The Naked Silo

Stuff II: Gumby's Perspective , approx 18" x 15"(?), watercolour, 1988, private collection It was in late November, 1988(!) when I first explored the realm of watercolour painting in my high school art class. Mostly, and obviously, I was experimenting with the behaviour of the paint itself and not too worried about making anything representational --except for the little Gumby down in the bottom right. Why Gumby? Why not? This painting also features my first use of the stained glass-like abstract motif that a friend at the time dubbed " matrix ." I got hooked on watercolours while making the  gradations in the various panels. I remember thinking how active  and alive the paint was. I still find it exciting to work with a medium that wants to do its own thing but doesn't mind being directed; it feel co-operative, collaborative...almost dance-like. This feeling is amplified when I use watercolours on Yupo. The bizarre name for this piece was sug...

12" x 22", watercolour, 1998, private collection This was done during 1998 when I'd set myself the goal of painting one picture per week (I had some extra time at the end of the year and I ended up making 63 in total). This exercise was very beneficial to my development as a watercolourist (I had yet to get into oils...or inks, for that matter) and as a conceptualist. Practice is a good thing, but I didn't want to be merely doing the same thing over and over (although, maybe it looked like that to some people), so I had to come up with new ideas for images. I collect words –words or phrases that can be interesting titles for paintings (or anything) get jotted down in my sketchbooks regularly, and, if they don't get used, I usually transfer them to the next book. One of my sketchbooks has a page that contains a list of mostly one-word titles and has four sketches for potential paintings on it and this is one of them. That sketch, and the one later in the...

36" x 24", oil on canvas, 2010,  private collection This is a painting of my darling Krista. I initially used the photo ref of her in another painting with a statue of a lion in the bottom right, but the lion was the only good thing about it, so I recycled the canvas (I don't know what new painting it became). But I really liked that pose of hers, so I decided to try again a few years later. I don't know why I didn't use the lion again. Instead, I've included the alchemical symbol for honey. Because she's my honey...and I like ancient symbols. The background is once again my "matrix" motif. This time, to further play up the stained glass aspect, I gave Krista a nice halo. If you get really close to the actual painting you can see the orange base coat quite clearly. I really like the lighting in this. This painting, and nine others (a few watercolours, a few oils; some old, some new), was in the  Fall Expressions   group show at   Gal...

24" x 36", oil on canvas, 2010 This is one of the small handful* of paintings I've had time to complete since moving to Prince Edward County with Krista to begin our new life and set up Small Pond Arts . In the summer we found a few abandoned nests and more than a few eggshells. We set up a few of the shells in a beautiful nest and I took a picture of Krista holding our reconstruction. This ended up a little more realistic in colouration than I'd planned, but I'm quite happy with it. I especially like all that dark negative space on the right. This painting, and nine others (a few watercolours, a few oils; some old, some new), was in the  Fall Expressions group show at Gallery ArtPlus in Belleville which ran from 28 October to 27 November. The opening reception was Thursday 4 November from 6-8PM. *pun intended

40" x 30", oil on canvas, 2005 This is my grandmother on my father's side at her home in the small village of Nospal in Macedonia. She's stringing up peppers to be hung and dried (like the ones on the wall) for later use as seasoning in the amazing dishes she'll make. The photo my dad took that this painting is based upon was taken during his trip there about ten years ago. She was a very hard worker all her life even up until her death in 2004 and I'm happy to have been able to include her among my weirdly-diverse paintings in my show at  Dinkel's in Belleville. Dinkel's 44 Bridge Street, East, Belleville, Ontario

30" x 40", oil on canvas, 2001 This was one of 15 of my paintings on display at Dinkel's in Belleville as part of the Quinte Arts Council's Art in the Community project. The show was quite diverse as there were other paintings from my Interiors series, my Green Chair series, and a few one-shots in the restaurant. The show ran until 29 October. This painting is a "tilt down" of this painting . The light source at the top here is a floor lamp I specifically positioned to light the far room --something I didn't do in the picture I linked to, therefore my needing to come up with a solution, so I put Ashley in the background. Sometimes I don't see things until the picture is developed. But I can almost always "fix it in post." The light source at the bottom of the stairs is a bunch of tea lights --the same ones (and the only things) I used to light the scene in this painting . The objects above the candles are some shoes of the ladie...

11" x 17", watercolour, 1997 Red looks really weird in jpegs and on the Internet in general, so this painting (as most do) looks much better in person. I wanted to play up the vengeful expression on her face by making the black and red areas flat, but the red ended up looking kinda like velvet, which is a pretty cool conceptual contrast if you think about it. The gun is actually a water pistol I've owned for many years and it showed up later in this painting  (and maybe a few others --I don't even remember anymore).