Snow and fog

In early 2011, I began a new series based on photos of I take of Toronto in the snow and fog on my little point and shoot camera - so no photographic technical excellence involved. In my Toronto School of Art Class on acrylics, Tina Poplawski has been teaching us about all the incredible possibilities of acrylic paint and its mediums. I have merged the two streams (at her suggestion), so I have an incipient series of paintings on wood, fabric, paper on canvas, and all of which incorporate many new mediums for me. Perhaps you will have difficulty figuring out what the subject is of some of them as real becomes abstract in snow and fog, but look hard next time in snow or fog and you will see that blur is the word!

Night Traffic

It's a snowy January night. Nothing quite so dark. In the distance on Bloor Street, a little bundle of intense light around the traffic. This is one of the few paintings that I have liked throughout its whole development process and which I have hesitated to touch in fear of overworking. It is painted on a paper over a canvas. The paper is like a sheer curtain and you can see all the swirls in it, which I tried to incorporate into the image. Size: 12 X 14 inches.

Bay Taxi

 

This is my comedy painting, I laugh every time I look at it. Another snowy Saturday night, this time in February. Light traffic, all moving slowly. The question put to us in class was - what do you want to put into your paint/painting? I chose glitter. So off to the store and party glitter now catches your eye in the intense lighted places of this painting. I feel that overall, the painting does give a sensation of snow falling I'm usually serious when I paint, but who can be serious when you put glitter in your paint??? Size: 12 X 12 inches.

Early Morning Traffic

6:30 a.m. in February, it's snowing so I charge outside and in a corner of one of my shots I see the lights in the distance without any reference to the objects they come from. This is painted on a wood panel and I have intentionally tried to leave some of the wood grain showing. All the paint is thinned - except the lights spots which use about every available product to make them thicker. This one consists of lots of layers and wood definitely has a different feel from canvas so it was quite the experience. Size: 18 X 18 inches.

Saturday Spadina

Unlike the other paintings above, this is a daytime image while snowing. At night, the neons give an incredible orange glow. During the day, everything turns gray when snowing. This painting is on gray fabric which actually shimmers where it shows through. So I tried to leave some exposed and it does catch your eye as you walk by. I also tried to follow some of the wavy pattern of the fabric. First of the series with people in it, but I hope more to come, which gives the images even more of a sense of urban loneliness - at least for me. Size: 10 X 20 inches. Sold.