Toronto Artist Mark Johnson's Blog - Category View:

I had this strong mental image of the silhouette of a large toad on a toadstool as seen from below. How would that affect the lives, the patterns, the stories of those who lived in it’s shadow? I’ve started the tentative beginnings of a children’s fable, but in the meantime a completely different aspect presented itself to me visually. So I drew it out. Here are different stages of the drawing.

I thought I’d blog this painting’s progress because I haven’t done a painting for a while (those Tree Dancers keep leaping onto the page) and thought I’d try a different process than one I’d been using recently.

I didn’t think to take a photo of this piece until it was pretty well set, so there isn’t a real early stage photo. But it is interesting to see a couple of intermediary steps before the finished look. I didn’t try to make the colour of the stages look like the finished piece. I [...]

The AWOL Gallery on Ossington here in Toronto is holding their annual Square Foot show again this summer. They accept the first 500 artists, each of whom can submit up to 3 pieces. The theme of the show is that all pieces have to be exactly one square foot – 12″ per side – and [...]

I thought it would be interesting to have a running blog showing what work was in progress. Sometimes art changes quite a bit as it works it’s way onto the canvas or the drawing board. Sometimes the process leads to an evolution that wasn’t expected at all. The review of the art can be a [...]