Wallace Koopmans Artlog

The second drawing in my iPad series.

This is my first post of a painting from my iPad. It’s another instrument in my artistic toolbox and is a fun way of sketching. I had the opportunity to spend some time getting acquainted with some software, (Procreate) and my Jot Pro stylus. I mention the stylus specifically because it’s so superior to a pudgy finger or any other stylus I’ve seen.

One great aspect of using this combination is that you can go from a simple sketch to a full painting depending on the effort you want to put in. A limitation though is the final resolution of 1920×1408

A fun exercise where I painted from a cell phone picture on a 5″x5″ canvas.  I started with a quick charcoal sketch and then painted directly over that.  I say “fun” because I can do it rapidly and there is no expectation that it should be good or meaningful a lot like the photo it’s derived from.  I may do more of these and it would be nice to even make a commitment to paint one a week.  On second thought I’m not even adhering to my Polaroid a week so maybe I will just keep the idea playful.

The latest painting in the series.  I suppose I should give the series an actual name.  Until then it continues to be an exercise in expanding small elements of cameras beyond what the un-aided eye can see.  By isolating these details the paintings express different ideas that would not otherwise be exposed.

I use disposable palettes, you know those waxy tear off sheets.  I don’t lay out my paints in any consistent way and I placed my bird feeder where the cat to bird ratio would be the highest.  OK now that I have those things off my chest maybe I should explain.  I have a wooden palette that I made probably 20 years ago when I thought you needed to have one to be a painter but no longer use it. What I do use are the disposable ones and the main reason is that I work on more than one painting at a time and I often use different colours. I like that there is a temporary record of what I have mixed, when I come back to a painting I can mix some fresh paint right beside the old and get a good match.  The main draw back in keeping them around is they don’t stack very well.

As for the bird feeder it’s one of those ones that attaches to the glass with suction cups so there is an invisible barrier, right about cats eye level.

I received my painting that will be part of the Fraser Valley Biennale at the Reach Gallery back from Abbotsford Art Gallery where they did an excellent job of framing.  I really like the subtle highlights from the metal edges and the matt look of the black. Great work and thank you.

I’ve been working on this painting all this week and aside from several minor corrections, that will really just be a stroke here and there, it’s done.  It’s my daughter Charlotte’s birthday so I asked here to name it and she called it “Daffodil Time”.  I’m hoping to submit it to “Hooves, Ploughs and Planted Fields.” a juried show that will be held at the Langley Centennial Museum.  I don’t usually do that or work under such a tight deadline but I’m pleased with the result.

It’s almost hard to believe that this is the method that was used for flash photography not so many years ago.

I’ve been thinking about this image for a while but was spurred on because I wanted to submit it for an exhibition.  So I put paint to canvas last month and finished it today, Earth day.  This is my interpretation of the view of a quarry on a local mountain (Sumas Mountain).  The location is on the back side away from the view of most of the population of Abbotsford.  It didn’t just happen over night and that’s perhaps why it goes largely unnoticed, growing slow enough to seem as if it was always there.  This area has seen mining before in the form of brick clay mining starting over 100 years ago, but most evidence of that is now gone. 

I did this little oil sketch this weekend as an ode to spring.  The crocus flowers are now blooming and more variaties will soon follow.