Splash & Paint

Small Not Tall Palm

2011-11-28T06:39:00.001-08:00

A small palm tree near a small casa. Perfect for a sketch. It's 5x7" pen and ink with watercolour.

My wife and I are living in the Dominican with some friends for the next 6 months. We plan to learn Spanish and enjoy their culture. Went to a baseball game the other night, it was great fun but loud, the home team won. We also attend a local Pentecostal church when we can, its even louder. They say the Dominican is the second loudest country in the world.

Check out our new Dominican blog. It is called Mission Improbable and can be reached through Splash and Paint.

Calla's Together

2011-08-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Flowers for my other daughter Angela Hernandez who along with her husband Victor recently moved into their own apartment
They met and married in the Dominican 2 years ago. Victor seems like the perfect match for her, as a matter of fact they even have similar features. What's up with that!
These are Calla Lilies painted in watercolour.

Yellow Bearded Iris

2011-08-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

A nice flower that also makes a nice painting. I added the bud from another picture and I think it compliments and makes the painting more interesting. This painting is a watercolour and is painted on Arches water colour board, a relatively new offering from Arches. It is watercolour paper with a type of matt board backing. The size is 16 by 20 and doesn't need to be stretched.

2011-01-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

Iris: 8x 10

I've been working on changing, not so much the way I paint but what I paint.

My wife nagged me for years to paint flowers so to prove that I do listen from time to time here is an Iris on water colour paper using watercolour, acrylic gouache and gold and copper metal leaf. I'm fairly satisfied with this one.

The Richness of Nature

2010-08-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Something new and out of the ordinary. This watercolour is 5 x 7" and the background is gilded with metal that is made from a silver colour and a gold colour, it is not precious metal but silver-made of aluminum and a variety of gold coloured metals-although it doesn't show on this scan the metal also has blue and copper colours in it as well. It was painted on a piece 200# Fabriano watercolour paper. The metal is glued to the paper. And although I don't normally leave the pencil marks on a painting, I like the look of this one. One thing, it takes a lot of patience and care to work with this metal because it is extremely fragile.

Iris 2

2010-08-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Another attempt of mixed media watercolour, acrylic Gouache and Metal leaf. The drawing is somewhat exaggerated I'll probably redo it or one like it. It has possibilities.

Early Spring

2009-12-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

A site that was crying to be painted. Painted with watercolour during a moderate winter, I thought it was a nice barn worth remembering. It's gone now, replaced by rows and rows and rows of new houses that all look the same. Most people who live there now will never know or imagine what was there before them. Well this is what you replaced but then nothing lasts forever and at some point the homes you live in will also be replaced.

All Stones Canyon, Alberta

2009-12-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

This is a canyon in the Rockey Mountains near the Big Horn Dam. As you can see, the rock formations in this canyon are really unusual. They seem to have been twisted and pulled like toffee. Although the rock was red I did exaggerate the colour somewhat, near the base there are small veins of coal. Traveling in this area one has to be aware of and on the lookout for grizzlies. In a small box canyon, not a good place to meet one.

The medium is watercolour and pencil crayon. Watercolour was used in the sky and as a base for the pencil crayons.

Preparing for the next ride

2009-05-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

This particular drawing is of a rodeo cowboy preparing his saddle and visualizing his next ride on a wild, red eyed bronc. This was from a photo I took at Swan River in Northern Manitoba.

Stuck on the Ice

2009-03-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

This drawing was taken from a photograph in the Arctic near Baffin Island. The new Skidoo's were just beginning to take the place of the sled dog, however with a sled when things broke or a dog became injured or died, the owner still had at least half a dozen healthy dogs that would allow him to continue traveling.
Now if your sled has a problem you had better be able to fix it no matter what it is. Your life might depend on your ability to keep these machines running.

The House Warmer

2009-03-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

This one is for my daughter and her husband. They just bought a new house and will be moving into it at the end of March. It's 11x15 " or 16x20 with the frame. I'll try a larger one later on, in the meantime I hope they like this one.

Bent All Out of Shape

2009-03-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

One of the first paintings I did of a flower. I can't remember when ,I took the Picture, but I do remember it seemed to be a somewhat strange looking flower. One of my daughters liked it and took to Calgary. She's a good daughter, she likes everything I do!

Leaving Saskatchewan

2009-03-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

An early snow and the geese are already gathering together for the flight to the southern states. One of Canada's most prolific hunting grounds, geese often cover farmers fields in Saskatchewan by the thousands sometimes destroying whole fields of grain. In Saskatchewan hunters are welcome.

Spring

2009-03-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

Full of light and warm colours.
This is the kind of picture you want on your wall when the temperature breaks a 50 year record for the month of March in Alberta.
This year it fell to minus 32 or somewhere near minus 46 with the wind chill added.

This painting is an 8x 10 watercolour on very rare and very rough paper.

Parked for the winter

2009-01-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

This India Ink drawing features a winter view, hard to achieve if your working with black and white. The town is nearly a ghost town. It.s called Rowley and is located in central Alberta just north of Drumheller a town that seems to be full of dinosaurs

Battle River Barn in summer

2009-01-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Battle River barn in summer.
I could probably paint dozens pictures
of this barn from every angle and it
would still be a decent painting.
The old car came from Reynolds back lot -
his private collection.
Link to Reynolds Museum is found here.

Drilling for the Big Payday

2008-11-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

Early oil field workers in the 1940s working the famous Leduc oil field in Alberta.

This piece "Drilling for the Big Payday" is a Pen and Ink composition using a technique called Stippling or Pointillism. It measures 10 inches by 10 inches.

Solitude

2008-11-24T14:18:00.000-08:00

A few miles east of Edmonton this old farm building and wooden grain bins has been painted by many artists including myself. Based on a picture I took a few years ago the building looks pretty good, however in reality it is beginning to collapse and will probably not survive another winter.

High Flyers #1

2008-11-23T18:03:00.001-08:00

High Wide and Handsome

2008-11-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

Flying high wide and handsome, these five are heading for some farmers field to feed on grain.
They have to prepare themselves for the thousands of miles they will travel into the southern states of the U.S.

The Promise of Warm Days

2008-11-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

Even when it's 40 or 50 below there is always the promise of a warmer season when the sun arrives.

In the high Arctic North during the long winter months the sun does not appear, only darkness 24 hours a day. But when the sun does rise above the horizon, everyone knows that warm days are close at hand.

Even Inukshuks wait for the summer sun.

The Mysterious Arctic

2008-11-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

You never know how a picture will look until it's finished. My advice when painting a difficult painting is to finish it. It may end up better than you thought. You can always do it again.

Eskimo Stroll at 50 Below

2008-10-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

This particular painting was painted from a photo that was taken near Pele Bay which is near Hudson's Bay in the eastern Arctic. You can tell that this day is very cold because of the way the parkas are pulled tight around their faces. It was probably in the neighbourhood of 50 to 60 degrees below zero and that is without windchill added to the temperature.

This painting won first prize at the Allied Arts Council Open Art Competition in the Advanced Category 2008

Sundogs and Inukshuks

2008-10-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

These huge rock piles are found in the arctic and are called Inukshuks. The original Inukshuks were put together by people who inhabited the northern Canadian arctic before the Inuit or Eskimo arrived. From what I have been told, for some unknown reason the original people suddenly left the Canadian north heading east toward Greenland. That said the Inuit have continued the tradition of building Inukshuks. One thing is certain, when your are alone on the land and hundreds of miles from the nearest community, seeing these stone people on a hill or on the horizon, makes the land seem less lonely.

Snow on the Battle River 11x 15

2008-09-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

This particular barn overlooks the
Battle River. The car came from the private collection of Stanley G. Reynolds. The Reynolds Museum , a large collection of restored old cars/trucks/tractors and heavy equipment is in Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

This picture, an 11"x 15" watercolour won the People's Choice Award at the 2008 Allied Art Council show in Alberta.

Night Flight

2008-09-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

In the beginning there was water, then I added paint and thought to myself, "that's messy but fun, now 20 years later, with a lot of support from my wife, and some frustrating years, I have managed to produce quite a number of paintings , some good some not so good. Here are a few examples. If you have the time please check out my websiteto see more of my work go to
splashandpaint.com The web site is still under construction but will be open to the public soon

The painting of geese in flight was given as a wedding gift to some friends. As soon as I can I plan to do other Canadian geese paintings. Here in Alberta we seem to be overrun by these big birds but they do make a great painting.

The Pioneer grain elevator at Calmar Alberta. The elevator is now gone. The pheasant was flushed out by my Beagle who completely ignored it.