One aspect of portraiture is the need to understand the structure of the head. This small series of head sculpture videos are information packed and interesting to boot. Courtesy of ArtStudentsLeagueNY

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

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Last week I did an art demo for the Burnaby Artist Guild at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby. Interestingly enough, it was in room 106, a room where I attended my first figure drawing class with Tony O’Regan back in 2008.

The group there is very welcoming and have a great sense of humour, but best of all, a desire to learn and understand. Many questions were asked during the art demo itself and during the break. All of which I tried to answer the best I can.

Whenever I do an art demo, I try to cover the importance of shapes, value and colour temperature as I believe these items are some of the most important for painting. I also introduced the notion of identifying the four planes in a landscape as described by John Carlson in his book Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting.

Cindy Fang, a member of the guild, was nice enough to email me her photos of the demo.

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I was invited to participate in the Battle of the Brush, a collaborative painting competition in September of 2012, but it would require me to add another set of hands while painting.

I paired with Lalita Hamill, an artist in Langley, because we have similar thoughts on what makes a great painting. Shapes, values, colour temperature and edges. No high chroma colours, just beautiful greys with shifts in temperature. The spark will come from high contrast and sharp edges.

While promoting and competing in the Battle of the Brush I found that working with another artist of like mind fulfilling. The main ingredient in that statement is ‘like minded’. Without that I can see there being descent and dismissal disrespect. Below are the two paintings we completed for the event.

The first one, ‘Tranquil Pasture’, was completed at the Interior Design Show West to help promote the main show at the Chapel Arts Gallery. The second image is the actual painting we completed at the event. We completed it in two 40minute sessions. Paint was flying and the composition was changing constantly while we figured out how best to lead the eye through. After we were finished we titled the piece ‘After the Rain’.

Below is the video of the collaborative painting evening in action.

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I have my two new art workshops finalized for March 26, 27 and April 5, 6, & 7th at the Langley Arts Council building in Langley, BC.

Details are outlined on my workshop schedule page but I have added the information PDF files below.

Please take the time to pass this on via your favourite social network or via email.

Breaking Free of that Amateur Style

Portraiture Defined

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Luminous Sketch :: 8×8″ :: Oil on Paper :: $150

My painting “Luminous Sketch” has been juried into the Works on Paper show at the Federation of Canadian Artists gallery on Granville Island. The show runs from February 5 – 17, 2013.

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I spent some days over the holidays reorganizing my studio space and took the opportunity to build not only a shadow box but also some much needed shelf space.

The still life box will allow me to start painting still life setups from life instead of photos. Photos are good but have so many drawbacks when it comes to lights, darks and distortion created from the camera lens.

Keep an eye out for more still life paintings this year.

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Luminous Sketch :: 9×9″ :: Oil on Paper :: $250

This is a small sketch of my painting ‘Luminous’ to see how a larger brush (1″ width) in proportion to the painting size makes a difference. I my opinion, it makes for a much looser painting that lets the viewer’s mind create the detail, thus engaging he or she more.

Luminous Sketch :: 9×9″ :: Oil on Paper :: $250

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Hayley :: Oil on Board :: 16×20″

This is a recent portrait of my daughter Hayley. The reference photo for this was taken at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre in April of 2012.

Hayley :: Oil on Board :: 16×20″ :: NFS

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