Another one joins the collection of the artist!

"Collection of the artist" is a polite term I use to describe my "half failures". My definition of technical success - only my point of view of course - is slapping 3-4 layers of paint in a hurry (1 per day to allow for some thinking time and planning in between layers) with the white canvas and the underpainting generating as much light as the white paint I used to balance colors in the final product. Given the element of chance involved, my likelihood of succeeding 100% of the time is "snowball in hell".

I have never tried a mat varnish before...so here I go with this overworked painting seeking some color attenuation (fogging effect with the intent of masking)! The back lit figure is a definite challenge...which, considering the layering technique I use, has to be won at the early stage of the painting. The second photograph (mat varnish) was taken on the veranda...

With regard to my quest for expressionism (one anemic step after another)...the abbreviated face associated with the fellow in the back represents an apex for me...not much to write home about you may say!

Also, in terms of the application of paint, I seem to want to gravitate towards flowing "buttery" colors...


...as opposed to colors applied with clear cut expressive brush strokes.


My challenge will be to balance these two approaches in every painting while emphasizing the first...one thing is for sure: I am still searching...

Fund raiser...

I have been approached recently to provide a painting for a fund raising event dedicated to kids and sport. This is the one I will submit (this lighthouse from Cape May was done on raw canvas).


Winterizing the house is cutting down on my painting time...hope to be able to get back on track by mid this week. My objective is to produce a minimum of one painting per week this fall. For the next few paintings, I intend to use any remaining commercially stretched canvases from last summer. After that, I will use canvas by the roll (using plywood as temporary support) graduating to larger size paintings while avoiding storage issues.

Chinese black ink...

My Saturday mornings in the fall are reserved to Chinese black ink painting, an artistic discipline that I currently take in the Montreal China town. Although totally committed to the occidental way of painting...I keep coming back to the "way of the brush" hoping that some of it will influence my art.


The unforgiving black ink is certainly the beginning of a cure for the white sheet syndrome...if you can make it there, you can make it everywhere!

Summer is a goner...

What is wrong with these pictures...well, these flowers won't last any longer (as we are closing the gap to November)...and, unfortunately, they are merely an expression of summer's last post-mortem spasm. Looks like I will be plugging away with a few more beach scenes to revive good memories from the summer gone by. The Zen garden reminds me that I should do a Buddha series as I was planning to do in the spring. There was quite a bit of interest at my October exhibition.

As for the work in progress, I toyed a bit with the computer last night and seem to be ready for the next moves: I will add a seagull to bridge the gap between the more distant figures and, as a bonus, the main figure will get a right arm and a left shoulder...after I rake all the leaves on my lawn!

Sandbanks painting continued...3rd pass...

I used the worst brush I could find for this third pass, and painted as if I had a roller...for the water that is. I was much less cocky with the main figure (still relatively small on a 22 X 28 canvas). Looks like the hairy chested guy in the back will remain "reduced to his simplest expression"...

Refinements and highlights are next...

Sandbanks painting continued...

For some reasons, and perhaps instinctively, I used a softer brush stroke approach with this painting in contrast to the previous one... at least at the initial stage. The light in this scene comes from the mid morning sun and is somewhat diffused. Ideally, I would like to go for exaggerated contrasts while retaining as much as possible the quality of the light...one uncertain step after another!

Sandbanks painting....

I started this simple beach scene today. Ironically, I had to work a little harder than usual to accurately capture the postural lines of the main figure. I kept stabbing the canvas with titanium white and azo gold until I achieved a certain likeness (so much for drawing skills). I would like to go with blue greys and pinks for this one...I think.