Capitol Hill Dawn - September, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 60" x 48"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

I'm an early riser and my favourite time is that calm period just after the sun rises. There's a stillness in the early morning and the optimism of a new day that is still full of potential. Or maybe I've become misanthropic as I've gotten older, so I like the world best when there are fewer people awake in it.

This painting shows a lovely late-spring morning when Burrard Inlet is calm - see, there's only one freighter waiting to load - and the commuters haven't started bustling yet. There's a green and yellow shade to the water from reflected sunlight and new growth. The distortion on the Ironworkers and train bridges are similar to my earlier, bluer version but I wanted to focus more that special luminescent morning light that the early riser Vancouverites are privileged to behold.

3401 Fleming Street- September, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 36" x 60"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This is a century-old former boarding house near Commercial Drive in East Van. The owners had completely renovated the exterior by removing the old stucco finish to expose the original wood beneath. They asked that a hint of the pre-reno house be represented somehow, so that's the right-hand side part that seems to be in the shadow. There's a bit of the old dark brown trim style, too.

They have a lovely casually manicured garden full of personal symbols and memories. Lucky are people and the animals who get to sit there. I positioned their little daschund near the stairs and put their pretty cat perched on top of one of the columns. I also put a tribute to another cat they had (RIP) up in the right-hand tree, like the Cheshire Cat.

I made the distortion vaguely pyramidic because it seems like a house with a solid base. The columns and fence wiggle like toes in the sun. The season is spring, mid-day as the sun moves over one's left shoulder when you're facing west. It's one of those buttery warm new-bud days that seem completely happy and serene.

Summer Street Character Houses - September, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12"
Located at: Bezanson Art Consulting

This is a row of character houses like those around City Hall. I painted them with full summer blooms in their gardens and hanging baskets.

Heritage Hall - September, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

Heritage Hall is located at Main and 15th in Vancouver. It used to be the old post office a century ago, and later the RCMP headquarters way back in the day. Nowadays, it hosts a variety of weddings and craft fairs in its beautiful ballroom. In fact, you can see a wedding or some kind of celebration going on almost every weekend.

So I painted this one to look like a slightly eccentric bespectacled wedding guest, kind of like that one beloved relative everyone seems to have.

The Lee Building - September, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: The Beaumont Studios

There's a Facebook page devoted to former residents of the Lee Building, which is located at Main Street and Broadway. It's a well-known building with a rugged "east side" look and houses many artists and designers, with the requisite hip coffee shops and diners at the bottom.

I painted this one with the slouchy insouciance of a Main Street hipster.

Crow Longboard - August, 2011
Acrylic on longboard, about 12"x46"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This was an experiment for a friend who loves crows, and even owned a pet crow in his youth. The topside is based on a photograph that he took of several crows in a tree. It is meant to be muscular and visceral foliage blending into stormy crow-filled skies. Crows at sunset, just before they migrate.

In one of Van Gogh's last paintings, "Wheatfield with Crows", the crows are supposed to be symbolic of death and rebirth. The bottom side of the deck is a pair of crows at night. It reminds me of airbrushed 1970's van-art but the intention was to execute it more like Van Gogh's starry night.

One interesting thing about crows is that you rarely see them alone - they seem to hang out in pairs. Yes, they mate for life, but they hang out in pairs or groups because they are social animals and recognize, for their purposes, that community is stronger than solitude. It's fascinating to watch a pair of crows working together to open a container or protect their babies.

If longboards had a third side, I'd do one of a series of crows doing that funny Charlie Chaplin drunken dictator stagger when they walk. Maybe I'd set them up as if they were crossing Abbey Road a là the Beatles.

I painted over the grip tape and stickers with acrylic - I was too lazy to remove it, but I thought it would add some nice texture. Then I coated the whole thing in several coats of varnish and about a half-inch of resin. Resin is tricky to work with but it gives an incredibly durable albeit slippery surface. Good thing there's clear grip tape.

Vanorama Enorma - July, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 72"x36"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This is a larger version of my Vanorama painting with more focus on the water and the iridescent quality of the western light reflected in the glass and metal buildings. I love this view. This, to me, is quintessential Vancouver. The bridges, the Oz-like radiance in the setting sun, and the jagged mountainscape backdrop. There's an almost unreal and unreachable quality to the downtown peninsula of Vancouver.

Burrard Inlet - July, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 30" x 24"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

The customers wanted a painting that captured some well-known landmarks around Vancouver. The elements they like most about Vancouver are the Lion's Gate Bridge, the mountains, the totem poles in Stanley Park, the yellow suphur piles, and the floating Chevron gas station.

So this is a bit of an aerial view with some characteristic exaggerations to fit all the elements in. I've also included the Brockton Point Lighthouse, several freighters, a harbour plane, a departing cruise ship, and even a couple of kayaks. It's a busy painting, but Burrard Inlet is a busy place!

Poster for Children's Literature Course - July, 2011
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 12" x 18"

This is an illustration for a course poster for a Children's Literature class. The title and theme of the course was Sense, Sin, & Suspense in Children's Literature and it was based on a Lewis Carroll quote from Alice in Wonderland: "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense."

So the lovely little Alice-girl is reading a book and imagining her house turning into a bird and flying away. Imagination is the best part of childhood, isn't it? When you don't know it, you imagine it.

In the final poster version, I scanned and digitally edited the poster image so it was longer and had more space between Alice and the house-bird. Alice became much smaller and the house-bird much farther away to accommodate the text.

Poster Illustration for "Writers Are Sexy" Writing Contest - July, 2011
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 20" x 15"

The slogan for the writing contest was "Writers Are Sexy" so this tongue-in-cheek illustration features a couple of personified writing tools in a suggested post-coital setting, complete with rumpled pages and spilled ink. The male pen is, of course, a Bic.

Banned Books Course Illustration featuring Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Lolita - July, 2011
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 15" x 20"

This is an illustration used for an English class poster advertising a course in Banned and Censored Books. It features two characters from the studied texts, American Psycho's Patrick Bateman (by Bret Easton Ellis) and Nabokov's title character, Lolita, in a sort of True Romance mashup breaking free from a locked-up book. Lolita's sprinkler scene mirrors Bateman's blood-spatter scene.

Ivanhoe Night - May, 2011
Acrylic on linen canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

The first version of the Ivanhoe was meant to evoke the lunchbag crowd of workers that frequent the place. This version, at night, signifies a mattress.

The Ivanhoe is also a very reasonably priced backpacker's hostel a block away from the big Pacific Central train and bus station. In this version , I gave it a decidedly Van Gogh Starry Night look with warmly lit windows and a bit of easy sag to the walls, like a comfortable mattress.

Sun Tower - April, 2011
Acrylic on bevelled canvas, 12"x 12"
Located at: The Beaumont Studios

The Sun Tower is a standard fixture in Vancouver's historic downtown. The distinctive green dome was painted to imitate air-worn copper. When it was completed in 1912, it was called The World Building and was the tallest building in the British Empire at 82 m (269 ft), surpassing the previous record-holder, the Dominion Building located just around the corner. For two years, it was the tallest building in Canada until Toronto's 20-story Optima Business Centre opened in 1914.

This one was painted as if two people passed each other on the street and then cast a backwards glance at one another.

Dominion Building - April, 2011
Acrylic on bevelled canvas, 12"x 12"
Located at: The Beaumont Studios

Located on the edge of Gastown (207 West Hastings St), the Dominion Building was Vancouver's first steel-framed high-rise. Upon its completion in 1910, this 13-storey building was the tallest commercial building in the British Empire. It's just down from the more well-known Harbour Centre.

I painted these two buildings as if they are dancing and swirling in an eternal shuffling minuet.

Skycranes - March, 2011
Acrylic on linen canvas, 60" x 48"
Located at: The Beaumont Studios

This is a view of North Vancouver from Gastown with the Port of Vancouver stevedore cranes in the foreground. The ubiquitous cranes - you see them everywhere in Vancouver - are like dinosaurs flexing across the sky. They make the landscape seem prehistoric.

I added a lot of scaly texture to the sky and made the cranes the only vibrant point of color in the otherwise rain-chromatic landscape of Vancouver. That's how they are: the brightness and the scale draws the eye towards them from the most faraway points.

Vanorama - March, 2011
Acrylic on linen canvas, 50" x 20"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

I planned this one in my head for a while. Vancouver is one of those cities that becomes like Oz when you see the setting sun reflecting off the buildings. At the "magic hour" when the sun sets, the usually unremarkable white and green buildings become uniformly iridescent and beetle-green against the dark blue mountain backdrop. It is a sublime effect reserved for late summer evenings.

I called it "Vanorama" as a pun on "Panorama," and "Vancouver." I know of no building or view in Vancouver that gives this view. It's an imagined stitched-together view from multiple perspectives. You might be able to see all the bridges and mountains and major landmarks if you were hovering above Queen Elizabeth park or False Creek like a bird.

I also used metallic and pearlized paint to increase the reflectivity and add to the glowing effect on the water and buildings. The stadium on the right-hand side is new. It's no longer the BC Place mushroom but the not-yet-finished crownlike construction. The Lions mountains are visible and not covered in snow which indicates late summer. The new Erikson building is there, too, as wiggly as the rest of the buildings wish they were. There's a harmony to these remembered summer nights when the city is embraced by light and bridges.

Winter in Cottage Country - February, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

Cottage country is a big deal in Canada, particularly in Ontario. This is a classically-styled cabin with happy recreational touches like a boat, a big, broad deck, and plenty of windows to appreciate the view. The setting is on a clear bright winter day.

The building is shaped like a smile with upbeat roof points and dimples in the structure. It appears cheerful and sturdy with lots of optimism in the pointing-up tree branches and clouds. Nothing slouches in this place of refuge and cheer.

Chez Mike - February, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This is a late-afternoon early evening summer scene. It's when cottage life is at full tilt in Ontario.

This one was personified to match the owner and appear strong and reflective and warm. It fills the frame and seems like a great big grin.

Gaffney Cottage - February, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This is a spring cottage scene, indicated by the warm, patchwork lighting, the flowery lawn, and the new-green leafy foliage. I debated about putting the Canadian flag in because it bisected the picture but you can't have a cottage in Canadian cottage country without the flag; it's as ubiquitous as the trees.

2599 Belloc Street - February, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

When I paint houses, I usually angle rooftops and trees upwards to symbolize optimism because homes are happy places that reflect their owners, past and present. This building was also structured as if it were poised for flight above the well-groomed colourful shrubbery. There's a swirliness to the sky and driveway and a sense of motion and wind in the trees.

Color of Industry - January, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 50" x 20"
Located at: Personal Collection (NFS)

I did this one for myself to match and uplift my mostly mundane black, white, and beige décor at home. This painting is a blend of my two styles: one of whimsical personification and the other of textural abstraction. The cranes are the most lifelike elements in this painting because the cranes are an omnipresent feature in Vancouver, particularly in East Van. You see them from every street and every level in every building. They're huge and easily personified. Many people think they look like an orange-red version of the Star Wars snow walkers.

Vancouver was built on industry. Much of the reverential sculptures around False Creek pay tribute to our industrial past, even though most people would just as soon that past never existed. It took years for False Creek to recover from the industrial sludge that killed most of the wildlife. But in the "Hope" category, False Creek now gets visiting whales looking for food!

Still. It's a hard thing to look back on our industrial past with our present environmental view and not feel squeamish. I remember working for a certain forestry processing place that determined water was okay to re-enter the ecosystem if they threw 20 salmon into the recovery pool and three of those salmon lived. Three.

That said, this one was done with a sort of fossilized texture on the city of Vancouver. The sails look like bones, the cracks in the sky appear to be years of washed-over grime. Meanwhile, the orangey-red cranes persist in chromatology, vibrance, and motion.

First & Commercial - December, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 40" x 30"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

Vancouver's Commercial Drive is one of the more colorful areas in Vancouver. "The Drive," as it is more commonly known, is what I consider Vancouver's "old school" ethnic neighbourhood with loads of Mediterranean, Latin American, and eastern European stores lining the streets. The theme of this painting is soccer.

Commercial Drive is soccer central and the World Cup usually brings this place to a standstill because it is so full of cheering fans. So picture toilet paper rolls being thrown overhead, exuberance, fist-pumping cheers, and if you look closely you might see a series of hidden flags for Spain, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Brasil, and France. Hint: look at the newspaper boxes on the street and think of stripes on a flag.

1887 West 3rd - December, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 48" x 60"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This commission was from someone who had very fond memories of living in this triplex in Kitsilano. They installed the fence and the window box when they lived there and both were still in use when I took the reference photo.

The overall shape of the house is kind of like a pudgy teapot with a face. There was something in the sweet old-fashioned touches like the white picket fence and the flower-filled window box that were best expressed with a teapotty shape. Houses have faces, and this one definitely did.

At the time, they had a friendly fat black cat with green eyes and a crooked tail. The cat was placed on the front steps because he was "usually out front greeting people." The customer's favourite West coast season is spring, with "a sky that has a good amount of grey, just to keep it real!" The lighting is warm, buttery late afternoon (left-side western light).

I had this one up on my easel around Christmas and had lots of admirers. One fellow, a realtor, stared at it for a while. I told him the address and he said, "Yes, I know the place. In fact, I know someone who was born and raised there." Funny coincidences.

These are my favourite sort of paintings to do. There's a built-in nostalgia and sentimentality when you think of where you spent happy times and it is best described with whimsy and a few emotional details, like the cat, the red geraniums, and the five o'clock lighting. I like to imagine everyday scenes that were repeated over and over in one's memory. This is life extant.

Character Houses - Red - December, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This was part of a two-painting set for a Christmas commission from someone who liked my Kitsilano Houses painting. The direction I got was that the recipient liked red, so the houses got complementary primary-color treatment.

This was inspired by the houses around City Hall and in Kitsilano.

Character Houses - Orange, with Tree - December, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This was part of a two-painting set for a Christmas commission from someone who liked my Kitsilano Houses painting. The direction I got was that the recipient liked orange and was fond of a particular tree in their yard. I put a lot of orange tones in the painting plus orange-complementary tones of green and blue.

This was inspired by the houses around City Hall and in Kitsilano.

Deep Cove III - December, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 8"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

Deep Cove is one of the most picturesque hideaway places in North Vancouver. Probably even North America, but we don't want everyone to know about it! The house is not the focus in this one because everyone always heads for the water, so that's where the eye goes. Deep Cove is a huge boating community and is THE place to find undiscovered secluded little shoals.

Vancouver Sunrise - November, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 40" x 40"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

I’ve done variations on this scene before, which is what you see when you’re pulling into downtown Vancouver on the seabus. In this one, I decided consciously use more fiery reds and yellows and fewer blues and greens. I wanted the overall effect to be a bouquet of jewel-toned warmth: sapphire, emerald, ruby, and gold.

As much as I love Vancouver, there are more dull days here than bright ones. You get a lot of mist and an unrelenting monochromatic sense of gray every day when you live in a coastal rainforest: gray days in, gray days out, gray days in-between.

This tribute says that after all the endless damp gray-Gray-GRAY when you get a bright day in Vancouver, it is really, REALLY bright. When you wake up and see a clearing in the rain and feel the sun, it feels like all the Vitamin D in your body sits up and shouts, Booyah!

Port of Vancouver: Cranes and Sails - November, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, 72" x 36"
Located at: Solus Corporate Collection (SOLD)

This is the (clearly exaggerated) view from Harbour Center in Vancouver. The first thing that struck me when I saw the panoramic source photo was the stunning cloudscape and the epic lit-from-within lighting. I do love skies!

But what I really liked was the way the Canada Place sails and the big harbour cranes seemed to be facing off. Both of these elements are iconic fixtures in Vancouver. You can see the cranes from various points along the east side, and the sails from much of downtown and the west side. To me they’re symbolic representations of the east side/west side polarity that exists in Vancouver and how there’s always a bit of tension between the two sides. Isn’t that the case everywhere?

I did a bit of a prehistoric take because those big orange cranes always looked like brontosauruses to me. I made the sails look a bit like the desiccated ribcage of some devoured animal. No overt symbolism intended, of course, but I noticed a lot of pleased grins from the east side folks who have seen me working on this. I kept the palette on the warmer side and eschewed my tendency to emphasize the blues and greens in Vancouver. The ultimate focus, of course, is the pathway in towards the mountains via the water. More so than the duality of east and west is the appreciation for the mountains and the water surrounding our fair city