The Naked Silo

This trilogy was intended to be only part of a much larger group of paintings dealing with the concept of a house party devolving (escalating?) into a battle in a kitchen. I had taken a number of photos of a friend (Toronto-based actor  Kimwun Perehinec , who also modeled for me as  The Princess ) and had intended to shoot a bunch of other folks and composit them in such a way as to illustrate the battle idea, but that never happened, and seeing as I had a ton of photos of Kimwun in various martial arts poses using kitchen implements as weapons, I used a few of those as the basis for this trilogy. I did some studies in acrylic called the Rolling Pin Variations as well. Whisk , watercolour on Yupo, 20" x 26", 2009,  private collection Pan , watercolour on Yupo, 26" x 20", 2009 Tongs , watercolour on Yupo, 20" x 26", 2009 These three (and five other watercolour paintings I did on Yupo) are currently on exhibit at Blizzm...

24" x 36", oil on canvas, 2010,  private collection Tonight is the opening of Art in the County , but I have to miss out on the festivities as I'm also a projectionist at The Regent Theatre , and I'm showing the latest Broadway production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." This is my entry for this year's AitC based on a photo I took last summer driving around the county looking for beautiful scenes to paint (needless to say, there were plenty...and still more left unphotographed). This is the first thing I shot at Karlo Estates while visiting Richard Karlo and Sherry Martin. They're great folks and Richard makes the best (and PEC's only) port I've ever had. I seriously can't shut up about the stuff. Sherry's an accomplished artist herself and runs a life drawing class on Wednesday nights during the warmer months (they're held in a loft space in the barn depicted above, which isn't winterized...

16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2011, private collection Last year I had a watercolour painting (which I have not blogged about yet) in the local Art in the County juried exhibit which won both Honourable Mention and People's Choice awards. As a consequence of the latter award, the organizers asked me to provide a piece for this year's silent auction, so I rummaged through my photo ref that I took while driving around Prince Edward County last summer and painted the picture above. In fact, I just finished it last night and it's still wet, so we'll see if the recent heat keeps up to help it dry before the show opens on 16 June... Entirely coincidentally, I've submitted a larger painting ( Tractor and Barn , which I finished last fall) for the AITC show proper --so if that one gets in, could it be considered...barn storming?

M.C. Blizzity --to the max. Stand by for action! That's right: barely more than a week after my last art opening, there's another one. This one will feature a number of my watercolours on Yupo plastic and I'm joined by fellow artists Buffy Carruthers and Blizzmax co-owner Peter Mennacher. Peter and his wife, Alice, throw great openings (last year I was happy to be part of  Sommerfest , which was great fun) and I'm looking forward to this one as much as I was the show at Angéline's last week. Blizzmax Gallery 3071 county Rd. 13 South Bay, near Milford 613.476.7748  blizzmax@kos.net   UPDATE: photos from the opening can be seen HERE .

Reception: June 2, 5-9pm Exhibition runs through 2011 at Angéline's Restaurant & Inn 433 Main St., Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, ON 613.393.3301 Top photo:  agent provocateur. Bottom photo: "I hope there's no math tonight!" Me and Krista in front of George Emlaw's portrait. (this photo by Pat Hyduk (the rest are by Krista). More of Pat's photos from the reception can be found on Facebook HERE ) George Emlaw and  George Emlaw and me.  I heard he was so pleased with his portrait that he hovered near it the whole time he was there, almost...protectively? Everyone was saying how significant the addition of his farm at the bottom is; the farm is going by the wayside, and George is kind of sad about that. There's still another month or so until we hear if this painting gets in the Kingston Prize for Canadian Portraiture exhibition. Small sampling of large crowd. The turnout Thursday evening was simply ...

Bay Woodyard Gavin North Bay and Gavin run  Honey Pie Hives and Herbals  and their products can be found in shops from Ottawa to Toronto and, of course, throughout Prince Edward County. For about ten years they've been making soap, teas, candles, lotions, etc., but they're probably most famous for their unpasteurized honey, and it was this aspect that I chose to feature in their portrait. The idea I came up with to tie in their honey production was to superimpose a hexagonal (i.e. honeycomb) pattern on the painting and then make subtle colour shifts to differentiate the cells (see below). This got tricky when it came time to paint the grass and trees because of all the complex details. I shot the couple in various locations (starting with inside their straw bale house, then moving outdoors), but this painting is based on a photo taken when we approached a group of bee boxes to see what the honey bees were up to. They're mostly dormant in the winter, but a ...

Blaine's happy smile here comes from having to steadily hold onto a piglet while I took pictures...and I'm very glad for it, as it really shows his good-natured character. We got lucky with some sunshine for a few minutes, but, as you can see from the close-up details below, it's mid-winter and Blaine is out there, tending to the animals (with his son, too). Again, what I initially was worried would become a sameness in my paintings (photographing the farmers in winter) actually underscores the fact that farm work has to be done all year round, regardless of what we would consider uncomfortable working conditions. Winter farming isn't something that comes to mind when we think of pastoral farming scenes, so I'm happy to have depicted this aspect in a number of these portraits. Blaine has a variety of animals on his farm (cows and calves for beef, horses, wild boars, and muscovy ducks), but I was quite taken with these red-haired cuties, and he wa...