[Jerry Campbell]

I'm new to this site, and so pleased that I stumbled across it.
I'm especially enamoured of the little out-of-the-way corners of Toronto, and I try to capture them in oil paint.
Please see the attachments for an image of the old GE site at Lansdowne and Powerhouse Street, and the dead end on Albany Avenue north of Dupont. All paintings are done on-site, and more can be seen at www.jerrycampbell.blogspot.com
Thanks for looking!

 

[Urban Shocker]

Great portfolio. Congratulations, and thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[CityPainter]

I love the gritty feeling of your industrial-themed paintings, and the immediacy of your technique. As an amateur acrylic painter I've attempted similar subjects in the past with much less success. Your work is inspiring, thanks for sharing. There are many photographers capturing scenes around Toronto but I only know of a handful of painters.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The comparison is apt, now that the truism of "the camera never lies" and the idea that it automatically "captures" reality no longer holds - when the truth we're presented with may actually be a digitally manipulated fiction. If the arrival of documentary photography pushed artist into expressionism and beyond, we've now come full circle to appreciate again the idea of plein air artists on the loose capturing images of the city and the suburbs and beyond.

 

[LowPolygon]

beautiful work--your images remind us how powerful a medium plein air painting can be, as a means of evoking and capturing intangible and elusive qualities of mood, light, atmosphere, and that inestimable 'sense of place'. i like how you are working at such an intimate scale--looking at small paintings is always such a concentrated experience!

 

[Parkdalian]

Yeah! Great stuff! Keep it up.

 

[Jerry Campbell]

Thank you all for the kind and thoughtful comments! Your mentioning that digital manipulation has caused a distrust of photography is very true, Urban Shocker.
I like your work, citypainter, because you convey the information of the city- street furniture, architecture, etc.- with such clarity.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I celebrate the fact that you capture all conditions in your paintings, Jerry. So often, on this forum for instance, there's a narrow focus on presenting images of a hyperreal world where every sky must be blue, the colour grey is considered morally wrong and must be banished because "the city needs more colour", and where we're often left with a suspicion that reality that doesn't conform to some sort of ideal has been photoshopped out. Sort of like Greek Classical art before the Athenians had the shit kicked out of them in several wars and started producing art that dealt with the real world.

 

[jn_12]

Very nice stuff Jerry.

Just curious, do you use a regular scanner to scan those in? Also, do you paint anything larger than 8X10? If so, how have you scanned them?
The reason i ask is because my girlfriend's Dad is a professional painter, and we've been trying to get his work up on the net but because he paints mostly larger paintings (12X24 at the smallest) we haven't figured out how to scan them other than taking them to a professional place (which we might do eventually, now that we have the financial ability to help him out). Anyways, thanks for sharing your work!

 

[Goldie]

Very nice stuff Jerry.

Just curious, do you use a regular scanner to scan those in? Also, do you paint anything larger than 8X10? If so, how have you scanned them?
The reason i ask is because my girlfriend's Dad is a professional painter, and we've been trying to get his work up on the net but because he paints mostly larger paintings (12X24 at the smallest) we haven't figured out how to scan them other than taking them to a professional place (which we might do eventually, now that we have the financial ability to help him out). Anyways, thanks for sharing your work!

Have you tried photographing the paintings with a digital camera?
With some care, it works well.

 

[CityPainter]

Just curious, do you use a regular scanner to scan those in? Also, do you paint anything larger than 8X10? If so, how have you scanned them?
The reason i ask is because my girlfriend's Dad is a professional painter, and we've been trying to get his work up on the net but because he paints mostly larger paintings (12X24 at the smallest) we haven't figured out how to scan them other than taking them to a professional place (which we might do eventually, now that we have the financial ability to help him out). Anyways, thanks for sharing your work!

jn_12, I struggled with the same questions and eventually settled on photographing paintings versus scanning them: for me, at least, the texture of the canvas seemed to be amplified abnormally by the scanner. If you find that your camera lens is distorting the image so the edges of the painting are not square, zoom the camera all the way out; this seems to minimize the distortion. Neutral lighting seems best (like the like from a hazy or slightly cloudy day rather than bright sunlight). Once you import the photo, you can crop and adjust colour balances and contrasts in a program like Photoshop.

This technique is not perfect, though, I still find the camera adds reflections on very dark/black areas, which makes them appear lighter in the photos than in real life. Not sure if Jerry or anyone else has suggestions for rectifying that problem.

 

[jn_12]

Thanks for the help. The work that he has up on the website of one of the galleries he's in were from photos and they don't do the paintings justice. Not sure what kind of camera was used for those, so perhaps it's just about using a better quality camera. It might be a bit of a project for us for the summer, so I'll see if what you suggest works, since I doubt the person who took the pictures did any sort of work to them to make them look as they do in person.
Thanks!

 

[Jerry Campbell]

Ha ha! You're right on there, Urban Shocker.
Thank you for your comment, jn_12. Yes, I scan most of my paintings, though larger ones have to be photographed. I think citypainter gives good advice when he recommends shooting on hazy or slightly overcast days. And, as noted, contrast, sharpness, and colour balance can be adjusted on your computer once the image is imported. No method is a substitute for seeing the work in person, which, I might add, you can if you visit the North York Public Library during the month of June!

 

[Urban Shocker]

Architectural photographers also prefer to shoot on overcast days, when the light is even and diffused, because bright sunlight casts shadows that obscure details and washes out surfaces.

 

[ladyscraper]

Love the paintings! Please keep us up to date with any new ones you create in the future!