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June bugs captivate me with their size and the patterns on their back. They can grow up to 1.25
inches long. Diane remembers summers where June bugs would sun themselves on towels hung
on the fence during swimming lessons. These insects are drawn to light sources at night, and I’d
often find them in the morning by our front door.
June bugs are also known as watermelon beetles and are a scarab beetle in western Canada. The
scarab beetle was made famous in movies like The Mummy and The Mummy Returns starring
Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Scarab beetles are associated with Egyptian horror and large
numbers of them would scuttle along the ground and across human bodies.

I have long admired the work of Canadian artist Lawren Harris. He was born into wealth, and the
well-known Canadian line of Massey-Harris farm equipment carries his name. Harris painted
abstract landscapes and was a driving force behind the artists who formed The Group of Seven in
Ontario and later in British Columbia where he influenced Emily Carr. His landscapes took on a
smoothed form and had universal appeal. I have seen his The Old Stump, Lake Superior adorning
many a textbook in schools. Lawren Harris was also known as a mystic, creating landscapes
based on the teachings of Theosophy where he exaggerated cloud shapes and used whites to
emphasize the interplay of light and darkness in his work.

Lawren Harris

I imagined the Iceland Gull ice fishing wearing winter garb to keep warm. He uses a lawn chair that’s light and easy to move, ideal for ice fishing when one doesn’t have a shed. You might have noticed an Iceland Gull near the waters of Ontario and the West Coast of Canada as they have been seen south of the Arctic cliffs where they nest and mate. They are easily mistaken for the Glaucous Gull or the Herring Gull since they often share the same colouration. They are smaller; adults reach the size of a medium Glaucous gull.

Jackson Pollock fascinates me. Diane and I viewed one of his paintings in the Museum of Modern Art. It filled a wall with riveting energy. Ed Harris dramatized his drip painting technique in the movie Pollock. I confess I never understood Pollock’s technique, but I admired him for pioneering it. I was struck in the movie with one critic’s statement that Pollock would produce his best work in the then near future but that it would be ignored because the public had moved on to other concerns by then. I wondered how something could be that good but that transient.

I once went to a theatre to see a movie based on Pollock, and the technician didn’t align the film properly, so we saw a boom mic during a major scene. The presence of the mic reminded me that this was only an enactment of Pollock’s life at its zenith, and he had no idea what was coming. He captured a moment in time and for that he was famous. He was, however, like a boom mic in a show that reminded at least one viewer that it was just a story of when Pollock was famous.

Jackson Pollock

Wishing you and yours a special time this year!

(I will continue with the Icelandic Gull in the New Year.)

As this was an imaginative response to the horse I decided to give it a pattern that one might expect with a zebra, but the colours are unique. The eyes are compounded and enlarged like a real fly. You might think that each lens is one of thousands which make the fly hard to swat but in reality the fly only has five eyes. The two that are enlarged semi circles that we see and then three smaller ones on top of its head. Even though it only has five eyes it is still hard to capture a fly by hand.

Being able to see the world differently has always reminded me of the “Scream” by Edvard Munch. He did it as a print and as a painting.

I don’t know about you but if somebody were behind me screaming the way this figure seems to be my reaction would be to turn towards the source and see if I was in danger, then see if somebody else was in danger. This makes me think that the scream is internal, expressed in the body but inaudible to the strollers further along the board walk.

Munch distorted the figure to emphasize the screaming and he moved the hands up on either side of the face, similar to the burial figures of ancient Peru. In researching this image I found various experiments by Munch where he tried different portrayals of the figure in the foreground. I also ran across a diary of his which indicated that his inner turmoil was real but was focused on what was being done to the land by those in his country. This would have made him an early environmentalist even though a number of people have used it for psychological pain.

It is one of the ugliest art pieces produced and yet it is one of the most memorable and has a place in art history because it is impossible to forget.

Edvard Munch

The wording of this title made me think of a magician with his paraphernalia. His wand,
rabbit, pigeon, cape and top hat.. The sign gives the info for the cartoon hence the
“Great Blu Heir Ron” Heron was reduced to “Heir Ron”.

Herons tend to collect in rookeries, such as the grey herons in the trees just before the
causeway leading to the Tswaassen ferry. Their quano covers the lower branches so
even if they are away foraging for shallow water aquatic creatures you can see where
they build their nests. For this reason I would not want to be one of the late nesters.

I will be participating in the ArtWalk in Nanaimo this year at St. Andrews United Church,
315 Fitzwilliam St at Wesley St in the Old section of town. It’s the building that has a
steeple and stained glass windows. The goal is to pair artists with businesses along the
downtown core, Commercial St., and the Old City.

I realize not everyone is in the area but please drop in if you are. All are welcome.
This will be the only place I display this year and your only chance to get the books I
illustrated and to see what I’m doing with my paintings.

Creating this cartoon reawakened how much fun I have combining creatures and/or
concepts. I loved putting wings and legs on fruit, while I kept the image simple. I
particularly like the eyes of the banana.

John Singer Sargent was an American artist who produced oil paintings and
watercolours from the 1870s until his death in 1925 at age 69. He was known for his
portraits and landscapes. His studies captured the brevity of lines he used and how he
was able to capture the essence of a place in his watercolours. Some of his landscapes
show his travels to Corfu, Italy and North Africa.

John Singer Sargent

Like Sargent I have kept a visual journal of our travels as it serves to remind me of
dates, and it got me doing watercolours and pen and ink. Here are some of the journal
entries from my sketches.

I found my older drawings from Salt Spring Island that launched me into my mechanical insect creations. I mentioned them in last months Blog about Dragon Flies and I wanted to show a process I followed to arrive at my end solutions.

Most people think the Elephant Hawk Moth got its name because of its size. Like the elephant, this moth is BIG in comparison to others. The shape of its caterpillar body is similar to the shape of an elephant’s trunk, hence the name. Usually found in the United Kingdom, they made their way to British Columbia via collections and displays.

Brock David Tebbutt, a self-taught artist born in Victoria, British Columbia, was inspired by others at the Western Front to assume a pseudonym. He changed his name to Joe Average.
He was diagnosed with AIDS at the age of 27 after which he decided to develop and live off his art. He is a self-proclaimed advocate of various charities, such as A Loving Spoonful and he has dedicated many pieces to support these causes.
Styles that influenced him were West Coast indigenous artists who use areas of colour and curving lines and by “Pop Art” which included artists such as Peter Max. Like the Elephant Hawk Moth, Joe Average is best known for his bright colours.

Joe Average

A dragonfly lives between seven and fifty-six days, so every second counts.
They can fly forwards and backwards or hover in place to catch their prey—other insects. Cultures and individuals have long appreciated images of dragonflies because of their appearance and their two sets of wings.
Dragonflies live near marshes where they find most of their food. They can often be seen flying around looking for other insects or resting on a plant that provides a platform to launch from.
Once when we were staying at St. Mary Lake on Salt Spring Island my kids brought me a perfectly intact, dead dragonfly and told me I should draw it. (I always listen to my kids.) I drew a realistic version, then created a drawing of a mechanical dragonfly constructed of metal with rivets.
Around that time, I saw a documentary in which a Chinese orchardist was pollinating plants with a feather duster because the bees that usually did this had disappeared and the gentleman was filling in for the insects.  A perfect place for mechanical insects.
Afterwards I began to explore the idea of a variety of mechanical insects, and I designed drawings, oil and acrylic paintings, soap stone carvings, card designs, and t-shirts.
I eventually wrote a book called The Red Door which was set in a post-apocalyptic world where I questioned who was the creator of all the mechanicals if the man who we thought made them was mechanical too.   

Cowbirds, which lay their eggs in others’ nests so unassuming birds raise their young—strike me as opportunistic and parasitical. Their meal-finding method is fascinating too: they eat the insects stirred up by the feet of cattle. These birds know how to take advantage and lighten their load.

It reminded me of Austin Kleon’s TED talk titled “Steal Like an Artist”. During a period when he experienced writers block, Kleon began blacking out words and lines from newspapers and arranging them into haiku like poetry. People accused him of lacking originality. However, research revealed a 250-year-old technique like Kleon’s called found poetry. Writers and artists like Tom Phillips, William Burrows, and—going back in history—Caleb Whitefoord, a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin—created works the same way. Kleon concluded with “Nothing Is Original” and “All Creative Work Builds On What Came Before” with the result that we are “Creative Kleptomaniacs”.

One of my students, whose name escapes me, started to collect magazine images of models. He painted clown faces over top. Initially I thought boredom motivated him but as I talked to him, I realized he was influenced by Red Skelton’s paintings of clown faces and the misguided value we place on models’ looks. He was parroting Kleon without knowing it.

Austine Kleon

Red Skelton

Black oystercatchers are easy to spook. They are simple to identify with their black bodies and
orange beaks and you’ll see them along the shore of rocky beaches where they hunt for the
shellfish that live there. If you have ever tried to shuck oysters you will appreciate the strength of
the oystercatcher’s beak. Oystercatchers are masters at opening oysters, mussels, and limpets for
their meals.

George Bellows, who painted at the beginning of the 20th Century, was a member of the
American Ashcan School of art and was purported to have given the name to the group. They
were non political, although many of the works showed life as it was experienced by lower- and
middle-income earners. A piece that captivated me was “Noon” which shows a New York scene
where a steam engine contrasts with a horse drawn cart. The painting is divided into light and
dark areas that are like other works Bellows created a year or two later which catch the action of
fights, such as “Stag at Sharkey’s” or “Dempsey and Fripo”. Although he painted in an Impressionistic style, his works were recognized for their realism, and he differed from the French in that he chose subjects that portrayed active, volatile aspects of city life.

George Bellows - Ashcan School of Art