For a Dancer.

Sometimes a painting almost seems to come out of nowhere and touch all kinds of people. Other times, the process can be a lengthy, involved one. In this particular case, it's a bit of both.

One night last summer I was chatting with a new friend and she happened to mention that she wanted a painting in hot pink. Further to that, she told me that she used to dance, and that she wanted art along that theme - feet and legs in pointe shoes. Time went by and we became much closer. But this idea stayed in my head. In November I drew a rough sketch of her legs and feet in the pointe shoes she'd had since she was a teenager. That original sketch has since been framed and now hangs on her living room wall:

By this point I could see the finished painting in my head pretty clearly. I started creating another of my metalflake paintings with the intention of giving it to her as a Christmas present. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the metalflake pieces take a lot longer to dry in mid-winter, because the shorter days and crappy weather mean a vastly-reduced amount of UV radiation (which speeds the drying process along).

In the end I bought her a Leonard Cohen book for Christmas, and the hot pink painting proceeded oh-so-slowly. A couple days ago I was inspecting the painting and noted that the thick, thick clearcoat was finally dry.

The end of this journey was finally in sight.

On Friday night I found myself at loose ends. I wanted to go do something social with friends, but any and all attempts to make that happen simply failed. So I mixed myself a strong Sailor Jerry's & Coke, and started masking the painting. The whole process came together pretty quickly, and with the encouragement of my Muse, the painting was soon finished:

Feels very weird to have the painting finished now, considering it's been in my subconscious since August, and it's March as I write this. And of course, my world is a vastly different place than it was during that late-night conversation waaay back in August - I couldn't even begin to chart the changes. I'm a whole new human being, really.

So there you have it - the painting was a labour of love, and it's actually done.

Interestingly enough, I posted updates live on Twitter and then Facebook as the night progressed, and the response was stunning. So much support, so much praise, so many questions, so many people sharing the final image with friends and followers. So, I'd like to thank the people who made this so much easier: Meghan Low, Donna Jaggard, Kelly St-Laurent, Natalie Smith, Mandy Fisher, Nick Voikos, Mark Kretzschmar, Chris Hobrecker, Bruce Ng, Adé Win, Brandy Trudeau, Heather Prost, Liam Rines, Elaine Shiel, Leanne Corrigan, Tony Dunphy, Fiona Flowers, Nicole Crosby, Sean Parrack, Elizabeth Whalen, Jaime Purgavie, Melissa Hartfiel, Ceci Graber, Dale Deruiter, Vince Ng, Melissa Berg, John Lee, Dilara Litonjua, Cathy Browne, Risto Paalanen, Emily Brandt, Jackie McCaughan, Nick Routley, Amanda West, Christine Warner, Kathleen Ralph, Gary Hayden, Donna Jay-Crowe, Tina Power, Tom Van Hoose, Jackie Teel, Geoff Seymour, Winnie Huang, James Dickson, Marion Vincent, Sarah Merris, Katherine Bowes Pieters, Jewel Staite, Paulette Brown, John Bell ...

... and Tess McCann, without whom this would never have even been conceivable.

February 2012 Catchall.

So. One month of 2012 is done already. Not exactly one of my better ones, though I'm slowly coming to accept that maybe January will always suck.

Anyhow, January's done, so February's a (minor) fresh start, right? Lots happening artwise, as is often the case. There's a whole raft of metalflake paintings that will hopefully be finished soon. Including a piece I called "For a Dancer" (after the Jackson Browne song of the same name):

What you're seeing here is a mockup, of course. I first envisioned this painting back in August after one of those life-changing late-night conversations. But when I mocked up the whole thing up tonight, I have to admit I was taken aback just a bit. This is a very personal piece, so it's gratifying to see the emotional impact it has.

Inspirational verse:

"I don't remember losing track of you,
You were always dancing in and out of view,
I must have thought you'd always be around."

Moving on to the next item on the agenda, I'm sharing this link from Franziska San Pedro's blog, entitled "How The Internet Can Change Your Life." Interesting reading.

And finally, I've posted a couple new t-shirt designs to my RedBubble store just in time for Valentine's Day:

Carry on, then.
Bret Taylor
Day 762/1000.

Colour and Texture.

Working, as I may have previously mentioned, on another series of metalflake paintings. Today there was big progress on 15 of them.

A few highlights of the day:

What'd you do today?

Five Hundred Days. Or, Halfway There.

Well, today was an auspicious occasion - my 500th consecutive day of drawing and/or painting. I worked on ten paintings today to mark the event.

Here's the scene early in the day, before the paint started to fly:

A bit more glazing, more Liquid Mirror and more black lava gel, and the metalflake paintings started to look more like this:

(Still a ways to go yet, of course. And I also laid the base coats for three more of these babies. They still look kinda boring at this point, though.)

Then I got to work on the hot pink metalflake triptych you might've seen recently - my tribute to bubblegum rock. Here's a rough idea of what it'll look like:

After that, I started the process of adding that linework to the actual painting. The middle panel of the three has just been applied:

Hoping to finish this one in the next couple days. By now the masking/painting process for these is fairly simple and uneventful.

And that was my 500th day. What'd you do today?