Peter Doig Exhibition in Montreal

Peter Doig has long been a favorite painter of mine so when I heard his paintings were coming to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts I was thrilled. His unapologetic painterly approach to painting and beauty in an art world infatuated with irony and dystopian concepts is as refreshing as a slash of red cadmium across a dark painting. He breathes life into painting like no other contemporary artist I know.  His work sings, hums and dives deep into your belly and stirs you from the inside out.

Preview of Tremblant Exhibition

This is the launching of my new store as well as the online preview for the upcoming exhibition at Galerie 806 in Mont-Tremblant, QC which opens December 19th and runs until January 15th, 2014.
This exhibition is a celebration of an amazing year; meeting new people, traveling to new places and discovering the endless potential of this planet to reveal her beauty in new and invigorating ways. I am humbled and awed by the process of painting and the magical, mystery tour it continually takes me on. I feel it to be a great privilege to live this world as a painter. The paints not only guide my heart & hands but opens my eyes to marvels I would never have even noticed were I not stopping and taking the time to look as is necessary when making a painting.

Three New Waterfalls

Tumbling into Ecstasy / 60" x 40" / oil on canvas

 I'm not sure what it is about falling water and rocks but I can't seem to get enough of them.
I love to sculpt the rocks with brush and pigment onto canvas and then paint those swirls of flowing, tumbling water that erupts over and around the ancient rock. I love the relationship the water has with the rock. One so solid and unmoving the other so fluid and full of movement, perfect partners.

Carving Rock / 60" x 40" / acrylic on canvas

The two paintings above were inspired by the same place, different times, different moods, different energies. No one moment is like another and so it is with paint and painting. If I painted the same place over one hundred times, each painting would be different. Every moment is fresh, alive and new when we are able to see it that way.

"Rough and Tumble" is a smaller piece that was painted with much love for this erratic tumble of rocks. A place in the forest where the light and the water are left to play and tumble across the rock's surfaces in an endless choreography of changing beauty.

Rough & Tumble / 30" x 24" / acrylic on canvas

"The Wilderness Within" Exhbition in the Adirondacks

 Another journey across the border and down south into NY state brought me to the idyllic little town of Old Forge, NY. where I was hosted by a particularly kind couple that live in the area. Their beautiful home was nestled next to this lovely lake where I saw ducks, loons and herons while I was there.

 I was treated to a fine dinner, good morning coffee, a campfire and a comfy bed, as well as several visits to local establishments to meet with the community and listen to local lore, music and tales.

Old Forge, NY is a warm and welcoming community with particular spirit and spark! The View Center for the Arts is a stunning establishment that hosts some superb art shows and it is an honor to have my work on exhibit there for the next month.

 

"Nature as Muse" - bronze sculpture by Lewis Bryden in front of the View Arts Center.

 

The interim curator, Wendy Carr did a magnificent job of hanging the show. I am always delighted and surprised when a curator hangs the paintings in ways that may not have occurred to me. The show looked beautiful and it was a joy to have the time to meet so many delightful members of the community while all the hanging of the show was being done for me.

 

When I arrived for the opening reception the director informed me that this piece, "Weaving Roots of Time" had been sold before I had even arrived! I was thrilled of course, as this is a piece that has a lot of meaning for me. You can read about the whole evolution of this painting and the others that followed beginning with my blog post from April 15, 2010.

The triptych has found its perfect home with people who will live with and appreciate all the love and discovery that was poured into the creation of this particular painting. I feel the cycle of an artwork is only complete when it finds a viewer who resonates with it enough to bring it into their lives and home. I also feel a pang that "Weaving Roots of Time" will be leaving me, as it is particularly close to my heart but it is going out into the world to have a life of its own now.

 The exhibition will continue until July 21st in this gorgeous venu amongst the dark pines and fresh mountain air. I feel like the paintings are being held within a space that embraces and holds them with love and recognition and this feels so good to me.

Painting from the Inside Out

"The power of painting has to come from the inside out, not the outside in. It's not just an image; it's an image with a body and that body has to contain its spirit.... it's the weight of the intention that defines everything." 

-Sean Scully

 Cloud Garden, 30" x 24", acrylic on canvas

The Artist Project 2013 Preview

A link to preview the paintings that will be at the Toronto Artist Project next week-end:

Preview of Paintings

Natura Imaginalis

This painting has taken me on an inward journey of the imagination. I have played with the colors, texture, paint, forms endlessly changing and flowing into different solutions. I finally started to carve into the wood to create the lines on the tree trunks which added the final element that I was searching for. Allowing imagination to flow through the forest leaves and blow against the ancient rocks is a magnificent journey of heart and soul. Painting can be like a series of gateways that one explores and feels from within, always pushing up against the unknown, digging from the unconscious and allowing that which surfaces to become color, light, texture and form. Often what emerges is confusing, unclear, sometimes frightening. A huge amount of trust and energy is needed to continue and not quit or give up on the piece. I feel shifts happen within that are beyond verbal expression but a deep satisfied sigh is released when the painting looks back at me and declares that it is finished. My imagination has carried me to where I need to be in this moment and I will let it wander afresh through the hills and forests seeking new adventures.