Finished Double Portrait

‘Double Dan’ 30”x38” Oil on canvas

The finished “double portrait” of Dan that I started a while ago. This has been worked up and fleshed-out in what could be called an “indirect alla prima” technique. 

Dan is posing, showing off his images of himself, but the completed painting does actually capture a side of him, I feel - that of his “entrepreneurial” character. He's a "Dude".

Talented Friends

10”x8” Paper negative photographic print

Not strictly totally a painting made by me this post… although there is one of mine in it.

This photographic image is one of ‘The Paper Portrait Sessions’ taken by the very talented Ross den Otter.

As part of the Vancouver Capture Photography Festival, Ross sent out an open invitation to the public to visit his studio and have a large format portrait made. He took 40 images in just over 4 hours - which is pretty quick going.

Ross built his camera obscura as a box 4 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet, made of 2×2’s, wood screws and a few layers of tar paper... so just a tad smaller than a typical Vancouver condo. He used a a WWII era 14 inch Cooke Aviar type lens bolted to the construction. He actually took the photo standing within the camera itself (which also served as his darkroom in which he processed the large format paper negatives - although there was no running water in it).

The photo Ross took had an 10"×8" paper negative, capturing a portrait of me holding a portrait I painted of Ross. I’ve done a couple of paintings of Ross over the years, as I’ve known him for almost a decade - longer than I’ve actually been in Vancouver.