Culture Days Givaway

The Art Gallery of Lambeth (London, Ontario) is raffling off some artwork during its Doors Open/Culture days event. This piece of mine is available to be won. Tickets can be purchased at the gallery over the weekend, and the winner will be notified next Monday. Good Luck!

This 5x7 original painting is being raffled.

This Joint is Jumpin'

I've been so focused this month of creating small pieces to sell at the Art Gallery of Lambeth's Doors Open/Culture days event that I have had very little time left to work on the stack of larger pieces I've got cluttering up my studio. I did, however, have time to finish one. This piece has been hanging around for months... something about it just didn't look right. I've painted and repainted the faces.... first the woman... with her hanging upside down things just tended to look off, even if I painted her flipped right side up. I eventually gave up and changed the 3/4 view to a profile. The male dancer has gone from looking like Grandpa Munster to some kind of horror movie villain. I think I've finally got him looking human. Sometimes a painting will completely resist coming together. It's hard to deal with. In the end, persistence pays off.

This Joint is Jumpin'
30x30" Acrylic on Canvas

Summer is Shuffling Along

Terry "Harmonica" Bean from
Mississippi

In my neck of the woods, the signal that summer is pretty much over is, for music fans, the Southside Shuffle. Held in Port Credit, Ontario, this awesome 3-day music festival is celebrating it's 15th anniversary, and it gets bigger every year. It's usually my last chance to get out there with my camera and get some photos to work with over the winter (there is lots of live music here over the winter, but outside shots turn out better with my crappy point and shoot camera). I got out all 3 days this year... and the lineup was awesome. Highlights included acoustic sets from Suzie Vinnick and Steve Strongman, and a great group of performers from Mississippi, most of whom I had never heard of but now have a little collection of their CDs.

As usual, I took a load of pictures. There are a few I'm going to work up right away... I've been focusing on painting these miniatures and the last few days I've been itching to work on something big enough that I can really get my hands dirty (this is not just a figure of speech... i usually end up covered in paint up to my elbows). This morning I started a 24x36 canvas for my New York busker in the rain, and I've got two more lined up for a couple of Shuffle photos.

D'Mar...  by far the most entertaining drummer I've ever had the pleasure of seeing perform. He had so much energy... kinda made me wonder what he was like as a kid....

This bass player was with the Mississippi guys...
he so LOOKS the part of a blues man that he
is surely going to be in a painting at some point

Steve Strongman... I've seen him live
many times, and it's always a great set.

The Doors Are Open

One of my small works on paper, to be offered
for sale during London's Doors Open event
at the Art Gallery of Lambeth

I have an event coming up sponsored by the Art Gallery of Lambeth in London. As part of Ontario's Culture Days and Doors Open, the AGL is having an open house with artists giving demos and teaching short half hour classes for free all weekend. There will also be artists selling their creations in the park beside the gallery, for what will probably be one of the last Art in the Park events this year. As a represented artist I've been asked to participate, and what we've come up with should be a lot of fun. I will have a large piece of canvas spread out on the pavement in the parking lot (inside the gallery if it rains), and I am going to create a large scale painting. My method of working is flexible and intuitive, so having spectators participate is entirely possible, and will probably make the finished piece all the more interesting. I may not get it completely done over the weekend... but i'm certainly going to try.

In the meantime, I've been working on small pieces that I can matte and offer for sale during the weekend. I can't have a booth at the Art in the Park as I'll be otherwise occupied, but I thought it would be nice to offer something special (and specially priced) for the people that come out to the gallery. I'm not sure how many I'll have... I was kind of late to the game deciding to do this. I'll keep posting new pieces on my Facebook page as I go along, so if you see something you like, you'll know where you can get it.

NYC in pictures

How fantastic is this detail? 

This entire building is really cool... triangular shaped, hence the name.

Even a fire escape can be interesting.

This one is a little more ornate

I really love this design... maybe I'll carve myself a stamp or something...

Harlem... buildings from the 1890s, according to our tour guide Doris (who was fantastic
and full of interesting details. Go to HarlemOneStop for tour info).

Another great brownstone in Harlem... how beautiful is this?

And then there was this guy. I've read about him before... I should have stopped and gotten a poem. Hopefully I can find him again next time.  :)