doreyme

Mount Royal #4, 16x16", oil on wood, carved

time out for my muse

she is tired + somewhat discouraged. She works me hard but I'm not sure we're communicating clearly lately. She tells me not to worry about $500 hydro bills. Oh, where is my Trust Fund Muse? Oh, yeah. I don't have one. Sound of a small violin playing.

Mount Royal Trees Two,8x10x1.5" oil on wood, carved

more revamping...

ah, yes. Sometimes things have to be broken so they can be fixed. Had an insightful few hours with a pro business of art person today. One of the most common pitfalls of artists, I was told, is their lousy websites. Well, mine is a blog + too confusing, so I'm moving stuff around. Starting another site -- which will be a more static but professional looking site. Just art + art + more art, not me blabbing. The daily paintings will remain here..I think, unless I make a new site just for the daily paintings. Just might do that.

Mount Royal Trees,Three 8x8", oil on wood, carved

These are meant to be side by side, not one on top of each other like a totem pole. They are studies for a larger painter I finished today. I was testing how minimal I wanted to keep it. In the end, I liked how these three look, side by side, together. This little painting was too austere. This little painting was too overwraught, and this little painting was just right. Or something. Long day painting, very fruitful. Hurray.

secret+lies #10, 8x10, oil on linen

alas, another day of life+life+art+more life + I've been motivated to show a painting done, I think 2 years ago. Hopefully, if the Art Gods shine on me, I'll have some time tomorrow. In any case, I think this "secrets+lies" series (101 one reasons/ways, folks cover their faces), still has some potency, particularily here in Quebec where we just had an election + there was a big todo about Muslim women being allowed or disallowed to vote with their faces covered.

nice review of the "family foto show"

on one of Canada's most read art blogs, cheers, Zeke.

secret+lies#11, oil on linen, 8x10

again, alas, no new work. This blog is art+art+ life + more art, + recently life is taking up a lot of anxious space. So this is number 11 of my "secrets+lies" series. And in the bg, on tv, the election results, here in Montreal Quebec. It's 9:37 + the Liberals + separtists are getting wupped by the ADQ who are a mysterious lot. Who are they? What are they about? Are they interested in the arts? Who knows?

too cool, 2 more

photographs of mine were shown at the Musee de l'Elysee, in Lausanne Switzerland. These are the installation shots.

E, oil on canvas, 36x36", NFS

keeping in the similiar, earth tones palette.

Sister of Yo, oil on canvas, NFS

I spent all day on the train + at a wedding so I certainly didn't paint this today, but it's very recent, varnish still wet. Excited to go to AGO tomorrow to see Emily Carr show. As a kid, in Van, going to Emily Carr Elementary school + then VSA which changed it's name to Emily Carr Institute of Art, etc. Her prints used to be in my elementary school + her work was very scary, dark, obssessive, intimidating.

Brit, 8x10, oil on linen

Off to TO in the very early morn. Am bringing my watercolours, so hopefully will find the time to do something TO worthy. I think this is the last of the celebs.

Ali, oil on linen, 8x10

Okay, I found the Michael J painting + with it, this painting + a few others from the doomed Celebs series...It's actually a sweet painting. So no, I didn't paint today. Sue me. I went gallery hopping all over Montreal. Whoa, the good the bad the ugly + here and there, very few in between, people who can paint! Hurrah!

okay, maybe not radio-active

but there may be changes in this site. It's all very complicated this trying to make a living with the thing you love doing the most in a very competitive field in a crazy schizo European-like city --mostly anglophone in a mostly french province in a mostly anglo country beside, well the United States of America. Also being part of this Daily Painting group...which means I'm trying to produce each day a work of art for sale on the international internet...while still trying to build a body of work for exhibitions, etc. And the worlds collide..so..revamping, rethinking. Probably will only post smaller studies, works on paper, eg. while maintaining some kind of personal/public journal about art+art+life+more art in Montreal.

scam I am?

Grouchily wondering about fees for "artist submissions" + the proliferation of. I get daily art news from AKIMBO which I like getting, so I'm current with what's up, particularily here in Canada. However, a majority of artist submissions are "provincial", as in a Kinston gallery, exhibition is only open to Ontario artists. A Calgary show, open only to Albertans, etc. (So much for "free trade".) Even closer to home, the lovely Victoria Hall gallery, well, only open to Westmount artists. Okay, p in the a, but not scammy. Scammy are all the submissions -- now these appear to be on the whole American sites/galleries -- which charge 20-30 dollars for artists to submit a slide, or jpeg, maybe 2 or 3. Then..after a month or 3 or 6, a brief letter, "we regret to inform you blabhabh"....without so much as a critique...why it was rejected, etc. Harumph + humbug.

Elvis #31, watercolour, Fabriano paper

One more fat, bloated El. Spent a great part of day socializing -- a significant + important part of being an artist. Partially at the, as always, fab Cluny Art Bar, where Angy socialized with Cluny, the also, very black, namesake. Also, had a friend, art school grad, too, with a very sharp discerning eye go thru my paintings, weaning + weeding the weak from the strong. Very good + necessary to see one's work thru fresh eyes.

Elvis #30, watercolour on Fabriano paper, 2007

okay, this Elvis is more chubo. Why? I donnu. I keep painting the same Elvis bust + every painting I do is completely different. Go figure.

toot, toot

Elivis #20 makes Arts News Canada

Elvis #29, watercolour on Fabriano paper

a new Elvis, first one in six months, at least. Whoa, kind of creepy.

yo, oil on canvas, 2007

just finished varnishing....

the artist at work

Michael where is he now? 8x10, oil on linen

And where is this painting right now? Not sure, buried somewhere in the studio. I painted all day, lots of new ideas, beginnings, nothing finished tho, so I'm throwing ol' perverto Mikey in here. This painting was one of many I did of famous guys + gals some time ago. I was going to do 101 Celebs...then I thought. Why? Why promote that insanely out of control cult of celebrity crap? So I stopped after about a dozen. I still have a few paintings which I haven't destroyed. As paintings, I donnu. They're kinda cool in some kind capitalismatitsfinest ironic way or is that just buying into Entertainment Tonight caa-caa?

Wagner doing "slanted eyes" Welcome to quebec politics

wherein a gay, ex-coke sniffin' separatist running for PREMIER of Quebec doesn't get why the rest of the WORLD thinks that perhaps grouping all Asians together and calling them "slanted eyes "and exclaiming in amazement how they go to Harvard and everything isn't actually very cool.

Elvis #26, 11x15, watercolour on Arches paper

Yes, Elvis is in the house, again. I need to take a break from Wintertrees. I might go back to portraits for awhile. Meanwhile, I'll practise on my ol' friend, Elvis bust. He doesn't talk much and he's free.

Elvis #21, watercolour on Arches paper,11 x15"

okay, so I didn't do this today. Blame Harper, blame the Canadian gov't for making artists, bakers, shoemakers, lawyers, poets, etc. be bean counting accountants come GST time. This, Americans, is one of the downsides of what our country which I heard an American sociologist refer to as the "country of the future" Canada. I digress. I spent too much time working on the GST crap...not enuf time to paint, so I pulled out this ol' Elvis for the "Daily Painter's", of which I'm a member. I do like painting these watercolours of Elvis from a bust, I bought 20 years ago. I'm not a big Elvis freak or anything but + did I mention, sometime in the future, some of my Elvi will be included in a book, published by a British company, of contemporary artists "doing" Elvis...

WinterTrees#33, 12x12x1.75", oil on wood, carved, 2007

the snow is melting so fast. Saw my first robin on the mountain on Sunday.

Pinkespace, to April 1...

...a reminder to Montrealers, or visitors to, Pat Pink's "Family Foto" show is still up until April 1. Pinkespace 1399 rue St. Jacques, 2 blocks east of Guy. Closest metro Lucien L'Allier. 514-935-9851 [email protected] Gallery open Thursday to Sundays 1-5. Besides yours truly, there are some mucho cool artists in the show, in a one of a kind gallery. This is not your average "white box" gallery, nor is it a State run centre, run by Stalinist-MFA types.

WinterTrees#22 (The Pretty Ones), 16x16x1.75, oil on carved wood, 2007

When I was an art school student, many centuries ago on the West Coast, the worst thing one could possibly do was to paint something "pretty". Something "decorative", something beautiful to rest your eyes on. Matisse? Ha! Hockney? Ha! It had to be minimalist, stark, true to its materials. etc. anything but "pretty". And how us students jumped through the hoop. At the other school I went to on the very East Coast, painting, forget about it. It was conceptual (lotsa yawners there) or angst-riddenly political, bone achingly intellectual or big honking macho sculptures...So, a simple, slightly abstracted, but essentially true to life (via my eyes) painting like this, even all these years later, believe it or not, actually takes some kind of inner courage for me to a) paint in the first place b) show in public. Here's hoping art school teachers+profs these days are more liberal, humanistic+ compassionate.

WinterTrees, #25, oil on carved wood, 2007

Actually, I lie. It's not number 25, it's one of the first small ones of the Wintertree series, but I had it paired with another painting...changed my mind. Seems kind of over-managerial to put two particular ones together -- unless conceived as so...

Winter Tree#23, 8"x8"x1.5", oil on carved wood,2007

What more winter trees? Uh-huh. Tip of the iceberg...so many miles before I sleep. Yikes, but soon it's spring.

WinterTrees#21, 16x16x1.75", oil on carved wood, 2007

The "lines" are actually carved...not painted. And blue shadows. I dreamed about painting the blue shadows of the snow during last summer's heat wave.

Cotoneasters, 13.5x5.5, watercolour on arches paper, 2007

a study for an oil painting...I'm drama-queening the red of the bush, but isn't that what art, poetry, literature is about?

WinterTrees #11, 16x16x1.5", oil on carved wood, 2007

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold. William Carlos Williams

Cotoneaster, 16x16x1.5", oil on wood...

okay, the carving again really doesn't show here, but this one feels like some kind of breathru. In real life it's very zen. I've seen these beautiful ruby red cotoneaster bushes popping thru the snow over and over again along the canal and this is what they look/feel like to me....

Aloe vera plant, watercolour + oil pastel on fabriano paper 10x8

Wintertree#19, oil on carved wood, 11x14x1.5

2 New York Time's brushes with greatness

a) the view out my bedroom window. The astute observer may notice the dome of St. Jean Baptiste church, one of the locations of Arcade Fire's recent recording of "Neon Bible" + b) slightly more obscure, a documentary "hommage" to Jeff Wall digital photo taken yesterday at the Berri metro: Mr. Wall, having been my 19thCentury art history prof at NSCAD, so many years ago. So far no New York Time's reporters banging on my door.

Sumacs in the Park, oil on wood, 16x16"

Sumac trees on Mount Royal on a very lovely winter day...in this photograph you can actually see the carving...at least in the stems. The flowers are carved, too, but harder to make out.

happy birthday to you...

you belong in a zoo....etc. etc.xxoo

let it snow let is snow let it snow

Montreal was designed for snow. The city looks gorgeous...

Mount Royal Forest, oil on wood, 20x41", 2007

a heavy painting, literally...heavy with paint.... one of many that I've been working on and off for months...some days I work on this baby...add, subtract, carve, incise, sand. -- none of the texture shows on digital photographs, alas...but I'm painting happily, until I realize reluctantly it's not enuf to paint full out every day...it's time to shed the overalls. It's time to hang up the brushes. It's time to find a gallery...more specifically a "gallerist"...some saintly sage who can park their truck outside my studio, gather up an s-load of work -- this after an encouraging + insightful critique--then send me a big fat cheque so I can buy more materials, and occasionally travel to somewhere outside of Montreal...eg. my home town, Luzern, to paint in the same spots, exactly, where Turner painted. Sigh. February totally sucked. Let's see what that lion March has to offer.