Oil Paint is My Preferred Weapon - Recently Updated Pages

Digital Art Page 3

brucemack — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:39:07 CST

Digi art Page 3

Oooh, My Aching Head

Stars

Galactic Tattoo

Garden Path

Galaxy 3

Flowers

Solar Song

Solar Drift

Digital Art 09 - 2

brucemack — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:25:55 CST

Digi Art, Page 2

Glitter

Black Hole

Solar Wind

Book Life

Wind on My Pix

Galaxy 2

Digital Art 09

brucemack — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:07:03 CST

Galaxy Creation	Type your photo caption or credit here.	Type your photo caption or credit here.
Solar Wind into a Black Hole	Type your photo caption or credit here.	Type your photo caption or credit here.
Colour Field	Type your photo caption or credit here.	Type your photo caption or credit here.

My Acrylic Abstract Art

brucemack — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:57:22 CDT

I can only paint landscapes and people for so long and I have to revert to my first love, abstracts. I like to make art that people respond to emotionally. Abstract art takes away control from the left side of the brain where logic dictates and allows the right side, which is the intuitive side, to take over.

I personally have learned a great deal from doing a dozen of these of late. I learned first off my wife doesn't like them. Worse some of the people in my club took offence to my works too.

But seriously, I have observed that the more photographic a painting is, the less the viewer gets from it. Nothing is left to the imagination and after a quick look they move on. Yes I know there is a lot of artistic ability in making a realism piece, I have done lots and not yet well. I find that the less detailed or rougher, the more the imagination is used and the viewing becomes an interaction with the art.

Abstract art doesn't have to be anathama to realim painters. I find giving the viewer something to create in their own mind is a treat for them and me. Impressionistic art, for example, are paintings that evoke emotion, imagination and interest, because the works are less than perfect (on purpose) less than photographic and even vague. We the viewers have to decide what is in them for US to see.

My minimalist Jackson Pollock-inspired paintings seen here are the ultimate in abstract art. They are spontaneous, unplanned and lively. The lines, squiggles, drops and splashes done with different colours on different coloured canvases of varying sizes all evoke different feelings. The bigger the drip painting is, the more immersive it becomes.

Colour field paintings, as some of Pollock's works are described, take away the usual rules your left brain (the analytic side) depends on to decide how to interpret the art. What remains is your right side (the intuitive side) feeling its way through the work. The larger the work is, the easier it is to get lost in the experience. That is why Pollock's work is so popular, even among people who can't explain why they like it.

On the other hand, my small ones have limited impact but still evoke imagination and an intuitive reaction. I don't care if people sneer at them, some people will take the time to study the lines and will enjoy the painting. That is what artists are after.

Drip paintings are not the be all or end all in abstract, just another way to connect to some viewers. On a more selfish note, I had the time of my life doing these because it was liberating getting out of my recent realism rut (not unlike my oil rut or abstract rut or impressionistic rut) and letting loose my stringent rules of painting.

I had a great time doing these and I suggest every artist try one. Try it a few times before you form a permenant opinion on these or Pollock especially.

Winter Time

44X34"

Nonstop Ride

12X18"

Red Rover

12X18"

Yellow What?

12X18"

Garden Chaos
24X30"

Home

brucemack — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:10:15 CDT

THE PAINTINGS OF BRUCE MACKINNON

Nova Scotia Flashlight (12X16" oil on Canvas)

Welcome to the painting gallery of Bruce MacKinnon, Timmins Ontario, Canada. My artwork is created on canvas and board. I am a relatively new painter, having begun 10 years ago. As a reporter, I have had little time to dedicate to my work until a heart issue forced me to retire a few years ago. Now I paint and write as the mood strikes. I am part of the Porcupine Art Club, which has been active for 60 years and through the club I have been able to hang my pictures in numerous shows.

I do not simply paint for fun, but to satisfy an inner urge to create, given to me by the original creator. My faith in God will show in some paintings and my frustration with Him in others, but either way, my Christian beliefs influence my work.

The motivation for my work is often a spontaneous reaction to the beauty, injustice, and emotions of the visible world around me. My abstracts are motivated by the subconscious imagery which arises from within.

My style is still evolving, which suits me, because as I continue to experiment, I discover new ways to create. You can call it eclectic if you like, but the range of my work is basically from abstract to symbolism to impressionistic representational snapshots of the world as I see it.

My goal is to give the viewer a sensual experience, leaving them yearning for another look. Much of my work is heavy impasto with abrush or knife. The more complex the painting, the more three dimensional it becomes. The exaggerated texture invites the viewer to touch the piece. I enjoy watching someone lose the battle to resist and reach out to feel the painting – physically and emotionally. This style of painting – impasto – is much more emotional, tactile and immediate which suits me. There is almost a guilty pleasure in enjoying the tactility of the paintings. To me, paintings are visual poetry.

Please enjoy browsing the gallery pages and feel free
to leave comments about my work and ask about purchase inquiries. Bruce MacKinnon

Agora Gallery (NY City)

My Favorite Links

brucemack — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:02:07 CDT

These are just a few of my favs. Not an exhaustive list but mine none the less.

Web Sites :

His Words & My Art - My other web site featuring some of my poetry.

Wet Canvas.Com - The best free art college on the web, an excellent forum with dozens of specialized topical forums.

Agora Gallery (NY City) - A very cool modern art galley in the Big Apple.

Porcupine Art Club - (PAC) This is the art club I belong to here in Timmins, Ontario, Canada.

Northern Ontario Art Association, Canada - (NOAA) Our art club (PAC) is one of a dozen in Northern Ontario that show member's work in an annual show that travels the region for a year.

Blogs :

Paint a Day Group

Tony Moffit Art Blog

2007 - 2008 Works

brucemack — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:38:17 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

A New Beginning - Acrylics 2008-09

brucemack — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:36:06 CDT

MacKinnon's Bluff

18X30"

This was my very first acrylic painting and it was nerve-wracking. Compared to oil, acrylic is a nightmare. It dries a whole lot faster than oil and still makes me crazy to this day.

Lazy River

8X10"

Twin Towers

8X10"

Road to Eden

9X12"

Sasketchewan Triptych

3 - 8X10"

2006 Works - 2

brucemack — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:51:59 CDT

The Beach

18X30

This was the start of another painting that I just loved the effect that grew out of a loose doodle really.

Evolution
16X24

This was an idea that flitted thorugh my mind one day about the evolution of art from realism to minimilist sprayed dots on canvas. Yeah, yeah, I know it doesn't work well, but some day I will try again.

2006 Works

brucemack — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:45:27 CDT

Oil Piantings only.

Rocky Perch (30X34)

This was inspired by rock cuts in Northern Ontario. It ain't perfect, but it is one of my favorite rock paintings.

- 2006 was a busy year for me as a painter, but also as a Porcupine Art Club member, since we were hosting the 50 th anniversary of the Northern Ontario Art Association (NOAA). I was also getting ready for a trip to St. Joseph's Island for an outdoor art show. As a result, I only had time to paint for half the year. After the NOAA show in September, I suffered some health issues and had to lay low, but I am pleased with the paintings I did get ready.

Eye See You (30X48)

This is my idea of looking in the mirror. I glued a convex mirror in the middle so the viewers can see themselves in the eye of the beholder.

The Flower Pots (18X24)

This is a different view of the famous "Flower Pots" on the shores of the Bay of Funday in New Brunswick. Tourists generally only see the eroded shores from above and on the beach, as the tide rises more than 30 feet in less than four hours. This is at low tide.

Renewals (36X36")

I started this painting in 1996 and then left it till 2006 when I added the trees and grass. I was going to put this up for sale, but alas, my wife claimed it and it is now on our dining room wall. I call it my $20,000 painting because I tell my wife that's what I could have gotten for it...we still laugh at that.

Early Works 2

brucemack — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:54:54 CDT

The Prohpet (24X32)

This is a painting I did for my nephew Graham, who died an unkind death due to cancer at age 24.

Disconnected (24X48)

This literally started off as an underpainting on masointe, but I fell in love with it at this point and dropped my brush on the floor to prevent me from doing any more to it.

Early Works (1996-2000)

pameladallaire — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:33:35 CDT

I pay homage to my good friend, Mildred Goulden, who is now in her early 80's. She and I used to visit the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and other art venues in and around Southern Ontario in the 1990's. We also used to scandalize restaurant patrons as we snuggled like love birds, just to see the outrage as a 70-year-old and 30-year-old acted like they were on a date.

In a way, we were on a date. We both loved art. She was a long-time painter and I was just a fan. After one long visit to the AGO, we sat in her apartment as she pulled out her oil paints and went to work on a partly-finished sea gull.

She had threatened to try to make me paint after we saw some questionable "abstract" art that day. Foolishly, I had snorted and said, "Even I can do better than that." But, I hadn't touched paints since I was a kid in Grade 2. Well, she shoved some paints, a brush and a canvas book toward me and told me to just experiment with the paint to see how it feels. Much to our surprise, mine especially, a painting of a stream, trees and a split-rail fence appeared.

She still giggles at me 10 years later about that day, but it lit a creative fire in my soul. I had been painting houses for 18 years to that point and had feared anything creative. But from that point, I began to take my faux finishing jobs a lot more seriously and also began painting pictures in my tiny little second floor walkup apartment on Bloor Street West in Toronto.

I did the starving artist thing for four more years, painting and sleeping in my living room in. Painting in the wee hours of the morning is still my preferred time to create, but in 2000, with a new wife and responsibilities, my painting tapered off for nearly five years in Timmins. I had to become a reporter to pay the bills, until my health forced me to retire. So in the winter of 2005, I began painting again in earnest.

Below are some of my early works, many of which have been sold in Toronto. Enjoy and feel free to critique or leave messages, or requests for purchase.

Nova Scotia Flashlight

My very first painting. Oil on canvas - 12X20

Conversion - Oil on canvas 24X36

Blazing 12X20 - Oil on canvas

Dane, Ontario - Oil on canvas

2005 Work

brucemack — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 09:20:42 CDT

One of my favorite media is quarter-inch masonite, which is ideal for my kind of apllication, namely knife painting. Even though it is 99 % covered, some of the masonite shows through. It is a hard enough surface to abuse with a brush or knife.

CLAM's Cove

This 4'X2' painting took a few weeks to do and when done, my wife swiped it and put in on the wall and won't let me touch it agian. It is a good sign when your mate loves a work too much to let go of it.

It was inspired by the north coast of New Brunswick, in Canada's east coast. I may still live 1,400 miles from the ocean, but it has never left me.

------

Hide-Me Bay
4'X2' oil on masonite

The ocean was on my mind around Christmas 2005, when I did these two poaitings. Normally I wouldn't show a former painting, but I got to teh point one day that I just couldn't fix this work anymore, so I chopped it into three pieces. I laughed the day our club's display chief took the cast off grass from the bottom of the work and put it in the library for show.

But I loved the lighthouse and the cliffs on the left of the painting. The lighthouse side wound up in an art show framed by a tv screen, which I will show you later.

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Shore Face
12X9 oil on canvas

This little painting was a delight, cobbled together from a book, a few pictures and my own water-logged memory of the east coast of Canada.