Two New Paintings

Peach Orchard, Niagara, 2017
Oil on canvas-substitute
12 inches, square

Bohemond
Oil on canvas-substitute
12 inches, square

Painting: Canada At One Fifty

Canada At One Fifty
Oil over gee-clee
a foot by a foot

August -- well, I've painted over it now . . . post it soon

Portrait

Today you have to prove yourself by recognizing a bunch of screwed up letters and numbers. Tomorrow it'll be how fast you react to a picture of beauty. Which is the opening scene of Bladerunner. Somebody asked me a while ago what I thought was a perfect movie and I said, Bladerunner. Well, it's only as good as The Rules Of Attraction. I mean it's good but . . .

Here is the portrait, finished.

Portrait

My brother and his spouse have asked me to do a portrait of her grandmother. They sent me some photos . . . I started with this oil painting (above)--to get to know my subject. Here it is not as terrifying as it looked at first and it's not quite as it is now (nearly finished).

The portrait itself came in two versions (below). On the left is her grandmother as a young lady; on the right she is more the age of a grandmother. Aron and Shawna preferred the one on the right (which is after all the better drawing of the two--much more lively.)

Portrait(s) for Aron and Shawna
Charcoal on paper

I was paid in verenika and cabbage rolls (two Mennonite favorites of mine). Actually, I was relieved that my portraits bore a likeness to the subject. I don't think I've ever done a portrait, at least not since I took up oil painting . . . now what to do with the oil painting? . . . I think I might leave it at a flea market with the many other amateur portraits I find there and see how it fares against the competition . . .

I'm only half-kidding. If I had the money I'd have bought those portraits I saw for a couple of bucks and repainted them with some pinache. How do you pronounce it?--pinnn-ash?

Maye I should be worried about my astigmatism.

The Death Of Ophelia

I don't like it but I still think it's better than that other Death Of Ophelia (the multi-million dollar one)
I wish it was finished but it's so awful that I have to say I can make it better.
Oil on canvas
20 by 24 inches (I think)

Ian Robinson (the literary critic) has commissioned the completion of this painting which was after all painted during a correspondence with him about Hamlet Q1.

It has arrived in England and Ian has paid what he thinks fair (which I should say is more than I've ever been paid for a painting except once). I hope to receive a photo of it framed and in situ.

New Painting

"Almost There"
Oil on canvas (with more cat hair than perhaps necessary)
18 by 24 inches

Esker, finished

I think this is the finished painting.

Esker (up North)
Oil on canvas

Finished Feb. 2017
Currently available at Mikreations in Virgil, Ont.

Hamlepp

If you were to go to Bandcamp.com and searched for Hamlet you might find my performance of it. It has been called "a tour de force," by a renown literary critic.

Death Of Ophelia.

It's such a painting in the speech by Gertrude I am surprised I can't find a whole page devoted to paintings of this . . .

Not a good painting. I don't know.

Death Of Ophelia Winter 2017
Oil on canvas
20 by 24 inches.

Work In Progress. . . .

All right I'll ask

Hey,
I'm not very good at selling my paintings.
If you are any good at it why not contact me?

Esker 2009 - 2016

Esker, Up North
Oil on canvas
2009 - 2016

I mean, maybe there's a bit more to do, it's not quite balanced . . . for now this is it.

Work in progress

Passing Storm
Oil on canvas
Work in progress

Have I shown this one?

SouthernOil on canvas
18 by 22.