Monkey's Paw

This piece is 10" X 20" and was given to one of my very best friends for Christmas. It started out as a doodle of a man, but quickly involved a monkey, which seems to be a consistent theme these days. At least this piece has a severed limb and a ghostly monkey.

Monkey Business

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay in posts, I've been busy and I haven't really been doing a lot of painting lately. Boo. What I did manage to complete was this piece here for my new media and gaming company 'Fourth Monkey Media'. Check us out online @ www.4thmm.com we have some pictures of the new studio up and I've put a number of my previous paintings up in there until we can fill our walls with accolades and awards haha.

This piece is 3'X3.5' and is acrylic. It took about 46 hours to do in total but I've been told (at least according to my wife) that I'm a slow painter. I have 2 pieces in progress now with a sketch for a third so hopefully it won't be so long between posts. Cheers!

Town Sign

Over a year ago I was contacted by representatives of Bridgewater Nova Scotia (the town I live in) to draft up a highway sign welcoming travelers. Bridgewater is a lovely town, but sometimes suffers in anonymity from the positive tourist reputation of our two closest neighbours in Mahone Bay and Lunenburg, each only 10-15 minutes away. Each of these towns are amazing and very well known to tourists, and both Lunenburg and Mahone Bay have these giant 'folk artsy' highway signs meant to take travelers off the 103 and divert them into town.

(photo source: http://girottifamily.typepad.com/mountain_musings/travel/)

I was commissioned to do something similar, but I was asked for a bit more depth and less simplicity. Clearly these signs are attempting to capture the folk art style that can be found here along the South Shore, but I thought Bridgewater's sign may stand out a bit more from the others if it was a bit more complex and more bold and colourful. This was the final image:


I think it turned out pretty well, Similar to the others yet a bit bolder perhaps. I especially like the flat colours, and I feel it has more depth than flat folk art but still retains (in my mind) a level of simplicity. The fountain was an interesting addition, as I was asked to add it before the town installed the actual fountain, so my placement in the image is not entirely accurate to where the fountain ended up. Here I am standing (looking like a derelict drifter) under the final 10ft X 17ft highway sign:

Undoubtedly the largest representation of any of my work, and something I get to see every time I drive back into town from Halifax. I now kinda wish I had managed to sneak some crazy message or hidden imagery into the sign so I can giggle as I drive by... maybe next time.

Old Timer's Hockey!

I designed this logo for a local Bridgewater Old Timer's Hockey club. I like the old style skate and the old Vancouver Canucks logo homage works well on the current Vancouver Jersey slug.

No smoking!

Invisible was hired to design and produce the characters and backgrounds for a series of anti-addiction ads. I've included the BGs here because they are painted. I went with a pretty simple black and white style that I felt complimented the line-work. The overall sensibility was to keep the art black and white with the only colour points of focus being the various 'addictive elements' in a scene.
I'm not sure how effective the Ad campaign was, but every time I look at this grungy shot of a filthy back alley I find myself craving a cigarette.It's weird because this type of 'smoker's area' is really what most smokers have to look forward to these days, tucked away by the garbage and littered with old butts. It's gross and shouldn't give me a nostalgic feeling for smoking, but it does. Hopefully it's just me and the actual Ad campaign was a success. Stay off the crack kids.

Lumberjacks!

A few years ago I did the hockey logo for the local junior hockey team (essentially one tier below major junior). I'm a huge hockey fan, and possibly an even larger hockey jersey fan with a collection that is now around 150. I always wanted to design a jersey logo, so when the opportunity came I was very excited. When I started doing the concept art I originally was told to do a 'Buccaneer' logo, I liked the 'Bridgewater Buccaneers' name and got pretty far in the concept art before the name became the 'Bridgewater Lumberjacks'.



The best part of the experience is seeing people around town with jackets, ball caps and bumper stickers with the logo on it. It's also great to have a few of the jerseys myself.

NDP Samurai

This little piece (9"X12") was probably my favorite painting of 2010. A very simple image that was originally inspired by a doodle I drew while waiting on hold on the telephone.

As you know, I really don't like parting with these paintings but I recently gave this piece to a local MLA who was instrumental in restoring Nova Scotia's Film and Television Tax Credit. Pam Birdsall, MLA for Lunenburg, represented the provincial animation industry like a champion, she was communicative, responsive, caring, passionate and hard working. Pam was everything an elected official is supposed to be, and she represented us with pride and helped our little industry through a very tough time. Thanks again Pam, enjoy your childish painting.

Visit Pam here:
http://www.ns.ndp.ca/PamBirdsall/