tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130400642026-05-17T23:35:27.064-07:00every child is an artist ... the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up ~ picassoUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger798125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-67799969962910816502010-07-01T13:15:00.000-07:002014-10-17T11:49:39.838-07:00

Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbyeI say helloThe last blog post was #800. Five years after starting this blog I'm saying goodbye. But I'm also saying hello. Please join me for more colouring fun at my new blog.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-54652056665898135942010-06-27T11:00:00.000-07:002010-06-27T12:43:06.198-07:00

Ah, summer. You are here and I am so ready. Now if only the weather knew it! This time last year I was harvesting cherries; this morning I was dodging raindrops while searching for good spots to photograph Greg running his latest half marathon. I'm ready, though, because yesterday we did a massive reorg of 'our' studio space. It's pathetic (and awfully small) when you compare it to a real

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-51998956034672672592010-06-24T20:03:00.000-07:002010-06-24T20:16:51.693-07:00

Oceans SevenI realized that I had one unsold drawing left from the Oceans Ten series at about the same time I discovered this Etsy shop, set up to "help the gulf coast recover from the massive BP oil spill." So far $2500 has been raised for Oxfam America and $2000 has gone to the National Wildlife Federation ... and there are still over 400 items in the shop and more being added daily. It's

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-18724242879593252432010-06-17T20:14:00.000-07:002010-06-18T18:21:14.305-07:00

It's almost Friday again and I haven't participated in Illustration Friday for many months, but was totally inspired by last Friday's theme/project. It only took me until Thursday to actually do it! :) Kelly Light decided to start a blog called Ripple as a vehicle for donating money to either The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-64511676630415532282010-06-15T17:10:00.000-07:002010-06-15T20:10:47.327-07:00

A crow's version of 'saving the world one video at a time'.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-33232514857960639852010-06-15T15:07:00.000-07:002010-06-15T18:20:35.769-07:00

I was at a friend's birthday party in a restaurant on Saturday night when an acquaintance sat beside me. After a little inconsequential chitty chat, the topic of Facebook somehow came up and she said something along the lines of, "I don't understand how people can waste their time on that garbage. I think email and Facebook and so on is for lazy people who have no lives and nothing better to do."

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-69328703977780140682010-06-13T10:22:00.000-07:002010-06-13T10:24:46.055-07:00

Winter Filigreemixed drawing media on archival black paper (Stonehenge)framed to 21.5" x 21.5"

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-59556510564361572792010-06-10T08:47:00.000-07:002010-06-10T09:56:27.046-07:00

Adam has never really taken any art, though he draws some pretty imaginative stuff on a regular basis, so I'm tickled that he's decided to take an art class in school (grade 11) next year. Here's one of his pencil drawings, scanned and digitally coloured by his old mother.And here's Adam, performing his other art in Footloose.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-41234978881639082502010-06-07T20:42:00.001-07:002010-06-07T20:52:49.213-07:00

It's the last week of classes before exams and summer holidays so when I saw this I knew I had to surprise the boys with KISS sushi for lunch. When Adam texted me to say he didn't want to eat it I threatened him with grounding if he didn't finish his Gene Simmons. He made sure to take a photo of it first and post it as his Facebook profile picture.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-66680747881499028972010-06-06T15:00:00.000-07:002010-06-06T15:50:09.223-07:00

I'm excited that I have almost finished this series of landscape drawings. By this time next week I hope to have packed up and shipped two finished commissions and at least started packing eight pieces for Effusion Gallery. Their busy summer season is fast approaching and since opening two years ago have sold something like thirty pieces of my work, so I don't want to miss out on this year's rich

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-77904434114683971532010-05-31T09:02:00.000-07:002010-06-02T08:29:07.270-07:00

Work is love made visible. (Kahlil Gibran)Grandpa Walton once said something along the lines of, "The only important things in life are hard work and love." I think the old coot was onto something. Better yet, if you can find work you love you're very lucky indeed.Yesterday morning I was aware of a growing sense of unease and a feeling of being overwhelmed by all the things I had to do. Then I

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-32585489000075849232010-05-28T18:19:00.000-07:002010-05-29T09:37:27.164-07:00

This weekend we get to see the start of the high school graduation shenanigans of this handsome young lad, but last weekend we escaped to the Okanagan for three days. I've only ever been there in hot, dry August (many, many Augusts actually) so seeing it in spring was a treat of the verdant, green variety. We were there to visit my cousin on her Paint horse breeding farm, so Greg could run the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-57394898844005818292010-05-20T20:25:00.000-07:002010-05-20T20:33:51.960-07:00

A bunch of guys painting beer signs on the side of a building in New York City. It's not the sort of thing that you would expect to bring a lump to your throat, but it is so beautifully filmed and is such a silent and dying art that you'd be surprised. Check out the Ritual Project's Vimeo site to view this short documentary. (Thanks once again, Rudy.)

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-14706081880128801262010-05-19T17:11:00.001-07:002010-05-19T19:39:34.775-07:00

Five years ago today I wrote my first blog post and here I am, 788 posts later, still doing it. Who knew a whim would turn into an ~ahem~ 'institution'. It's not the same blog it was in its heydey, but since then both the interwebs and I have changed. I still love the format and the way it's connected me with so many amazing people. As long as I keep producing artwork and taking photos I suspect

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-28379074249153193862010-05-17T09:08:00.000-07:002010-05-17T13:05:03.194-07:00

I'm pretty proud of the fact that I managed to finish this drawing. From a dog that got skunked on Friday and brought it inside (not to mention her resulting overnight bowel issues -- in the most difficult spots to clean! -- caused by ingesting that poison) to losing my studio entirely, to being so frustrated with the background that I was on the verge of tearing it into tiny pieces, this

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-28818549160544477352010-05-12T15:31:00.000-07:002010-05-12T19:26:19.097-07:00

I don't know who the cartoonist is, but if I did I'd give him/her full credit as this is right on target. So much of the art I'm looking at these days is all about the artist. The market-savvy artist knows that artist-as-celebrity sells better than almost anything else in the current tabloid-mentality marketplace.I'm in a really foul mood about society's shortcomings and government

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-11398945531359718942010-05-11T15:45:00.000-07:002010-05-11T17:45:23.727-07:00

I don't do portraits as part of my painting practice. Human portraiture requires a different kind of focus and doesn't really interest me as an artist, though I admire it when it's done really well. That said, I have done the occasional horse or dog portrait for special occasions/people. I even painted Zappa a couple of weeks after I lost him.This is Carlos. The painting (more an illustration

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-59478102653216824922010-05-09T14:10:00.000-07:002010-05-09T14:54:01.970-07:00

Life in the fast lane finally eased up yesterday after the band exchanges (Carl) and the school's annual theatre company production (Adam), which was Footloose this year, finished on Friday night. I slept for over 10 hours last night! This morning, Greg and I got up long before the boys (they're teenagers after all) and took the dog and canoe down to Deas Slough where we discovered this lovely

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-78818449494928145842010-05-01T17:59:00.000-07:002010-05-01T18:13:43.454-07:00

12" x 9"coloured pencil on black archival paperI drew this from a photo I took when I visited Ruxton Island almost four years ago. There's something so dramatic about the colour and shape of the arbutus trees that are everywhere on Vancouver Island (and surrounding Gulf Islands) that always make me want to draw and paint them. I loved to peel the bark off the one in the garden where I grew up.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-81925095579256561692010-04-27T08:34:00.000-07:002010-04-27T09:53:37.344-07:00

This has been a weird year of hurry-up-and-wait for me. My kids are on the cusp of adulthood, and though I have regularly been shamed by my mother-hen routine (not to mention the Jewish grandmother in me that has to feed anything that's not nailed down) I'm itching for the transition to happen so I can pour the amount of energy into my painting and drawing that I need to. Never good with regular

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-59511732800003619552010-04-23T08:56:00.000-07:002010-04-25T19:52:42.505-07:00

I'm beginning to think that my approach to art has been all wrong. While I've been bogged down with the mundanities of personal vision, integrity, beauty vs. truth, and all the age-old questions artists ask, I've totally neglected attending to what really matters: fashion. I've also forgotten about the cult of personality. From watching attention-getting artists as diverse as Damien Hirst and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-62053663747427160832010-04-18T09:09:00.000-07:002010-04-18T09:13:40.520-07:00

If, like me, one of your unfulfilled wishes is to visit New York City's Museum of Modern Art, then let's go this afternoon. This short video contains every painting on display in the painting galleries of the MoMA on April 10, 2010.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-48738160804789248272010-04-17T12:57:00.001-07:002010-04-17T12:58:13.737-07:00

Flight Path ~ oil on panel ~ 8" x 10"

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-2750347295897668072010-04-15T19:56:00.000-07:002010-04-15T20:21:38.791-07:00

Top Seed ~ oil on panel ~ 8" x 8"OMG how I love to paint in oil on panel. I was completely divorced from reality while painting this crow today. During that time it clouded over, rained, and cleared up again. Or so rumour has it.I'm doing a set of four small 'study' panels using a combination of my hard edged acrylic style (but in oil) for the graphic stencilled part ... and my looser, blended

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13040064.post-48985139821349162692010-04-11T12:38:00.000-07:002010-04-15T20:37:40.083-07:00

Another house painting under my belt. I think I'm about done with these though Denise is clamouring for more and I've promised one after this. Then I'll be done. This one took way too long and I'm glad it's behind me.Blue and Pink ~ 24" x 12" ~ acrylic on canvas, image around sides

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