Charlevoix beach scene finale... stumbling a little towards the finish line!

Additional brush strokes focusing on the upper body corrected, in my view, the dislocated right shoulder, the absence of right triceps & middle back and the unconnected left forearm to the left hand (hip area). A tall order for any orthopedic surgeon but simply part of the vicissitudes of daily life as a "wannabe"artist trying to play God with mixed results!


What the heck... there is always the next painting to do things more elegantly!

Talking about the next painting: somewhat scared by the prospect of starting the 100 m Olympic series... but still wanting to prepare for it, I initiated this other beach scene emphasizing the body...


Holding my breath as usual!

Charlevoix beach scene... close to final pass...

The last pass was a bit more arduous due to the fact that the initial value scheme I had in mind for the composition did not really work: the upper body of the figure was disappearing in the vegetation at step II!

In the end though, this is quite representative of my experience that afternoon at Baie St-Paul (minus a few minor corrections on the figure to be implemented).

Every painting is associated with key learnings. Part of me thinks that I should nail these types of paintings in two steps flat... the idea behind this being to produce more expressive figurative works using intuition and feelings rather than brain and technical know how.

This is a noble objective for year 2009!

Stretching buckled paintings... a case for the incredible shrinking canvas...

Yesterday was an "art supply" day as opposed to a "painting" day. In preparation for my 100 m Olympic series, I bought paint by the jar and five 36 X 36 canvases for starters. I also took the opportunity to buy special pliers along with stretcher bars to stretch one of my paintings done on primed canvas by the roll. Not having secured these canvases properly while painting (I used tape and clips as opposed to staples), I was worried about not being able to get rid of the odd buckle for a drum-like stretch. Fully spraying with water the back of the stretched canvas twice (turning the canvas upside down the second time around) took care of business. I am safe in that department... for now!


Arts and crafts have never been my forte and, more often than not, any manual work makes me realize that my hands are full of thumbs!

Back to business... Charlevoix beach scene, step II...

In this second phase, I tried to establish the mood of the scene quickly without being too concerned about technique. Beyond finishing touches (including that infamous bird I want to put in), I need to tone down the back ground and get highlights taken care of, especially in the face, which does not register for now...

Getting back to the 100 m Olympic series I want to initiate soon, after my experience with the muse (the preceding post: supervising the development of an abstract painting with textures), I am very tempted to use commercially stretched canvases and go the route of "big time" textures right off the bat. Needless to say, using canvas by the roll, as I am doing now, is inconvenient if I want to exploit textures to their fullest...

From the muse in my art to the art of my muse...

Over the last few days, I had the pleasure of supervising from a distance the production of the first textured acrylic painting from "the Muse" - you guessed it, my life companion and model!

Looks like her background as a dancer was not a handicap here... as there is definitely a rhythm in those lines...


I figure I can always become her artistic manager if my art career doesn't take off!

Observations during the Holiday Season...

Taking advantage of my Chinese painting classes last year, I asked an attending professional artist the reasons why he preferred large canvases (at least 45 inch in height and width minimum). He responded by saying that he selected the largest canvases he could cover with the sweep on an arm and a sway of the body. The advantage being that, given his unique physical dimensions, nobody could copy his brush strokes! This is something I would like to try with my upcoming 100 m series...

Also, on a less serious note, since I want the kid in me to paint in 2009... I took advantage of the presence of the "little people" in action during the Holiday Season (in occurrence my grand children unwrapping Christmas gifts) to learn a thing or two about body movements, in an attempt to improve my own painting moves...

I noticed that pivoting longitudinally along one's own body axis could help one cover more ground and therefore more canvas real estate in one sweep if need be:

Moreover, it seemed also possible to work on the ground leaning over large pieces of artwork without falling on one's face given the proper technique:

Imbued with this new knowledge, I decided to start this nordic Charlevoix beach scene :))


Still need to figure out where I am going to put a large flying bird in this picture...

Getting ready for the 100 m Olympic series...

During the summer Olympics, I toyed with the idea of creating a series on the 100 meter dash. To that effect, I built a collection of bad TV screen shots:

As additional reference materials, I took a few snapshots of myself this morning and used Photoshop to transform them into depersonalized "bas-relief" images. If there is anything "sticking out" on my side - this is likely to be myself as a sore thumb! - that does not show up in my reference materials... I will put it in!

As usual, I am anxious about starting something new... but I am never that serious about it!