Back to the future

"Obsessionated." It's a mixed-up word -- a malapropism -- passed along with relish by my lifelong friend, a food-and-fascinations blogger. I like it! It certainly describes my feelings about the features and individualities of old buildings, both the Downtown Details of my working days and the quirky charms of old family houses like those on our side of town that are falling fast to the wreckers' ball.

I'm fascinated by the variety in these old houses of windows, doors, porches, bays, roofs -- everything.

As I've sketched and occasionally photographed the details that catch my eye, I've finally decided to do something with them, in terms of painting. Meanwhile, I've also committed myself to exploring more adventurous byways in colour.

With this post, I'm introducing a planned series based on old architectural features and new (to me) colour possibilities. Here's the first of the series, "Colourful Past - Small Front Windows" copyright 2013).

In this series, I expect to be working in a looser style than in my traditional still lifes -- in this case, I textured some layers of paint by applying plastic wrap during the drying phase, an exciting process when the plastic is lifted from the dried paint, revealing unpredictable patterns of the underlying paint layer.

While I've already recognized some problems to be worked out, I've enjoyed this kind of splash. You can see the evolution of "Small Front Windows"here.

The works in the series might become more or less geometrical, more or less abstract, more or less colourful. Whether or not you like the concept, you'll be seeing more of the "Colourful Past" series from time to time. After all, I'm obsessionated.