The Naked Silo

16" x 20", oil on wood panel, 2014, private collection Composed from several images form an old documentary on World War One, this scene of soldiers taking a few precious moments for correspondence with their families at home was important for me to show that it wasn't all killing and mayhem. Many specific details had to be left out for security reasons, of course, but even when it came to general matter-of-fact details of war, one soldier put it this way: "Your very existence was different to anything you'd experienced before. You could speak to your comrades, they understood...the civilians? It was just a waste of time." This is the painting I was working on during my on-site painting at the Mariners Park Museum in Prince Edward County. This painting has a companion piece in the War at Home section called The Tyranny of Distance .

28" x 20" oil on wood panel, 2014 (work in progress) I originally had planned to simply paint a portrait of the archduke Franz Ferdinand and, using the same title, it would stand apart from the five groupings paintings my World War One project, To the Sound of Trumpets , are sectioned off in. Ferdinand's assassination by Gavrilo Princip in Serbia on 28 June 1914 wasn't directly the cause of WWI, but it certainly provided a convenient excuse to activate the machinery of war that had been preparing and the animosities and ambitions that had been building in Europe for quite some time. While working on another painting for this project a few weeks ago (months, maybe? time is beginning to blur) I was listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel 's music. When Gabriel introduced "Family Snapshot" (on  Plays Live ) being about the hunter and the hunted, I immediately thought of my planned portrait and, using the song and its title as my guide, reworked my compos...

28" x 20", oil on wood panel, 2014 Since the theme of this year's Doors Open is World War One, there's going to be an exhibition of artwork with a poppy theme at the Wellington Town Hall (just down the road from the museum). The painting above (part of the "Remembrance" section of of my War Project ) is my submission to the show and is inspired in part by this quote: "For the first time the British army lost its spirit of optimism, and there was a sense of deadly depression among many officers and men with whom I came in touch. They saw no ending of the war, and nothing except continuous slaughter such as that in Flanders." –notes from a war correspondent detail detail I thought about including a helmet or rifle, but I didn't want to indicate which side this soldier is/was on; he's meant to represent all who died in the war. Welcome! On my last two (of 10) painting sessions in Prince Edward County...

I was honoured to be asked and happy to participate in this fun calendar project, spearheaded by Blizzmax Gallery duo Peter and Alice Mennacher, which features prints all made at the wonderful Spark Box Studio . I'd been meaning to come up with some ideas for things to print at Spark Box for a few years now, and this was the perfect opportunity to get my ass into gear and print something. Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping, who run Spark Box together, are great teachers and my workshop in screen printing and in block printing helped me figure out which method I'd like to use for my print (of course, I still needed to come up with an idea). About halfway through the workshop I decided doing a lino cut block print would be my best option because it seemed like the speedier choice, considering the short deadline and my already-in-progress (and very huge)  War Project . I went home armed with freshly-learned block printing knowledge and a piece of linoleum I would eventual...

Welcome! This week I'm at the Rose House Museum in Waupoos, Prince Edward County, painting another one of my pictures for my World War One Project  To the Sound of Trumpets . Similar, but different. This old homestead appears to use the same architectural blueprints that our house at Small Pond does, but with some noticeable differences. Beautiful day. The weather on Day One was perfect, and I'm sure it contributed to the many visitors that day. Inside. This room is the addition you can see (the white door just to the right of the Loyalist flag), but the house itself is laid out, and seems to have the same dimensions, as ours. Lots of neat stuff. The entire museum is a treasure trove of interesting and rare items from long ago. Lots of great details here. Indoor plumbing! Further into the additions you can see even more old things: Carpentry tools. Power tool. Foot-powered, that is. Clippers! A cha...

Welcome! This week I worked on prepping a few canvases for my big World War One project in the church at Macaulay Heritage Park in Picton, Prince Edward County. I had planned to take the last of my nine Dance Partners (currently half finished), but I brought that with me on my second session there. Backside. Since my painting/drawing sessions at Macaulay (and the exhibition of all 100 paintings in November) were at the church, this post focuses on that building and the immediate grounds, rather than the rest of the heritage park (click the link below the pic below!). Macaulay House . Graves! The homes across the street and modern cars in this shot are a great contrast to what could easily be very old graves* somewhere in Europe. More graves. Tablets! Stained. I find it fascinating to note that so many "charitable donations" are made where credit to the donor is loud and clear. The writing at the bottom of each window (not legible...

Welcome! This week's on-site museum visit is the  Ameliasburgh Historical Museum  in the north end of Prince Edward County. This is an amazing village, partially restored and partially recreated to look like the pioneer times. The outer entrance is pretty and welcoming enough, but the second entrance is even more olde tymey... Again: welcome! There are tons of great buildings and artefacts all over the place, and my own self-guided tour revealed many fascinating and photogenic sights (I'm always collecting reference photos even if I don't have a specific or immediate* use for them). Old tech meets new tech. Of all the neat stuff around the grounds to see (come and see it!) I decided to share these two towers. I can imagine someone transported from a century ago wondering whatever could have happened to that other windmill, whereas a visitor from the future might wonder what kind of unusual telecom technology is being used by the tower on the left. ...