March 29, 2025
I painted the picture on the left last week. The two pictures on the right are my parents. I took them with the polaroid camera they gave me for Christmas in the late 1960s or early 1970s
March 24, 2025
I painted the picture on the left for my friend Keith last week. It's special because it's not often I do anything for someone other than myself! The picture on the right is from my first camera and is special because it's my younger brother. Also, around the same time this photo was taken in 1969, James Brown recorded the song "Funky Drummer."
March 17, 2025
The older picture, on the right, is another childhood picture I did and my mother signed for me. It was a copy of a print depicting a man with a fish over his head done with crayons. It was one of a group of pictures my siblings and I did as children that my parents framed and displayed in the foyer of our house. My sister's was the "Life of Harriet Tubman" and my older brother's was a new years resolution assignment titled, "Doing Better on the Farm." We never had a farm so it did not make total sense but becames a favorite expression in our family as a joke meaning to do better in any context. The newer painting, on the left, is from dashcam video of my trip home from work on August 1, 2016 painted the week before St Patrick's Day in March of 2025.
March 8, 2025
The older picture, on the right, is from 1965 when i was about 7 years old. It is a picture of a person sitting at a table, maybe at Holloway Bay. It's another typical child's picture.
My newer painting is from 2025. I tried to get a little more expressiveness than some of my recent commute paintings. It was done from a screenshot of dashcam video I took from my car on the morning of August 1, 2016
March 4, 2025
The older picture, on the right, is from 1965 when i was about 7 years old and is much more expressive than the new one. It is a picture of a sailboat. The sailboat is large and centered. The sky is dark blue so it looks like nighttime. It's a typical child's picture. It took a while before I realized that the boat was a sailfish that I may have been taken out on it by my parents friends or their children. Many of my childhood summers were spent at "the beach". My parents rented cottages at various beaches across the peace bridge in Canada. Holloway Bay was one of the first of these vacation spots.. One summer my parents thought about getting us one of these sailboats but it was decided that we were too irresponsible. I don't recall any safety considerations, lol.
My newer painting is from 2025. My technique has improved and the composition is okay. It was done from a screenshot of dashcam video I took from my car on the evening of July 29, 2016, the driveway I left work on, approaching Main St in Clarence. It is a little too cool for me so although i did not anticipate that looking at my older paintings would change the direction of my current work... . i hope it does