Fond memories

As a young artist  in my mid-twenties I was heavily influenced by one of my favourite illustrators, Normal Rockwell. At the time I made my living doing pen and ink drawings and limited edition prints. I tended to work in series, thoroughly exploring themes or subjects before moving on to the next. For a while I did many drawings of kids and typical situations, most often featuring my favourite models, Peter and Rebecca. One series I worked up was of them and their favourite outdoor toy 'the TORNADO' They had robbed the undercarriage from a classic red wagon to build their personal hot rod. The punch line was the bumper sticker on the back which read 'I drove the Coquihalla' - a new freeway through the mountains. The first drawing in the series was called 'the critic'.

The next piece was called 'the race' for obvious reasons.

A local police officer and friend kindly posed with the kids for this classic piece called 'Friendly Reminder.'

The brush off

In our shop all of the painting is done the old fashioned way - by hand with a brush. There is a special look that can only be achieved in that fashion. While everyone else sands their pieces with a vengeance and then carefully sprays the paint to get things as smooth as humanly possible we instead brush the paint onto carefully textured surfaces. The result is magic every time. We stock a good selection of brushes in all sizes and in various states of wear and each has their purpose. We regularly replace our old friends too when they are worn down to a stub which happens all too quickly.

Bulldog

There seems to be no end to the variety of projects we take on and with each one our skill set is stretched a little more. In the last few days, for the first time I tackled a (realistic) sculpt of an English bulldog. It's been both fun and challenging. As I worked on the dog it reminded me of my good friend Doug's similar friend named Winchester.