News — painting

Your Very Own Travel ‘Product Line’    In this case, I used a small watercolour sketch I did on a paddle trip along stretches of the North Saskatchewan River - and I used that piece as the backdrop for my postcard-sized ‘Business Card’.   Over the next few paragraphs, I’m going to convince you that you can have a ‘Product Line’ that reflects so much about who you are when you travel…and it’s a lot of fun too.      Think about it. When you’re on the road for a winter vacation or a hiking trip, cycling tour, cruise etc.,...

Breathtaking landscapes of the Missouri River in Montana on a 2 week canoe trip.   Landscape, Soundscape, Smellscape - Your Travel Journal Entries     Compelling Travel Journal entries come from all sorts of different perspectives. They come from different times of the day, different settings, different people and so many other sources.     One of the simplest ways to record rich memories is to think about the landscapes you’re visiting, and give yourself a moment to reflect on that ‘sense of place’. Perhaps start using point-form and record simply what the place looks like.   The ‘lay of the land’...

Painting on old paper, on ‘ephemera’, is something I’ve been doing for a few years now. From envelopes and old cheques to yellowed old letterhead, postcards, and waybills......it’s all fodder for my watercolour brushes.   This new series grew out of this long standing interest in old paper and the fact a friend was tossing some old navigation charts that were out of date. He knew I painted on ephemera and asked if I’d like to have them....I said ‘yes’. And the rest is history.   The series here follows my penchant for all things ephemera - and it takes...

Painting Stories   For some time now, I’ve been intrigued by combining the written word and some of the watercolour artwork I’ve been doing. I’ve thought of the personal side of this, but also writing something that might be more widely subscribed, so to speak.   I’m guessing, actually, that some of the grounding in this approach has grown out of my longer standing interest in painting on ‘ephemera’ - vintage paper that includes everything from letterhead and envelopes to maps, ticket stubs, and cheques. At a much more abstract level, it’s not lost on me that all artwork is...

The truth is, I’m not sure where this latest fishing bobber art obsession has come from. True, they’ve been part of my life since I was a kid. I remember tagging along with my Dad and some of his friends and our neighbours when they headed out to the Lakelse, Kitsumkalum, Skeena, or Copper Rivers in Northern British Columbia to fish for whatever salmon was on the run.   Dad’s tackle box had some of those bobbers and, even today, I can remember being drawn to how bright and colourful they were. I especially remember thinking that they had to...