Monochromes

Saint John from the Signal
After 1815

The fledging city of Saint John, New Brunswick as seen from the newly-constructed Carlton Martello Tower, one of a series of strategic towers built in Canada in response to the war of 1812.

The use of monochromes in watercolour enable me not only to target specific effects in illustration, but also can be employed to achieve a wide range of moods which lie beyond the reach of the full colour spectrum.

From the photographic starkness of black and white, the rich fullness of patina, or the aged warmth of sepia, monochromes enable us to see the world through different eyes. With almost instant scene-setting abilities, they can conjure up before us the moodiness of greys, the almost fairy-tale quality of pastel greens to the muted echo of warm browns, which bring to life the distant times and places of bygone eras.

Sunday Morning Grand Manan

One of the Fundy Isles, Grand Manan lies off the southern coast of New Brunswick, and on this quiet, fog-
shrouded Sunday morning not too much was happening in Grand Harbour. The water was glass calm, the fishing fleet was home, and even the gulls were at rest. Applied in the same light-to-dark principles as watercolours, I find monochrome painting can be more demanding to render and at times can become rather frustrating, due to the confinement to a single colour. After many hours of working in monochrome and staring at the half-complete result, I'm invariably left feeling rather lost in a single dimension. Something which always proves to me that we humans were, after all, designed to see in living colour!

The Business of Life

All of us have dreams, Dreams of who we'd like to be or what we'd like to achieve. If only we had the chance. And yet many of our dreams are already attainable if built on the foundations we already possess. Thus this illustration, produced for an article entitled Choices: The Business of Life, which appeared in The New Brunswick Reader.

To order: jnresrch@mailcity.com

Mail: 90 Gorham Road, Glenwood, Kings Co., New Brunswick, Canada, E5M 2N2

[ Home ]
[ Custom Greeting Cards] - [ Military Insignia Greeting Cards ] - [ Story Illustrations ]
[ Atlantic Coast Greeting Cards ] - [ Your Portrait from a Photo ] -[ Miniatures ]
[ Watercolor History ] - [ Greeting Card Gallery ]