sketches of Nicaragua

cheers

5X4feet
A commission

farmer benn from cumbria

$475

this is inspired by a picture i found in an old national geographic. the entire article is on this farmer named Farmer Benn, who is quoted as saying: "i like doin' things the old way". he was a happy, overworked farmer. he is also quoted as saying: "when will i retire? i'm workin' myslef down from 90-hour weeks. Maybe next year it'll be 80 hours." a typical and charming image of farmers.
(Currently housed in Halifax)

for a bowl of rice

from a picture of a thai hilltribe woman, from my trip in 2005.

she is cleaning rice in the traditional way.

old friends

as i wend to the shores i know not,
as i list to the dirge, the voices of men and women
wreck'd
as i inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
as the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and colser,
i too but signify at the utmost a littlewash'd-up drift,
a few sands and dead leaves to gather,
gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and
drift.

-Walt Whitman,
from As I Ebb'd with the Ocean Life

peace of the wild things

inspired by my dad and the poem by Wendell Berry:


Peace of the Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.




-Wendell Berry

"clothesline"

4ftx2.5ft (approx)


i love this painting not only for its energy, but for its vintage feel. the subject reminds me of my grandmother. i (loosly) based the photo off of an old black and white photograph i found.

train hopping

even if you don't catch a ride, the act of trying to

go somewhere

makes the sidewalk and bills melt away,

as the foliage massages your soul awake.

and you find that somehow you've left one place for another

without necessarily moving very far at all.

pause

after the fieild II

30x30inches
i did a smaller sketch similar to this last year.
this is a bigger and better version.
($450)

seaworn rythm

vagrant finesse
o driftwood heart,
velveteen
battered by storm
Resilient itinerant
Matched only by the sea

30x30inches

sky light

10x10 inches

winter bare

5x7inches
for sale

tree shadows

Trees are magicians
Who lay their echo
gently
along frost-crisped lawns
And cracked sidewalks
Who wrap their blue arms around boxed houses,
Entreating you to listen,
Loosen
the vice that holds you still

(5x7inches)

gathering

I'm trying to get away from using photos that i didn't take,

but sometimes they're just so good. this one is of some italian women harvesting

jasmine for purfume. as a justification: i want to capture the diversity of agriculture around the world. i want bring a visual lucidity to the lives that literally carry the world on their backs. i mean, we already are connected through the products that we use--painting is my way of bringing a little more awareness and heart to our interconnected existence.

(i guess i need to get myself a camera and start travelling the world)

seaside retirement

this was the view from a borrowed window

a winter walk

oil on canvas

20cm/20cm

an update

there's a fishing boat dancing on its tether, just outside my borrowed window. sometimes seagulls fly by and i wish i could paint as fast as a camera. obscura. i'm starting 2008 with a month of painting. i really don't do much else-- i can barely bring myself to wash dishes. the laundry i put in yesterday still isn't hung up. i have good intentions every morning to get chores done, but the paint is sticky and holds me well. i've stepped on my pallet too many times and have ran out of clean socks.

(this is a picture of some projects and the space i'm using this month)

i have been overwhelmed by friends and strangers support. right now i am living off painting money. i am also hoping that my art will fund most of my 2008 adventures. in february i plan on flying to nicaragua for an internship at a developement farm called Project Bona Fide. the events of 2008 have been serendipitous--i am and will be doing things that i love--arting and farming. how exciting!

thanks for keeping your eye on this page. i will be adding new paintings within the next month.if anyone has any commission ideas, this is the time to ask. a couple of artist friends and i will be having two art shows before the end of February--one in st. stephen NB, and one in Halifax. stay tuned....

italian farmers

• "after the fields"
• oil on canvasboard
• sold

• 
  
  "A Shepherd and his son"


• 
  
  oil on canvas board


• 
  
  for sale, $160

recent work

"Chess in the park" (sold)

"Daydreaming" (sold)

"park hall" (sold)


st. croix porch sold


last week there was a university art show. these are some of the pieces that i showed.

darn bear

picnic in the woods

this painting is currently being housed in the Wired Monk coffee shop, at:

5147 Morris Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia.

this painting encapsulates the many memories i have with friends on afternoon walks/picnics on the nature trail near my university. AND the sunlit skin was too gorgeous to ignore. i'm pleased with this study.

New Brunswick honor

tiny tiny journals of the beautiful beautiful fall

combine

$165

stolen words

$65

canadian cowboy

this was a commission

a bag of periwinkles

8x8x3in
$150(plus shipping and handling, if needed)

We will fight sea monsters
On this Ship made of pillows and cotton sails
We will be slapped by salty spray
With Tangled hair and shiny eyes
*Grab your finest sword*

we'll see the world
sideways and downways
and insideout-way

we’ll see the trees
lying and hanging
and feel the clouds beneath our feet

*bring your finest hat*

books stocked high,
shells, stolen from the rocking beach
fall, imprisoned in my room
for
I am a lunatic,
stalking Nature’s elixir,

A pathological madwoman
I crave the scent of soil
I bask in the dapple of the sun and trees
romance

Stand on cliff and
BREATHE
As if you were robbing the world
of its greatest gift
*breathe*

plant ivy on my grave
to crawl and grow
and regrow again

plant ivy on my grave
so I might be a berry,
polished by dew
and nibbled by sparrows

so I might see
the ends of the earth
forever

a flight, a flash,
a break between the trees
because,

I am

sun poetry

12x12inches
$150

this is similar to another painting i've done. i just liked it and wanted to visit the subject again. it's from a picture i took of my friends heather and joel on a little capebreton holiday a few of us took last august.

Ceilidh

this is from a picture of my mother and grandfather at my aunt's wedding twentyfive years ago. it was a mother's day gift last year.

stories

jungle chickens

1.5mx0.75m
my mom calls these the dinosaur chickens. i painted this five years ago. it's very...colourful and very different from my style today...and it's for sale! chicken lovers?

reminiscing

in order of appearance:
1. feed the birds
2. sheep shear
3. social airs




i'm at home for a week. this house is full of my old paintings...some better than others. i thought i'd share some. these were all done in 2005...my people year i guess.