Studio
My studio is located in my home in Lacombe, Central Alberta (halfway between Edmonton and Calgary). On the upper floor is a digital studio where I work on sketches for paintings as well as gifs and short videos. The basement studio is the place for painting, stretching canvas, and framing. Scroll down for more examples of current work-in-progress, as well as for a glimpse into the painting process itself. (Thanks to my friend John N. McDowell for the set of photos of my workspace.)
Late summer 2026. Spring/summer travel included trips to Prague, Vienna, and Dresden, as well as visits to family in Ottawa and Toronto (see Travel). I currently have several paintings in the all-but-finished stages, including those shown below.
The photos below illustrate the way I work (very slowly, with layer upon layer of oil paint) but also show my tendency to introspect and second-guess.
On the left is a photo of my studio (the view I have when working at the easel, visible on the right). My studio is full of paintings, some finished, others in various stages of completion. The painting on the back wall, circled in red, is a particular example of something that is a current state of artistic limbo.
Centre and right: the current version of the (unfinished) painting and a proposed revision. (On a phone this will show as a stack of 3 images, with the top being the studio view.)
Left: a close-up of the painting / proposed revision. Friends who have seen the painting comment that the dogs are anatomically problematic. (Being a cat person, this is of minor significance.) But the face . . . I have tried countless versions before settling, for the time being, on this.
The caption on the “poster” reads (in Esperanto) “Crippled Blind Girl in a Wheelchair with Guard Dogs.” She is holding a copy of the Surrealist Manifesto. So . . . perhaps this is a dream?
Next step: return the canvas to the easel and begin work on the revised figure. (Posting this has given me a chance to think things through more clearly and to feel more settled about the revision.)