Swallow The Sun

Sometimes an idea will arrive in my mind with little resistance and this piece was certainly a case of that. I had the idea floating around in my head for a good while and when the perfect reference material arrived in front of  my hungry eyeballs, the concept was born right away. 

This concept is about dancing on a victory, soaking in the sun and watching the natural state of things come back to life. Regeneration! Many of us experience this weekly on a Sunday, while many of us enjoy regeneration on a holiday. But, for the stubborn artist like myself who rarely takes a break, this experience comes after a show that took a year to put together, an artwork that took months to complete or a milestone goal set for myself. We all do it differently, and this piece should represent the same feeling for everyone based on their own experiences in life. 

Life is a game and sometimes we have a win that needs to be celebrated. There will always be another game to play, but we should revel in our victories as they arise to us.

The Reference
Fushimi Inari-taisha, the head shrine of the Kami Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Olga and I spent half a day here exploring the back uncrowded sections of the mountain, and came across an area filled with mossy stone structures. I took hundreds of photos here as I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. 

As you can see in this next image, I build my props for accurate lighting and perspective. These pieces are individually cut and painted. I have used them in so many concepts now, and sadly they were stolen, along with a large bin of my props, when we had a break-in at our gallery in Yaletown on Easter Sunday 2020.  Maybe that is a good thing as it is time to refresh the prop collection.

I got to great lengths to seek out cloud photography for my work. This photo was taken on the way out to the Great Barrier Reef for a day of snorkelling. We saw sharks, turtles, reef and an unimaginable amount of fish on this day, but the take home for me was these clouds. They were so brilliant.

My friend Holynde who modelled with Aritzia for a number of years, was gracious enough to share her abilities with me to create an appropriate pose that would express the freedom I wanted to capture in this piece. 

Swallows are also another thing that brings me a great deal of comfort.  Growing up, I used to sit on our family jetty that was on a canal after school. Every afternoon the swallows would take off for their evening bug hunt.  The way they skimmed the water, ducked and weaved their way through the sky was like watching a dance that has evolved for thousands of years. Evolution is one of the most fascinating things to me, and although I never understood it as a child, I know now that I was always watching it with fascination. 

I love to include nostalgic imagery in my pieces and the swallows represent a very happy time in my life. 

The process for this piece was pretty straight forward. I didn’t encounter any roadblocks as it simply flowed. There were a few circumstances in the three artworks that preceded this one that had me pulling my hair out. My goal also for this one was to show a collection of subject matters that I love and to find a piece that would give me pure pleasure, no challenges and let me have a win. I believe all artists should constantly challenge themselves, but in this case, I was free…..

There is something I've noticed over the years in art that has always been very hard to explain. That is the reason why people gravitate toward a specific artwork. I have found a common thread in this line of thought over the past 20 years based on thousands of interactions. And the common thread has been how I feel about a piece while I am painting it.  

There is a certain amount of love that goes into an artwork. An artist can feel it if they are in the zone, and if they are hitting the nail on the head. Somehow the future owner can feel this as well.  I have never been able to artificially replicate this reaction from my viewers, but I know which art work will get the reaction I am looking for, and it is all based on how well it flowed in the process. 

Just like this piece. It was sold before the paint was dry and it had multiple buyers wanting it. If only I could do this every time!

Enjoy these process images.