NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.....

And now for something completely different…my latest work…not to everyone’s taste perhaps, but this a type of work I have been experimenting with all my life. 

A departure from the realism and more traditional oil painting I have been doing in recent years, this is something I have enjoyed since I was old enough to pick up a pencil. This work cannot be called an oil painting because it is done using Triplus  Fine liner coloured pens, and the substrate is high quality acid free art paper, not canvas. Each of the individual little drawings is actually a doodle that I have done while sitting listening to music, “watching” television or just simply meditating.  They are done free hand and with no conscious intent, at least in the beginning, to draw anything other than squiggles and lines, etc.  As each drawing progresses, certain shapes are suggested and it is only then that I intentionally add some details to embellish the doodle and it begins to look like it is actually meant to be something…but what is it?

Doodling is probably the most purely creative work you can do because you are truly creating something that has never been seen before, anywhere in the universe,... not even in your imagination. It is what I would call a spontaneous creation.  It comes from the sub-conscious.  Doodling should, however, not be confused with sketching from memory.  To start drawing a few lines and end up with a sketch of a cup and saucer or a landscape is not, to my way of thinking, a true doodle.

Unlike other forms of art, there is absolutely no copying, tracing, nor borrowing of ideas from others.  It is original as you can get. In this case, the organic found in nature framing contrasts and compliments the drawings producing something truly unique that appeals to our artistic nature…art for art’s sake.  I hope you like it!

• Note:  Pens or pencils are best for doodling  because they allow for free and continuous movement.  You dont have to reload as with a brush and paint.

Winter Poetry, Cold Comfort

by Noel E. Martin

February 2016

A thousand ways to pass your days,

I will tell you now of one,

In Owen Sound, watch snow come down, 

And sit and pray for sun.

The days are dull, the driveway’s full,

There’s shovelling to be done,

Snow blowing too, I have to do,

So much for winter fun! 

But time will pass and spring at last,

Will chase away our blues,

As plants in bloom replace the gloom,

When rebirths all the news.

The trick right now, is to somehow,

Mind this and you shall sing,

Feel in the pink, you need but think,

Of sunny days,... of SPRING!

"MY CLEMATIS"
by Carol-Ann

Another one fresh from the easel, Noel's painting "Moreston Hoedown". This is painted from a photo we took at this year's opening day at Moreston Pioneer Village, Grey Roots Museum and Archives  just outside of our hometown Owen Sound. It shows two of the many volunteers who participate in this important event and throughout much of the summer. What a great way to teach our kids the history of Grey County.  Check out Grey Roots Museum & Archives www.greyroots.com for more information.

LATEST NEWFOUNDLAND PAINTING BY NOEL...COMFORT COVE TRAIL, NEWFOUNDLAND


A trail to a seaside lookout is fresh and was smelling of pine trees shortly after the rainfall. I was smitten, and after returning to Ontario I painted it from one of my photo's. There is something special about a Newfoundland woods trail, particularly in the sunshine that follows a short shower.

BONNE BAY VISTA

SOUTHEAST LOOKOUT

BONNE BAY, NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA

 by Noel Martin

This is a painting I started sometime last year and set aside. Finally I decided it was time to get back to it and it is now nearing completion. I found it to be quite challenging because of the preponderance of green in the scene, which is in my view, the hardest colour to deal with in an oil painting. I painted it from a photograph I took in Newfoundland on one of my visits. It is a highway lookout point in the Bonne Bay area not far from Gros Morne. Most people are very familiar with Newfoundland seascapes, fishing boats, seaside villages, etc., but not all are aware of the province’s beautiful interior. I am considering painting a series of such places and will post them if and when I do.

Carol-Ann's acrylic painting on linen paper of Cider Pots, Keppel Croft Gardens, Big Bay, Ontario

Carol-Ann's painted saw of Monika's Farm and B&B, Kitchener, Ontario