The Naked Silo

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 .

We've been driving around From one end of this town to the other and back But no one's ever seen us Driving our Econoline van And no one's ever heard of our band –TMBG, "The Mesopotamians" Stand by for action. The opening of my 33 on 33 show at Blizzmax this past weekend was fantastic and lots of fun, with tons of my friends and regular Blizzmax patrons coming out to see the fruits of my madness: 13,200 square inches of Prince Edward County scenes –some recognizable, some obscure, but all genuinely interesting to me– are now finally on display in sequential order, along with  a handy map to provide orientation and context. Each painting is available for purchase for $333. Blizzmax  is located at 3071 County Rd. 13, in South Bay (call ahead for hours: 613.476.7748). The show runs until 21 July. Bearded...but not tired. Since the completion of this project at the Glenora Ferry last Wednesday, people have been asking me if I've recovered from...

When I was invited to participate in the Sommerfest group show at the Blizzmax gallery by Peter and Alice Mennacher about a month ago, I was happy to take part in yet another art show in Prince Edward County a mere five months after moving here. They're a great couple and really appreciate art in a way I hadn't seen in Toronto's galleries. Their gallery and studio space is quite nice, as you can barely see in these extremely blurry photos I took at the opening last Sunday evening: My paintings are the two seen in the bottom right photo --and are also posted below: The Sacred and the Propane , 40" x 30", oil on canvas, 2008 That's my dad barbecuing some kebapi while a ghost cow (?) looks on (supervises?). Butcher , 24" x 40", oil on canvas, 2008, private collection The second painting was supposed to be accompanied by the one below, but it sold from my own gallery before it was time to deliver the pictures to Blizzmax. ...

Facing the back wall (ladder for scale). A couple of months ago I was invited, along with six other Prince Edward County artists, to participate in "On A Roll," a slightly weird art show that had us make our stuff on 30 feet long, 4 feet high sheets of paper, wrapped around the  Blizzmax Gallery  walls. It was an interesting challenge: what medium is best suited for this? what should I do? when will I have the time to do any of it? My solution came quickly during the first meeting to decide how exactly we were going to this; I was going to use the Roman statue montages I made for an earlier project that didn't materialize, and draw them using pencil, for ease of working and speed. I went in with Chrissy Poitras on the day the paper went up (June 2) and, when we arrived, around 9pm, Carl Wiens was already hard at work on his section. I like them and their work a lot and being in the same room with them (albeit on the opposite side of that wall) made it a fun n...

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, 2017, (after Johns) Peter and Alice of  Blizzmax Gallery  had asked if I would like to participate in their  One 5 Oh Canada  show celebrating Canada's 150th birthday this summer and, always happy to be part of a Blizzmax show, I said yes , not knowing right away what I could/would/should submit for inclusion. With an eye towards positivity and celebration (rather than grim political commentary) I settled on aping a couple of Jasper Johns paintings of American flags and giving them a Canadian twist. This one is a riff on his  Three Flags  (1958) which I did in oil (rather than his encaustic on canvas) and is much smaller than his work. Because I used a different medium, I had to create an illusion of depth as well as rely on many layers of gesso and paint for actual texture. My flag paintings are less complex as a result, but no less fun and whimsical. My other painting is a Canadian version of his  White Flag ...

24" x 36", oil on canvas, 2017, (after Johns) Peter and Alice of Blizzmax Gallery had asked if I would like to participate in their One 5 Oh Canada show celebrating Canada's 150th birthday this summer and, always happy to be part of a Blizzmax show, I said yes , not knowing right away what I could/would/should submit for inclusion. With an eye towards positivity and celebration (rather than grim political commentary) I settled on aping a couple of Jasper Johns paintings of American flags and giving them a Canadian twist. This one is a riff on his White Flag (1955) which I did with just oils on canvas (rather than his encaustic, oil, and charcoal on canvas) and is much smaller than his flag. Because I used one medium instead of three, I had to create an illusion of depth as well as rely on many layers of gesso and paint for actual texture. My flag paintings are less complex as a result, but no less fun and whimsical. My other painting is a Canadian version o...

County Coyote: Explorers 18" x 24", oil on wood panel, 2019 I always enjoy participating in the shows put on by Peter and Alice Mennacher at their Blizzmax Gallery in South Bay, here in Prince Edward County, and when I got the invitation for this year's County Coyote group show I quickly began brainstorming ideas. The main concept is that participating artists take Peter's drawing of a coyote and do whatever we wish with it. I decided to take the plentiful coyotes out of PEC and sent them out into the final frontier, exploring strange new worlds. The main background of mountains and a ringed gas giant in the sky was borrowed from a Robert McCall painting, the rocket is based on Hergé's design from his Tintin comics, and the hoodoos are based on photos I took in Alberta more than a decade ago (I was going for a sort of Roger Dean -inspired landscape, and the surreal (and unlikely) tripled hoodoos lend themselves to this notion). Naturally, these c...

33 on 33: Day 19 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 My nineteenth day of painting: at Wellington Harbour. See the Grand Map . See the full post for this painting. Afterthoughts: For a long time, I felt this painting was too dark and muddy (feeling like I did about Day 4 ), forgetting what it looked like when I painted it outside, having seen it only indoors for the few weeks leading up to the show, but, when I brought all the paintings to hang them at Blizzmax, I was pleased to see all the subtle blues and details once again, so I am now very happy with this one.

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...

33 on 33: Title Page 20" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013 In just a few weeks, at the break of dawn on 25 May, I'll be hitting the road –specifically Prince Edward County's Highway 33 (AKA The King's Highway, AKA Loyalist Parkway)– for my big summer art project. Beginning at the Murray Canal at the north west end of PEC near Trenton, I'll head out early each day, gradually making my way east along 33, creating one 20" x 20" oil painting each day for 33 days. This marathon-of-sorts will conclude on 26 June at the Glenora ferry dock, and all 34 paintings (including the "title page" above) will be shown at Blizzmax Gallery  (3071 County Rd. 13, Picton, ON, 613.476.7748).  The show opens 29 June at 7pm and runs until 21 July. Throughout all of this I'll be making regular updates on Facebook, Twitter , and here on this blog. It's very likely that there will be many surprises...and maybe even a guest star or two! I have no idea wh...

This week marks the two year anniversary of moving to our home at Small Pond Arts.   It really seems like I’ve done more things and accomplished more goals in the past two years than in the five years previous... • Moved from downtown Toronto to a farm in Prince Edward County • Bought our first home • Renovated and furnished this old house • Started a small business  • Learned to grow abundant glorious food in our garden • Buried a time capsule • Designed posters for all of our events • I'm learning how to ride a unicycle   • Learned some basic construction skills • Had a few art shows (in no particular order): Field to Canvas , Sommerfest , Art in the County 2010 and 2011 , Something About the Garden , Blizzmax 2011 Season Opener , Cousins , Terroir , Artevino , Arts on Main 2012 • Worked at a couple of PEC vineyards • Helped bring Stickfest to life • Actually got some people with this April Fool's joke   • Became ...