Facing 70 hits the halfway mark

Thanks to all who visited (and bought paintings!) during Art Crawl this year. It was a very successful weekend for me, for which I am extremely grateful. It means so much to me that so many of you appreciate my work enough to want to hang it on your walls so you can look at it all the time!

I’m now focusing on keeping up my pace in creating my ‘Facing 70’ series of portraits. I am slightly ahead of my goal, having completed #35 yesterday, a week ahead of schedule. I expect to complete all 70 by my 71st birthday next May, if I can continue at this rate. I am enjoying the process a lot, and learning with each new face I complete.

Here’s #35. My good friend Lorraine remarked that the ‘young Italian man’ I requested from Midjourney looked like a gigolo! So I chose a scarlet background to suggest a bordello, and glammed up his scarf a little. Fun!


Art Crawl is coming!

The Art Crawl this year will take place Friday October 23rd through Sunday October 25th (10-5 each day). My ‘Facing 70’ paintings will NOT be on display—I’m saving them for an exhibition once they are all finished in spring ‘27.

BUT I am continuing my 50% off sale on all painting inventory—come browse for bargains!

I’ll also have copies of all of my books, including the latest, Far from Home, available during the Crawl. Personalized signatures and a bookmark are free with purchase.

See you then!

Art & Words in Gibsons on Saturday Aug 22nd

Next weekend, I’ll be having a busy day at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery—come join me for any or all of the following!

I'll be presenting THREE sessions on SATURDAY, AUGUST 22ND at the Gibsons Public Gallery as part of the Art and Words Festival, which is hosted by the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society (SCWES). See https://www.scwes.ca/art-words/art-words-schedules for more details and sessions.

  • 11-12 the official launch of my latest book, Far From Home, a tale of two youngsters who sail to Canada in search of a better life in the 1870s, as part of the British Home Children scheme (free)

  • 12-1 a panel discussion on the ethics, challenges, and opportunities of using AI (artificial intelligence) in the creative arts (free)

  •  2-4 a workshop on colour mixing and using the elements of colour to improve your painting compositions and effects ($50, all materials included; register at sunshinecoastwritersandeditors@gmail.com)

I will also be at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse from 400-530 to sell and sign my books. 

I hope to see you there, but if not, I'll have the book at my studio during Art Crawl, plus it will be available at Talewind the week after the launch. I'm planning a signing event there in September as well--stay tuned for details.

A new project

I turned 70 years old this week, and, just as I did when I turned 60, I am embarking on a painting skill-building project for the year. I want to improve my portrait drawing and painting skills, so, over the year, I plan to create 70 small (8x8 or 10x10) portraits inspired by the method presented by American painter Steve Forster in his 2025 book Painting Luminous Portraits for Artists (Quarto Publishing Group). Forster’s approach is the French ebauche (meaning ‘rough draft’ or ‘first pass’) in which a full value charcoal drawing is sealed and then painted over with layers of oil paint.

But where to find 70 models willing to sit for portraits or photo sessions? In this age of artificial intelligence, the answer to this dilemma was easy. I used an AI software program called Midjourney to generate over 200 possible portrait images by prompting it with specifics about gender, age, ethnicity, expression, and lighting.

So here we go! One to two paintings a week should keep me moving toward my goal. Here’s #1, a handsome young Maasai man that Midjourney conjured up for me. It was a great exercise in mixing the right colours to capture his glowing dark skin. A good first attempt, I think!

Here’s the Midjourney image

I drew the image by using the grid method, then completed it as a full-value charcoal drawing

Here’s the first pass in oil…

And the final image (#1, oil on paper, 8x8)

Those Who Wander now available in audiobook

After more than a  year of effort by not only me, but my daughter, graphic artist Ellie Syracopoulos (who formatted and uploaded the files), and my sound engineer Todd Le Blanc, the audio version of my first book, Those Who Wander, is finally live on Audible and Amazon.ca. It came out at just over 13 hours of recording! Hard to believe. It was a lot of work by all of us, but I'm proud of the result and hope it will capture a different market than my print and digital books.

Here’s a link to hear a sample:

https://www.amazon.ca/arya/webplayer?asin=B0GWNQ5QR7&marketplaceId=A2EUQ1WTGCTBG2&amazonAsin=B0GWNGY135&useRelativeUrl=true&initialCPLaunch=true&isSample=true&isHomesteadCaller=true&isMobile=false&ref_=adbl_dp_dt_cloudplayer_login_preview