Save the date for The Abstract Idea, an exciting group exhibition at Joshua Farm Gallery in Oakville, Ontario!!! This exhibition brings together six established artists from communities along the west end of Lake Ontario – Barry Coombs, Jody Joseph, Peter Kirkland, Janice Kovar, Ian Mackay and Marla Panko – each committed to the evolving language of abstraction. While their methods vary from precise geometry to expressive mark-making, these artists are unified by an exploratory mindset and a shared belief in abstraction as a vessel for sensory memory, spatial inquiry, and emotional resonance.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Sunday, October 19 from 2-5 pm. All welcome! Free parking! The exhibition runs from October 17 – November 16, 2025. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 1-4pm or by appointment.
This summer, I was very pleased to be invited into a dual exhibition at Smokestack Gallery in Hamilton, Ontario; A/SIDE and B/SIDE. The theme was musical and the artists were prompted by Smooth Jazz for A/SIDE and Hard Rock for B/SIDE. Each artist was issued two 22×22″ sheets of Stonehenge paper. The sheets had coloured, circular inserts just like an LP. Fifty artists were asked to participate.
A/SIDE (Smooth Jazz) by Barry Coombs
I’m afraid that I’m posting too late for you to view A/SIDE. The opening reception was packed. The work was quite varied and not all artists created an LP-like circle within the square of the sheet. Many used the entire square and some created irregular shapes around the central disc. My two paintings were completed with pencil and gouache. My submission to B/SIDE is below. I sort of stuck to the hard rock theme but not quite. The image is an interpretation of the cover of Rarities, an album by the Canadian punk band, The Diodes. My friend Ian Mackay is the bass player. Scroll all the way down to see the Rarities album cover.
B/SIDE (Hard Rock) by Barry Coombs
B/SIDE opens this Friday evening, August 15 from 6-9pm and runs until August 29. Unfortunately, I won’t be in attendance but, if you’re in the neighbourhood, drop by for an exciting visual event. Smokestack Gallery is located in the Cotton Factory at 270 Sherman Avenue North. The gallery is open from Tuesday-Friday from 10am-4pm or by appointment (289-799-5088)
Hello all! It’s been quite a while since I offered any classes or workshops. Five long years, as a matter of fact. That’s about to change as I’ll be teaching three outdoor watercolour painting workshops in May and June of this year. These one-day workshops will be held at the Joshua Farm Gallery in Oakville, Ontario. This lovely, rural property is very scenic and provides for an indoor, morning demonstration and end-of-day constructive critique as well as accessible washrooms and free parking. The workshops will run rain or shine.
As you can see, each workshop will have a theme but participants can sign up for one, two or all three. Do note that these workshops are not suitable for beginners and are designed for the intermediate painter.
I hope you’ll join me for an enjoyable learning experience. Please, contact Joshua Farm Gallery at https://joshuafarmgallery.ca/register/ directly to register. Also, check the website to see the entire brochure for Winter and Spring art classes. Thank you. See you soon!
The painting shown here is entitled RELIEF84-3. It’s 48×36″ in size and painted in acrylic on a collaged wood panel. This work was recently exhibited in Idiosyncratic Geometries: Expressing Perception and Sensation at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario. The exhibition featured the abstract painting of Ian Mackay of St. Catherine’s, Ontario and of me, a resident of Hamilton.
Abstract painting can enhance an interior, whether it’s a home or office. The work in my RELIEF series was intended to be contemplative and soothing but visually stimulating, as well. The work poses questions and doesn’t simply answer them as a ‘realist’ painting often does.
Many visitors to our exhibition made favourable comments about the work but couldn’t envision an abstract work, particularly a larger one, in their home. RELIEF 84-3 looks pretty darn good in this contemporary setting, doesn’t it?
Allow me to discuss a frequent statement from gallery-goers, which is “I don’t have any more room on my walls”. Artists hear this a lot. My wife and I collect art. We have more art than wall space. Our solution is to rotate the work from time to time. That means that paintings that have been ‘up’ for a while get moved to basement storage and are replaced by something else (usually about the same size to reduce wear and tear on the wall). We love to rotate our art collection. It keeps the walls fresh and interesting. It rests works on paper from light, which can be potentially damaging. Most of all, we can continue to acquire art that we love.
If you simply don’t really like the art you see in a gallery, or if you just can’t afford it, the artist will always understand. You don’t have to say a thing. The artist appreciates your attendance at the exhibition. However, if you love the work and it’s affordable (artists and galleries can often offer terms), you can likely find room for it and it will look fabulous in your home.
RELIEF70-4, acrylic on collaged wood panel, 30×40″
Currently, I’m one half of a two-person exhibition of abstract painting entitled Idiosyncratic Geometries: Expressing Perception and Sensation. My good friend, Ian Mackay, completes the pairing. The exhibition is at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario until September 29. If you have followed this blog for several years, you’ll have noticed that I used it primarily for documenting the art classes I taught for various schools, studios and clubs. You’ll also likely recall that almost all of my teaching involved ‘traditional’ approaches to drawing and painting. It may come as a surprise to suddenly see this body of geometric, abstract painting. It has developed slowly over several decades but I won’t drag you through half of my life as an artist here. Instead, I’ll focus on the process I followed to create the acrylic paintings for this exhibition.
GETTING STARTED – IMAGERY The majority of my work, over the decades, has been empirical in nature, based on observation and experience rather than theory. This group of paintings is the most removed from direct observation but still owes itself to my overall visual experience. I’ve been a fan of geometric abstraction since art college days but only worked at it in fits and starts until the last few years.
For the past three years or so, I’ve worked on a sustained series of small paintings in gouache on paper. Arches and vessels, such as chalices, interest me and I made several paintings of each motif. Other ideas included notions of lost cities and the Zapotec stonework I saw on a visit to Mexico last spring. Simultaneously, I was doing simple, rectilinear shapes. The pure, geometric forms eventually won out for the Relief Series. The linear studies in pen shown here were made in my trusty 5×7″ Bateman sketchbook. On occasion, I add some colour to these drawings with markers.
COLOUR I’m an intuitive colourist. I’ve studied colour and enjoy reading and learning more about it but my colour relationships tend to come from observation and from within.
I fill sketchbooks with colour and compositional studies in gouache. The books are 9×12″ in format and the paper quality varies but it’s nothing special. Working in inexpensive sketchbooks frees me up somehow. You can probably see my preliminary pencil lines in the images above. I use pencil and a ruler to establish the proportions of the desired rectangle. The Relief paintings are 18×24″, 30×40″ and 36×48″; all 3×4 in proportion. These studies are used to establish the colour relationships for the larger acrylics. Another key element of my colour process is the use of paint chips. I make my own paint chips with gouache as I toil away and try out different combinations until something clicks. Overall, my palette in the Relief Series is fairly muted. Neutrals and chromatic greys speak to me. No colour is directly out of the tube, including black and white. Every final colour contains at least two pigments.
TEXTURE Brushwork has not been a priority for me for a long time. However, I wanted to create a tactile quality to the work in the Relief Series. Initially, as a first step, I applied collage (torn construction paper) to canvas, using matte medium. The results weren’t disastrous (some viewers may like random wrinkles) but it didn’t suit my temperament, at all. I switched to wood panels and soft gel medium and the result was more to my liking. Two layers of collage were applied before painting. The collage paper is placed randomly. Below, you can see the first layer on the left. The image on the right is a different panel but shows two layers.
The collage element is time-consuming and slows me down but it works for me. Also, it seems to have struck a chord with most viewers, both online and those who attended the Opening Reception.
A few commentators have suggested that the collage alone could be a finished painting (thank you for that) or that sections of the collage could be left unpainted such as in the unfinished piece below. We’ll see what the future holds but the current series deliberately conceals the colours of the collage paper. Creating texture and a topography to the panels was my goal. It gives an interesting contrast to the crisp edges of the rectilinear shapes.
The work is progress below shows the gradual addition of paint over the collaged panel.
This detail from a different work gives you a better look at the texture.
PAINTING
Once the collage is dry, I use a straight edge and pencil to establish the composition on the panel. Then, I’m ready to paint. I use Golden acrylic products and a variety of brushes. My palettes are Masterson Sta-Wets (https://mastersonart.com/products/sta-wet-premier-palette). I’ve been using them for years and I swear by them. They come with a special sheet of wax-like paper and a thin rectangle of sponge, which are prepared easily to conform with instructions. I can paint all day and my acrylic paint stays completely moist. Overnight, I fasten the lid snugly and put the palette in the refrigerator. Often, I’m able to use that paint over and over for up to a month.
Everyone likes to ask about the edges and corners of the rectilinear shapes. Although I draw them using a straight edge, all of the painting is done freehand. I never use masking tape. In the world of geometric painting, there seem to be two camps, the maskers and the non-maskers. I believe that the proof is always in the pudding and a painting can be successful no matter which process is utilized. It just so happens that I prefer to work freehand. Somehow, it slows me down and connects me more intimately with the gradual development of the painting.
Despite my efforts to plan the paintings at the sketchbook stage, I often make colour and value adjustments as I go. Thus, I’m not just filling in the shapes mechanically but continuing the creative aspect of the process.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS I’ve chosen to present these works unframed, for a few reasons. I like the simplicity of the presentation and they hold the wall without the intervention of a frame. Framing is also horrendously expensive. I have no objections, though, to a piece being framed by a purchaser and I’m happy to offer my thoughts on framing, if desired.
Also, these works are not signed on the front. A signature would be distracting. They’re signed on the back.
Why do I call it the Relief Series? There are a few reasons. I wanted to make contemplative works, which could provide relief from the constant assault of bad news, phone scammers and online hackers that add stress to our daily lives. A second reason is the personal relief I felt when I gave myself permission to pare down my approach to colour and rectilinear shapes. As mentioned, I’d been doing it for some time with my small gouaches but it took a long time for me to commit to larger panels in acrylic. Thirdly, the collage adds a quality of physical relief to the work.
The titles employ the series name, the united inches of the work (a 30×40″ painting equals 70) and a number indicating the order it was painted in. For example, the work at the top of this post is RELIEF70-4. I avoided sentimental, poetic or allusive references in the titles as I didn’t want to influence the viewer’s response.
Several decades ago, I was painting a small watercolour on the bank of the Seine in Paris. A local man approached me and asked if I was happy with the piece. I said that I thought it was OK but far from a masterpiece. He replied, ‘the artist is never satisfied’, turned and walked away. The Relief Series has given me a certain satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment and I believe in it. Still, new ideas have already emerged throughout the process and I’m back in the studio.
This Sunday, September 22, Ian and I are giving a free Artist Talk at Carnegie Gallery from 1-2pm. All are welcome and no reservation is required. We hope to see you there and then!
The Relief Series, the gouaches and other work can be viewed on my website at barrycoombs.ca
Idiosyncratic Geometry: Expressing Perception and Sensation is a two-person showcase featuring artists Barry Coombs of Hamilton and Ian Mackay of St. Catharines. This thought-provoking exhibition explores referential geometries and invites viewers on a journey of perception, sensation and abstract expressions. Barry Coombs is known for his dynamic interplay of shape, colour and composition. He creates paintings that satisfy and surprise through his refined use of mostly rectilinear, geometric forms. Ian Mackay weaves irregular shapes and biomorphic forms into his works, eliciting a rhythmic and playful sensory experience. The two artists combine to create a visual dialogue that blurs the boundaries between abstraction and representation. Both artists acknowledge the influence of early Modernist movements, including Cubism, Constructivism, Futurism and Suprematism.
The exhibition runs from September 6-29, 2024 at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario. All are welcome to the Opening Reception on Friday, September 6 from 7-9:30pm. A free Artist Talk will take place from 1-2pm on Sunday, September 22. All are welcome and no reservation is required.
East Hamilton is well worth a cultural visit until the end of November. The very cool The Capitol Bar is hosting an exhibition of watercolours and gouaches by Brian McPhee, alias 13brokenhorses. The artist will be present on Sunday, October 22 from 5-7pm.
Eight striking 22×30″ watercolour paintings command the room and draw the eye to the more intimate, but no less exciting, gouaches. The work is extremely affordable and Brian can be reached at [email protected] for details.
This blog has always been about the educational and instructional side of art with some inevitable self-promotion of my own work. With that in mind, I’m going to tell you a bit about Brian’s process and materials and offer a few of my thoughts on his work.
First, a bit about Brian. He currently teaches painting at Sheridan College, where he is well-established. Past teaching gigs include OCADU, Humber and Seneca Colleges. As a young artist and student, he was very close to Chinkok Tan, a Toronto artist who has taught and painted in central and eastern Canada for decades. Brian came to my attention early on while I taught on Grand Manan Island. Many Grand Manan homes and cottages were adorned with postcards and prints of two powerful McPhee watercolours; one of the famous Swallowtail Lighthouse and peninsula and the other of clamdiggers harvesting at low tide.
Brian is a huge fan of Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. As a young man, he once tracked down Wyeth at his rural, secluded home and was determined to show his armload of watercolours to the master. He was not warmly welcomed by Mrs. Wyeth and was told that Andrew was at work in his barn studio and NOT to be disturbed. Excitement and a youthful rashness prompted Brian to sneak over to the barn and look in the window. Andrew was quite elderly at the time but Brian describes him as ‘dancing’ as he painted. Mrs. Wyeth quickly spotted the young interloper and a very hasty retreat was in order.
The subject matter from the current exhibition is inspired by the Stipley neighbourhood of Hamilton and from a recent trip to Glasgow. A few images from Newfoundland are also featured. The two watercolours shown below are scenes from Trinity Bay in Newfoundland and have been hung side by side as a potential diptych.
Much of Brian’s career work has been painted ‘en plein air’ but these watercolours were completed in his studio, working upright at his easel. They are made from a blend of sketches and photo reference. The Arches Cold Press paper (140 lb.) is unstretched and clipped at the corners. He uses large Skoda Kolinsky brushes, #14 and #16. His colours mainly include a mix of Winsor & Newton and Lukas although he has worked with Da Vinci (the paints, that is) in the past. Paper white provides the luminosity of the lightest areas but there has been some recent experimentation with opaque white; in this case Buff Titanium from Daniel Smith. It’s been employed particularly in some of the skies in an attempt to create atmospheric conditions. A faint, preliminary pencil line can be seen in some of the lighter areas. Brian is an expert ‘shape reader’, who painted without any prior pencil strokes for many years but he now finds it helpful to map out the overall composition.
The small gouaches were made on a variety of papers, mostly in sketchbooks. He uses a variety of traditional gouache brands and is considering some trial use of the newer acrylic gouache. The brushes are inexpensive Princeton Velvettouch, #5 or #6. These little painting gems are only 7×10 to 8×11″ but they pack an immediacy and painterly quality that rivals the small oil panels created in the field by the Group of Seven. Also, can you see an echo of David Milne in the painting directly below? I sure can. Brian calls gouache ‘the Devil’s medium’! If that means that it’s a challenge then he’s definitely risen to the occasion.
Broad, expressive brushwork is a hallmark of Brian’s style. My art school mentor, the late Hugh Mackenzie, talked passionately about ‘the physical act of painting’. These gutsy, vivacious works exemplify that idea. If you know my work it will likely come as no surprise that I also see a fair bit of underlying geometry in these paintings and not just because most of the subjects are architectural. The work above is a good example.
My longtime and wonderful students may have a question for me. They’ve heard me harp about ‘edge issues’ in composition and how they can potentially distract the eye. Brian flirts with the edge frequently and, in doing so, he reminds me of the contemporary American painter, Mitchell Johnson. That’s a compliment. Johnson’s bold and colourful work, much of which is based on the urban environment, is quite often very tightly cropped and narrowly skirts the edges of the rectangle. Does it lend a powerful, dynamic quality to the work or does it bother the viewer? You decide. Despite my warnings to students, which I believe are valid and should be at least considered as one learns the basics of composition, I’m a big fan of the work of both Johnson and McPhee.
I’m exhibiting a collection of watercolour paintings in Gallery Two of the Grand Manan Art Gallery from August 20 – September 8, 2023. Almost all of these paintings were made in the early 1990s. I first came to the island in 1991 to teach ‘en plein air’ drawing and watercolour workshops.
Many of the scenes, lighthouses and buildings I painted have been altered by time. Some of the structures are long gone, like the Ross Island Light. Wooden objects like lobster traps and boxes have long been replaced with metal and plastics. Still, the island is a very beautiful and inspirational place!
Sincere thanks go to the entire gallery committee, in particular my hard-working and indispensable friend, David Ogilvie. This evening (Wednesday, August 23) at 7pm, I’ll be offering an illustrated talk featuring my sketches done over three decades of summer visits to the island. Drop by if you’re in the neighbourhood.
I’ll be exhibiting a collection of 22 watercolour paintings at the Grand Manan Art Gallery from August 20 – September 8, 2023. These watercolours are mostly from my visits to the island in the early 1990s. For more information about the exhibition and to view the work, please click on the Grand Manan Watercolour Exhibition page to the right or here. GMAG is located on beautiful Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada.
As a new artist member of the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario, I’ll be participating in the Artist Member Exhibition, CG23 from August 4 – 30, 2023. Join us at the Opening Reception from 7-9:30pm on Friday, August 4.
View my profile and see more of my work at the gallery here.
A while back, I posted a step-by-step pen and ink drawing of a Northern Mockingbird. The post may be viewed here. Occasionally, I paint birds in watercolour, as well. I’ve done a few recently and I thought I’d show you a bit of my process.
Several years ago, I was teaching an en plein air watercolour class on the Toronto waterfront. It was during the month of June and the trees were alive with busy local nesting birds. At one point, I reached for my binoculars to check out the source of some particularly harsh squalling. It was a fledgling, a young bird that had only very recently left the nest. It was one of the ugliest creatures I’d ever seen and I didn’t know what species it was until a parent dropped by with a beakfull of nourishment for the hungry youngster. I won’t reveal the species right away. Let’s talk about my process.
I worked from my own photo back in the studio. I print both a colour and a black and white version. The black and white version helps me see and understand the values. I grid the colour version and then draw a rectangle of the exact same proportion on my paper. I used a small block of Arches, Hot Press, 140lb., watercolour paper. Using the grid, I draw the bird with a very light touch of a soft 2B pencil. The pencil lines are quite faint and hard to see but easy to clean up with an eraser. For the sake of this post, I strengthened the drawing so that it would be clearer.
Step One of Fledgling
So far, the first step is identical to what I did with my pen and ink drawing of the Northern Mockingbird. This is a watercolour, however. Step Two means it’s time to paint. I mix Burnt Sienna with Cobalt Blue in order to create a cool/neutral grey. In Step Two I painted a narrow range of values to show the darker areas of the bird and also to suggest texture.
Step Two of Fledgling
Local colour is introduced with Step Three. Our fledging is a fairly colourful creature. I ‘glaze’ thin washes of colour where needed.
Step Three of Fledgling
Step Four is really a series of steps as I continue to develop colour and value. I step back a lot and take short breaks. The stepbacks and breaks are just as important as touching the brush to the paper. Eventually, the painting is finished.
Step Four of Fledgling
By the way, I don’t use opaque white paint. I reserve the white of the paper. It’s challenging, especially when there are white areas on the bird. Can you guess the species? It’s a young Red-winged Blackbird.
I’ll show you one more bird painting while I have your attention. It’s another common urban bird and this time I’ll just show two steps. Here is the ‘monochromatic’ stage of this study of a House Sparrow. Again, I’ve used a few values at this point.
Study of House Sparrow
The House Sparrow is not a colourful bird, at all. I stuck with the combination of Burnt Sienna and Cobalt Blue for the entire painting. Also, I gradually darken these paintings as the ‘light to dark’ process is very forgiving. These paintings are quite small, only 4 by 5 inches or so. The image on your screen is probably larger than the actual watercolour study. I hope you find this approach useful for working from your own photographs. It’s just one way to do it as, of course, there are likely as many ways to paint birds as there are artists. If you’d like to view more of my bird studies, click here.
Barry Coombs Art Workshops 