doreyme

Nov30/06 Mount Royal Trees#5, watercolour

A grove of trees quite near Park Ave. I thought I overdid this one, but I managed to leave some bits still airy.

Nov29/06, Mount Royal Trees, watercolour

Mount Royal Park trees. This is the park beside park avenue. Park avenue has been called park avenue for 123 years. It's a very major street running through the heart of Montreal. Neighbourhoods around it are called things like "Park Extention" or "Park Ex". Last night the major + the majority of city councillors decided they were going to change the name of this major artery to "Bourassa", after a premier that died a few years ago. Every second day I walk up this mountain so today, in homage, I've painted it.

Lovely vente de noel!

3958 Ave Laval...le vendredi 1 decembre de 17h00-21h00, le samedi 2 decembre de 12h00-17h00 (cool invitations by Tadhg + Michael)....lots of art, jewels,pottery,clothes, spoken word cd's... This annual sale in the heart of the Plateau, heralds in Christmas each year. Wonderful house, people, atmosphere...(+ a smattering of my stuff... toot, toot)

fixing what ain't broke 40-22

Councillors who voted to change Park Avenue to Bourassa even though Bourassa's own family+ the majority of the people who live near on or around Park Avenue are against it will be very well remembered come next election.

blue table watercolour, arches paper

the little blue table, by the French doors...

is we or isn't we a "nation"?

...+ specifically, me, born in Luzerne Switzerland, raised in Vancouver BC, now a resident + parent of 2 born in Montreal, Quebec, am I part of that nation? Harper says "they know who they are." And I say, "huh"? Is I or isn't I part of this nation as of November 28, 2006? Thank you Ignatieff, for this latest round of Swiftian nonsense. Imagine how much damage this guy could do if he was the leader of the Liberals. It would ensure the Conservatives would stay in power forever. As in a majority. Humbug.

Nov 27/06, 3 little strawberries, watercolour

Angus, inverted watercolour

Technique kind of interesting. Sketching very lightly, quickly, drew my dog in pencil, the very black + very handsome Angus McDoogle. Then watercoloured in a dark mix of crimson+sap green+ultramarine blue. Smeared it over Angus drawing but the colours ran, running right over Angus' eyes+ nose. So I quickly rushed it to the sink, ran water over it + it came out like this which I rather like. Seems like the pencil kept the watercolours in tow...anyways...it's no cure for cancer or helping out world hunger or anything but it's always great to discover some kind of new technique...

Nov25/06, It Takes 2 to Mango, 7.x9.5,watercolour

No trees today. Just a little mango, just about ready to eat. Caught the Girodet, Romantic Rebel October 12, 2006 to January 21, 2007 at the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Didn't push any of my buttons. Very skilled, natch, but cold + mannered. A few paintings touched me. Couple of his adoptive father, the doctor, series showed a bit of emotion. The paintings of Napoleon amazing, in so far as Girodet was churning them out...his mandate 36 identical huge paintings to adorn functionaries' walls. Much like pix of our Queen in civil servant's offices.

Lachine Canal Trees 12"x16", oil on wood

As they were, the poor dears, about 2 months ago.

Nov23/06 Mount Royal Trees #4, 8"x10" watercolour

Another day, another tree painting. It was spectacularily beautiful on the mountain this morning. Took 140 pix...like the squirrels I saw, stalking up for winter.

Nov 22/06, Mount Royal Trees #3, oil on wood, 30x30"

I painted this today + at one point just decided to leave it. Perhaps tomorrow I will destroy it. I'll try not to, but I find it very hard just to leave a painting even tho I think it 'works". (By destroy I don't mean taking an axe to it, but death by fussing+overworking it. Have a propensity for that.)

November 22/63

Nov21/06, Mount Royal #2, watercolour , 8"x10"

Another view of the woods of Mount Royal Park. This is it, more or less until the snow falls next April.

Rest in peace...

Nov20/06, Mount Royal Trees, watercolour

The forest on Mount Royal Avenue. Grim in a beautiful Northern European way.

Salt'n'pepper Aliens, watercolour, 7x9.5"

Okay, sticking to daily trees got too much for me. Too restrictive. So I look around + I see...

Nov18/06 Lachine Canal Tree

A very minimal watercolour rendition of a very minimal little Lachine Canal tree.

Nov 17/06 Rufus Rockhead Tree

Probably the coolest street name in all the city of Montreal. This feisty little tree had all its leaves + beautiful berries three days ago. I took this pix. Today I drove by + it's all bare. Looked a bit stunned as today was a warm, balmy day.

Nov15/06 St. Ambroise St. Tree

Ah watercolour, my old friend. It's been awhile + I'm not sure why. So less messy + toxic than oil. This little tree is in a spanking new park in St. Henri, off the Canal, off St. Ambroise St. Unfortunately the condo developments on either side of this tiny park are completely obstructing the Canal view. Smooth move, comatose city councillors, greedy contractors.

More stop the presses! My neighbourhood...

..."H2W, in the heart of the plateau area, has 605 artists out of 7,560 total workers, for an artistic concentration of 8.0%. This is the “most creative neighbourhood” in Canada, with an artistic concentration that is 10 times the national average of 0.8%. This area extends from avenue des Pins to avenue du Mont-Royal, between St-Denis and avenue du Parc." (Statistical insights on the arts, Vol. 4 No. 2 --Canada Council for the Arts, report, Oct/05).

Hold the presses! Canadians don't buy art!

" I take it personally, thinking that I'm just not making the kind of art people like. But today, while doing research for an arts related project, I found this extremely depressing bit of information on the Statistics Canada's page..."What Canadian households spend on culture goods and services...." "Visual arts, including works such as paintings, drawings, carvings, vases and antiques, represented about 4.2% of average expenditures on culture products in 2004. Overall, an average annual expenditure of $61 per household was reported in 2004, with an average of $43 spent on art, carvings and vases. However, only 10% of households reported this type of spending, and fewer than 2% reported expenditures on antiques. Without a doubt, buying art or antiques is an activity pursued by a select few households, who spend proportionally larger amounts when buying such works." So what do Canadians spend their dough on after taxes, shelter + transportation? "Cablevision and satellite TV services continued to consume the largest chunk of the household budget on culture goods and services..." TV! The idiot box! What a great thing to pass on to your kids. Humbug!

check out...

my '07 calendars...12 of my Hula Montreals + a sampling of my "Looks Like Art" series...photos I've been taken of things that look like stuff that could be or has been exhibited in a gallery. Some are pretty minimal...as for my Hula...she's been my car companion for over six years now...a little worse for wear, but hey, aren't we all.

Nov14/06, Redpath Tree

I spent all day today working on not this painting, but another which I totally ruined by being impatient. It was very complex + I should have waited until the underpainting dried + I didn't + it turned to mud. That's 2 days in a row I've done that. Immensely stupid + immensely frustrating. Oh, but this one. It's one of those beautiful Lombardy Poplars along the canal. This one in front of the poncy Redpath condo complex. I cheated. There was another tree quite close to it but I chose not to put it in.

Nov13/06, Mount Royal Tree

a jewel of a tree in the jewel of Montreal city parks, Mount Royal Park...designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, perhaps best known for New York City’s Central Park. Every year I admire this little tree, always one of brightest + last to shed it jewels for the winter.

Nov 12/06, St Jacques+ Atwater

bigger, better? Easier to paint, anyways. This one is 14"x20"...the 8"x8"s are murder. My first paintings ever, at what is now the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, were enormous...We were groomed for corporations....

a sombre painting (for me) for a sombre day.

Erik Slutsky's Vernissage..

The Gora Gallery. There will be a major solo show at the Galerie Gora in Montreal (279 Sherbrooke W., suite 205) from Nov.14 to Dec.2. The vernissage will be on Nov.14th, beginning at 5:00PM and lasting until 7:30PM. Cocktails and other refreshments and an assortment of fine foods will be offered by generous sponsors. Thanks to Bob and his entire family at Fruiterie Mile End on Park Ave. and Atigh of La Khaima Restaurant on Fairmount) who are proud to support the arts and serve the most authentic and fresh cuisine. This is going to be a fabulous and fun celebration of Slutsky's work. Erik's webpage, http://www.erikslutsky.com/

an image of the elusive Mr. Dylan...

last night at the Bell centre... a contraband foto...no more revealing than the real Mr. D at the performance.

Nov7/06 Rue de Paris..

Near the Jointe. Someone carefully planted + tended to some annuals around this little upstart. A few years ago, this was unheard of in the Pointe. The times they are a-changing, alas, so are the tax bills...Am finding these paintings a day very liberating. My other paintings are becoming more immediate, more colourful as a result...

and this little tree...

grows in Viget + Notre Dame. Across from the Rona, in front of some car insurance place...Imagine, someone prunes this tree. How frequently? Who planted it + why? A landscape architect? A city worker? Is it on city property? Dunno. It's just another tree, growing in Montreal. Way too princessy + manicured for my taste. (Altho masochistically, I paint it.)

Warshaw Tree

A relatively newly planted tree in front of the relatively new Warshaw's in St. Henri, across from the Atwater Market. (Alas, I didn't manage getting the letters to read properly - no brushes that small..) Anyone who has lived in the Plateau for awhile will remember the Warshaw on the Main.

Nov 3/06 Coltraine St. Tree

8x8", oil on canvas...a little tree in Pt. St. Charles...one of a tree planting fiesta which has taken place in the last few years of this quickly becoming gentrified section of the city.

#8 a tree grows in Montreal

...my little birch tree in the backyard that I planted about 2 years ago.