Peter Colbert

February life drawing

wobblywreck — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:52:10 +0000

Always so much fun, getting out with some paint and a pad of paper or canvas and just drawing with paint. Went to the drop-in over in Nepean today and got an interesting study or 2 in. Male nude, not my favourite, but good model.

Here’s one of my sketches:

Cracking the Code

wobblywreck — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:30:19 +0000

I love the quote by Steve Jobs regarding his assault on television and positioning Apple to become a player with a new version of the TV. He told his biographer that he had “Cracked the code”.. I miss that guy already.

In relating my abstracts a bit more towards reality, especially regarding abstracts, I’ve been working on a series of paintings for my show at the Gordon Harrison Gallery which are based on Ottawa and local areas. It’s been fun, and ultimately each painting has to work in terms of colour, style and feel. The whole Landscape thing, regarding an real relationship with true reality, comes a distant last. I want interesting paintings first and foremost, but a system of combining reality with truly abstract painting.

Here’s one of my latest, “First Snow”, 24 x 24″

Happy 2012!

wobblywreck — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:41:29 +0000

All best to all who arrive at this page.. with hopes that I can find time to update this baby a couple of times a week in 2012.

Went with my wife Nancy, and kids Hanna and Jack up to Wawa, Ontario, for Christmas. Beautiful as always, and a white Christmas as per what you’d expect in the Great White North. Went out walking one day and found a great frozen pond, at the bottom of a frozen field of water. Took some shots of that day..

Christmas, 2011

wobblywreck — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:52:27 +0000

Christmas is almost upon us, and for 2012 I promise to be more economical with my Paintings of the Month, as many people couldn’t read the jpegs I sent out due to their size. I thought it was just large enough, at about 10″ across and 140 pixels per inch, but I guess not. And I was experiencing many problems with my server which finally resulted in me making an error with some of the mail, which I apologize for profusely.

Anyway, hope all are holding up ok and I’m tremendously excited about the subtle new direction my painting is taking me. I have a show at the Gordon Harrison Gallery in February and I’m back, baby, at the Artist Project in early March (at the CNE in Toronto).

Here again is the Painting of the Month:

Intrusion, 36 x 48"

Life Drawing, etc.

wobblywreck — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:26:16 +0000

Getting back into a life drawing class is exciting and fun. I’m getting out to the Nepean Sport Complex once a week (these days, every Sunday morning) for a couple of hours or so, bringing a small range of paints, papers and canvas. If I can’t quite complete a painting in the allotted time I may bring it back to the studio to finish it off. My challenge is to make the paintings an interesting combination of drawing, composition, colour and technique. Luckily, the other artists make room for me and my network of materials… I’m going to post some of these as they come along.

fall in Ottawa

wobblywreck — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:25:11 +0000

In between trips to Toronto (about every 3 weeks) I’ve been enjoying Ottawa quite a bit. Especially the lack of traffic, which seems to barely exist in Ottawa. At least, so far.

I’ve moved into the main floor office, just off the front door, as far as the studio goes, and so far it’s working great. The floor to ceiling windows with southern exposure help, and with just a bit of finessing I can get 2 easels in there amongst my copious containers of paint.

Paid a quick visit to my gallery in downtown Ottawa, the Gordon Harrison Gallery, yesterday with my buddy Dan Ryan. Had a nice visit with Gordon and Phil, dropped off some new work and then headed down to a soiree at the gallery where he shows his work, Wall Space. Lots of fun, and a nice little break from painting new art.

Here’s my latest which is now at the Gordon Harrison Gallery, called Serenity:

Hope to keep much more up to date and on top of things with the posts, showing new works and other tidbits.

June notes

wobblywreck — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:36:30 +0000

Having a barbecue over at our place with all our best buds from Toronto.. always fun to have the gang over. Looking forward to moving on to our life in Ottawa with access to Quebec and different culture, new friends, etc. With the move will come a much larger studio, and my commitment to my art moves up a notch or 2.

Toronto will be my number one place of business though, and I’ll be sure to be running back and forth every 2-3 weeks..

Abstract Expressionist New York

wobblywreck — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:02:03 +0000

Great viewing of some Abstract Expressionist paintings on at the Art Gallery of Ontario. My buddy Dan Ryan and I went out for a viewing and lunch today and enjoyed both the show and beers. I found myself drawn to the work of Klein. His strong black on white graphic images resonated with me. Afterward, flipping through a book on Klein, I was knocked out by his coloured works as well. I also enjoyed Rothko as always, especially when looking up at his work from close range. The colours resonated, and for me that’s always the bottom line. 80% of painting is mixing the paint.

Meeting with Nick

wobblywreck — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:37:52 +0000

It’s always fun to meet up with some of the folks on my mailing list, and it was great yesterday to meet up with Nick and Russ from Niagara Falls, NY. Super guys, and Nick, hope you have many years of enjoyment with your new painting, “Swirl”. We’ll have to keep in touch.

Studio temp

wobblywreck — Sun, 08 May 2011 14:06:19 +0000

I’ve got a temporary studio going while we renovate our house, and the studio there. Currently I’m sharing a space with 2 ladies who run a boot camp, located between Kipling and Islington, just north of the Queensway in Etobicoke. I’m going to be back at it this week after taking a couple of weeks off for home reno duties. I managed a trip up to Ottawa a couple of days with my buddy Dan Ryan. We did a painting run for my Gordon Harrison Gallery and his galleries, Koyman and Wall Space.

My galleries are doing quite well so I’m going to be doing more of the painting thing for them, a lot less of the exhibition thing. I’m easy to find, though, and I can always point the way to any gallery in terms of many of the paintings on my website.