What would bring me to the need of mounting a painting to board? I have become partial to painting on pre-primed unstretched canvas. It allows me the flexibility to paint whatever size I want, not worrying whether or not I have the correct size on hand, freedom to crop mid-painting and a sense of detachment that allows the creative process to flow better. You can buy pre-primed canvas by the foot or in rolls at good art supply stores. When you need a specific size, [...]

I came across a variation of this saying, changed it to suit the individual artist and partnered with DesignbyHumans.com to provide it for sale as an artist tshirt. If you are an artist, it lets others know what you do has value. If a lover of art, it is a great way to show support for your local artists. The design is available as a t-shirt, long sleeve crew neck, baseball tee, hoodies and stickers for those that want to spread the message and to help [...]

I wanted to record a full session of an impressionist still life painting to show how the painting process is anything but linear. Many times, even with knowing what direction you are going, you take one step forward and two or three back. Believe it or not, this is a very normal process to painting. Ask any seasoned artist and they will say the same thing. Until you experience the organic process of painting, you think it is all accomplished in one fluid process from [...]

In all my demos and workshops I often say painting from photos is the reason that the end result of so many artist paintings end up so mediocre. Well, that is the polite version. It usually comes out like this, "Photos are the reason you paint so bad." :) I'll try to outline my reasoning throughout this article. Composition First and foremost, most photos the average person takes are un-composed and shot on auto. Some make great snapshots but nothing really great to paint from. [...]

I recently finished my portrait of Greg Moore, the Mayor of Port Coquitlam, and had the opportunity to present it to him at the start of the first council meeting of 2015. The portrait came about when I met the Mayor during an exhibition I had with two other local artist in Leigh Square, Denise Maxwell and Catherine Dumaine, back in early 2014. While walking through Leigh Square with Greg that day we discussed the idea of his portrait and we made arrangements for a [...]