New Work. Fish Creek Autumn.

The past two years have been quite a journey for everyone. Myself included. When the first lockdown began, it was winter. I saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself with creating 25 small canvasses (8"x12") of landscapes from Fish Creek Provincial Park that my family and I lived close to. During the first lockdown, my family and I would bundle up and hike around Fish Creek each day. At night I would work on my tiny canvasses.
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​This series of paintings is an extension of that initial challenge. My goal this time was to capture Fish Creek again, only this time in its full Autumnal glory. Anyone who lives in Calgary knows that the beautiful golden yellow leaves don't stick around too long. The wind from the Rocky Mountains will usually blow all the leaves off in one day. I needed to act quickly. One incredible Sunday morning, my wife dropped me off at one end of the park where I proceeded to snap photos from one end to the other. The trees had kept all of their leaves, it was bright and sunny with no wind at all. I used those photos I took as reference for these new paintings.

Since then, my family has moved from our home of 22 years to downtown Calgary. A few of these Autumn painting had been started before the move, and remained put away until I had my new Studio space prepared. Since opening the studio, I have been active again.

Giverney inspiration

What I have enjoyed about these paintings has been using such brilliant yellows. It is not an easy colour to work with because it can overpower a piece. Another element of these paintings which actually impacted my process was painting reflections. The summer before COVID, my family was visiting friends in Paris. During this visit we drove to Giverney. Any Art Nerd will know that this was the home of Impressionist painter Claude Monet. This is where he created his water lily painting. As we explored Giverney - especially the water lily pond, so much about Monet's process began to become clearer to me. Especially about water, sky and reflections. Look down rather that up. Alter the perspective. As I have painted these canvasses, I have been taking inspiration from Monet.

the new studio.

Living in downtown Calgary has been great. Finally getting my studio up and running has been game changing. What I require is a place where I can do my work and then close the door. Leave the mess behind until the next go around. I have always worked pretty "clean" in my studio, I just need a place to do the work and let the paintings dry undisturbed. As an outdoor landscape painter, I do not have or need a lot of things to create a painting. So my space is a reflection of that minimalism. Palette, paint, canvas, brushes easel and I am good to go.

paintings shown in descending order from largest to smallest.