Working Larger

I'm in the middle of preparation for my exhibition which opens March 8 at Lut Boutique in Vancouver. One of my plans for the show was to create one large piece. I've wanted to work my style into a larger format for a while and having a venue to show it is a great situation to be in. This elephant piece works well because having a subject like this on a small canvas wouldn't make much sense.

I'm really enjoying the freeness of the paint when working with this size. I'm already getting ready to work even larger! I'll be adding some neat new textures, stencil paint and secondary layers to this in the coming week.

My Next Upcoming Show

My next show is just a few weeks ago in Vancouver. The opening will be on March 8, at Lut Boutique, which is at Main and 26th.

I'm stoked to show new work at this event. I'll mix it up with some favorites as well.

I'm very happy to be working on a larger, 36" x 36" piece. My plan is to have this large elephant work as the focal point upon entering the shop. I will be documenting its process over time as I know it will take some time to complete!

Enjoy the first two snapshots from day 1 of that piece, and the show poster, below!!

Continued Work on Some New Pieces

I continued some progress on some new pieces today.

As of late, I have pushed materials, approaches and new ideas into my mixed media works.  Some of the new ideas I have had/new methods I am mixing into my existing working style are:

- the addition of the half-tone spotted dots (stencilled through perforated paper)
- preparing texture onto the canvas with mediums, which gives a nice depth of colour variation to the surface
- working with brighter colours
- pushing the use of abstraction as an important visual component
- working with multiple panels for one image
- working with the idea of incomplete priming

Here are some in-progress photos that show off these ideas:

Some Pieces in Progress

Again I'm experimenting and trying new techniques. I have a few upcoming shows and want to have some new methods/subjects to focus on. I'm still way into birds, but as you can see, I'm going to work with them in some various ways.

Some ideas I want to explore include this new 'stencil' effect with the dots, achieved by rubbing paint through paper with holes in it.

I'm looking to push the idea of dichotomies, and working with the first two panel piece of the rooster heads is a step in that direction.

One of a long list of desired subject matter includes insect studies - the first of which is here, in its current drawn stage.

The two in-progress painted pieces of the bird claw and hawk are working well with the new stencilling effect, I'm happy with this new discovery :)

The first image is an abstract study with colour and texture. Not sure yet where it'll go :)