The Naked Silo

Last year I participated in Paint the County and had such a good time that I signed up again this year. There was a draw to see where the artists would be situated last time, and I got The Edward, which I really liked, so I asked for it this year and, lo and behold, the picture of my setup below looks almost exactly like the one from 2010 (I even got almost the exact same parking spot: my blue van is in the foreground here, last year it was one spot ahead): Once again in front of The Edward. The image I chose this year was a farmscape I shot while driving around the County last summer looking for interesting photo ref for future paintings. I prepped the pencils on the canvas months ago, but painted the orange and brown acrylic underpainting last night. I then started painting as soon as I was set up (10am) and I took a photo of my progress every hour. 11am Noon 1pm 2pm 3pm And precisely at 4pm I was finished: Daytime Version of Sleeve oil...

8.5" x 11", ink and digital, 2011 Happy with the results of my illustration for the Picton Picturefest Afterparty , I went immediately to work (later that same night!) on the illo for Small Pond 's upcoming event, Cornography . With this one, I wanted to use similar grungy textures and the faux screen-printed look of the other poster, but I wanted to use a slightly bolder drawing style closer to the way I usually draw. The original concept for the illustration involved a sexy pinup of a corn cob based on one of the famous photos Marilyn Monroe did for Playboy --which was tasteful enough, but for humour's sake I was going to add black "censor" bars over the "naughty bits." Krista and I discussed my sketches based on this idea, then decided that the event was more celebratory of food than anything else. We brainstormed a bit and came up with a cross between a Soviet-era propaganda poster and a nod to the Statue of Liberty's torch-holding hand ...

 36" x 54", oil on canvas, 2011, private collection As I was nearing completion of my Field to Canvas portrait series, I took on this commission, feeling confident that I could paint this (despite its huge size) and still paint the remaining few portraits in time for the opening in June. Everything worked out very well. The photo I received as reference for this painting showed the two boys from behind (thus featuring their life jackets), which was fine, but I felt the framing of the photo didn't give much information about context (where were they? in a boat? on a dock?) and it wasn't a very interesting composition. The red box below indicates the composition of the original photo ref: Since the woman who commissioned this (the boys' mom and, ultimately, a very satisfied customer) wanted a very large painting, I felt I could expand the composition by "pulling back the camera," so to speak, and still make the boys quite large in the fin...

8.5" x 11", ink and digital, 2011 For the past couple of months, we'd been working very hard to upgrade our art barn at Small Pond Arts so that it would be more versatile and better overall. There is now a nice cement floor currently curing in there and it'll be ready very soon, with plenty of time to spare before its first official use on July 10. Small Pond is hosting the Picton Picturefest  Youth Retreat and, to close out the big fest, also hosting the Afterparty featuring music by Calgary's Kris Ellestad , who'll be performing on our aforementioned fresh new barn floor . We're very excited to be such a big part of Picturefest and this excitement carried over into inspiring me to try something new for the Afterparty poster illustration. Conceptually straightforward, I referenced my own photos and photos online of singers with guitars, old style microphones, and classic Bolex film cameras, and combined and re-combined them until I was satisfied ...