doreyme

jan31/07 winter trees, oil on wood, 8x8

Couple more in this little series then I'm going to do some warm stuff..

Lights + all electricity out tomorrow between 1:55 + 2:00 PM

france lights outThe “Alliance pour la Planète” (a national grouping of environmental associations) appeals to all citizens to give the planet 5 minutes respite : everybody to extinguish all their lights and illuminations and turn off equipment on stand-by on the 1st February 2007 from 19h55 until 20h00. The purpose is not just to save electricity for 5 minutes that day, but to draw the attention of citizens, the media and the authorities to the waste of energy and the need to initiate action! 5 minutes respite for the planet: that’s not long, it costs nothing and will show our politicians that climate change is something which should figure prominently in political debates.

Why the 1st February? Because that is the day on which the latest report of the United Nations Panel of Experts is to be released in Paris. Although this event is scheduled to take place in France, we should not miss this opportunity of drawing attention to the global climatic situation.

So in Montreal, New York, Ottawa... that would be 1:55 - 2:00...18.55 for London, and 19.55 for Paris, Bruxelles, and Italy. 10.55am on the Pacific Coast of North America.

jan 30.07, Wintertree, 8"x8", oil on wood

Another 8x8 of a Montreal winter tree..this one has more blue in it than is showing up. Oops. Again, very gouged, incised.... A few more of these + then I'm going larger...finding them a bit restrictive but it's been great discipline, this size + a limited palette. Sort of like Lent.

mr harper...

perhaps you might take a break from dissing Dion for not adequately cleaning up Canada's environment + spend a moment cleaning up Canada. This is federal land, the Lachine Canal, a designated heritage site + no-one but no one has been by for months to clear out the bags of dog poo dog walkers have so conscientuously picked up and dropped in the waste containers.

jan29.07 WinterTree, 8x8, oil on wood

another little carved, incised, painterly painting.

my new paintings: not crowd pleasers...

the Winter trees...the drab cold colours...not "people paintings" still...I'm going to follow this cold Nordic muse + see where she takes me...

jan28 Wintertree, 8x8", oil on wood, 2007

another winter tree painting..more abstract...following the grain of the wood...

jan27/07, Wintertree, oil on wood, 8"x8"

The fourth in this "Winter Trees" series. All very textured, carved...I'm trying to capture the essence of an exact time + place...eg. this early Saturday morning on Mount Royal...only the crazy dog people out in this 28 below urban Siberia...

jan 26/07 Snowtree, 8x8, oil on wood

number 3 in the "wintertrees" series. These are very dense, labour intensive, seriously incised, carved, polished little paintings (more coming) that would look great all in a row...the other 2 so far are...jan2+jan3 which were previously not for internet sale but I changed my mind....

Jan 25/07

this is what 25 below really looks like. Took Mr A on the mountain today. After 15 minutes had an ice cream head cold headache. Eye-kee-rumba we're a hardy folk.

jan 24/07, Mountain Trees, 12x8, watercolour, arches paper

something old, something new, something blue...winter trees...doesn't show, but there's a bare border around the trees...kind of cool to have space around the painting...more options for framing...

Jan 23/07, Mountain Trees, 30x30", oil on wood

finally finished....

jan22/07, Snow Trees, oil on wood, 36x36

this painting has taken almost a month to dry...the white paint is thick, applied with a knife. It's incised + carved...it's one of my "new works"...

jan21/07, Moody Landscape, oil on masonite 10x12?

okay, I didn't paint this today, so sue me. But it's a lovely little moody painting lurking in my studio. I didn't have time to paint today because I was working on a tv show proposal...they keep pulling me back.

jan 20.07, Angus, watercolour on Fabriano paper, 10.6x13.8

Angus, pretending to sleep while he waits for his after dinner walk. Tonight in very, very cold Montreal.

It's not too late...

...to buy calendars ...it's still only Jan 20. However, have noticed that people are not buying them off the internet. Too worried about identity theft or something, because when I had a physical stack of them at hand they went like hotcakes. Next year, I'll get a local Montreal company to print them. Also, it might be cheaper than going thru an American company.

jan 19/07, Coming out, oil on wood, 24x24

a painting not done today, but noticed today. That's the way it is when you paint all the time...you move a pile of paintings + you find one you completely forgot about..

pet stores breed puppy mills

yet another puppy mill discovered in Quebec...quebec puppy mills, gazette Gee. Could there be a connection between pet stores selling puppies without papers + puppy mills? Duh-uh...why do Quebeckers continue buying pups from pet stores? Look what they're enabling! If you want a dog, go to a breeder, or better still the SPCA or one of the many many shelters in Quebec rich with abandoned pups.

jan 18/07, Mountain trees, watercolour on arches paper, 8x12"

this is what it's more like these days...brrrr

jan17.07, Canal Trees oil on canvas, 18x12?

not wholly painted today...it's a summer painting..but radically changed some colours, so today it's fini.

25 below in Montreal today

and we find a tick on Angus. How is that even possible? It's the second one. The first was last November. Is this yet another effect of global warming? As until very recently it's barely been winter here...(I restrained myself from posting a pic of the tick, now in a jar...it's one little ugly mothah)

jan16/07, oil on wood, 10x12

a very intense portrayal of the Mountain woods...

friendly debate with Toronto

continues with from Toronto Andrea Carson and from Montreal, Chris at Zeke's Gallery about art + the media in Canada....Personally, I feel the coverage of the visual arts in Canada is woefully under represented. Compared to sports? TV? American movies? The coverage of the Golden Globe awards last night? It's a joke...precisely...the big "art story" circulating currently is the Montreal artist who wants to float a banana balloon over Texas. Oh brother...

Jan 15/07 Mount Royal Trees, 10.6x13.8, watercolour on Fabriano paper

jan14.07 Poplar tree stump, watercolour, arches paper, 8x12"

one of my Lombardy Poplar trees, cut down, apparently because it was diseased. But what's this? The stump is alive. Baby branches grow from it. Is this normal?

One of Montreal's major art schools...

Hits the dust? Say it ain't so... As part of a restructuring announced last month, the Saidye Bronfman building on Cote Ste. Catherine Rd. will become a performing arts centre and academy. The school employed 85 artists and had 1,800 students learning painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, calligraphy, printmaking, design, jewelry, ceramics and more. (from Mike Boone's article in the Montreal Gazette) sign the petition

jan13/07, oil on linen, 8x10"

a little painting..a study for a larger one.

SOS FACE invites you...

to hear NICK PRIMIANO address the F.A.C.E community MONDAY JANUARY 15TH AT 6 PM Christ Church Cathedral Ste-Catherine and University. A QUESTION/ANSWER PERIOD WILL FOLLOW EVERYONE WELCOME. F.A.C.E. school has stood as a beacon among Montreal schools over the past thirty-one years, having developed and implemented with extraordinary success a Fine Arts based curriculum which is unique among Quebec schools and which is world renowned. The CSDM has shown its utter contempt for the entire F.A.C.E. community by the manner in which it secured Mr. Primiano’s resignation from his post, effectively gagging the parties involved and thereby denying the F.A.C.E. community’s access to the results of the CSDM’s investigation, which has allowed doubts and suspicion to linger and has damaged F.A.C.E.’s hopes of restoring its own reputation and that of its principal, Mr. Primiano. go to
sos face

Jan11/07, BB, watercolour, arches paper, 6x5?

the background is actually white..not so yellow. The camera lies. This is a little watercolour of Bad Betty...she was looking out the window, smacking her lips at the sight of the birds outside. I grabbed my paintbrush...

jan10.07, amaryllisX2, watercolour on arches paper,16"x 12"

same ol' amaryllis x 2. did one negative shape the other positive....the real plant is on the window sill + at night it looks quite dramatic positioned in front of the black of night....

One of my paintings, featured in today's artnews

toot,toot

Jan 9/07.Mount Royal Forest, watercolours, 16x12", arches paper

here I'm trying to capture that middle of the forest feeling. Okay, inner city middle of the forest, but it's still amazingly foresty. And a disclaimer. I've noticed art work...not just mine, looks very different on every computer screen. Sometimes better, sometimes worse than the real thing.

Jan8.07, Mount Royal Trees, watercolour, 10.6x13.8

more abstract than usual -- I'm being strenuously pulled in that direction -- not surprisingly -- I started off an abstract painter many years ago, in Vancouver at what is now called Emily Carr Institute of Art...but the more abstract it gets, sometimes..the more real it feels. Go figger.

Jan 6/07, Xmas Amaryllis, 8"x12", watercolour on arches paper

finally, this little guy comes out, a bit late for xmas, but welcome still...there are 2 leaves, too, but my camera didn't catch them...tough to photograph watercolours at night...have to position my shadow out of the pic...oh well. It's a very delicate watercolour, no drawing, which to me, is a good thing...did some preliminary tonal thumbnail pencil sketches then straight to watercolour on the gorgeous arches paper...

jan 5/07. 3 chickadees, watercolour, 8"x12", arches paper

and now for something completely different. Spent all day painting/carving trees, oil on wood, then home to paint a few of the black capped chickadees that were eating out of my hand at the park...amazing little singing birds not remotely intimidated by Angus, the very big, compared to them, carnivore.

a sad sight

a Canadian ice rink, in January 5, 2007. A slushy, puddled mess...

Jan 4/07 Trees, watercolour on Arches paper

More winter trees, altho snow melting fast. The paths on the mountain treacherouly icy. Bought cleats to cope. Long day of painting today...10 to 10 with lunch+ dinner breaks..oil at the studio, watercolours at home.

Jan3/07 Tree, 8"x8", oil on wood

Another Mount Royal tree...whoa, how Quebec, it's positively Riopellesque. One of a series I'm currently working on...this size, a study for large work. Can't tell by the photograph but there's much carving + incision into the wood. Lots of staining, gauging, painting, carving..then it ends up looking so 2D in pix.

Jan 2/07 Tree,8"x8", oil on wood

Today's painting behaving opposite of badly. While much of the city was shut down, I laboured happily, diligently at my studio...this is one of four studies for larger works...perhaps it doesn't look very grand or impressive but it gave me great pleasure when I looked at it at the end of the day. I saw in it, a tiny glimpse of what I see at this time of the year when I walk my dog on the mountain early in the morning. The palette precise, the temperature correct, in it's simplicity, more accurate -- for me -- than any photograph could be of this certain place at that certain time...

jan 1/07 Snow Trees, 10.6x13.8", watercolour Fabriano paper

The trees, as they appeared to me this morning on the mountain. No sunshine, damp, semi-slush, icy...and beautiful.

mountain grafitti

found today, particularily apt for the 1st day of the New Year.