Paintings: Originals and Prints
This section will continue to evolve with the completion of the newest projects. If you wish to keep pace with that, please leave your email address below.
In the meantime… here is the short stack of my foray into the world of acrylic painting over the past 2 1/2 years…
Acrylics: A Lost and Found Story
I’d made some earlier-years attempts at painting with acrylic but, for one reason or another, abandoned it for other mediums and methods of expression. My last painting session with acrylic (until these several most recent years) was on a warm summer day at the cabin with my mother. I’d brought my copy of The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist by Barclay Sheaks, and we set out to learn how to paint “Acrylics as Opaque Watercolor on Wet Canvas” (pages 142 & 143). The results were decent but I was exhausted and convinced it wasn’t for me.
I had, actually, already fallen deeply in love with the unpredictable, fluid characteristic of watercolor. I love it still.
Roots and Wings series 4 3, watercolor
Roots and Wings series 4 2, watercolor
Then a few summers ago, quite unexpectedly, I came across some acrylic works by David Langevin* that made a huge impression. That summer I took copious pics of trees, and was especially fond of those with unusual character. Later, in the studio, I set to work to paint acrylic landscapes but only became frustrated. I decided not to give it up just yet and, with the materials I’d invested in (and the others to come), experimented with various painting techniques.
*See Back to the Basics in the header menu, above, for details
"Imagining Mama (Out There Somewhere)"... Painted the year my mother died. I could not sense her presence the way my siblings were at that time. It felt as though she were lost. A couple of years later I realized it was I who was lost. Mama loved to paint flowers. Her favourite colour was pink. A psychic once told her she was destined to travel and, years later, she travelled quite a lot to be with her grown children. I hope that, somewhere out there, these things are still true. Perhaps that is what I was feeling deep inside when I painted this.
"Prehistory", a dark acrylic pour, private collection.
"Prehistory Red"
"Low Light", embellished pour.
"Under Water", a small and early experiment with skins, private collection
"Smoke", an ambitious layered project with skins on two adjoined canvases. The black and white overlay is one piece from a single pour. 16" x 20"
"High Society", plant life rules and is abundant in my collections.
"Borealis", playing with light curves and tree skins
These experiments were fun and somewhat interactive but I eventually became frustrated again. It was then that I realized that what I really wanted (and needed)—no matter what the medium—was to paint in my own style…to reconnect with what it is that makes art-making magical for me: losing self-consciousness through the process, and discovering new ways of looking at things.
So I reached back to the time of intense watercolor painting and the emergence of my painting style.
Using some of my previous watercolor paintings as preliminary renderings, as patterns of a sort, I began a series of bold, textured acrylics. The motifs within these paintings aren’t necessarily new but they have a new intensity. A new life.
"Solstice"; 2nd rendering of Roots and Wings series 5 2, acrylic pour and skins, 10" x 20" wrapped canvas (1.5 inch)
Signature on the side
"Leave My Leafs!"; 2nd rendering of Roots and Wings series 4 3, acrylic pour and skins, 9" x 12" wrapped canvas (1.5 inch)
"Thin Disguise"; 2nd rendering of Roots and Wings series 4 2, acrylic pour and skins, 9" x 12" wrapped canvas (1.5 inch)
"Moon Walk", acrylic pour and skins on 12" round canvas
"Along Tere Road", acrylic pour and skins, 12" round wrapped canvas