Burnaby Artists Guild Spring Show and Sale

Contemporary Art and Cocktails at The Beaumont Studios

I am pleased to announce that I have had two of my pieces accepted into this show for February 8th, put on by Studio Blue .  "Middle Beach - the Stones and Seaweed Leave an Impression" and "Murder and Poppies" will be on exhibit and I hope some of you will be able to pull yourselves out of winter hibernation and come to the show.

Pomodoro

If you are on the mailing list for Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letters you may have read the one for October 25th, "Pomodoro Technique".  I found the tips in this letter particularly useful and have begun to apply the technique as a means of keeping myself focused.  The Pomodoro Technique is explained a bit here:

"The Pomodoro Technique is a time-management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.  The timer is set for 25 minutes and then you focus and go to work on your predetermined job.  At the end of the time period, the alarm goes off and you take a five minute break.  Then you start on your next Pomodoro.  If your Pomodora gets interrupted by a phone call or a request to go down and drain the lake, you'll have to stop and restart your Pomodoro later."  Robert Genn

A little kitchen timer is the type suggested, but I find the ticking too distracting, so I use the timer on my phone.

I picked out this photo, taken on a trip to Tofino, to use as inspiration on my first pomodoro painting

I haven't been very diligent in keeping track of how many pomodoros I'm doing, and my breaks are definitely longer than 5 minutes, but so far I think I am at about 7 sessions and have the following to show for it:

Here's hoping the next 7 pomodoros go as well.

Meet Simon

This is Simon.  He is a squirrel, and yes he's holding a spoon.  I have not yet decided if Simon is going to remain a drawing for my own personal amusement or if he will become more.

Every once in a while it is good for me to get out of the painting mode and just draw for practice sake.  This is how Simon came about.  I was so amused by my sketch of a squirrel holding a spoon, and looking like he really wanted to say something, that I started another drawing with Simon and his spoon in what I think his house would be like.  Pictures of that drawing will come later.

I've shown this sketch to a few people, and inevitably they start to laugh.  I'm fine with this as it is what I do when I see Simon, but it made me wonder who the audience would be for a drawing like this, adults or children?  Perhaps both, kids, depending on their age would accept a spoon holding squirrel as  completely plausible, adults would find it amusing simply because of the absurdity.  Either way, a scene with Simon in it does not have to make any logical sense.

Finished project

Here are the finished pieces to the blossom panels that I have been working on.

Redwing Blackbird

This piece was done on a special request.  I have never painted a bird of any sort before so I took this on as a challenge and had to do more research than I am accustomed to.  The first step was to find a photo that would translate well into a painting.  Fortunately I have a good source for bird photos and they had many for me to choose from and gave me full permission to copy from their work.  I usually don't do any sort of rough draft for my paintings and let them develop how they want.  However, since this was for something specific I practised drawing the bird first.  I was quite happy with the initial drawing at its outline stage and then started to question my ability to recreate it on the canvas.  A tip was given to me by a friend on how to transfer drawings onto canvas and I decided to give it a try.  I made a photocopy of the outline drawing and on the back of the copy I painted a solid block of burnt umber gouache pigment.  When that was dry I lay the copy on the canvas where I had already painted a background and retraced the outline of the bird.  The burnt umber pigment transferred to the canvas and I now had an outline of the bird in the exact proportions that I wanted and the exact placement.  I used that to fill in the basic parts of the bird and then built up the paint to give a sense of definition.  I found this task difficult due to the black feathers and felt that the careful addition of white paint was the best way to go about it.  For a first attempt at a bird I think it went pretty well.

Commission continuation

Now that the branches are complete for the four panels that I am working on I can begin the blossoms.  I prefer to wait until the branches are finished and dry to the touch as this makes it easier from my end to work on the flowers.  I don't have to worry about putting my hand on the canvas to steady my brush, or that I might accidentally smudge something.

This is an example of how I start each individual blossom.  I use a purple / blue to divide the inside of the flower by marking off the edges of the petals, the dip in the middle of each petal and the centre.

I then use a cleaner brush to gently blend the white of the petal with the purple of the divisions.

I will then go back and add more purple to the original divisions.  I may do this process a few times, gradually darkening the centre area of each flower.  Most of the time the resulting blossom looks quite messy close up, but once I back up a few feet that messiness is not noticeable.  I have to keep this in mind when working on these as I can get in the habit of working very close to the canvas, trying to make the flower perfect from a few inches away.  This is not realistic for a painting as the viewer is likely to be standing at least a few feet away, so while I am working on it I must repeatedly back up and view the work from a distance until I am satisfied with the detail and depth in each blossom from that distance.