Saying goodbye to my cousin’s fiancé Patrick at the Edmonton garrison was difficult to say the least. The hall was filled with soldiers ready to leave, their parents, siblings, spouses and children. As the soldiers waited to go into the line-up to have their bodies and their gear searched, they clung to their wives and [...]
Category Archives: canadian military
Deployment
October 7, 2009 – 11:59 pm
Tomorrow I will be heading to the Edmonton Garrison to say goodbye to a group of soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan. This time it hits home more than ever with me. One of the soldiers has a child with, and is engaged to my cousin. This project has always been very personal to me, but [...]
Support Our Troops Gala
September 29, 2009 – 1:09 am
Wow! We had an unbelievable evening Saturday! We had the exceptional good fortune to attend the CFPSA Support Our Troops Gala at Edmonton Northlands. Approximately 700 people gathered at the new, massive, Exhibition Hall E to raise funds in support of the troops and their families. (See www.cfpsa.com for more information) We are not getting [...]
Cpl. David Braun
September 21, 2009 – 3:18 pm
As we work on Project Heroes™, it is important to us to convey an indication of the soldiers’ characters – something that is hard to achieve from their official military photos that are quite serious and straight-faced.Cpl. David Braun was a sincere pleasure to paint. My studio was so cheerful looking at this handsome, smiling [...]
Painting with friends
August 9, 2009 – 6:41 pm
For several summers now, Shairl (centre) and I (right) have spent three weeks in Newfoundland painting scenes there en plein air (outdoor painting). Although we have a fairly grueling schedule while there, painting from sunup to sundown most days, it is well worth it because it helps keep our painting skills finely tuned, and it [...]
Personal Time With A War Hero
July 8, 2009 – 1:58 am
This pencil drawing was done with the photos of Cpl. Shane Keating at hand. I wanted to explore his face and get to know his structure before starting the portrait painting. Drawing out these heroes before I start painting them gives me personal time to get to know them. I can imagine their strength, their [...]
Impersonating a soldier? No way!
July 3, 2009 – 6:37 pm
I’m an imposter! I’ll start off with an apology for having the gear on completely wrong, I’m sure. And, I’ll apologize for what might appear to be an impersonation of a soldier. What this photo actually is, is me attempting to find out if I could actually carry even the lightest gear that a soldier [...]
Cpl. David Braun – preliminary drawing
June 22, 2009 – 7:46 am
This is the preliminary drawing of Cpl. David Braun. Since Cindy showed the method of beginning the painting by ‘drawing’ in paint, I’ve done a pencil drawing as the beginning of this painting. I usually do more of a ‘cartoon’ when I’m drawing in pencil to later paint. There is little need for detail – [...]
Work in Progress – Portrait of Corporal Cole Bartsch
June 19, 2009 – 6:59 am
This is the second stage of the painting with all areas roughly blocked in with the approximate colours. At this stage there’s no detail and I’m not too fussy about getting exact colours, my goal is to get the canvas completely covered with paint and try to stay true to the oil sketch which ultimately [...]
Composition Issues
June 15, 2009 – 8:55 am
Susan – Every now and then a painter has a painting that just isn’t working for one reason or another, and this one is problematic for me. There are some things that work well – I like the soldiers marching into the distance on the right and I like the main soldier and the way [...]