Celebration of Spring exhibition

From April 1 – April 23, my painting of Brill 2282 will be on exhibit at a juried show held by the Burnaby Arts Council. The theme of the show is "Celebration of Spring – A Fresh Start."

The official opening is Saturday, April 2, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm. Here is a jpeg of the painting that will be on display. Hope to see some of you there.

Painting #6 – Flyer 2912

I am officially one quarter of the way through my project to complete 24 paintings of the old buses of Vancouver in the next year or so. This painting was one of the most fun I have worked on in awhile. I think it helped that there were more colours in it to play with than the images of the wrecked Brills had.

I am super excited about my next painting, because I am going to try something I have never done before... painting a bus in a night scene. The challenge of capturing the light coming from the destination signs and interior has always daunted me, but I am ready to give it a shot.

Acrylic on wood. 48 x 24 inches.

Painting #6 – Process (step 2)

I tend to paint blacks and whites first, to set up the contrast in the image before painting in the coloured areas. I always enjoy this stage of the painting the most, I guess because in a way it is the easiest (less colour mixing and paintbrush cleaning needed). But I also think it is because the whites and blacks in contrast with the bright orange create such a dynamic structure.

I am going to keep working tonight, so hopefully I will have another post later tomorrow.

Painting #6 – Process

For a change in pace, I am going to switch from the scrapped Brill trolleys I have been painting so far to some portraits of the Flyer trolleys that replaced the Brills starting in 1982. Although these buses are a little boxy and maybe don't have as much "character" as the old Brills, they are pretty much the first buses I actually remember riding, and therefore have a place in my heart. In terms of painting them, I am particularly drawn to the large destination signs with the big, bold type in yellow, and the BC Transit colour red and blue paint.

Because these buses are not on the road anymore, I had a difficult time finding images that I could paint from. I personally had not had the foresight to take any photos of my own while they were still in service. Happily, I found an amazing website run by some young transit enthusiasts from Vancouver.

http://www.trans-continental.ca/vancouver/

One of the webmasters and photographers, David Lam, kindly gave me permission to paint from images he had taken on this site. I am very excited, as they have over 250 photos of just this model of bus on their site, so I will have lots of inspiration.

This is a process photo of my first steps on my latest painting. I am going to try and get it done within the next day or two, and will post the finished result as soon as possible. Thanks for following!