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Showing posts from December, 2018

One Enchanted Evening

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I'm a pretty big fan of classical music, thanks in part to my father who was also a fan.  And one of my all-time favorite symphonies is "The Planets" by Gustav Holst.  Much of the seven-movement "Planets" would be familiar to the ear of even the casual classical listener, in particular "Mars - The Bringer of War" "Venus - The Bringer of Peace" and "Jupiter - The Bringer of Jollity". "Mars" written in 1914, perfectly captured the incoming storm-clouds of world war, with it's relentlessly dark driving rhythm.  It's arguably the most recognizable of the seven movements.  The last movement "Neptune - The Mystic" is the only one that includes the human voice.  On the night of its premiere, the women's choir performing it was kept off-stage, so that the effect was that their haunting, ethereal notes drifted down through the hall in a disembodied manner that suggested the vast eternity of space.  I ha...

Last Minute Shopper

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Even though I typically paint winter scenes, rarely are they overtly Christmas-themed ones.  In part it's a function of not wanting to even further #pigeon-hole myself as being a #vintage#winter#Christmas genre painter.  That said, snowy winter nights and warmly-lit sanctuaries are such part-and-parcel of what I do that inevitably a Christmas painting or two would be the emergent result. This entry, "Last Minute Shopper" is based upon a photo I found of downtown Ogden, New York, where the main street was decorated for Christmas.  Even though it's a specific time and place, it really could be any main street in Canada or the Northern United States. I have a great affinity for this time period (I peg it as sometime in the late 50's or early 60's) because it is essentially the era into which I was born.  I remember the big cars, men wearing fedoras, and the stand-alone department stores with lunch counters in them.  Stores like Woolworth's used to...

Bringing "A Christmas Carol" to Life

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In a previous blog I talked about the various trials and tribulations I had with venues for my Christmas Carol exhibition.  Now I'd like to delve more into the creative process behind the actual paintings.   *A quick note: the paintings won't be numbered in order because the original six-painting series was expanded with the insertion of four new ones into the mix the next year. Back in 2013 when I started the series, I decided I wanted to do relatively large canvases of uniform size that could accommodate a lot of detail.  I settled on 30 by 40 inches, which, based on the space available at my first venue, would mean a series of six paintings.  So how best to represent the story using only six images?  I confess I had never actual read the original Christmas Carol book...not much of a book, actually...more of a longish short story it turns out.  So job one was to read it, sans preconceived ideas as much as possible, and allow whatever ima...

One Thing Leads to Another...

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On my 50th birthday, 2013, I received a call that I'll never forget.  It wasn't some sort of memorable birthday salutation, but rather an art-related phone call that ultimately proved that when one door closes, another...in fact many...end up opening.  The backstory: The Toronto Public Library has gallery spaces at many of its branches and artists can apply for a month's exhibition at the branch of their choice.  I thought it sounded interesting so I applied for a space at the Mimico branch, since at the time I lived just around the corner and would be able to easily pop in on the show during its appointed month.  In early 2013 I was accepted and told that my exhibit would be up for the month of December.  My thoughts immediately jumped to doing a Christmas Carol show...something I had long mused about (the era suits my style), and since it would be in a literary setting, and in December, I felt the time was right for it. I planned for six large paintings a...