

I will focus on working en plein air and join or create a local Plein air group
I am waiting for Plein Air Canada to get their act together and open activities, but I am not sure what they have in mind. From their site I believe they are a group artists who do plein air work, but they seem to be focused on their own workshops. If they don't plan to create not-for-profit plein air activities, I may have to start my own group. At any event, I would much prefer a small local group to a national group. I will wait until the spring and make a decision.
DONE. Spent most of the summer out there despite the rain. Created OPAS and it is building nicely

I will participate in at least two art competitions
I am not sure which ones I will submit works to, but I will participate in two without fail.
DONE. I even won an award!

I will paint bigger
While small paintings are easier from a time commitment perspective for me, they are not helping me grow. I will still do small works, but I will aim to not buy anymore canvases or pads that are smaller than 8x10 - except for sketchpads of course. When my supply of small canvases and pads (4x5; ACEOs; 4x6 and 5x7) are finished, I will refrain from buying any more in those sizes.
DONE. Nothing less than an 8x10 this year really.

I will give at least one plein air workshop this year
This will not be related to the plein air group. The group - if I have to create it - will be strictly for active plein air artists and will be support and activity driven.

NOT YET. Just lack of time really.

I will mentor Children in art, starting with my kids
My kids are natural artists... or so I think. Ha! I will work with them to expand their creative reach and help them explore painting. I will also do that with other kids through my wife's art project if I am called on.
DONE. My kids, but I need to do more.

I will help my wife kick start her art project
Sometimes it is hard for me to not jump in and take control especially when it is something that concerns someone I love, but my goal this year is to be supportive and helpful, not driving and influencing.
~ Well I am trying!
Not too bad so far. Hope to do more ;)

How to Build a Pochade Box For Plein Air Painting II

2009-09-07T20:47:00.006-04:00

UPDATE:

Following numerous requests from readers, I have put together a detailed plan for building a beautiful pochade box. The plan will guide you to build a 15.5”x12.5”x2.5” pochade and an accompanying wet panel carrier – The pochade can carry a single 11”x14” wet panel.

I plan to add dividers shortly, to allow you to carry several size panels and not be limited to 11”x14” size. The dividers will be for the pochade and the wet panel carriers and will allow you to carry 5”x7”, 6”x8” and 8”x10” panels. If there is a need for 9”x11” dividers or any other size, I can make that as well. Please let me know. I can also scale the size down if there is a desire. I just need to hear your feedback.

What is really nice about this plan is that it utilizes off-the-shelf items from your hardware store and the minimum of tools to build. You do not need to be good at carpentry to finish this versatile and professional looking pochade.

The main reason that I built mine and why I am making the plans available is that I am a heavy user of my pochade. I can’t think of spending over $500 on one and use and abuse it as I do. I want one that is rugged and slick at the same time; one that can withstand my abuse without looking like a tank.

I have been building and planning pochades for over 7 years now. They have become successively more versatile and easier to build. This one is the best. I hope you will agree.

To order your plans ($20) please click below. I offer a full $20 refund if you follow my plan and are not satisfied with the result.

Since I posted my video on how to make a cigar box into a painting box for plein air painting, I have had many people email me to ask about the pochade that I featured at the end of the video. I finally took some time this weekend and taped this video about building a full fledged pochade box. It was easier for me to tape and edit this video than to build detailed plans and post them on the Internet. I hope that once you see this video you will be able to build your own pochade box. They are not hard to build really. What took the most time for me was working through the problems and finding ways around them. With this video, you should have very few problems left to work around.

Let me know what you think and how it goes! If you really enjoy it and find it useful, you can make a donation here ;)

See previous video installment on this topic here:

http://artezan.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-take-on-building-pochade-or-cigar.html

Tom Thomson and The Group Of Seven

2009-08-29T18:16:00.005-04:00

I headed to the McMichael gallery just north of Toronto to visit their collection of Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven paintings. Like most Canadians, I am very familiar with some of their works since they form a back drop, and influence so much, of 20th and 21st century Canadian art.

Yellow Sunset, 1916

After spending the better part of the morning absorbing the Group of Seven exhibit, I went back and revisited the works of Tom Thomson, spending a few more hours in detail study of his plein air works. I was completely under his spell. The economy of his brush work and his mastery of colour and design were exquisite. I learned so much looking at his 8.5"x10.5" works. I got so engrossed in them that I did not notice the gallery guard who was looking alarmingly at me because I was so close to the works. She finally came by to let me know that I was welcome to take notes but I would have to use a pencil rather than my pen. Oh that! OK. I switched... She felt better. Seriously though I do understand. You don't want an accident with ink on these delicate works. I couldn't forgive myself if that happened.

Lake in Autumn, 1916

Tom Thomson (Not Thompson) was an avid outdoors man. He was also a draftsman by profession. He spent his summers up north in Algonquin park and supplemented his stay up there by working as a guide. He introduced the Group of Seven to Algonquin and although he died before they were to form their group, he was, in many ways, their inspiration. His career as a plein air artist was very short, but between 1912 and 1917 he built a huge collection of panel paintings. These were small 8.5"x10.5" plywood panels painted using a hand held cigar box or pochade box. Tom never primed his panels. He actually used the colour of the wood to advantage. He placed his colour thick and with a certain hand. His plains were clear and his vertical and horizontal strokes are masterly.

Evening, Canoe Lake, 1915

Tom died on Canoe Lake in the park in a canoe accident. His short career leaves everyone wondering what he would have accomplished had he stayed with us a while longer.

I will be revisiting the McMichael again and again to study Tom's work and when I am done with him, I will move on to Arthur Lismer.

Plein Air in Port Dover

2009-08-23T18:53:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I packed my gear and headed to Port Dover. Port Dover is a small town on the shore of lake Erie. The sky looked grim and gray, but by now I have grown defiant of weekend weather. We have been going through a miserable summer (Call it monsoon season) in Ontario, and if you enjoy plein air painting you have to find a way around it or else change your stripes.

The storm hit as I exited Hwy 403 on to Hwy 6. It came hard and heavy, but I pressed on. I have come to realize that the heavier the summer storm, the shorter lived it is. Although at some point I was doubting my beliefs, by the time I crossed the Port Dover bridge and headed down Walker Street, the clouds had broken up and the sun was shining.

I stopped for a quick lunch and scouted the beach for the best view. There is so much to paint in Port Dover, that I probably will spend a few sojourns going there to do it justice. I decided to paint the cliffs to the west looking towards Turkey Pont. I set up my gear on the pear, took in the scene and started painting.

Cliffs at Port Dover, Oil on canvas board, 8"x10"

Painting on a pear where weekend walkers are bound to stop and comment is not for the shy or insecure. I stopped counting at 24, but I must have had twice as much people stop by and comment. All were of course very nice and polite. There was a gentleman who wanted to talk about the Group of Seven and get my opinion on their works, but I very gently convinced him to read more about them. At about 4:30pm, I was satisfied with what I had on the canvas, I carried my gear and headed back to the car. On the way, I saw a magnificent view deep into the harbor looking back towards the bridge that leads into Port Dover. It was too late to start another oil painting, but I went back to the car, dropped my gear and took my watercolours out. I had not done a watercolour in a while and no time was like the present I thought.

Port Dover Bridge, sketch, watercolour on 140lb paper, 5"x7"

I bought a bottle of water (I didn't have any left and didn't plan on painting in watercolours), and settled on a bench and painted a quick sketch of the view. I was glad I didn't have my camera with me. Normally, I would have taken a shot of the view and skipped sketching it, but the sketch helped me resolve a few issues with the scene that will come in handy when I go back and paint it in oil.

I am running out of weekends where I can spend the whole day painting outdoors, but Port Dover will get another visit soon I am sure. It was a great day at a great place to paint.

A painting marathon in Wilberforce, ON

2009-08-05T22:35:00.008-04:00

This long weekend I was among around 60 artists who enjoyed three days of painting and fun in and around Wilberforce in the Highlands in Ontario. We were participating in the first annual "A brush with the Highlands". An event that was very well planned and executed by a devoted group of artists from the area.

Day 1 Friday:

The drive to Wilberforce was long but leisurely. I enjoyed the scenery along the way and stopped for a fish and chips lunch at a stand next to a stream in the highlands. I arrived at the property of Daryl Sands and Tracey Lee Green in the late afternoon. I pitched my tent and went up to meet everyone who was roughing it and staying in a tent or trailer. The evening was wonderful. Drinks, guitar, and all around good fun. Sleeping in the tent was weird. I had not slept in a tent since I was a boyscout many many moons ago. [Note: Thank god for Deet!]

Day 2 Saturday:

I woke up at 5am with day break. I got out of the tent and walked down to the lake to wash up. The morning mist was breath taking as I walked towards the water. I managed to wash my face and throw a bit of water on my head when I noticed that I was being eaten up alive. I had walked into a veritable mosquito breakfast trap. I managed a quick retreat and was greeted by my neighbour camper Ron Murdoch. Ron is a wonderful man who owns the Spruce Bog Studio and the Northart's Art Gallery in Dwight, Ontario. He invited me to a great breakfast of fresh eggs and bacon and we talked about were we wanted to go on the first day of painting. Eventually 4 of us headed to the outskirts of Algonquin Park. Nothing really inspiring here unless if we wanted to go into the park which would have been a longer drive and we were not prepared for that. We headed back. 2 of us decided to stop along the way and the other two got lost and drove for miles in the wrong direction. Eventually We made it back to camp and decided to paint close to home to avoid wasting any more time. [Note: Having driven over 3 hrs to get to Wilberforce, why did I have to find the furthest spot to go to on the first day?]. I did two paintings on Saturday. I climbed down from a bridge and settled near to the river. There I painted one view and then turned to the other side of the bridge and did a loose watercolour before evening. A shower later and back to the festive mood around a camp fire. This time with a great dinner, wine and fellowship of lovely people all around.

Brigadoon, 9"x12" Oil on canvas board

Day 3 Sunday:

A bunch of us headed to a close by property called Brigadoon. A scenic property with a lake and river enclosed in it. It used to be a girl's camp site, but eventually was abandoned and the owner is hoping to turn it to an art hub. I interrupted my first painting as he took me on a tour of the property and we agreed to talk again. Along the way, I learned that Gerry Wigg was a successful insurance man and we spent some time talking about the business. By noon I had finished the first painting and after a break for lunch, I started another one on the same property that took me to late afternoon in a leisurely pace. The evening was much tamer with only the hardy folks around. After being warned that a family of bears was close by, I decided to skip sleeping in the tent (Basically a blind trap) and slept instead in the car.

Day 4 Monday:

I didn't tell you that on day one we each entered three art works in a juried show and sale. Monday was the show. We took our time breaking down our camp, taking pictures in the area for future reference and paintings and just resting in general. At 10am we went to Town and walked through the exhibit. The show started at 11:00 and at noon the results of the juried show were announced. I was shocked when my name was announced as the winner of The Hawk River Log Award. That placed me in fourth place among a hoard of excellent works. I was so proud and bewildered. Moi? A winner? heheee! What a way to end a fantastic long weekend.

I bid farewell to good friends and headed back home through a long but traffic free route stopping many times on the road for photos. I got home late that night laden with many works and many more in mind to paint as well. A brush with the Highlands was a great success and the Hosts were delightful and full of generosity and love for art and fellow artists. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Pent up Humanity - please spread it

2009-07-23T03:20:00.003-04:00

This video touched me deeply and I felt I had to share it with everyone. Please watch it. As you do, shed the cynic in you, and release your pent up humanity.

Please spread this. The world needs more hugs. Much more hugs. My challenge to you all: Can we go viral on this one? Can we spread hugs like nature spreads H1N1? Imagine. Now do it. Please.

Lowville Park

2009-07-18T18:55:00.007-04:00

Ask anyone in Ontario and they will tell you we are not having a great summer.

The old adage:
Q= What comes after two days of rain?
A= Monday
is working perfectly here.

So when the weather man said this was going to be another rainy Saturday, I was not going to roll over and play dead any more. Today was the Ontario Plein Air Society had a paint out at Lowville park and I was not going to miss it. We ended up being only three brave souls today, but the skies obliged. After a brief shower, the clouds broke open and the sun came shining through. The day was excellent. Not too hot - not too cold. I spent the whole day at the park and did this one:

This park is so attractive it sucks you in to paint it. I have painted here before and will undoubtedly come back. The creek snakes through the park and every corner is another painting waiting to be put on canvas. I took my time, with many breaks and enjoyed the glorious day. I started at about 10:30am and did get back home until 4:00pm. Despite a few interruptions (including the nice gentleman who agreed to take some shots of me painting), I was able to focus on painting en plein air.

Lowville Park, Oil on canvas board, 9"x12"

Plein Air Oil Setup and Gear

2009-07-12T21:46:00.009-04:00

See video on how to build this pochade here:
http://artezan.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-build-pochade-box-for-plein-air.html

	I have been asked to share my plein air setup and gear several times now, so I thought I would post a few pictures of my setup with some explanation. What you see below is my pochade setup. The whole kit fits perfectly into my backpack and is light enough to walk with for those out of the way spots. I built this pochade to fit my Mijello Artelier Peel-off Palette. I like this palette so much, I have one for acrylics and one for oils. My acrylics stay wet for weeks in this palette and of course the oils are fresh for weeks as well. I am not sure about the peel off idea. It doesn't work for me, but that is a minor issue. I can always scrape my dry paint off. The palette fits perfectly inside the pochade when open and sits snugly in the back when closed. This saves me space in the backpack. The gear that I carry for painting is listed in the first image above. One thing that is not listed and that I find I really need is a bubble leveler. I really like to have my painting level so I can avoid a tipped horizon line. Aside from a folding chair and an umbrella, there is nothing else I need to paint. When it comes to carrying my wet panels (paintings), the carrier below (I built it today) is a must have if you are painting in oils. It took me less than an hour to build this carrier using a miter saw, wood stapler and a screw driver. It holds up to seven panels for those long trips that I hope to go on soon.

The Credit from the Village Bridge Done

2009-07-04T18:19:00.007-04:00

I am really enjoying working with Oils. None of the urgency that watercolours and acrylics force on you because they dry so fast. This is really a contemplative medium with perhaps more nuance and contemplation than spontaneity and speed. Mind you, I like both ends of the spectrum and will continue to enjoy my watercolours, but something about oils is deliciously captivating.

Anyway, here is the finished painting from Wednesday. I spent the afternoon working on it through a headache but I am very pleased with how it turned out. I hope you agree.

The Credit from the Village Bridge, Oil on primed masonite board, 8"x10"

The Credit River from the Village Bridge

2009-07-01T18:37:00.007-04:00

I braved the threatening clouds today and headed out to paint en plein air. No group this time. Just a lone wolf on the hunt for a scene to paint. I ended up just north of the 401 on the bridge entering the Credit Village. The bridge, obviously over looks the Credit river (my theme for the year I guess!) is narrow, but I managed to find a spot away from the cars and the bikes. I didn't have much time and it actually rained a bit on me but not enough to soak the umbrella. The river is much wider than I chose to paint it. I was mostly interested in the shadows and the aerial perspective so I chose to make the river narrower. Call it artistic license! There is a lot of glare in the photo which basically washes the colours away. I will take another picture later.

The painting is not yet finished. I still need to tweak it a bit but I thought I would share it with you anyway.

The Credit River From The Village Bridge, Oil on primed masonite board, 8"x10"

Red Barn

2009-06-21T19:39:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it is nice to see a painting in progress. It sort of feels like a sport to see it develop. I didn't video tape this one in progress, but I did take some shots with it at various stages. The top one is the finished painting and it moves backwards as you go down to the third.

This is not a plein air. I did it in the studio and in no more than 20 minute intervals over two weeks. I just didn't have time to do more. I hope you enjoy it!

Red Barn, Acrylic on canvas board, 6"x8"

Credit River

2009-06-13T22:20:00.004-04:00

The credit river runs through Mississauga where I live. The banks of the river as it winds through Mississauga, have been turned into nature reserves and park land. This network of nature in the middle of suburban life has become my favored subject for painting in the last few months.

Last weekend, I revisited the Credit just under the Burnhamthorpe bridge and settled down to do this painting. The day was ideal. Not too hot, not too cold and the wind was just enough to keep the bugs away, but not hard enough to dry my acrylic paints. It took me 2 1/2 hrs to make this 8"x10" acrylic on canvas.

The Nature of Satan

2009-06-12T20:35:00.006-04:00

First let me address anyone who is reading this with a literal perspective: Don't. I am no particularly interested in a religious sermon about the Devil. I am more interested in the nature of the literary as opposed to the literal Satan. The Satan as manifested in art and literature from the Divine texts to modern cinema.

It all started while listening to a podcast lecture by Paul Stevens on Milton's Satan. I would encourage you to listen to it. It is well worth the time. I had not thought about Paradise Lost since 1984 when, on earning my MA in English Literature I promptly put it away and turned to Finance and business for further study and to earn a living. Satan, you see, had been a favorite subject of mine in my youth. As much as I feared him as a boy growing up, I engaged him in my early teens through Uriah Heep to overcome these fears and identified with him as a rebel and tragic hero as a late teen and young man in the middle of a religious war where God - as manifested by the deeds of his many fervent servants - was indistinguishable from Satan. The last time I met Satan at an intellectual level, he was seducing Leopold Bloom on the streets of Dublin. Don't misunderstand me, evil has been most prevalent in the past two decades. But the Literary Satan has been absent from my life for a long time. I never watched any of the gratuitous "B" movies or read any of the epic books that may have touched on him recently except perhaps for Harry Potter of course.

With that in mind, I thought that I would engage you in sharing your views of Literary Satan. What role did/does he play in your life? What is your opinion of him? Is he a tragic romantic rebel hero as I came to know him? Or is he something else? What, in your mind is the meaning of the archetypal Satan.

My Take on Building a Pochade or Cigar Box

2009-05-11T20:34:00.004-04:00

UPDATE:

I was meaning to build a full tutorial on how to build a pochade box. I may still do that, but in the meantime this should be a good short tutorial that some will find useful. Please share your thoughts here or on YouTube.

See next video installment on this topic here:
http://artezan.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-build-pochade-box-for-plein-air.html

Rapids

2009-05-10T20:20:00.006-04:00

Just a 6"x4" Acrylic for today. I am enjoying taping these while I work on them. It is teaching me a lot about how I work.

I really enjoyed doing this one. I mixed some modeling paste with the colours and had a bit of trouble with it at first. I am not sure if you can see it, but the texture on this one is exactly what I am looking for. I was getting disappointed with acrylics because I couldn't preserve the brush work and texture. These just seemed to melt away as the paint dried. Now, with the modeling paste, the texture is there to stay. I like it a lot.

(Details)

Rapids, 6"x4" acrylics on canvas board.

Snow On The Farm

2009-05-05T19:37:00.000-04:00

Snow On The Farm, 2.5x3.5 acrylic on canvas

A Couple Today

2009-05-03T20:06:00.005-04:00

Riverbend, 8x10 Acrylic on Board.

Just a couple of paints to share with you today. The first, Riverbend, was started a few weeks ago as a plein air. It was windy and my paints game me such a hard time. I have been working on it since but only on weekends and here it is finally done.

Snow On The Farm, 2.5x3.5 Acrylic on Canvas

The second, Snow On The Farm, is just a quick small one that I was experimenting with. It was done with a palette Knife.

Enjoy

Metamorphoses

2009-05-03T07:37:00.006-04:00

For years I have worked in Watercolour. I used to belong to a large movement in art that worships a specific medium; Partisan of Watercolour or Acrylics or Pastels or Oils. I have been on a journey of exploration since last June, and so far it has been a painfully enriching experience. In the process, I have lost my feeling of mastery of watercolours, reached a point where I see my incompetence in Acrylics, same with pastels (oil) and I haven't even begun to destroy my self confidence by using oil paints... But I will. I may actually pull back from all paint all together and pick up the lowly charcoal and pencil again. Back to the start. Back to art.

I want to believe that what I am going through is a natural phase in the growth of an artist. (If you have gone through this I would love to hear from you). A phase where you feel that you have had enough dabbling with art, following the noise, and now you are about to dig deep, turn inside and go through the painful process of metamorphoses. The cocooning phase (not a restful one by any means) may take some time. It will be painful. It will test self confidence and belief, but, in the words of Arthur C Clark, 2001 a Space Odyssey: "Something is going to happen. Something wonderful is going to happen"... I hope.