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! ;-)