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.

The snowstorm is over and our place is shovelled out.  Everything is now frozen over since the temperature has dropped to minus 5C.  So, there's my excuse for taking some time to myself and posting some more art from the backlog.  Thanks for your patience in putting up with this stop and start process.  Here we go.

Milling Frolic- A crowd of women fulling a newly-woven piece of woolen cloth and singing Gaelic work songs to lighten their task.  These events still happen here in Nova Scotia, although it's usually just for the fun of singing the songs.  I based it on a photo taken in Scotland almost a hundred years ago and relocated it to this hillside in Cape Breton.  In Scotland it's called a "waulking", in Gaelic "luadh".  A gift for one of my Gaelic students, a home schooler who was graduating from high school.   Acrylics on canvas.

In the Becigning- This is the childhood home of friend, the music director at a nearby church.  The geometric shapes in the clouds reflect the windows in that church.  Acrylics on birch panel

Scotch Bonnet Peppers-  A friend of ours loves to cook with spices.  I got the spice name wrong on this birthday card I cartooned for him of the Dartmouth Fire Department at his home.  Acrylics on paper.

Sarah and Daniel Wedding Program-  Self explanatory.  The bride's parents were Gaelic speakers.  The Gaelic says "My dear, my dear".  The groom comes from an Italian background, so that says "I will love you forever".  I moved her home to sit on the back (left) page of the program with the happy couple and their dog picking blueberries. This is the church where my wife and I were also married.  Watercolour, ink and acrylics on paper.

HK at the Nova Scotia Highland Village.  An ink sketch of a friend, this young woman, who works at the NS Highland Village museum.  Check out their website:  highlandvillage.novascotia.ca  She's also a talented Gaelic singer and fiddler.  Can you see a theme in these friends of mine? 😉Ink and acrylics on paper.

DW at the coffee shop.  DW, a certifiable braniac friend, is a physicist at the Neils Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark.  We shared coffee with him at a "bogkaffee" there one morning.  The shop is also a rare bookstore and there are pictures of famous Danes on the walls.  So I sketched his Irish mom and dad, Neils Bohr and the Little Mermaid and gave them "suspended sentences" on the wall.  Acrylics

  

NW- The portrait of this young girl was commissioned by her auntie as a gift to NW's mom.  Usually I discourage toothy grins on a portrait but for a small child it does show their beautiful youth.  Oils on wood panel.

EW- This little fellow is the brother of NW.  His auntie also commissioned this. Oils on birch panel.

EM-  Another Gaelic student of mine.  She was bold enough to ask me for a sketch of herself and another of her boyfriend!  This charcoal on toned paper was hers.  We're both from the same city, so I felt generous.   Don't know if they're still a couple, so I'll just post hers. 😎

Give me Twenty!-  In war canoe races, the coxswain will often call for a series of faster, stronger strokes with that shout.  These races are done on flat water but I thought the Great Wave at Kanagawa, by the Japanese master Hokusai, would be more impressive.  Acrylics diptych on birch panels.

SM on the Issel Meer-  Our dear Dutch friend, SM, treated us to a visit to the Zuider Zee historic village museum at Enkhuizen in Holland.  Here he is sitting on the boat which takes you to the landing docks.  Ink and Acrylics on paper.

A Major Event-  MW was a major in the US Army, so when we visited the Halifax Citadel Museum here in Nova Scotia, I goaded him into putting on this redcoat tunic and bearskin and added a major's badge to the hat.  He's a good sport, but I though it would be safer to send to his granddaughter, so I did!  Acrylics.

DM in Dunvegan-  This friend was at an outdoor unveiling of a monument to the author Alistair MacLeod.  The bright, outdoor light was great for capturing photos of strongly contrasting faces.  Acrylics on paper.

MR in Inverness-  I often say that there's a fiddler behind every spruce tree in Cape Breton.  Not many are in the class with MR.  Of course she's a Gaelic speaker, too.  Charcoal and conté crayon on toned paper which doesn't do justice to her gorgeous red hair..

Age Quod Agis-  How's your Latin?  "Do What You (Must) Do" is the motto of St Mary's University in Halifax.  It's another 2"x2" (small) acrylic for a student who earned a bonus for exceeding expectations on a Gaelic course assignment.  He wrote an original song and recorded himself singing it.  Acrylics on canvas

Gimli Girls-  Gimli is a small, but "largely" Icelandic town on Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.  These women are two of the five members of their Curling club's "rink" (team) who won back-to-back Canadian National championships in 2020 and 2021.  Charcoal on paper.

Ad Model-  This lady's face looked so sincere in a patent medicine ad, I was moved to do this little portrait.  I've been known to tear up watching Kleenex ads!  It was a few years ago so it might be oils or acrylics, I can't remember.  Since I don't know who she is/was, it's still hanging in our basement!

GM in Dunvegan-  GM is a MacLeod too, so no wonder he was at the ceremony for his cousin Alistair.  Charcol and pastels on toned paper.

JAB playing in SW Margaree-  JAB was a guest at our wedding, but being a good fiddler we asked him to play for a "set" of square dancing.  So, he borrowed John MacDougall's (the hired fiddler's) instrument and cracked off some lively tunes.  It only took me 37 years to get around to painting him.  Acrylics on canvas.

Dr. FF's winning smile-  Dr.  FF directs a number of choirs including our Dartmouth Choral Society.  Who wouldn't sing, as directed, when faced with this winning smile?  Charcoal and pastel on paper.

EM at home in Pictou-  EM was top student in one of my courses and so won a portrait as a prize.  So, I sent it to her home in Pictou, NS.  (Her proud mom liked it, too.)  Oils on canvas

VM in Dunvegan-  VM is a well-known Cape Breton artist who was also at that sunsoaked ceremony for Alistair MacLeod and her white hair caught every ray just right.  Pastels and conté crayon on toned paper.

CM in Dunvegan-  CM is a granddaughter of Alistair MacLeod who also soaked up some sun that day.  Such enthusiasm must be celebrated.  Charcoal on paper.

Dr. A. and K-  Dr. A was Dr. FF's PhD advisor in choral direction.  Such an alphabet soup!  Here she is in New York City with her daughter K, the Screen Kop, who was home again from London.  Charcoal and pastel on paper.

TH at Choir Camp-  I was inspired by Tintin artist Hergé's style when I did this cartoon of TH,  another Choir Director and founder of the Nova Scotia men's provincial choir.  Yet another director, Dr. JF, is at the podium.  Ink and acrylic on paper.

FM and mom (JM)-  The baby in this acrylic turned 38 years old last summer.  I figured it was about time to paint this image from a photo I took at a wedding lo, these many years later.  She has long since cheered up!  Acrylics on canvas.

GB at Broad Cove Concert-  GB comes from a family of musicians and traditional dancers,  No wonder she was putting her heart and feet into playing for her two sisters who were dancing this day in Cape Breton.  Charcoal and pastel on toned paper.

Well, as far as uploading my art, I'm up to works completed in May 2020 which is almost two years ago, so I'm making progress.  I'm enjoying reflecting on why these works were created and where some of them went,  I hope you are, too.  That's it for this post.  'See you next time. Remember, my e-mail address is at the top of the blog and I enjoy hearing from you about the works that are here.  -Joe 

 As I said in the last post, it's going to take some time to post even a small share of the art I've been making over the last four years.  But, here are a few more.  We've just shovelled out from a dandy nor'easter today and the plow hasn't made its final pass yet, so this will be a short one.

CF as Queen Bess- I've never seen any episode of The Crown, but I understand this English actress portrayed the Queen.  From a small sketch book, it's acrylic on paper.

S.H.  This lady teaches at the school where my daughter does.  One of SH's daughters did very well on a language assignment I gave her in one of my university classes, so I did this little portrait of her mom as a bonus prize.  The support looks coarse because it's only about two inches by two inches on a little Dollar Store canvas.  They're fun!

Diaga Dancers #1  These young girls and I were involved in a Christmas concert of Irish dance and music.  I think I used watercolour on watercolour paper, but this was years ago! Wonderful kids!

Diaga Dancers #2-  These dancers are from the same school and were backed up by some talented, local Irish music artists.  They're a little older and were quite graceful.  The dancers that is.

Diaga Dancers #3- These little girls were some of the younger group from that school .  Lots of energy and confidence.

AJ in Christmas Concert-  This young girl, AJ, was singing in a Christmas Concert at our church.  Something we've been missing during the Covid restrictions.  Acrylic on Paper.

St Peter's children's choir- That same concert.  Here's the church's Children's Choir and their talented director / accompanist, GB.  We've been missing him, too.  Acrylics on paper.

AMO'F- This lady is an amazing harpist, and being Irish, that's the part of her repertoire that I find most lovely.  I hear her on RTE (Irish Radio) now and then.  An acrylic sketch on paper.

MEM and CIM, my daughter and wife were bundled up this day to go and watch the eagles who winter over in the Annapolis Valley here in Nova Scotia.  There is a spot where one can see 80-100 wild bald eagles all at once feeding or perched on trees around a farmer's field.  Charcoal on paper.

KM was a student of mine a few years ago.  He was an enthusiastic member of the class, always ready to learn, which I hope I've captured in this charcoal drawing on paper.

Mr. and Mrs. F.  - This couple was about to celebrate their sixitieth wedding anniversary a few years ago, so their daughter commissioned this portrait.  Note the white tapes (the ribbons tied in a bow) on his uniform.  That was a special tradition in the navy.  On his wedding day, the groom could wear white tapes, instead of the usual black.  If things go well, it's a once in a lifetime privilege!  Oils on birch panel.

RA, KA and BA at the airport.  Their auntie KA, whom I cartooned in a British police uniform in the last post, was headed back to the UK.  Acrylics on paper.  Yes, the kids live in Ohio!  

That's an even dozen, so I think I'll stop here for tonight.  Do let me know if you have any questions or comments about my art or if you're interested in having a piece made especially for you or as a gift for someone else.  

All the best, -Joe