2013... Over But Not Forgotten

'Rob' 36"x30" Oil on canvas

I sadly didn't post anything last year (me bad)... if I left it a year I hoped nobody would notice! Probably very few did.

Well, it was a phenomenally busy year. Many good things happened, some slightly annoying, but nothing actually bad or unfortunate.

This is a painting of one of my studio-mates, Rob Farrow, which won the 'Figurative Award of Excellence' award in 'A.I.R.S.' the 4th ‘Annual International Representational Show’ held by the Federation of Canadian Artists in Vancouver.

It wasn't the best prize by far that I won during 2013, but it was the one that pleased me the most for many reasons, although chiefly as I had "strongly" encouraged a friend to also enter. He did, and himself won a prize which made me very happy... a good night.

Happy 2013!

'Rubens New Year' 20½"x18" charcoal on paper

I wish everyone a happy 2013. May all your endeavours succeed and may your happiness increase!

The image is a somewhat crude Rubens pastiche in charcoal... no particular reason for drawing it other that I felt like doing one.

As far as I know Rubens never actually did an image of Old Father Time and the New Year Child, but if he had, it would probably would look something like this (but with more finish, flying putti and symbols obviously).

The Great Pender Escape

'The Great Pender Escape' 40"x50" Acrylic on canvas

Another portrait of Neal, my studio mate, on his prized Yamaha YG1 café racer. Sadly it wasn't actually running at the time (although now is... sort of). I'm not the best at painting complex machinery, so this picture was a bit of a challenge. Motorcycle fans are very particular.

This work was started at the very height of the growing season on British Columbia's Pender Island, so the foliage was a incredibly vibrant green. That said the photo is not the best, so appears far too lurid. I really must get a better camera.

The film reference is hopefully obvious, and as in the movie, the bike (and as it's not operational) promises much, but is a transport to little but trouble.

June

'June' 50"x40" Acrylic on canvas

A portrait of my friend June, a fellow painter.

June always paints a lemon into her works as a sort of signature, so as I always think of lemons, I asked her to pose holding one (actually plastic) with a lemon-yellow hat on, in front of one of her paintings. Although not too easy to see, her painting is of a view of a field in China... with a lemon in it.

This painting was part of an international exhibition at The Federation of Canadian Artists. I was happy with getting the picture in as it was the first time I had entered one of the Federation's shows.

ACME Studios Series, Number 3

'Neal' 50"x40" Acrylic on canvas

A portrait of my friend and studio-mate Neal E. Nolan, an installation artist and curator. A man with a lot of fingers in diverse artistic "pies".

As part of the ACME series I asked Neal to pose in front of one of his works. Sadly this type of artistic work doesn't reproduce well in painted form... too 3-dimensional and structural. Being installations, they need to be actually touched and their constituent parts explored.

Neal organises and runs a number of exhibitions around Western Canada. A man with huge amounts of artistic drive, entertaining experience, and pleasant to be around (mostly).

Current Eye Research

'Current Eye Research' 28"x36" Oil on canvas

A landscape 'kit-cat' sized painting I did of my father wearing his favourite 'Current Eye Research' shirt, prior to my emigration to Canada.

My father, before his retirement, had been a Don at Oxford University in the Ophthalmology department, where he had taught and undertaken research since the mid-1970's.

Current Eye Research (an ophthalmological journal) used to hand out very high quality "freebies" at their eye conferences... the usual things such as mugs and shirts, but also some very, very strange items that included such "treasures" as "decorative" pottery tears embossed with maps of the world.

Katya

'Katya' 36"x22" Acrylic on canvas

A portrait of my eldest niece Ekaterina (shortened to "Katya"). She is a bundle of energy and "fun"... a real tomboy.

She is wearing a fancy-dress costume for a performance, but still has on her red shoes with the flashing lights in their heels.