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SELECTIONS  OF ART OF ABOUT 25 YEARS FULL TIME

Paintings with Human Presence (not wild nature)

(showing aspects of human presence)

Now and then I was inspired to create paintings that were not about wild nature, such as rural landscapes, people, portraits.

The buildings that were located on the Budd property struck my interest one winter, prompting me to paint this scene. I wanted to capture the snowy, wintery feel















from 1982:
This was a winter scene alongside a dirt road. I thought the patterns of snow on the trailer and in the trees was interesting





Rain Clouds was inspired by seeing such clouds in the disance when travelling the highway through southern Ontario farmlands



From 90's. The rural scene with rock fence is the main narrative here. In this case I introduced the bluebird because this is a typical bluebird habitat
 

"Teaching Rocks" is a detailed and accurate painting of the Native petroglyphs found in central Ontario north of Rice Lake because they are now enclosed in a museum-like context. I fit the black bears into the painting because Native traditions regarded bears as guardians of the site.



Portrait of a traditional birchbark canoe









This is a pencil and acrylics painting  inspired by a photograph of a rocky shore along the Estonian coast




Ancient Rock in the middle of Estonian farmfield has been surveyed by archeologists for having pits carved into it, believed to be use for offerings of grains. After studying such relics, archeologists leave them alone sometimes with an archeological identification marker


Another painting created first by pencil and then coloured and finished with acrylics















1969 when I was 23

fairly large  oil on canvas  portrait of my cousin Yvonne when I visited for some weeks in 1969





Edge of the Earth. Based on the flat rocks along the shore of the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, I focus on the contrast between the rocks and the water reaching to the horizon, with woman contemplating it


The painting depicts a girl creating a chalk drawing on one of the squares of concrete at Nathan Phillip Square, Toronto, the drawing depicting an annual midsummer open art exhibition situated there for tens of years and where I was myself an exhibitor several times. This is a departure from my normal subjects, because this was a good idea








1969
Portrait painted of aunt Irene in oil on canvas in 1969 when I visited my uncle's family at that time. This photo taken years later shows I captured the likeness well. Note that throughout my highschool year in the early 1960's I sketched many portraits and painted a handful of  oil portraits. A few were major works taking some 5-6 sittings


















2009

An experiment in painting a portrait using the new water-soluble oil paint that can be diluted with water and not needing a smelly solvent. I concluded that I still prefer  traditional oil paint because the oil allows the paint to be slightly more translucent




2009
I was challenged to paint  bleached barnboard and rusted objects of this actual barn side, and placed the young woman in front with contrasting colourful jacket etc. It was made very large to make it easier to apply all the required detail and texture in the barnboard background.



After artist Micheal Dumas asked me and other artists to supply a painting of people or a person for a charity art show and sale, I did not have anything on hand. On whim I decided maybe I would make a portrait of Dumas himself, and he agreed. So I went to his place with a camera and took some photos and came up with the idea shown here. I wanted to paint this portrait in the fully traditional way used by past masters of oil paintings - which involves sharp realism achieved on fine-weave canvas, and involving plenty linseed oil. I also tried to give the painting the same feel that he gave to his paintings with people





One of my small 8" x 10" paintings of a scene  when travelling towards Ottawa - this one including a boathouse. There are a few others like this in which the small painting is not entirely wild nature





From 2013
My sister visited me at a time when wild raspberries were flourishing close by. It shows how my painting skills had evolved since my portraits from 1960's

Final comments:

In general, nature paintings are about studying, soaking up, nature like a naturalist does. While it is possible to become interested in human faces and figures, painting people involves a relationship between artist and subject, and that can sometimes be tense and sometimes not.

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