You'll see these full size

These were in an exhibition in 2011 at the Belgo Building, Suite 514, 372 Ste. Catherine St. W., Montreal.

Goreme and off Fethiye, Turkey

I bought two or three huge peaches from this store in Goreme. The owner was young and very friendly. His wife and their daughter were inside and the girl was showing off her dress. In the picture on the boat, the couple at left were a woman from California, who had been laid off her teaching job in California and had no debts, so she stored her belongings and planned out a two year trip around the world with teaching jobs here and there along the way, all of them arranged, and she was only a month or so into her journey; he ran a coffee shop in a bathhouse museum, and he knew the captain. He always had a fishing line out and once he offered me one of the cooked fish he'd caught that day. Sometimes we talked a lot, other times we couldn't talk at all.

Not Really Peruvian fish, 1 and 2

Woman in a fly boat

A collograph plate after being used to make etchings was the starting point of this work on paper. 2008-09, 8 inches x 10 inches

Mr and Ms Canada

I know these aren't finished drawings, but the beauty and freshness of their sometimes awkward, quickly executed lines drawn from observation set them as goals for how all my drawings and paintings should end up looking. Fresh and bursting with life. But I admit I like to explore darker themes too. These two people remind me of bodybuilders I photographed years ago in Saskatchewan. I think the guy was later kicked off the police force for an assault. By contrast, the guy in this drawing is a peace officer whose record shows absolutely no felony convictions.

Open Model Studio

There are a number of places to draw from the model in Montreal, but I go to the open model studio at the Illustrators Society in the Belgo building. It starts at 7:30, with 5 minute poses until the last couple are 10 minute poses. The posing stops at 9 for a half hour so people can stretch and pay their $10. (A fidelity card gives you a free night after five sessions). A bottle of Boreale Noir beer is offered to everybody, and then the last hour of 10 and 15 minute poses.

These two are from the last hour of the class, but I will also post some of the shorter poses, which often end up being the best ones.

It's pretty serious stuff for the people there and the models are treated with respect. The room is silent, except for the monitor who says "cinq (or dix etc.) minutes" before a new pose. After the session, however, there is starting to be some conversation.