While the warm weather is here, I try to be on the bike at least once a day, which means any excuse for an errand is welcome. One loaf of bread? Sure, Iāll pick that up, but Iāll take the long route and turn it into an hour ride. Even though weāve had our e-bikes for about a year now, I turn off the pedal assist most of the time to get some daily exercise, which turns it into a regular, but heavier, fat bike. But the assist/throttle is handy when starting from a traffic light or biking up a steep hill with groceries on board.
While biking along the Bow River trail in town today, I got a call from a woman visiting from Edmonton, asking where in Canmore she could find my work. I told her prints were available at Art Country Canada on Main Street, and she said she was right near there. She confessed that her 10-year-old daughter was smitten with my animals as they had seen them and bought the Smiling Tiger at the Calgary Zoo on Wednesday.
While I canāt usually drop everything to go downtown to the gallery, I was already out and about and only a few minutes away, so she was pleased when I offered to meet them there. I showed them the canvases and available prints, explained a bit about the work and was happy to answer their questions about digital painting.
They left with another print of my Two Wolves painting (now on reorder) and four of Pacific Music & Artās art cards.
Iām grateful that anybody buys my work, especially those whoāve done so for years, but it felt good to express that appreciation in person to somebody who has just discovered it. Of course, I suggested they subscribe to A Wilder View to keep up with new work and behind the scenes stuff. So if youāre reading this, Sandy and Julianna, it was nice to meet you and thanks again for supporting local Alberta art.
Cheers,
Patrick
On Wednesday, I delivered a large print order to the Calgary Zoo. A zookeeper friend had ordered a couple of canvases, so I was also happy to deliver those to her.
People leave food out while camping which attracts wildlife. When a bear associates people with food, itās game over for the bear. Iāve lived in this valley for almost thirty years, and I donāt want to count how many times Iāve read about bears whoāve been euthanized because of selfish and careless people.
The more people repeat Skokiās story, the more they educate young people to want to protect them in the wild and prevent them from being put in a zoo or destroyed.
I must have taken about 700+ shots of Skoki on Wednesday. He gave me so many beautiful poses. At one point, he walked across a log, sat up and straddled it, then hung out there. The wind came up, and he was sniffing the air, clearly enjoying the rain, and I ended up with many great references. Look at those little feet.
He gave me a great idea for a painting. I imagine several bears lined up at a log, like a bunch of friends hanging out at a bar. With his multiple poses and expressions in the same spot, I can paint five or six different bears using him as the reference. Iāll paint the faces and bodies differently for variety, making one thinner, another heavier, taller, and shorter; there are plenty of options. By varying the colours, the finished bears will look like their own characters, but the primary reference will still be one bear.
Resuming my walk back to my car about an hour and a half later, it struck me funny that I began the day hoping to get photos of animals I hadnāt yet painted or only painted once but left the zoo with a camera card full of grizzly bear photos. I have more pictures of bears than any other animal.
While labour-intensive, this painting wasn’t especially difficult. There weren’t any parts of it where I worried I might not have the necessary skills. That comes from experience, the feeling that “it’ll take a while, but I got this.”
I began the project with several sketches and refined those into this mockup.
Then I painted the individual giraffes, creating three expressions different enough to be their own characters, but I still had to match the colours, light and shadow so they belonged together in the scene. Each giraffe could have been a single painting.
Painting the environment was the most challenging part. I could have gone with generic-looking green deciduous leaves, and most people wouldn’t have cared. Even though my style of art is whimsical, and I take liberties with exaggeration and expression, I still try for accuracy in the anatomy and environment.
I don’t use any colour dynamics in my brushes. I prefer to pick and choose colour while painting, sampling from adjacent colours to get a better blend.
These new brushes allowed me to create a solid foundation, but it looked flat and lifeless until I spent several hours painting light, shadow, and detail to achieve the finished result.
New digital artists often get obsessed with buying brush packs, thinking that’s all they need to achieve the same look as more experienced artists. But professional tools won’t provide a shortcut past the years of work it takes to become good at anything.
While I called it Long Neck Buds, someone could easily interpret them as two parents and a child. People often tell me what one of my paintings is ‘thinking’ or what their expression means, and I wouldn’t dream of contradicting them. If the art makes them feel something or triggers their imagination, that’s good enough for me.
I could have written this before election day to encourage people to get out and make a difference, but to imagine I have that much influence over anyone would be arrogant.
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Itās a half section of land with lush green forest, pastures, a creek and lots of room to wander. There are plenty of birds, deer and coyotes. Every once in a while, you might spot a moose, beaver or a bear, and on one trip last fall, my buddy Darrel woke to a cougar walking right beside the deck.
This past Saturday, however, I was delighted to see another great grey owl. This one wasnāt as enthused by my intrusion, but I still got some shots before it flew off into the trees. It wasnāt until I returned to the cabin and loaded the card onto my iPad that I realized the shots were much better than I had thought. Since they were all handheld at 300mm, I was surprised I got any that were even in focus, or close to focus, anyway.
The great thing about taking photos for painting reference is that if theyāre a little out of focus or the lighting isnāt ideal, Iāll still keep plenty of shots a professional photographer would throw away. Whatās not worth printing to them, could be a perfect reference shot for me.
The couple we rent from have become friends over the last five years, so theyāll often join us for a couple of drinks in the evenings. I mentioned that it bothers me that Iām nervous around horses. I want to be more comfortable with them, as I know they’re able to sense it when a person is uneasy.
Even with that small level of experience, I canāt imagine the stress these recent fire evacuees are enduring. Two weeks out of your home, watching the fires on the news as they get closer, often from hours away in shelters or homes in unfamiliar communities, not knowing when or if youāll be able to return.
Wildfires are destructive enough. But what bothers me most is how so many use these disasters to further their agendas, political or otherwise.
Some supporters of BOTH political parties accuse the other of deliberately starting these fires to win votes. People in the energy sector are accusing environmentalists of starting fires to destroy the oil patch. Climate change activists use the fires to trumpet their agendas, and deniers share cherry-picked links to debunk them.
Amid all this noise, people out of their homes havenāt had a good nightās sleep in weeks, theyāre unable to work, their kids are out of school, and whatever problems they already had are compounded. Theyāre scared, vulnerable, and feeling helpless. Their world is falling apart, and they can do nothing about it.
I have a few ideas on how best to do it, including creating a new brush for the task, but with no deadline, I have time to experiment.
It’s been a busy week of post-show inventory, filling custom orders, drawing editorial cartoons and stowing my stock and booth hardware, but that’s normal after my biggest event of the year.
It still pushes the childhood buttons when a fully functional R2-D2 glides by my booth. With a rotating head, lights, whistles and sound effects, panels that open and close, and full mobility, it looks and behaves like the real thing. I even know the guy who manufactured it; I used to work for him years ago in Canmore. So I know he’s running it by remote control from about ten feet away, that it’s all mechanical gears, parts, and wires. But the illusion that it’s the beloved movie character is strong.
Several folks stopped by to tell me that their friend or family member couldn’t make it to Expo this year, but they wanted them to say Hello for them.
People walk by the booth, their eyes scan the art walls, and they smile. Then they nudge whoever they’re with and point, and the smile infects that person, too. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s like a drug. I can’t get enough of it.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Expo without a well-meaning follower reminding me that I am long overdue on my promise of a book. Imposter syndrome, perfectionism, I don’t know what my problem is there. My failure to launch bothers me more than anybody else. But the push is well deserved, Kim! Thank you for that.
They forewarn vendors about the regulations and that the Fire Marshal is on scene at this event, so better safe than sorry. Last year they stopped at my booth and asked if my lights were halogen. Thankfully, I was using LED bulbs.
For many of my paintings, it takes some settling time after I complete them before I know if I really like them. Of these most recent paintings, I realized that Bugle Boy, my painting of a bull elk, might be a personal favourite. I donāt know if itās the texture I painted in his rack, the personality or the colour, but I loved seeing this piece in print, and I hadnāt expected that.
Many people buy four-day passes for this show, but others come for only one day. Saturday is the leader when it comes to crowd volume and sales. All four days are usually good, but Iām trying out some daily specials for the other three this year.
The challenge with this piece is to make each character different from the others but with the same level of detail and colour palette.