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7"X5" Acrylic on board
All artists in the Region are probably familiar with this building on St. Paul Street, St. Catharines. This is almost the only source of art supplies in the whole peninsula. There is now a Michaels, a store which I find deeply depressing and prefer to ignore, and WalMart sells some basic stuff. Even NCH is not a dedicated art-supply store and their selection is limited but it is what we have. The next best thing is a trip to Currys in Hamilton.
What Niagara Central Hobbies does have is one of the best supplies of model train paraphernalia in Southern Ontario. More than Half the store is dedicated to model railroad supplies and there always seem to be at least two elderly male shop assistants for every customer. They are very knowledgeable and sometimes I wonder if they are actually volunteers.
I cheated a little with this picture. There is actually an ugly apartment building behind the store which ruined the composition so I left it out.
11"X14" Oil on canvas
This is another one from the St. Catharines series, again a couple of years old. Anyone local will remember this landmark on Geneva Street, it was such a vibrant shade of emerald green. Unfortunately, last year they covered it in brown vinyl siding.
I was never quite sure that this one was finished, but here it is anyway.
11"X16" Watercolour on paper
Another of my St Catharines series. Locals will recognize this distinctive building.
They are trying to revitalize the downtown area, much like every other city in North America. It would be a shame to lose buildings like this, so much has gone already.
11"X14" Oil on canvas
This one is a couple of years old. I had an ambition at one time to do a series of local landmarks but I ran out of steam. At least I started do "daily paintings' and they sapped all my energy so that I had nothing left for larger pieces.
I think the great appeal of the little paintings is that they are so much less of a commitment. When it is just a 5"X7" and only takes an hour or two I feel that it doesn't matter if the result is uninteresting or second rate. When I have wasted a whole lot of paint and time on an expensive canvas and at the end of it I feel that the subject and composition weren't worth the effort, I get very depressed.
This painting is SOLD
5"X7" Oil on board
I switched back to oils for the first time in a few weeks,I couldn't see doing this sky with acrylics. It was interesting though, I found myself missing the acrylics, things started to get really muddy. Maybe I should save the oils for paintings that I can work on over a few days.
5"X7" Acrylic on board
I rarely use acrylics and when I do it is usually on paper, for ATCs. This time I thought I would just do the underpainting in acrylics and finish in oils but I liked the way it was going so stuck with them.
The mountain can be seen from almost everywhere in Montreal because the city surrounds it. It isn't really a mountain of course, only 233 m (764 ft) above sea level and part of the Monteregian hills
9"X12" Watercolour on paper
This has been a rather unproductive week so I am going back to the archives.
A few years ago I attended a conference in San Diego and was able to sneak off for an afternoon to visit the lovely Balboa Park. It is a truly wonderful place, full of museums, galleries. conservatories and of course the famous San Diego Zoo (which I missed). I took lots of photographs and painted this on my return.
Sometimes when I am suffering from artists block I set myself a task of painting something that I think will be very hard. I then approach it like a military campaign, making careful plans and detailed studies. This was one of those. I was never entirely satisfied with it but there were parts that I enjoyed a great deal. The tunnel under the arches with it's various shades of grey gave me a lot of satisfaction, the sky and some of the molding above the arch became so overworked that they were unrecoverable. Still, for all that, every time I look at it I remember a very enjoyable afternoon.
6″X6″ Oil on panel
This lighthouse sits beside the Pumphouse Art Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It is identical to the one which I used as a model for the linocut which I posted a couple of weeks ago.
