This is the right half of a diptych , summer '12. Entirely fabricated from nothing. 20''high +/-.

 A scene made from a photo I took while traveling. Proportions and colours are only close. If I need accuracy I have the photo. 16" high +/-.

 Comox dock is a favorite subject. I used to live close by. 16x20

 This is from a photo but the background is invented. It's a work in progress.  16x20 or so.

Here is a bigger one made mostly from a photo and also still in progress. I guess I often do this. It will be essentially complete and go out of mind for a while. After it comes back into my sight I see things that need emphasis or maybe I've been chintzy with colour. Then I get out my BOLD brush.

Duck III 16x12
Comox Valley Gas Bar IV , 20x30(I think)

This is a photo of a 30x24" painting in progress. It's now complete and I will post a picture when I get one.

This is version 3 of 4 of this row boat I saw docked at Comox (that's Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada). My camera was dead so I sketched it from my car in the rain. I have been back many times but it has not been. What a great looking thing it was. This BG is fictitious. I have to do another with more dramatic light (there is a version like that but I can't seem to find the photo of it and I'm going to go bigger.

Also the small koi tryptich from last winter has lead to this large version 32"x48" ea panel.

Four birds Cumberland 20x16 -sold

Near Campbell River 8x6

Near Wetaskiwin 12x10

Here are a few more from the summer excursions.

Loads of outdoor painting this year

Even when I wasn't making paintings I pictured everything from Vancouver Island E. to Buffalo Lake, Alberta and Osoyoos N. to Jasper. That's a lot to do while one eye is on the road and I'm eating a sandwich.

urbane urban scene and fish patterns

A tryptich (ea 5x7 HB ) of a subject I'm still playing with after several years. It seems the more I investigate these patterns the more I want to. When I amplify the bolder strokes it makes for fun work and borders a bit on abstraction but I find the happiest balance between realism and expressiveness for me is about here.

This blogging thing is probably too simple for a complex guy like me because I have messed with it several times and I've been unable to make pictures appear here. Well let's see if I have it.

This should be an acrylic sketch from a pencil sketch of a scene I drew while I was traveling a while back.

8x10 or so hardboard

Plain old Plein Air Painting

A week ago painting comrades Bill and George and I returned from several days out in some mountains and valleys of the amazing BC interior. We painted a bunch and laughed a bunch and I can't think of much that could be better. I'm posting some of my paintings and what we were looking at.

Every painting I make has a bit of a story, either an in-depth break down of it's evolution or an excuse for it. I have often seen that when I think my work is clever and cunning I discover it is old. I'm sure it is clever but it's been done by someone else somewhere and sometimes done-to-death. All of the masters I have emulated I am better off ignoring and just follow my nose. That is not to say I am above pilferring; I can't help it. Creativity is fluid; anyone who sees something and likes it, stores it and eventually it shows itself.

Joining the 21st Century

My daughter made a CD for me and said, "Dad CDs are so 'old school'." So here I am in 2010 finally blogging.

This will be made up of finished and unfinished paintings and sketches by me and some students of my painting workshops and philosophical tidbits about why artists make art.

The simple answer about why is, 'Because I can't help it.' That's a bit pat so excluding the enormous sums of money, it must be, 'Because I have something to say.' Some say it in a song or on film and if you are reading this you know why I say it with brushes not words. Many of us second guess whether we're getting it right.