How Large Is Large?

“I love this!  But can you paint it for me on a much larger canvas?”

And the response is “How large is large?”

Imagine yourself in this moment. You feel a deep personal connection with a cityscape painting on a 10″ x 12″ canvas. And you know you’d love it even more if the painting is larger. The happy ending, of course, is you decide on a 48″x 48″ canvas and this Calgary artist created a similar cityscape just for you  (see the image below). 

Paintings do this. They help us feel things. Paintings bring something into our life that never before exisited. And we have an oppotunity everyday to respond to this nourishing experience.

As an artist, a painter, I love bringing things into existance.

So tell me, “What would you like painted?”

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist who lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta. To contact Jim directly about his paintings, or a project you think about, please phone 403-870-0591 or email him at paintwithdots@shaw.ca. Jim’s website is http://www.jimpescott.com

Trees Downtown

“Trees Downtown” is where trees, amidst the energies of concrete, vehicles, and people, ask for their lives to be witnessed. Evergreens huddle close to big walls: deciduous occupy solitary space like lamp posts.

Trees share selflessly and listening brings much to know while understanding may perhaps be another painting. Always, this depends on what the canvas seeks as I’m simply the messenger.

“The Backstairs”

At any other time of day I would have walked past this place. But the light of the day, at that moment, placed a flight of wooden stairs on stage and the words “paint me” entered my thoughts. No trees, no sky, no people: just stairs at the back of an old building. “The Backstairs” is a forgotten place.

What do you experience in this painting?

“A Walk In The Sunshine”

A “Walk In The Sunshine” is always a cure if you are feeling blue. I remember this painting pushing me as I listened and responded to its diretion as though it wanted to get things done and move out into the sunshine. By pushing, I mean the canvas is energy filled and directs what it wants virorously: yes, some paintings are more relaxed in the creatiion process. This painting brings joyful sunlight if you have a place that feels blue. Perfect addition to your collection.

“Venice Siesta”

For the first half day in Venice, I found no adequate words to describe what I was seeing or feeling. I walked a labyrinth of passages while watching something quite incredible. The buildings, the boats and the canals seemed held together in a marvelous balance yet I couldn’t grasp what was plainly there for me to see. And it wasn’t until I sat to sip an Americano a table alongside a canal that I fully understood what it was I was supposed to see. Reflections! Amazing reflections. Everywhere. Reflections mirroring everything in the city to make it seem like two cities. Reflections enveloping me like I’m floating inside a balloon with lovely dreams painted on the sides.

“Venice Siesta” is one of the uncountable reflections I enjoyed in Venice. I have a series of these to paint.

“Venice Reflections”

Two weeks ago I was in Venice, Italy, where I’m pretty sure I walked along every canal in the city although it is easy to be fooled about this given how streets and canals mingle. Certainly I encountered the same space more than once on a number of occassions: some people might call this being lost but I will only say it was so good at such locations the first time that to return was even more delightful. I will, however, confess to feeling overwelmed at the end of each day: visually overwhelmed to be specific. The oasis for me amidst all this was watching reflections on the water.

“Venice Reflections” relates to this oasis. I found this one mid-morning when I’d bought a wonderful espresso and stood outside the shop to watch things as I sipped absorbingly. Buildings everywhere in Venice seem newly painted with versions of patina and the canals blend these in soothing melodies like no where else I know. Big patches of dancing colours disturbed only by boats slicing through to spalsh everything back onto the buildings.

Reading Italian

I’ve been in Ferrara, Italy, for over a week (also managed a day in Florence). The primary reason for being here has been to follow my paintings to the successful “Here Now” exhibition that ends today. Then again, any reason to be in Italy is a good reason.

Otherwise, I’ve been walking the city streets: buildings, people and art and everywhere I see something to paint. I’ve also been absorbing the Italian language but as I’m mostly a visual person, a painter, the written word holds better with me (at least for now). Today I met up with some sculpture that allowed me to read over a shoulder. Much fun. Ciao!

“Alone”

I was in Boston a week ago and must have been enjoying this as I missed my flight home. Found another flight to Phoenix, Arizona where I managed to spend a whole 39 minutes before boarding a flight to Calgary.

Apparently the temperature was 100 Fahrenheit in Phoenix when the plane landed but I was never outside to confirm this. This is not how I like to experience new places as my feet always need to touch the soil. In Phoenix my feet touched only the airport floor.

In Boston I connected well as I did with Arkansas earlier this year. Back in April I was in New York City for five days where I walked and walked: while the city holds so much, Central Park will always be with me. 

Recently I painted “Alone” (36″x36″) from memories I have of walking in Central Park. It is the fourth canvas I’ve painted from this experience and I very much feel there will be more. For all the people living in New York City, I found being alone is possible in Central Park even with the buildings of Park Avenue watching. How we are alone seems a personal thing.

“Shady Street Downtown”

The air always seems cleaner downtown when its cold. At least this is how it seems to me. Not sure why. Maybe it is because the shadows are more blue on a clear day in colder temperatures. Then again I’m not sure why. This is just how it seems to me.

As a landscape painter there”s a lot to take in as I walk around. For example, I’m always watching how shadows change the colour of things. Bright, unobstructed sunlight does this too. And I very much enjoy how shadows reach out from their source compared to how sunlight simply spreads as it gains strength. In painting “Shady Street Downtown” the shadows are winning at this point in the day: the sunlight could only seep through a very few locations across the pavement.

Of course this is not how it ended. As the day moved on the sunlight gained strength and the shadows receded as the colours to evolve. This, of course, would be another painting.

“Afternoon Shade”

The day is literally smoking except that it is also very humid. Try 100 for both the humidity percentage and for the Fahrenheit scale. Too hot to paint? Well, not really, although with this humidity acrylic paints take longer to dry. Things need a little clean-up back in the studio.

Something about painting on a day like this is the light that filters moistly through the leaves to puddle on the grass, the sidewalk, cars and people. Watching the scene as I was, people are relaxed in the warm moist air but you can see they want to find an airconditioned oasis soon. Birds are watching too and seem to enjoy the solitude of an otherwise busy parkspace.