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Passing though... I've been a member for 2-3 years now. Have made a few sales without a huge amount of effort as my sales focus is slightly in a different direction... But can't help but comment on what a great site this is. Total win win win for artists, collectors and the site owner. Have a great creative day!

I have always gone to nature for my creative inspiration. I think this video shows a good example of why!

Great News! My mosaic classes are now ongoing at the Montreal Art Center. I have named my workshop after the area it is located in, historic Griffintown, in the downtown Montreal area.

The introductory course lasts 8 sessions of two hours each and are being held Wednesdays, from 10:30 am - 12:30 pm.

For now the courses are starting the first Wednesday of every month.

Watch this space for more mosaic news...!

(the photo shows a mosaic I did on commission a few years ago, showing a little bit of the process of choosing the colors for some of the parts)

Low Tide on Grand Pré

THE sun goes down, and over all
These barren reaches by the tide
Such unelusive glories fall,
I almost dream they yet will bide
Until the coming of the tide.

And yet I know that not for us,
By any ecstasy of dream,
He lingers to keep luminous
A little while the grievous stream,
Which frets, uncomforted of dream—

A grievous stream, that to and fro
Athrough the fields of Acadie
Goes wandering, as if to know
Why one beloved face should be
So long from home and Acadie.

Was it a year or lives ago
We took the grasses in our hands,
And caught the summer flying low
Over the waving meadow lands,
And held it there between our hands?

The while the river at our feet—
A drowsy inland meadow stream—
At set of sun the after-heat
Made running gold, and in the gleam
We freed our birch upon the stream.

There down along the elms at dusk
We lifted dripping blade to drift,
Through twilight scented fine like musk,
Where night and gloom awhile uplift,
Nor sunder soul and soul adrift.

And that we took into our hands—
Spirit of life or subtler thing—
Breathed on us there, and loosed the bands
Of death, and taught us, whispering,
The secret of some wonder-thing.

Then all your face grew light, and seemed
To hold the shadow of the sun;
The evening faltered, and I deemed
That time was ripe, and years had done
Their wheeling underneath the sun.

So all desire and all regret,
And fear and memory, were naught;
One to remember or forget
The keen delight our hands had caught;
Morrow and yesterday were naught.

The night has fallen, and the tide . . .
Now and again comes drifting home,
Across these aching barrens wide,
A sigh like driven wind or foam:
In grief the flood is bursting home.

-Bliss Carman, June, 1886

Hey it's "Meet the Artist" day today at the Montreal Art Center! Downtown at the corner of des Seigneurs and William.

I'll be there from 4-8 or later. If you think the kind of painting I do (see the video) looks like a lot of fun, come on by and muck around!

The person in the painting in this video has never been revealed. Not even the buyer of the painting ever asked me - so I presume they probably don't know either. Can anyone guess who it is?

Now that my appetite has been well totally stifled after dining on flamingos over on Krista May's blog, I'm ready to share something wet.

No I'm not talking about (that!!) shedding a tear over years of my life wasted be it either because of hitting "breaktime" while standing in line at a government office back in the U.S.S.R. and losing my place in the line, no, nor trying to connect with ~anyone-at-all~ (especially a bank or someone who is supposed to provide a service) by telephone here in Canada.

No. I'm talking about "Wet Canvas".

Who remembers "Wet Canvas"? It is like a community of artists with a huge conglomeration of message boards, which many, or most, artists are probably familiar with.

I was a member there so long ago I forgot the user name, so today I rejoined. Wow - if you want to get a look at the entire history of the internet on one site, Wet Canvas is the place to go.

It's still fairly active, though I get the feeling I'm peeking around in a ghost town in there. Still some interesting info - but watch out! The thread you're reading might be from 2002!

The following video has nothing to do with anything and is made available purely to provide some entertainment after reading this lame blog.

In some of my videos, I'm trying to evoke a feeling that might be complementary to the painting or paintings featured.

So, is my future as a video producer about to transform into a beautiful butterfly...

Or is it more of a moth?

I did this painting over this past Christmas and into the New Year. It could probably be almost anywhere in the U.S. or Canada but I imagined it in a particular valley in British Columbia. I've heard about how there used to be "barn-raisings", where all the neighbours would pitch in to help a farmer get a barn up quick. I thought that would be so cool to see. I would love to be there for one! I guess the only thing that beats it is an artist putting up a barn!

It is one thing to get up to speed just with what it takes to put up a video on youtube or another service. It is something else yet again to find the ways to put up videos that will be fresh, interesting and perhaps even have the potential to go viral (or even get in the 1000s of views). For an artist, the first two or three videos / slideshows are relatively easy to find content for - we all have the content on our computers already! It's after you have already done those first few videos that the more challenging part comes up. I have had a few videos that have been somewhat successful - but I still have a long way to go. Anyone want to share ideas?