Ramsay Community Rink mural

I love my neighborhood, ramsay. I was elated to be awarded the opportunity to do another mural for my community. This time it is along a wall over 100 ft. long near the rink, at the top of the hill. The community decided on my preliminary, had the wall primed and I got to work.

There are a lot of invisible steps when making an outdoor mural. First you have to visit the site and take measurements. Then you have to transfer that data to a suitable design template. 

 Then you have to design it and have it approved, in this case by the Ramsay neighborhood community board.

 After that happens, other parts of the machine need to get going, you need to get money and gather the necessary materials, especially the paint colors.

 I definitely will go over budget on the paint but I'd rather get good outdoor plaint that will last if I am going to put many hours in on this piece.

 I managed to get down most of the lettering free hand, with a bit of planning but no measuring to get them to fit in the length properly.

 Then I begin the elaborate flower of life patterning in each letter.

My initial plan had a much larger circumference but this far more detailed version is due to the garbage can lid I decided to use to construct the pattern.

 It is a challenge to go around the posts so I'll have to create a cardboard shape that can bend and fold around the posts.

 I had a friend pick the paradise blue that will be filled in around the letters.

 My nephew Nolan came to visit and "help" me on the mural.

Stay tuned there is more to come.

Black and White

With so much going on since my return of my most recent residency, I still managed to creature some new work for the Black and white show at Studio Phi. 

I didn't get a lot of process shots but this is a  derivative from the work I re-introduced during my residency and continued experimentation with the flower of life motif. I treated myself to an art supply purchase. Regular followers will be well aware of my art supply addiction. I went to a new store in Manchester which sells drafting supplies specifically, though I really wonder how valid that claim is when there were only 3 compasses to choose from. I picked up a Staedtler Mars 522 and am thoroughly happy with the purchase, it was the only option that can hold a variety of drawing devices.

I washed and wiped the surface to remove some of the patin in order to give it an aged aesthetic. Then revisited each panel, though I haven't photographed that stage.

I did however get caught up in the auction and I managed to win Dustin Pools piece for $800. Its gorgeous and will be going over my bed, plus it was his first venture into watercolour and I think its phenomenal. It was such an amazing show and I did get to catch up with so many amazing art friends and colleagues, even though I was bagged and wanted nothing more than to get home to catch up on some Z's. It was a great experience…...Returning from that tangent, these two pieces do fit together and I will continue to work on them since I usually want more time and layering, it seems my pieces are never done quickly and they require not only time but layering, it is after all a labour of love. I will post in the future the finished pieces, but there is two murals and numerous commissions and classes to report on in the interim, stay tooned :P

Spin me right round baby

 I set up a downward facing time lapse scenario while working on more abstract works based in sacred geometry patterns.

The first birch panel was primed black and the second gold. I worked on each piece in stages and crossed back and forth simultaneously so the two pieces would have a relationship to one another. Watch these short videos below, they are not only entertaining but they also reveal my process.

Its kinda funny, it seems that both times I made a painting just to paint over it again. Well so far, that is my process.

I hung both of these pieces in my Ramsay window for the neighbourhood to enjoy and then put them up at the Black and White Show at Studio Phi and House Galley's Black and White Exhibition. It was a fantastic show with over 60 artists. I was beat but had a chance to reconnect with many friends and artists that evening. In addition I created two new pieces to continue with this process painting for the exhibition which I will continue to develop.

Today I am working on developing some murals for the summer season as well as teaching Drawing at ACAD to a full class with two on a waiting list. I am super stoked!!!

Sacred heart

This is the final stages of my piece that I created for the Chatterson Drive project.  I took the piece home to put in a few more hours on it before handing it over with a nice thick clear gloss protective layer.

I revisited the sacred geometry portion and drew it back in with a very thin sharpie marker. I then followed along and filled in the vesica piscis with black gesso. From this view it resembles a heart.

I used golden acrylic gold paint to dot the connection points and to add reflectivity. Here is the final piece on my kitchen linoleum, I like how the grid looked in this composition so I didn't crop it out.

Here is the iphone/instagram selfie Mandy Stobo took of us the day we started in on this project. Fortunately, my beard has come a long way in the past week. lol.

Here is the finished piece: