Restaurant at Night (Chickenburger, Bedford,NS)

Early Evening, Peggy’s Cove

"Shed With Queen Anne's Lace," 30" x 48" Framed Oil on Canvas (Click on image to enlarge)

In keeping with the spirit of summer, I’ve painted two new works that express the quiet stillness and beauty of Nova Scotia. They can be seen in person or on the web at Secord Gallery in Halifax.

Luminosity, light and color are such a big part of my personal experience of the East Coast.  The beauty within simple moments of observation pushes in the direction of creating these paintings. I love the worn, rusty, genuine quality I find so often, particularly in this scene on Tancook Island in the Chester Basin.  The builder of this shed has chosen roofing materials for siding, something I’ve seen many times in Nova Scotia.  As they weather, they become gnawed away by the elements showing a different and unintended view.  The door hinge imparts it’s rusting residue, yet curiously, the shed is still in use as evidenced by the trimmed lawn leading to the door.  Two sets of Queen Anne’s lace frame this entrance to….?  How could I resist painting this scene?

"Dawn at the Cove," 24" x 36", 2011, Oil on Canvas (Click on image to enlarge)

Often in my work I try to weave together a fictional depiction of many moments, all linked by light and color in a more mannered way of working.  “Dawn at the Cove” is a subjective seascape, not so literal a depiction, but more an imagined place evolved through process.   I sometimes draw parts of paintings like flowers, roadside weeds, rocks, boats and sheds.  When I have a few parts drawn in a way I liked, I began to reassemble them into a picture, moving their positions and changing their scale on paper like a director sets prop positions for a film scene.  This painting evolved with a certain emphasis, exaggeration and feeling based on these movable parts coming to rest as the finished piece.

Light and the feeling it evokes are always main concerns in my work.  In very early morning, or just before dusk, the lighting is low angled with long shadows, invoking a sense of warmth and glow, causing even weeds to appear as jewels.

Please see these and many other of my works at Secord Gallery on Quinpool Road in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Point Pleasant Grocery, 18 x 36 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

My new show of original oil paintings is now running at Secord Gallery in Halifax through December 20.  “Street Light” is the emphasis of this set of paintings. Please click on the following link for an article on this show by arts reporter Elissa Barnard of the Chronicle Herald.  http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1216062.html

The city is a backdrop to our lives.  As urban dwellers, we are constantly interacting with our cities and our interactions often reflect our openness to beauty.  Beauty is not necessarily conventional, but it is always personal and deeply felt. In my paintings, I attempt to create a portrait revealing contemporary life in this twenty-first century, but one that is not simply objectively realist.

Agricola Skyline, 18 x 36 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

My expression in painting alludes to a sensibility similar to the 20^th century American painter, Edward Hopper. We share an appreciation of the urban backdrop and it’s ordinary, yet universal presence in our experience.  In my understanding, Hopper and I share a personal goal towards the revitalization and continuation of the realist tradition, even though we live (or lived) in times where there is a multiplicity of modes of expression, each with plenty of momentum.  Hopper worked at a time when Impressionism, Cubism and Expressionism had already taken very firm hold.  With his contemporaries like Robert Henri, George Luks, John Sloan, William Glackens and George Bellows, Hopper was able to connect to the ongoing allure of the city in contemporary life and these artist’s efforts formed a movement reflecting the values of their times.  My connection to this American School of painting has merged with my own feeling for painting.  I view my artistic output as a contemporary link in this chain of artists who have advanced representational painting using their urban backdrop as the motif.

Early Sunday Evening, 18 x 36 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

I infuse my work with whatever nuances of light and mood I am feeling in response to the subject.  I have a deep connection to our city, this everyday world surrounding us with its rugged, worn and rusty beauty.  I look at my motifs with a certain intellectual and aesthetic independence.  I feel free to alter the subject matter as much as needed to bring the scene to the canvas.  Within my process, I’m interpreting select “things” and synthesizing them into a cohesive whole.  I’m able to do this through staging, lighting and composition.

Motel Office at Night, 24 x 36 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

In relation to staging, I feel the elements of my motifs are there for me to move around like props in a play.  I direct my painting this way, like a film director arranges props on set to create workable camera angles. In my case, I’m moving telephone poles, buildings, cars, trees and such until I find compositions that hold together to bring out the essence of the subject.  If a chimney needs to be larger or smaller to satisfy a pictorial concern of mine, I simply adjust its’ scale and position to work in the painting, or I’m free to paint it out entirely if that feels best.

Neighborhood in Autumn, 40 x 30 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

I look for motifs that reveal themselves through light and cohesive color.  I am drawn to the low-angled, northern light of this place.  I appreciate the qualities of light at transition times of day when there is still a hint of light in the sky contrasted with the urban lighting of streetlights, signs and windows.  My urban paintings are filled with examples of this transitional light.  In my view, this light symbolizes continual transition. Things never stay the same.

Esquire Coffee Shop, 20 x 30 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

Warm Summer Rain, 24 x36 Inches, 2010, Oil on Canvas

The Wind Around Here

My show of new oil paintings titled “Luminosity”, opens Aug. 1 from 1-4 at Jo Beale Gallery in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia .   Luminosity is the basis of my feeling in painting these canvases.  Luminosity, light and color are such a big part of my personal experience of the East Coast.  I find myself surrounded by luminosity and persuaded to respond through painting.  The beauty I experience within simple moments of observation pushes and pulls me in the direction of making paintings. In my work, I try to weave together a fictional depiction of many moments, all linked by light and color.  All of the paintings in the show are connected through my common concern for the observation of light. This light is a low-angled, northern light with long and deep shadows.  Light illuminates all aspects of our environment, from rugged and rocky coasts to simple roadside weeds.  I’m an explorer of light and its effects.  My motifs are the coastal waters and lakes of Nova Scotia, however I’ve included two landscape paintings based on the fields and vistas of Prince Edward Island.

Click here to view under one-minute YouTube videos of my paintings “Bay in Late Morning” “Sheds Along the Sea” and “Along the Bay”.

There are two mains streams running throughout all of my painting, a naturalistic stream and a subjective stream.  My subjective paintings are based more on my imagination and personal vision.  My naturalistic paintings look a lot like how things appear. In either style, I look to inhabit all the parts of my painting surfaces with a luminosity arising from light and color.  The painting Sheds Along the Sea is a subjective seascape, not so literal a depiction, but more an imagined place evolved through process.   I sometimes draw parts of paintings like flowers, roadside weeds, rocks, boats and sheds.  When I have a few parts drawn in a way I like, I began to reassemble them into a picture, moving their positions and changing their scale on paper like a director sets prop positions for a film scene.  This painting evolved with a certain emphasis, exaggeration and feeling based on these movable parts coming to rest as the finished piece.

Early Evening Light

The Wind Around Here and Early Evening Light are examples of my more naturalistic or realistic approach.  I’ve been working with the notion of bringing a more subjective view to my naturalistic work.  In other words, I’m trying to distill what I see into more simplified and personal forms that have meaning for me within the context of the painting.  These two examples are not specific places.  They only exist on the canvas and they came about through drawing all the elements and re-assembling them into a pictorial composition.  I’m not trying to improve on nature, but rather trying to pick and choose what I enjoy and what I find works as image.  Please enjoy the work and thank you for reading this.

Lilies in Morning Light

Bay in Late Morning

Sheds Along the Sea

Bay in Light

Three Boats Beneath a Tree

The Coast at Peggy's Cove

Hill Shadows

Summer Harvest

My paintings “Islands” and “Over the Fields” are what I would refer to as subjective paintings.  They’re not literal.  They have generalizations of forms that arose from my drawing process where I can imagine places and allow them to evolve through the process.

“Islands”

“Over the Fields”

I sometimes draw parts of landscapes like fields, roads, hay bales, trees and clouds.  When I have a few parts drawn in a way I like, I began to reassemble them into a picture, moving their positions and changing their scale on paper like a director sets prop positions for a film scene.  These subjective paintings evolved with a certain emphasis, exaggeration and feeling based on these movable parts coming to rest as the finished piece.

“Eastern Seaside”

I especially like to use this subjective way of working in my coastal paintings (eg.“Eastern Seaside”) by using vertical compositions for these, starting with a portrait or door-like orientation of the canvas. Paintings can be a window to another world, or a doorway.  Some paintings are walls, but I’m not going there.  There’s a lot of politics when you start to talk about space in paintings. Among the many traditional ways used to create the illusion of space, the main one is one-point perspective. You can see what I mean on YouTube.  Here’s the thing.  Once you’ve learned one-point mechanical drawing, it’s a lot more fun to use that knowledge as an inventive vocabulary of spatial illusion than to repeat it verbatim.  Experience in drawing leads to a more personal and idiosyncratic, inventive and subjective expression.  In my case, I love the flattened space of Japanese and Chinese scroll paintings where there are few (if any) western perspective devices used.  It may seem like a stretch, but I compose my vertical subjective work with a clear sense of that Asian art space, by way of Nova Scotia with a little folk art flavor thrown in.

There are other times when I feel really moved, really connected to a motif I see in direct everyday experience. When I see an image that speaks to me in a definitive way, and it looks like a painting already, well…what can I do but act on that. This is what I refer to as naturalism, the depiction of things as they are.  These next two images, “Road to the Water” and “Jubilee Road” are examples of motifs I experienced directly.  Both of the locations appeared to look like paintings when I first saw them and were compelling images just as they were.  These didn’t seem like they were parts of another painting, but more that their natural appearance had enough strength and connection for me to commit them to canvas.

“Road to the Water”

“Jubilee Road”

There are some interesting and satisfying aspects of working in a naturalistic manner.  I can really investigate what makes up this connection between me and the motif.  I can study and depict each detail of the image and pull together my own feelings in response.  Sometimes that connection can get a little thin, especially if the painting work is challenging, but as the final stretch of the process unfolds, I always gather momentum and glaze large areas of the canvas in the final sessions.  The luminosity I am looking to present really comes from this glazing. Translucent layers of paint reveal a depth of color and an illusion of form in a physical way with oil paint.  When I varnish the finished piece, the depth of color really pops.

Some of my paintings seem to drift in a grey area between subjectivism and naturalism and in truth most of my naturalistic paintings have a fair amount of editing, simplification and enhancement, however I feel this is the natural bent of any artist where one attempts to organize the visual field into pictoral terms.   My naturalistic paintings sometimes evolve from multiple drawings and photographs and I try to blend these seamlessly into the final painting.  In that sense, my naturalistic (or representational) paintings are not photo-realist, but rely on a hefty dose of personal interpretation within the ground of naturally depiction.

But what’s brought to that page?   What’s happens before the thought of the next painting?  I feel it’s momentum which in my experience is a mixture of things: my appreciation of other art history, my sense of design and composition, my desire to make paintings and my need to express both my connection with the world as I see it and the world as I imagine it.

There are two main streams running throughout all of my painting, a naturalistic stream and a subjective stream.  My naturalistic paintings look a lot like how things appear to me.  My subjective paintings are based more upon my imagination and personal vision. I want to show you my most recent work titled “Bay in Late Morning” and show how my progress through the work.

I started with a pencil sketch.  I haven’t painted anything coastal in a while and I started to feel a sense of longing to do a piece in that genre.  I was looking at a Cezanne painting (reproduction!) the other day and really felt a connection to his composition with his efforts to simplify compositional elements into geometric shapes.   I believe this is a key to his classicism.  His paintings just look so together with only the kind of “thereness” Cezanne could impart.  I couldn’t help but reinterpret his skewed buildings as a starting point for my own painting.

Paul Cezanne “House and Farm at Jas de Bouffan”

1. Bay In Late Morning – sketch

Once I started drawing, I could tell this was not going to be a naturalistic painting.  I wasn’t so concerned with the details, but more the main shapes and elements of style.  Once I arrived at this sketch, I made a transparency of the drawing and projected it on the wall.  I liked how it looked on a 30” x 40” scale so I got out a canvas that size and transferred my drawing to the canvas surface using black acrylic ink as a marking device.

2. Bay In Late Morning – blocking in

Using oil paint, I began to block in the large shapes of the piece.  If you’ve ever seen the film “Standing in the Shadow of Motown” you saw how their songs were built upon a baseline, one instrument added at a time.  Painting is sometimes like that.  You can build upon a drawing in the same way.

3. Bay In Late Morning – more blocking in

4. Bay in Late Morning – finding light

I’m just starting to indicate a light source and I’m working to follow a kind of space I like which appears to recede and be flat at the same time.  I like to make the illusion of space flatten out like the space in Japanese and Chinese paintings.

5. Bay in Late Morning – adjusting color

6. Bay in Late Morning – a cut-out space

7. Bay in Late Morning

At this point the painting begins to feel finished to me.  There are a couple of areas I may go back to once the paint dries, but generally I feel like this one is complete.  Looking back, I was attempting to depict a feeling of dreaminess, a kind of floating quality within the piece with the exaggerated shadows and the invention of details.  Maybe this is a children’s painting.  If you’re interested in this original painting, please go to my storefront to purchase or contact me through this link.

Tiiu introduced us to her principal presenter, Jeff White of Kula Partners who’s a local expert in web development, e-commerce, social media and marketing. There’s probably one word for all that activity! I just know Jeff blogs, tweets and retweets with seeming great ease. And he makes his case clearly through the multitude of media he works with. Check out his videos on Kula! Jeff’s basic question was kind of like a one on one with Dr. Phil “How’s that (my web presence) working for your?” That’s a big question. My answer: I wanted my website to be more effective as a communication tool and as a portal for e-commerce. Jeff began to describe the basic principles of how to upgrade, adapt and engage with web design and social media.

It’s taken me a few years to get off the ground with all this. Hey, I’ve got a busy life. At least I think I do. One thing though, last year Jeff helped me get acquainted with e-commerce and I learned how to set up the site I’m now launching as part of this web site But I saw Jeff again in February this year at the Atlantic Craft Trade Show and got inspired to act on Jeff’s advice. My web designer, Edzard de Ranitz of Kikker.com has built this new site for me using Wordpress, a state of the art web model I now see everywhere on the web. Thank you Tiiu, Jeff and Edzard for all your help and inspiration in getting this off the ground.

Art is an unusual livelihood. There are few road maps on this journey. I’m so glad I had many years of self-employment as a sign maker and screen printer before devoting myself full time to my own art. My experience has informed me of the need to be keenly aware of opportunities to continue to make a living at this thing I love so much, painting. Adaptation is key to self-employment in the arts. In my view, an up-to-date website and blog are my best methods to connect and adapt. One fellow artist who has really gone a long way to map out a path for artist’s on the web is Duane Kaiser. I came across him a few years ago. Duane started a blog called “A Painting a Day”. For many years, Duane has made small paintings and sold them on eBay. The thing about Duane is, he’s a really good painter and his paintings are wonderful compositions of delicate and transitory genres from his life and experience. Duane has a great mastery of the medium of oil. He’s also doing larger works these days which are really worth checking out,. Duane remains an inspiration to any artist who wants to be self-employed, connect directly with their audience and use the web as an opening to a larger audience. Thanks Duane.

“Two Boats” Paul Hannon

In the last couple of years, I’ve started making canvas reproductions of a select group of my paintings as limited edition giclee prints on canvas. I’m pleased to have a method to sell them on the web through my storefront. I also have prints on paper, dioramas and a few select original works available here as well. Please take a moment to browse around. Welcome to my new web and e-commerce sites!