The Naked Silo

20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009 And here's Tiger Woods. I had some other reference (not my own photography, for the record) in which he appeared to be triumphantly roaring after what I assume was yet another particularly nice and successful shot, but as great as that picture was, I preferred this one since I wanted to do a portrait of him. I may yet still use that roaring pic... My friend Tony tells me that "he always wears red on Sunday (traditionally the day the fourth and final round of a tournament is played) because it is his mother's favourite colour." Some of these recent watercolours on plastic were in the show listed below: ____________________________________________ SpeakEasy's Annual Drawing and Painting Show Discover the works of 25 local artisans at the 13th annual SpeakEasy Fine Art Show. Every year art lovers dash to the Gladstone to mingle with Toronto's best and brightest artists, and maybe even take home ...

20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009, private collection Next up: sports. Since my new style on Yupo was working so well with the automobiles (almost making them seem to be in motion while standing still), I figured this spattery style would work well with even more kinetically dynamic, action-oriented subjects. It also works well for making an impressionistic crowd of spectators. Admittedly, I'm working with "found images" from the internet for these since flying or driving out to a bunch of games for only a handful of paintings would be prohibitive. Another confession: I'm not a sports fan, so I had to petition my sports fan friends for suggestions about certain teams and players (though I already knew which sports I'd be painting). This guy here is Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals --nice hit, buddy!

20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009 I was happy to shoot this mechanical horse on the sidewalk in front of a store in Vancouver (the same trip the reference for the swan was taken on) particularly because of the great sunlight. I also shot a reverse angle, but too much of the horse is in shadow, so, if I decide to use it for a painting, I'll have to make some adjustments (tricky, but not impossible).

20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009 When I saw this car on Queen Street a few years ago, I was so happy to have my camera with me. This Ford Fairlane is awesome: shiny red paint job, chrome, curves...it may be a horrible, gas-guzzling behemoth, but it's still a car with a ton of charm and personality design-wise and very fun to paint.

1963 Pontiac Parisienne,  private collection 1969 Pontiac GTO both: 20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009 A couple more cars done from reference I shot around Toronto over the years. For my first few car paintings I concentrated on their fronts, but I have multiple photos of most of these and some from interesting reverse angles, so maybe, one day, I'll diversify these "portraits" with some new views. Maybe make a calendar, or something... Apparently, that GTO is also a Pontiac, but I don't know the name/model of the black one. I do find it kinda weird, though, that most of the interesting vintage cars I shot around town just happen to be Pontiacs.

1971 Pontiac LeMans 20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009 1949 Oldsmobile Deluxe Coupe 20" x 26", watercolour on Yupo, 2009, private collection I'll be showing a number of my new watercolour-on-plastic paintings in the upcoming SpeakEasy Drawing and Painting Show in June (details in this post ), and these cars will definitely be part of the show. I love rendering metal -especially chrome (whether it's in colour or black and white ), and Yupo is pretty amazing for doing this since you can just wipe away areas you want to be white, and with the narrow edge of a brush, the results can be nicely convincing. Along with the interesting and sexy shapes and curves older cars have (compared to modern cars which are more aerodynamic and more fuel-efficient but visually boring), I like their inherent reflectivity and shininess (the hood of the top car is a perfect example of this) which is also fun to render.