Unsuspecting

Christmas in Eganville 2017

A few shots from our stay with my son's GF's family, thanks again for inviting us into your home to share the season.

Christmas Fun

Another year, another get together with family before Christmas. My kids Michael and Maddy were there of course. this year it was held ay my bro's place, thanks Ed and Elonda. Elonda's mum Anne, daughter Brianne and her boyfriend Michael, my mum and of course, the dogs all were there.

Wendy (complete)

This one is ready for Christmas! Hope it will be received well!

Wendy

An in-progress project commissioned by my older brother Eric. He would like to give it as a gift to his son for Christmas. Wendy is my nephew Simon's mother. She passed away in February of 2015. She always enjoyed the Christmas season and making Christmas crafts for us. I still have some of the decorations that she had made for Sara and I and it sits out every year at Christmas. Gouache and pastel and colored pencil on illustration board, 11x17

Doug "Killer" Gilmour

This one is complete. A portrait of Doug "Killer" Gilmour who began his playing career with the St. Louis Blues and won the Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames. On Jan. 2, 1992 the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames completed a blockbuster deal in which the Flames sent Doug to the Leafs in a 10-player swap. He impacted the Leafs in a huge way and brought the Leafs to the conference championships in the 1993 and 1994 seasons. He has scored over 1300 points in an illustrious career, earning a place in the top 20 of all time.

100 Small Paintings Show & Sale

The 100 small paintings Show & Sale is coming up between November 24th and December 17 at the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville. I’m submitting two hockey pieces, Curtis “Cujo” Joseph and Ed “The Eagle” Belfour. These are both 7” x 5” and are very affordable, a great gift for a Leafs fan.

Doug Gilmour WIP (Update)

Another update, this piece is nearing completion. The hockey stick, various details such as the helmet straps still need to be worked on. The straps on the main figure will be faded out at the ends. It is gouache on illustration board, size 20" x 30" I hope I will be able to have Doug sign it and I would like to produce a limited number of prints as well. This is an image taken with my iPad, so colour and quality are compromised somewhat.

Lyrebirds

I’m proud to say that my son Michael presented his defense on October 23 to achieve his Masters degree in Commmunications from Ryerson University. He used the album he wrote recently, Lyrebirds, for his presentation. Below is a summary that describes, in his own words, what the presentation entailed. I’ve included an image of his album cover image, although that may change as it is an “in progress” project at the moment. "The album was written using insights from rhetoric, philosophy, and cognitive linguistics. The central theme is catachresis, which is a linguistic trope like metaphor and analogy. Catachresis is traditionally thought of as a misuse of metaphor or language, which can then create new meanings and associations. This is the way Shakespeare seems to have invented many English words. My idea was that catachresis doesn’t just exist in language, but in all meaning systems and therefore in music as well. I would argue that artists like The Beatles, Frank Zappa, and John Coltrane made extensive use of it in their work, even if they were unconscious of it. For my project I tried to see what would happen if I used catachresis as a tool in writing my music, the same way a poet might deliberately use metaphor."

37th Annual VAC Juried Show

My piece “Still Life with Butterfly” was accepted into the 37th Annual Juried Show at the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville. The show runs to November 12 if you would like to see the piece up close and personal. The quality of work was impressive, I especially like the large portrait work.

Doug Gilmour WIP (Update)

Here's an idea of what the comp will look like. This image shows the pencil linear transferred on to the frisk film. Will begin colour next.

Doug Gilmour (Killer) - WIP

I’m beginning a new piece similar to my Johnny Bower and Gretzky paintings in that it will be rendered in gouache and presented in a collage format. I will add a large portrait in the background alongside whichever figure that I end up going with. I’m leaning toward using the figure on the left side. I’d like this to b a larger piece, in the 18” x 24” range. I'm going to see if I can get him to sign it once it's complete. Let's hope!

Family Gatherings

A rarer occurrence than once was, since my father passed 14 years ago. I treasure these more than ever now. Some pictures from the gathering at Pete, my brother's place, yesterday and from my great niece’s, Finola's, christening last Sunday. My mother, twin brother and his wife, were there, and of course my niece Sarah and her hubby Denis with their child Chelsea, my nephew Jonathan, my niece Brianne and her boyfriend Michael. My niece Rachel’s new baby, Finola, was christened last Sunday, and of course she and her husband Damian have been here from the UK for the last two weeks and are here until Tuesday. Unfortunately my kids Michael and Maddy were not able to attend.