Dear <<First Name>>,

SPRING 2015

New Exhibition: Walks of Life 2 - More Significant People of Kamloops
This will be the second portrait exhibition of Significant People of Kamloops. There is an abundance of good souls in our city and they represent different fields of endeavour, expertise and leadership. We all affect each other and this is my way of thanking and paying tribute to them for their legacies past, present and future. 
An oil painting of each person will be created to reflect their career and personality and displayed in the exhibition with another fun opening reception. 
It's my great pleasure to announce the following citizens participating are:

Updates and snippets of the paintings will be released once they are completed on the Exhibition webpage. The show will take place in 2017. 
 

Budreau and former Kamloops Mayor Mel Rothenburger at the Walks of Life exhibition opening reception in 2013
click above image to view the 1st Exhibition

On the Easel
NHL’er Mark Recchi retired on a high note in 2006 with a third Stanley Cup win – what a career! Mark commissioned a large painting of the three cup hoists. What we came up with is quite fantastic. It suspends time in time – more specifically – three wins are composed in one arena scene, plus the diamond studded rings he received from each team.

Detail: in progress Stanley Cup Wins, Mark Recchi 36”x 48”
click image to see more
 
 
New Work
The feelings within a bride are love, joy, anticipation of possible motherhood, a new future is coming into view. It blends into the fantasy that many women have about their wedding day.
In this painting it's very personal, she looks most lovely,
most feminine.
The name of the painting stems from her shape; she reminds me of a Louis Comfort Tiffany vase.  


Detail: Tiffany Bride

Self Portrait

Detail: Dreamtime 

Dreamtime is painted from a picture taken by my friend Randy, my photographer buddy. We used to belong to a photography club and regularly go out in search of magic in the lens. He captured me enveloped in sunlight and when that big snowfall in January swept over Kamloops I found this picture in my files.
I wanted to dive into the warm sunshine, a summer day from 12 years ago in Kanaka Creek, Maple Ridge, BC. I used to walk the smooth shale bottom of it's deeply carved canyon and practically inhale the colour GREEN from the rainforest woods dripping in ferns that envelope it. It is a very special place for me.

Dreamtime will be displayed at the FCA National Juried Art Show at the Old Courthouse in Kamloops, April 10-19.
 
Walking into a Dark Cave
Making copies of masterpieces is a traditional learning method and one I’ve not used much. Drawings of Vermeer’s Milkmaid and Da Vinci’s Last Supper were commissioned in “the drawing years” and then later while attending TRU, Pope Innocent X by Velazquez was a drawing assignment.
Making a reproduction is a REAL journey into how an artist conceived his works, the composition, the paint strokes and all the juicy nuances. To draw one is a dissection and like walking into a dark cave where all my senses are heightened. I pay attention to everything, all of it is new and different from how I process visual information.
I write down observances and reflect on them later.

Then there is the closeness. I feel close to the long dead artist, like he is sitting beside me offering guidance. The feeling is similar to if you were to sit at the desk of Shakespeare and hold his quill in your hand and look out the window he looked out of while sorting his words for the next line - that kind of thing.
 
The first painting I chose was Bather from the Back painted in 1808 by Jean-August-Dominique-Ingres’s (click to view the whole image)

and in progress now is the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer.  

There are a few more I want to try, Carravagio, Kalf, more Ingres and Da Vinci, but will see how long the desire will last.