2019-20
I continue to do portraits based on selfies sent to me by friends. I might be getting lazy as I find this easier than taking my own pictures. What to paint is determined by what appears in my emails. A significant difference in this group of paintings is that I’m experimenting more with backgrounds either by putting a frame within a frame (Friend), inventing a phantasmagoric series of marks depicting a dream state (Man Sleeping) or fusing the bodies of two people (Mother and Daughter Blues). It was fun to let go of the rigid demands of realism. I would not call it transformation but rather a slight loosening up of my fidelity to the photograph. The subject matter has nothing directly to do with the pandemic and everything to do with staying home. Unemployment and the cancellation of committments has given me more time to focus and paint. It has also deepened my attraction to things around me. Acknowledging the beauty of objects I look at everyday, has been a running theme in my work. As with 'Une Passoire' (2018), I have isolated Tractor Rim from the rest of the machine and floated it in a sea of grey. VIEW MORE
2018
From time to time I like to re-visit portraiture and my last series was in 2005 (In Your Face). I now photograph using an iPad and it's easier for me to get good results in my snapshots and I enjoy the spontaneity of it. I also became motivated to paint people again after taking an Old Master Painting technique workshop with Aino Lutter (www.ainolutter.com). I've long been an admirer of her work but I don't have the discipline and patience to achieve those results. I'm not exactly a lazy painter, as working from photographic images can also be a tough taskmaster. But I seem to be drawn to the quirky, the odd and the imperfect which was not exactly the intent of the Old Masters. VIEW MORE
Objects continue to provide inspiration for my paintings. Particularly looking down on plates and with the obvious addition of food. The recent works are oil on canvas and are much larger than the panels from earlier periods (2014-2017). VIEW MORE
2017
 "Amamos a los perros" (We love dogs) is a 2 x 8 foot work done in a magic realism style at the request of |
I sometimes travel to Mexico to get away from winter. Tthe images I carry home with me - of strong sunlight and cast shadow on brightly-coloured stucco walls stay with me and later become the subject of paintings. It's a way of retaining the warmth and the memories. The paintings chronicle a time spent elsewhere. They are proof that I was there. I suppose like a photograph, only more deeply etched. When I paint - to some extent I relive the experience. It provokes memory. It feels like immortalizing but I know that's too strong a word. Too pretentious. It's not that. Finding the right colours and making a composition is all about adoration. Paying tribute to something. A kind of worship. VIEW MORE
2016
A few years ago I was given a copy of Lorna Crozier's The Book of Marvels, A Compendium of Everyday Things. I immediately fell in love with it as each page of the book, organized alphabetically, offers a delightful contemplation of household objects, many of which I had already painted. Reading Lorna's prose inspired me to take a closer look at my subjects and to go deeper into their meaning. Because of its influence on the structure and direction of my recent work I've chosen to accompany some with short excerpts from The Book of Marvels. VIEW MORE
2015
My fascination with a seeing-things-from-above approach that continues to evolve and toward that end I have arranged mostly round objects and painted them from the same perspective in which we view ordinary implements of our everyday lives – looking down at a flat surface. By sometimes representing only fragments of the whole object, and by working with shallow rather than deep pictorial space, the image moves towards abstraction. VIEW MORE Click here to view all the works in the series
2014
Fragments is a metaphor for aging and accumulating and, in rendering imperfect and incomplete objects, I focus on their beauty. This recent body of work captures the spirit of renewal on another level as the very paper on which I make these images was once something else: an edition of lithographs I printed in Paris in 1986. In this way both the creative and destructive aspects of art-making are embodied. VIEW MORE Click here to view all the works in the series
1994-Present
Rural Inspiration: In 1994 I moved from downtown Montreal to a small farm near Alexandria, Ontario. The rural environment that I am now immersed in continues to inspire new works. VIEW MORE
1984-2008
Mexico: I made my first trip to Mexico in 1984 and photographed buildings in Saint Cristobel on Christmas Day from which I made several paintings. After the drab greyness of North America I was drunk on Mexico's colours and textures found in the streets of the towns and cities I visited. I've returned to Mexico a few times and it continues to inspire new works. VIEW MORE
2005
In Your Face is a departure from the conventional interpretation of the subject's character. I chose to create paintings from snapshots taken by others of subjects who are, in most cases, people I know. These were mostly random snapshots of ordinary people taken by ordinary people in ordinary circumstances. This kind of spontaneous process catches unusually revealing expressions and gestures and provided me with fresh insights into the subject's character and personality. VIEW MORE
2001-2007
Shadows and Light: Some of my paintings are about the inner and outer world that we inhabit. I love dramatic contrasts of light and shadow and what is hidden and what is revealed. Working with strong colours on a black ground builds drama between the two. VIEW MORE
2003
People on the Main Carry Their Pain: After returning from France, I wanted to continue the bread series ("pain" in French). But as Montrealers did not often carry baguettes at that time, I stopped people and asked them to pose with one I provided. I chose St. Laurent Boulevard (known locally as "the Main") because of the great variety of interesting people to be found there. Working on black paper seemed to accentuate the theatrical aspect of the drawings. VIEW MORE
1990-1998
Assemblage: Recycling materials is a way in which we link to others. As spaces are cleared out, and lives re-conditioned, we often become benefactors of someone else’s past experiences. I started with an idea imposed externally and bent it to fit my own intention. To me this is much like life – random couplings which seem improbable and yet somehow, guiding us by faith in the process, we manage to create a fit. VIEW MORE
1980-1990
Montreal Series: I lived and worked in Old Montreal for a few years and was struck by the beauty of the architecture. At the same time, I was developing an interest in nocturnal imagery. VIEW MORE
The Baguette series began when visiting in France in 1980 and it's about me entering a new culture and trying to fit in. I observed that French people carried baguettes (their pain) which seemed a cliché, yet a fact of life. I find it humorous and strange but enviable. They belong – I don’t. Nul pain sans peine. VIEW MORE
