Heat Shield

Besides painting, I love working with steel. This is a 10' tall heat shield I made to protect the wall directly behind the Jotul wood stove in the living room. Besides being very functional, I wanted it to have a cool degree of interest in its design. I'll always remember working on this project. I was half way through cutting, and welding outside on a sunny morning when that fateful news came over the radio on September 11.

Burning Ship, and Burning Ship Study

24" x 24" Oil on Canvas - Burning Ship
Available for Purchase

This is the larger painting that resulted from going through the process of making a smaller study (below) first.











12" x 12" Oil on Canvas - Burning Ship Study
Available for Purchase

A local gallery owner put a call out to artists to create work for an exhibit on the theme of Oceans and their accompanying Myths. Living in a small village that still has operating fishing boats, and knowing New Brunswick has its own Burning Ship myth, I decided to tackle this idea.

This is a study for the larger painting above, though the study has an honest immediacy about it, that you often tend to lose when working on larger paintings, and so I think this smaller painting gains a validity all of its own.

Yellow and Red

12" x 12" Oil on Canvas Available for Purchase

This was a fun one to do. Just let myself go with the flow...

The Dining Room

24" x 24" Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas - Personal Collection With a few, key, salvaged architectural elements such as this arched window frame above, we were able to design our house to incorporate other similar items before actual construction began. This painting is a very close reproduction of what the dining area in our house actually looks like. We found the old, arched church window frame in extremely poor condition. It needed pulling back together, gluing and clamping, having caulking and putty chiseled off both sides, bolting with lag bolts, belt sanding and hand sanding, and finally I cut, drilled, and bolted steel bars onto it for both added strength, and aesthetic reasons.

Where Land Ends

24" x 24" Oil on gallery-wrapped Canvas Available for Purchase

Living in a maritime environment allows for walking on beaches shrouded in fog. Watching the water churn pebbles, seaweed and other small treasures strung along the sand, and listening to the sound of far away places in your imagination.

There are times when you'd swear the rest of the world had ceased to exist. Time is on your side here, as your bare toes shuffle across the sand. You allow an existential game to develop in your mind....

Are you back at the beginning of time before humankind came into existence, or are you at some point in the near future?

If you are alone, then you're immediate concerns are the basic ingredients of survival anywhere - food, shelter, and clothing. These you are confident you will find somehow. But for now you take luxury in how your exposed skin feels in the light mist that floats around and engulfs you. Afterall, it is just you, the ocean, and where the land ends...

Max and Toby

24" x 24" Oil on canvas Personal collection

Summers at Brown's Beach
kids, and dogs, and seagulls, and sand dollars
sun, saltwater, and seaweed
sandstone rocks, and cliffs
the tide going out leaves an enormous sand beach to run on
you can watch the fog way out over the water
sometimes there are fishing boats at the edge of distance
once there was a pup seal sunning itself
these are things found in the summers at Brown's Beach

Tabitha

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas Personal Collection

My family and I have the pleasure of sharing our lives with three lively dogs. The largest is Tabitha, though she is barely a medium-sized by most larger dog standards. She's a Basenji-cross
( an African hunting breed mixed with something else - so the vet tells us). True to her would-be heritage, Tabitha is crazy for the hunt, disappearing into the ground through hollowed out stumps, and other burrows. Tabitha also has a larger than life personality, and tail chasing is a daily routine that she enjoys to everyone's amusement. It really is a pleasure to have a dog like Tabitha around.

Max

22" x 18" Oil on Panel Personal Collection

This is a portrait of my fourteen year-old son, Max. The setting for this portrait is the scenic Fundy Trail Parkway in New Brunswick. It was the last day the trail was open in November '07. In the background are some of the cliffs and ocean water you see when traveling, or stopping at the many lookouts along the route.

Book Reader

20" x 16" Oil on Canvas - unframed. Available for Purchase

What's in a book?
The feel of it in your hands as you open it
The quiet, crisp sound as you turn a page
printed letters become words, and the words become thoughts
then the magic begins to happen as the immediate world around you begins to dissolve
visual imagery from another place fills your mind
you reach to grasp new perspectives and ideas
and characters who were at first strangers to you, become familiar
as you find common ground to identify with them
and a few of the more memorable characters, over the course of several hundred pages, even become friends...

Crow

7" x 5" Oil on Panel. Sold

Crows are one of of those favorite subjects.
Continuing to paint at the Saint John City Market. Good production week - a painting a day (Bay of Fundy landscapes) for the last five days.

Three Crows #2

16" x 16" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas. Sold Collection Of Ruth Ross.

This painting is a bit of a departure from what I normally do in my choice of palette, but it happened in a very natural way. Outside my studio window, walking together through the grassy field, were three more crows. This day however, the sun was intensely, dazzlingly bright. Everything appeared to have a brilliant shimmer to it. The water in the bay sparkled like diamonds, as well did the iridescent feathers of the crows. It was a good moment...

This week I'm taking part in "Wet Paint" at the Saint John City Market. Local artists set up small displays, and paint. We're there for whoever happens by, and/or wishes to stop and watch. It's going well, and I'm enjoying myself. It's interesting to see some of the reactions the artwork gets from the public. I'd like to think its providing a momentary pause in the lives of whoever sees it. I'm getting tremendous feedback...

Midday Refuge

12" x 12" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas. - Sold

Imagine a bright, spring day. Midday. The sun is high overhead. A large body of water in front of you, is in tune with the gentle weather above. Ripples, tiny, barely perceptible, slowly lap onto shore. It has a delicate shush, pause, shush sound. A longer pause, and then the sound repeats in what becomes a meditative melody. A few gulls fly and cry to each other further away. Their sound is somewhat diminished by distance, and the gentleness of the water that appears to fill your inner being up. There is no one else around. You are alone. You are alone with the beach, the rocks, the birds, and the water. You are finally alone with your own thoughts...

Distance

16" x 16" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas. Available for Purchase

This painting is simply named because the atmospheric effect of distance pleases me. Often in summer, along the Bay of Fundy you get to see these formations of broken fog rolling gently along the coastal waters. It can be sunny one moment, slightly foggy a few minutes later, sunny again, and this can carry on back and forth all day.

Storm at Brown's Beach

16" x 16" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas 1½" deep. Available for Purchase

Always admired how Turner achieved such bold atmospheric effects in his works, though I have to admit, I haven't had the opportunity yet to view a Turner firsthand. From a painter's perspective, it would be instructional in examining up close, the deft of stroke, thickness of paint, and overall richness of effect. It would go a long way in determining the exact methodology, and technique(s) employed. Whatever one can learn is all the more to add to the toolbox that one ultimately carries around within themselves - J.

Saint John River

5" x 7" Oil on Panel. Available for Purchase

The Painting A Day movement largely concerns itself with producing at least one, new, small painting a day. Many artists who participate in this practice routinely produce paintings that are actually smaller than the one above; 4" x 6" for example, or even smaller. (postcard size) At first, I found it a challenge to paint on such a small scale as this, but the benefit of doing this can be many fold for the artist who wants to attempt it.
I especially enjoy the views of the Saint John River when traveling on hwy 105 between Jemseg and Fredericton. The river appears peaceful, and gently bends its way around a large island that someone keeps cattle on. As you drive by, you can see the flat barge that is used to transport the animals. The surrounding land on a good portion of the rest of the drive, is flat with many fields of vegetables that I presume benefit from the nearby water, (high water table, and/or rich silt built up in years past when the river would flood?).

Beauty on the Beach

24" x 24" Oil on canvas. Personal collection.

Did this portrait of my wife Gwen this past fall, after a relaxing, and peaceful walk together on one of St. Martins' several beaches. It was in the later part of a beautiful, sunny afternoon. We had the dogs with us, and we were all enjoying the newish, fall air, and the fresh breeze near the water.

Flower Pot Rock

16" x 16" Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas. 1½" deep. Available for Purchase

Living in St.Martins has given me numerous opportunities to visit the Fundy Trail, and explore its many trails, beaches, waterfalls, as well as its lookout points such as at the Flower Pot Rock shown above.

Handmade solid Sterling Bracelet

Available for Purchase

Aside from the limited production line of jewelry I make, and if I'm not painting, I steal a few hours, once in a while, to make solid sterling silver bracelets like this one - fabricated from heavy gauge sterling stock for both its aesthetic look, its strength, and ultimately, its longevity.

The Old Guys

3 ¾" x7" Oil on panel Sold

I've been inspired over the past few years by the "Painting A Day" movement, and all of the wonderful art being created by many various, talented artists, and finally have found extra time to begin making contributions of my own. I found what I considered was a good opportunity to get started, when I spied these two friendly, older fellows relaxing and joking, whiling away a bright, sunny day in Saint John.

Three Crows

8" x 8" Oil on canvas stretched over solid panel. Sold Collection of MaryAnne Beckwith

These three crows always feed together in our field. Always enjoyed watching crows, and sort of consider many around here as if they were friends.

Outcropping on the Bay of Fundy

12" x12" Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas 1½" deep. Available for Purchase

Everything about the Bay of Fundy is one of extreme contrasts. There is the dynamic beauty of this place, the red sandstone cliffs, the birds, and animals, and forests. But, there is also the incredibly harsh forces of the cold waters, wind, and sun in which it is all challenged by. It is amazing to see how our spruce, fir, and pine forests are adept at surviving on these rocky outcroppings along the coastline here in New Brunswick, despite the natural forces, and the ever constant salt spray.