Tag Archives: BC

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More Mel…


Having taken the portrait workshop and learned a lot of things, and then not painted at all for a week, my mind is scrambling to get back on the horse, so to speak. Flesh tones are much better understood now and I applied some of that understanding to Mel this morning. I say “some,” because there is a colour that was used in the workshop that I don’t have, it’s on order, but not here yet. I came very close to mixing this colour on my own and the lack of it’s exactitude (?) is not going to break this painting. I’m not a big fan of real flesh tones anyway, I like to make the face move by pushing colour and value.

So here is Mel after this morning’s session. I think it’s neat how the lens of his glasses show up even though I haven’t painted them yet

 

 

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Violin is “playing” for me


The painting, Violin #27, is a rendition of the 27th violin that was hand made by my deceased father.
This painting has been juried into the FCA Open National Show here in Kamloops at The Old Courthouse, and yesterday word arrived that this same painting has also been juried into the Still Life Show in Vancouver that will open May 15 at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island.
After coming through a bit of a dry spell, this is a reassuring change. Play on, play on!

 I invite you come out and view the 70+ paintings from artists from various points in Canada, at The Old Courthouse in Kamloops April 20-29, also, there are painting demos by Signature Federation members on Friday and Saturday April 20 and 21 at St. Andrews on the Square. for more info visit www.tnsc.ca

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I’m back


I’ve not been posting for awhile because I have been incubating a plan for the future. A couple paintings were done since December, Janskins, which was posted and a portrait of Julie Hall that I will post if it’s accepted into the FCA Open Show for April.

I’m gearing up for an exciting solo show in 2013 in Kamloops. All I will say at this time is it’s a portrait show and I expect it to draw big crowds! Why? because of who will be featured in the portraits.
With most of my painting energy focused on pieces for this show, I will post snippits of the paintings so as not to give away the image. After the show opening, I’ll post the portraits.

Here’s a snippit of Julie




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Monumental Drawing – finished


For me, the word “monumental” is steeped in a realm of feeling and history that would take a book to reveal its depth and breadth.
For those who have known me and my endeavor to complete the Monumental Drawing, know now, that it is finished.
I started it in 1996.
I’ve just entered it into a juried show in New York called, “Artist’s Wanted.” This show has the potential to give this piece a life of it’s own – at last.

Visit http://Budreau.artistswanted.org/yr2011 to view the 30 foot tall work, read about it’s journey, and vote using the blue button. Your vote counts towards a Peoples Choice Award. Voting closes Jan 30, 2012

Please note: the piece is so tall that I can’t get a good photo of it in one photo, so I stitched several photos together – click on it for larger view, and if in the enlarged view it appears to shrink, or still looks small, click once more.

Monumental Drawing 30'x5' Pencil on Stonehenge (stitched photos here)

 
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Drawing: One down, Two to Go


In the mid 90’s I was drawing for a living. Galleries urged me to produce wildlife pieces and I didn’t have an inventory of wildlife photos to work from so I resorted to published books. In hind sight that was not a good choice because of copyrights. Anyway that was then. This image of killer whales appealed to me because of the backlighting, the shapes in the water and the high key tonal scale from black to white. The velvety black background punctured by the spouting was the challenge to make look real. Back then that was my goal – make it look real. Took me 27 hours to complete.
Click on image to enlarge.

One Down, Two to Go 26" x 19" Graphite on paper Copyright M. Budreau 1996

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Drawing: Last Supper


Back in the 90’s I did the ‘art thing’ for 4 years, drawings only. It was a tough go and I ended up returning to the regular work force – which felt like betrayal to myself – and that’s a whole other story unto itself that I’ll not delve into here.
A product of that time was this drawing of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. It was commisssioned by some folks in California and was the first reproduction type work I did. What a pure pleasure it was to search for visual materials from which to make this piece look decent. At the time, there wasn’t an image of it in full restoration, so I relied on Da Vinci’s original sketches of each Apostle and Christ, a colour poster print showing the feet and table, and two other images for the tapestries and the room. The history of this masterpiece is dramatic and traumatic. Here’s a glimpse, Da Vinci used experimental paints that wouldn’t dry;  it was repainted 4 times over the last 400 years and those art butchers changed the expressions of the faces, even painting mouths that were open, shut! It was covered with tapestries during one of the world wars and suffered from moisture damage as well as being bombed. Christ’s feet were cut off when a door was cut into the wall upon which it was painted, and one last twist, a Japanese television company owns the copyright to it!

Drawing people is a form of arms length intimacy and then to mimic the style of a master artist is another measure of intimacy, in summary, it was an awesome drawing journey.  Click on these thumbnails to see them larger.

Last Supper Drawing

Rendition of Da Vinci’s Last Supper 30×15 Graphite on paper Copyright M. Budreau 1997