Kitty

So I decided to get back into it with a little painting of my daughter's favorite stuffed animal. I rendered him as a more disturbing, suit wearing, kinda creepy looking guy. She loved it for some reason and has requested a painting of her second favorite stuffed animal in a pink suit. I will try to make that one look less creepy.

Smoking Macaque

The newest entry is yet another monkey, and this one was created for my brother on his 40th birthday. I got an actual frame for it and it turned out pretty sharp. This is the first painting of 2012 and so far the only painting as I've yet to even pick up a brush since I completed this. I hope to paint some more soon. ~M

Croc Baby

This is a piece I did over the course of the whole year... maybe even longer as I picked away and picked away at it, but I finally gave it a good solid 2 month push in October and November as I tried to finish it in time for Christmas for my parents.


I like the fact that it's very odd and large, mostly because it forces my parents to have this weird curiosity up in their house taking up space and not matching any of the furniture. Of course I'm assuming they will find a place for it to hang as it's a gift from their second favorite son, maybe they will just pull it out whenever I head over there.


Like all my stuff, it doesn't symbolize anything, just a doodle. The difference is this piece is very large, my largest by far at 5.5 feet x 3 feet. As you can see from this size relation with my lovely daughter, it's quite big.

I've included a few details in this post and due to the sheer size of the piece it was difficult to photograph. The glare reflects from the oil paint black outline and sort of makes it look white flecked or inconsistent in tone. The line work is pure black, but shiny and reflective. I hope my folks enjoy this piece, it was hundreds and hundreds of hours of work, but according to my Mom so was her labour with me, so I guess we're even???

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.