Sunday, 2023 January 08

Here's a very short post with only the three tiny (4" x 5") paintings I've submitted for the upcoming Preshrunk Art show and sale at Argyle Fine Art, on Barrington St. in Halifax.  They're all acrylics on gallery wood panels.

Curiosity- Anyone who watched Mattea Roach, the young Nova Scotian, win 23 games with such fun and grace will recognise her asking the question that may have come to mind watching her amazing performance. 

Ron's Gone-  This flying Ford Anglia, with its characteristic backward slanting rear windscreen was a star on its own in a few Harry Potter films.  The driver was Ron Weasley. I've set him up "Bilking the Toll Gate" at one of the bridges between Dartmouth and Halifax, as an homage to Cornelius Krieghoff's 19th century series of paintings of that title.  Krieghoff lived in Québec and his paintings show some young folk dashing through the snow as the toll man shakes his fist at their horsedrawn sleigh.  Google his masterful work for a good laugh.

OMW TTYL - (On My Way - Talk to You Later)  This transfixed young woman was heading over to Halifax on the ferry from Dartmouth several years ago when I snapped a few pix of the scenes on the boat including Theodore Tugboat making his (her?) way up the harbour.

Well, that's it for the pictures I submitted to the Preshrunk Art show.  It opens on Friday, January 27 at 7:00 p.m.  There'll be a %*&load of great art to see.

But, while I'm on the line maybe I'll tack on a few other pieces from the last year or so. 

CA and HA Snuggling-  This double portrait was commissioned by this man's mother.  He was adopted into her family as a newborn.  Now married with two children, he and his wife adopted this newborn baby boy last spring.  On his fortieth birthday his mother presented him with the portrait and she had commissioned and he cradled it as he had his new son and probably as his mom has done with him.  Here's a photo of that birthday.  It's why I paint: 

Here are a couple of landscape commissions.  Point Pleasant Park, Halifax  was painted for a colleague at St Mary's University to mark his retirement from the university.  The park is a short walk from campus and he often took the chance to catch the seabreezes there.  The other is Broad Cove, Cape Breton, commissioned as a fundraiser by the Museum of Canadian Immigration.  I chose this view as the hilltop farm in this image was farmed for many years by immigrants who came to Canada as Displaced Persons after the second world war.

Point Pleasant Park, Halifax NS

( acrylic on standard birch panel)

Broad Cove Clouds, Cape Breton 

(acrylic on standard birch panel)

Birthday Girl (almost) - This was meant as an acrylic sketch on paper but I was happy enough with it, to send it to little RA for her eighth birthday.  She's the daughter of CA pictured above with her new brother.  11" x 14 Acrylic on paper

RA- Birthday Girl

The next three painting are also in a very small format.  Every year the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association invites local artists to donate 6"x6" artworks on hardboard (Masonite) panels.  They're mounted in the Craig Gallery here in Dartmouth and sold on line as a fundraiser for the association.  Here are three of the works I donated this year.  All of them sold, he bragged(!)

Strings of Gold  

Acrylic on board 6"x6"

AMO'F is a talented harp performer and teacher in Dublin, Ireland.    She's also an ordained priest of the Church of Ireland. 

Ave Maris Stella

Acrylics on Board 6" x 6"

Ave Maris Stella (Hail Queen of the Sea) is the national hymn of the Acadian people who live here in the Maritime provinces.  Many of their ancestors were exiled to Louisiana by British authorities in the 18th century.  Their flag is based on the French tricolour with the addition of the star of the sea- Stella Maris.  See if you can figure out the coded message spelled out on the lobster buoys.

RA Has Fun with homemade Play-Dough

(Acrylic on board 6"x6")

Here's little RA, (the birthday girl above) playing with play dough made for her by her Nana whose pic hangs on the wall behind her.  Her great grandparents even got a look-in in the wedding picture over RA's head.

Do No Harm- The Hippocratic oath seemed like a good title for this commissioned portrait of family doctor, DM, as he releases this LARGE atlantic salmon he had just caught in northern Nova Scotia.  Another commission by a proud mom.  And another Challenge for you: see if you can find the oath on the painting.  Hint: It's upside down and in Greek.  Good luck! (Acrylic on Canvas 20"x20")

Laughs in Lahinch-  This Irish family is usually spread far and wide around the globe but every summer they head for Lahinch, Co. Clare, to enjoy each other's company.  Naturally, a few hours are spent in one of the cosy pubs there.  Of course this is only a few of them! Acrylic on standard panel 6"x 12" (if memory serves)

Cha do Dhùn Doras- "A door never closed... except another door opened"  is an old Gaelic proverb.  This was a little retirement card for a friend who was wrapping up her teaching career. She and her husband had just acquired a summer home in Inverness, Cape Breton, about a five minute walk from this gorgeous beach. Acrylics on watercolour paper- (about) 4" x 6"

So, there's a little bit of what I've been up to.  As usual I have another work well underway on my easel and was just asked to take on a double portrait.  Those are always a fun challenge.  Let me know if you're interested in having a piece made for you or a friend.