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Saturday, May 16th, 2020
Keel-billed Toucans, seen at the Dallas World Aquarium, when they used to fly around freely there, in front of the waterfall. 29H x 20W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas. This is an older piece not listed back then because I was never happy with it. Using crackle medium to help create a bit of texture, it has been touched up, rejuvenated, and is now for sale.
Stellar’s Jays finished
Friday, May 11th, 2018
Stellar’s Jays finished, Nimkish Lake campsite, Vancouver Island BC, 18H x 24W inches watercolors on 140 lb. cold pressed. Framed size 27H x 33W inches: white mat and white wood frame with crackle finish.
Stellar’s Jays are not seen in groups like this, perhaps only seen 3 together at most, so in that sense the portrayal is not accurate, but the aim here is to show a collage of 11 birds representing their distinct character.
Raccoons
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2018
Raccoons, Ottawa ON Canada – 14H x 20W inches watercolors on 140 lb cold pressed. Framed size approx. 20H x 26W inches – white mat and white wood frame with crackle finish.
Noisy Stellar’s Jay
Thursday, February 1st, 2018
Noisy Stellar’s Jay, 11H x 14W inches watercolors on 140 lb premium. Framed size approx. 17H x 20W inches, white mat and white frame with crackle finish.
New Zealand sketches
Monday, January 1st, 2018
Agapanthus near Ambury Regional Park, Mangere, New Zealand, 4H x 6W inches quick sketch with WC pencils
Sheep, Mangere park New Zealand, 4H x 6W inches quick sketch with WC pencils
Oystercatchers
Monday, February 27th, 2017
Oystercatchers, 18H x 24W inches watercolors on 140 lb cold pressed. Framed size 27H x 33W inches, white mat, white wood frame with crackle finish.
Showcased in the J. Mane Gallery’s Fins, Feathers and Fur 2020 exhibition.
This is finished, although I’d love to merge the contrasts somehow. I don’t want to mess up the implied light though, or the initial spontaneous brush strokes, like in the background waves. Every new mark at this stage makes a difference too, and in context to the whole, even small changes affect other areas that need to adjust accordingly.
Before you know it, colors mud together and beautiful open spaces disappear. I’m going to take direction from my most recent pieces, which I feel were over-worked, and quit while I’m ahead.
Challenge is exciting…particularly with watercolors. Whereas with other media mistakes can be erased or covered easily and change can occur throughout the process without much hesitation, with watercolors a person needs to know a subject well – or at least be able to fake it with confidence!
Finding a way to make each painting unique means following cues happening within the work itself. In this painting, the most remarkable thing occurred after the the first phase of production.
Because this subject was unfamiliar, I started by first penciling in the shapes, wondering what I could do to make this less boring – you know, not just be a picture of Oystercatchers. When erasing the pencil marks in order to see what the paint had established, little rolls of eraser pieces scattered here and there. Sprinkled impromptu around the birds, those tiny eraser shreds added a pronounced and unexpected zing of life to the composition.
First thinking “what have I got to lose?”, the eraser-pieces were mimicked in paint around the birds. I’m tempted to make those strokes more prominent, but a small success is in order, so will use this fun technique in another painting.
Monk’s residence, Luang Prabang, Laos
Monday, October 17th, 2016
The insight of a nine-year-old
Monday, June 25th, 2012
“It does not matter how much you see, it matters if you appreciate what you see”
Fintan Fox, 9 yrs old. Below, an angel fish drawn after snorkeling in Figi
I recently had the pleasure of conversations with nine year old Fintan Fox, the son of a good friend whom I had not seen for over 35 years. My friend Julie and her son, Fintan, both created blogs about their extensive travels beginning in England where they live, to Russia last August, then through China, Thailand, Cambodia, to Australia, Figi, and now through western North America. They are on the last leg of their year-long trip around the world, stopping to visit us in Oregon on their way to Canada.
This drawing is one of Fintan’s blog entries, an Angel fish drawn after seeing some while snorkeling in Figi. So impressive! With a minimum of information, the style is bold and confident… simple, yet accurate. Similarly, he writes with matter-of-fact wisdom, and surprisingly well-thought-through opinions. Wow, nine year-olds can be great sources of inspiration.
Influence
Monday, November 29th, 2010
“Some of us loved to draw when we were very young and many didn’t, but we are all capable. There is something to be said for innate abilities, but talent alone will not help us to advance. You might inherit Grandpa’s artistic genes, but every talent needs continual development to become skill no matter what it is, and drawing is no different than learning to play an instrument or climbing a mountain in that respect…” (excerpt from the article “Extreme Drawing“).
My father was a wood carver for most of his life, and his love for drawing was crucial to designing all the different things people ordered. Any time he taught woodcarving, he first insisted on lessons in drawing.
As it provided the funds necessary to build a house after a career the Canadian Armed Forces, there was almost nothing he wouldn’t carve; an entire range of subjects from detailed Armed Forces crests, modern abstract pieces, as well as birds and animals. My favorites were the custom designed doors, cupboards and headboards made for clients in Canada and the U.S. before retiring in 2002. Well, artists never really retire, they just keep moving on to try new things!
Photography has always been one of his passions, and he’s the real die-hard kind that will sit in mosquito-infested forests waiting forever for the right shot. One time he climbed a tree to capture photos of a porcupine, then fell out and sprained both his ankles. I was about nine years old, and I remember my Mom, my brother and me holding him up while he hobbled back to the car! Here is some of his recent photography, and lately he’s been taking the time to enjoy drawing again.
My Mom was an equal and supporting partner in the creating and finishing details of all the wood work they sold. Though my mother claims to not know how to draw, they have both been, and continue to be, huge influences as far as my being an artist. When I was quite young I would ask my Mom to draw anything so I could color it. I did care what it was. It was not refined and professional, but I would coax her, “Yes, you do so know how to draw! Pleeeeeaaaase!”. Children don’t seem to have the same hang-ups we adults do about drawing.
Now they see my two young nieces often, one of whom drew her own interpretation of “Stellar’s Jay” after watching her Grandpa. Andra is 5 years old. Don’t you love the addition of hearts on the branches?! I feel so inspired by children s’ work. It is pure and straight from the heart. In fact, she is so nonchalant about her abilities and unaware of how keen she is, she did not even show it — my Dad found it after she left.
If Andra chooses to be an artist, it’s due to Nature and Nurture, and also not so much about what she’s been given, but what she does with it.
Exhibition Opening Dec. 1st
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Chapala Wind, 11H x 11W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted
Upcoming exhibition: monthly featured artist at Oxide Gallery in Denton, TX. Among the items on exhibit: most of the Magic Square series, Dawn at Bell Rock, Sounds of Silence, Polypore Fungi, Shadows of Summer, Eastern White Pine, and three of the vintage chairs. Opening Reception Tuesday, December 1st, 6:00 p.m. – 8 p.m., and the show runs until December 31st.
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