The blades are like flower pedals, the body color is a crisp electric blue. This painting of a vintage Electrohome fan is one of a dozen new paintings showing at the George Billis Gallery LA from May 21 – July 2, 2016.
Long Life Vintage Electric Fan
From painting
Three & Ten Vintage Clocks
These two paintings are about contrast. Above are three clocks; simple, orderly, tidy, Type A. Below are ten clocks; in a cluster, mingling, Type B. Everyone should know their comfort zone.
Vintage Film Projectors
Last year I started painting film projectors after years of seeing them in vintage and antique stores. They have all the trappings of a subject I like to paint.
The reels all have these unique designs. The repeating pie shapes, the circular repetition, the repeating lines on the lamp housing.
The dials, knobs, levers, switches, gears, springs and buttons give the paintings a tactile sensation.
Rows and Stacks of Cameras
This will sound sentimental, but who cares. I like the thought of how exciting these cameras would have been to a kid who received it as a gift. Back when photography took time, it would have seemed magic. I like the thought that these lenses were the eyes on so many events.
And then there is the fact I can present these objects in such an orderly way. The four cameras are all 3/4 turned, facing to the right. These black cubes, such simple shapes, with the circular flash from the unique Spartus camera. The stack of ten cameras makes a small architectural structure, each with a different facade. The box cameras with their shining brass art deco designs, the different materials used. Composing the cameras this way adds a structure and order.
The materials, their designs, the history and story, their utility as image making tools, cameras are deserving of a portrait.
I have been painting cameras for well over a decade. You can see 40 paintings of cameras I’ve done on good old Flickr.
As with many of my recent paintings, the subjects were found at Everything Old in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.
Corona & Royal Typewriters
Typewriters are all about ideas and writing. They seem to spark the act, I think it’s because of the physicality of them. They make this amazing noise, your words literally express themselves vocally as you tap away at the keys. You have to immediately concentrate, your whole mind and body becomes involved. You focus.
These two typewriters are a great contrast to one another – the Corona with its sleek black curves and stately design, the Royal with its crisp blue and modern edges.
I have these typewriters in my collection, and when they’re out of their cases they invite anyone around to sit down and type.
Both of these typewriters were found at Everything Old – an antique store in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.
The World Around Us
Always these vintage books conjure up a narrative – perhaps naïve, perhaps blindly optimistic. But that is precisely the charm I’m looking for. I like the contradiction this casts over the regular pall of doom we are forced to endure every day. Read more
Ebb & Flow
Ebb & Flow. For most of my life I lived landlocked on the prairies. After years of talking it over with my wife, we decided that we had enough harsh, long winters between the two of us and wanted a change.
And so we packed up and moved to the West Coast, Vancouver Island. And now we find ourselves surrounded by all new flora and fauna. Everything is different. We ended up living right by the water, so every morning I get up and look out the window and am able to see the ebb and flow of the tides as they come in to the inlet I live on. Something that seems foreign and exciting to a prairie kid.
We got our wish, to be able to walk out our door any day of the year, no bone chilling, threatening wind chills. And I can walk every day around the inlet. And every day I see swans, herons, eagles, otters, seals – it all seems so exotic. I have to always remind myself to slow down and really observe these things around me. Read more
The Big Picture
They Big Picture – this painting is about perspective.
I will use the painting as a metaphor. I obsess and focus on tiny one inch square areas of a painting, moving across the painting as I work over several days, sometimes weeks. Within each of these small spaces I pour detail and concentration. But I always have to remember to step back and look at the entire painting, to see how it works overall, to see that I have made progress.
It’s like this in life, no? If you focus on making each day as good as you can, eventually you can step back and see what is hopefully a life you are pleased with. Read more
The World We Live In
The World We Live In, The Distressed Mind, The Neurotic Personality of Our Time, Coast to Coast, Old World Horizons.
It seems as though we live in a perpetual state of anxiety – obsessing over doom and gloom news events and seeing nothing but a bleak outlook. And then we imagine things used to be better and we want to reverse and go back to the way things used to be.
I recently listed to the Munk Debates on Progress – “be it resolved humankind’s best days lie ahead” (listen to it here). Four thinkers and writers on stage, two arguing that things are getting better, two arguing things are getting darker. I’m inclined to think things are going to get better. I do not deny that there are certainly grim things going on around us, but I believe that we’ve lost perspective. Instead of simply dwelling on all the negative events and news around us we have to explore positive things as well. Read more
Good Stories
This is simply about what it says – Good Stories.
This group of monochromatic book paintings are not just about the colors. This yellow grouping of books is all positive, forward moving stories. These are vintage children’s primary school readers and story books. They project a naïve, rosy view of the world. Sometimes you need a bit of positive reinforcement, to be able to see the sunny side. That’s what this painting is about. Read more