This week we began looking at abstraction. This was done by creating a composition of objects that have some significance for my wife Susan, over which I layed a grid (the letters ‘Susan’). Then in painting it, basically, whenever I … Read More

In a little bit of cross referencing I would like to mention that we (myself and my wife, Susan Sauvé), in our other life, have a video production company, WhitePine Productions and we are now combining our interest in art … Read More

One of the two main benefits that I’m getting from my art class is a better understanding and use of colour. This has come mainly from using a limited palette. My preferred method at the moment is to choose 3 … Read More

On the last morning of our visit to the cabin on Lake Of The Woods this summer, we went for an early morning paddle in the kayaks. On the way home I was paddling into this view. I loved the … Read More

I’m starting to get a much better understanding of value, colour and composition. The use of limited palettes has helped to better understand individual colours and using compositional, value and colour sketches is making me feel more confident about composition. … Read More

This week we did, in class, a still life with fruit. Unfortunately, for reasons that don’t really matter, I was completely uninspired and bereft of creative thoughts and my painting showed it. It was too dark & unfocused, in other … Read More

This version of the same scene was done primarily in class. It uses another approach to colour, namely, using a mother colour. In this case the mother colour was phthalo turquoise. Every colour used in this picture contains some phthalo … Read More

These paintings use exactly the same composition and 2 different analagous colour schemes. It helped me to have a limited palette like this. It enabled me to concentrate more on the value. I was particularly pleased with the composition. I … Read More

Last January I was shown a really interesting way of recording the significant events for a full year. Towards the end of the year I became aware of the idea of Altered Books and I was intrigued to try to … Read More

This summer I went to Stephen Quiller’s studio in Colorado to take a week long course on plein air painting in watercolour. It was an amazing time in many ways. One of the many asides that caught my attention was … Read More