Midway Painting

I am a narrative painter who lives and works in Montreal.

My work exists within the tradition of narrative figure painting, forming a contemporary extension of this classical format.

Working for periods of one to three years on a series, I often work with a specific narrative, using texts as diverse as the novels of Kafka, Yiddish folk tales and more recently, Cocteau's Les enfants terribles. Thematically I focus on the the evolution of dramatic interplay through the overlapping of characters who appear from painting to painting. I frequently use family and friends as characters, intertwining their individual complexities into that of the story.

My studio practice incorporates direct observation as well as working from photographs of scenes which I stage using live models and costumes. The process of working back and forth from model to photograph to canvas can continue for many months, creating a layering of reality and narrative interpretation.

Technically my work is loosely based on the pre-impressionist oil painting process of laying glazes over a well delineated underpainting. Beyond the deep sense of continuity with the past which this technique provides me, I am involved in the dramatic effects of light and dark which underpainting and glazing allow. In recent series I have pushed this technique beyond its tradition to incorporate layers of acrylic and a pumice medium which provide an increased awareness of the surface as its own narrative.