This location could be anywhere in Nova Scotia, but the reference photo was taken pretty deep on the Eastern Shore on Saturday. I have such a soft spot for Nova Scotian lawns.
Lovely and heart-warming commission I got from someone to capture his parents cycling in a place that no longer exists.
I visited the site near Blomidon, and the pilings for the bridge are still there. The road is now a dead-end, and there’s a tiny self-serve bakery with a sign that reads “dead-end bakery” on it.
I extrapolated the design of the covered bridge from limited archival material and photos of similar bridges in New Brunswick.
It’s moments like these that I feel so grateful to be able to document Nova Scotia. I’m glad it’s useful to people!
“Procession” 11x14. Oil on gallery-depth canvas.
My family and I went to High Head trail in Prospect, NS last weekend to lay our family’s matriarch to rest. I took a couple photos along the way and came home to paint this.
This painting challenged me. A lot. The background was painted over and over again. The trees went through 6 iterations each. Over and over again, I debated scrapping it and starting over on a new canvas.
But I persisted. And as the painting began to emerge, I realized that the frustration I felt was actually because I was painting my grief.
Like my grief, making this painting also felt complicated. There’s so much life in the Nova Scotian geological record, and for me, these layers of rock and salt hold my memories.
This is my third oil painting. After doing some testing, I’m realizing some my own preferences when it comes to oils:
Planning trumps everything. Well-executed composition is everything to someone like me, who isn’t super experienced yet with blending, is generally impatient, and paints a lot of architecture.
I’m also realizing I prefer primed + gessoed canvas to gessoed board. The tooth of the canvas helps me control the flow of paint better. Better control = better results (in my opinion).
I’m starting to incorporate a tiny bit of impasto technique to my paintings, but in a controlled, limited way. For example, the power lines in this painting were done using a palette knife edge, revealing some of the underpainting and laying down olive green.
Critique okay, but please be kind! Oils are the most challenging yet rewarding medium I’ve ever worked with.
Cheers.
I take my own reference pictures on hikes. Usually these images just give me a general idea of something I want to paint — they’re a roadmap for the concept. The composition and colours of the work need to be planned a little differently from how the reference material looks.
Some photographed ideas are immediately really strong and clear, others need a little work.
When I was younger, I believed schizophrenia was keeping me here against my will. My support system is in Halifax, but I wanted wider pastures. Nowadays, being held here feels easy.
Held by the people, held by the land. Happy.
Some of your folks’ work is truly incredible, and is pushing the envelope on where I’d like to get to with this medium. But for now, here’s a painting of a wharf at sunset.
I learned a lot with this first painting, including overworking it a bit, even getting to a stage where I was wiping oil off with paper towel. I’d also like to improve at big, confident shapes and worrying less about the details (I was a stiff and robotronic painting this). Anyway, hope you enjoy! Thanks for the inspiration.
I love how the light feels close to sunset in this spot in Seabright. My partner and I were returning from hiking at Polly’s Cove last week, and I had to pull over and snap a reference pic.