Tackling different subjects with dripping paint...

Somewhat obsessed with horizontal paint drips, I tried the approach on a girl riding a pony and on a design using a ballistic model and two fighting eagles...

  This definitely gives me the incentive to go beyond painting faces with this technique...

My latest production... pushing ecological subjects...

My latest paintings further explored black ink, metal sheets and the use of collage for textural effects...

With this recent trend, I want to incorporate more movement into my works...

"A fish called Wanda"... more ink than paint this time!

Deciding to tackle climate change (I'm an ecologist by formation), I produced this last painting with the impact of extreme inundations in mind:

I tipped the scale on the ink side this time, simply because I liked the first layer with acrylic ink.

Using copper leaves with an Australian subject...

After having used gold and silver leaves for my recent painting backgrounds, I was left with copper leaves as a last avenue for experimentation...

Recently, I was deeply moved after having discovered the music of an exceptional aboriginal artist,  named Gurrumul, who unfortunately died last year from chronic illness. I chose to depict a younger Gurrumul and I tried to emulate the Australian desert using torn copper leaves... I like the wild look of this painting!

P.S. This time I tried to balance fluid paint and impasto paint...

Working on "The Tamimi's fire and fury"...

Impressed by the story of the young Palestinian activist, Ahed Tamimi, I decided to do her portrait on the spur of the moment using silver leaves and fluid paint...

Wanting to do more textural effects in the future, it is doubtful that I will be able to shake out completely dripping paint and acrylic black ink... and should I, really?

Tackling a new subject with new materials: Ruslana...

While trying to engineer a new face to paint (oftentimes, I amalgamate 2-3 photos of different faces, retaining features I like best from each photo), I came across photos of Ruslana Korshunova, a Russian model who unfortunately committed suicide in 2008 after having been part of a mysterious cult called Rose of the World... and I couldn't resist doing her portrait...

Using gold leaves and patterns of roses and roses petals, I came up with this composition using the language of paint to convey different layers of meaning...

Finding my way with acrylic inks and acrylic colors...

Over the last few weeks, I have done another painting ("The great white hope") on Jack Johnson , the first black world heavyweight boxing champion and have addressed the iconography surrounding the Anunnaki , extraterrestrial beings responsible for the creation of homo sapiens through genetic manipulations (the painting is entitled "The return of the Anunnaki")...

 

Through these works, I'm slowly laying the foundation for my future painting on gessoed canvas...

A return to gessoed canvas...

Over the last few months, I have done a few painting projects on primed canvas. Jack Johnson, from Galveston Texas, the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion caught my interest recently, as he was way ahead of his time as a person of color in the early 1900's...

  I also took the opportunity to explore some textural effects, using standard acrylic gels (on raw canvas, I favour honey-like self-leveling gels)...

At the end of the roll!

About 10 years ago, I bought a 40 yard roll of canvas characterized by a 50/50 blend of cotton and linen. At the time the manufacturer had ceased production of this kind of canvas. Painting on raw canvas, I have avoided painting the whole canvas with my more recent works, realizing the beauty of the untouched surface...

This last work ("Yoiking a reindeer") is a homage to Maxida Märak, Sami singer and activist. The week before, I had accepted the challenge of painting Guipago, a Kiowa chief who was involved in the Adobe Walls battle in Texas along with Quanah Parker (left side) in the late 1800's. I called it "Texas monuments - buffalos and battles"

These last paintings evoke the importance of the land as an integral part of culture and as a vector of human survival.

A last post-vacation painting!

This last painting depicts my last impression of Cambodia...

... and provides another opportunity to test ground on more conventional subjects and rendition.

Web site update...

 Recent painting update in my web site (click the image):

A wrestling match with acrylic inks on a bed sheet : "Khmer underworld"...

In the latter part of this week, I made a second attempt at acrylic inks using a bed sheet as support...

 

May be I should go to to Fabricville to get some more bed sheet fabric! ;-)

A break from my usual painting... varnishing a couple of apsara paintings...

Since my return from my three-week trip in Vietnam and Cambodia, I've spent of few weeks focusing on apsara dancers from Angkor Wat...makes me think of Rodin who had been mesmerized by Kmer dancers when they showed up in France circa1906 in the context of colonial exhibitions. I varnished a few works as an experiment...

I feel the need to do more traditional stuff from time to time, but part of me wants to go back to more visceral stuff...

Close to 3 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia...

The period from late November to mid December was spent on a cruise ship on the Mekong river and visiting key cities in Vietnam and cambodia. The Buddhist imagery in Cambodia especially agreed with me, Here in front of the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom...

There will be an impact on my art definitely...