When The Kiss turns into Kisses, an homage to Gustav Klimt

"When The Kiss turns into Kisses"
16 x 12", acrylic on cradle aluminum panel
Painting #292, 2022, black wooden floater frame

Born in 1862, Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and a founding father of the Vienna Secession movement—a group of artists who broke away from the rigid academic style of the late nineteenth century. Even though he trained as an architectural painter and could paint hyperrealistic portraits, he became legendary for something entirely different. He is celebrated for his rich, complex, dazzling gold friezes and portraits of powerful, stylish women from Vienna's turn-of-the-century high society. His style blended intricate patterns and raw eroticism, which didn't always sit well with the public at the time. His art was heavily influenced by Byzantine mosaics and reached its peak right alongside the Art Nouveau movement.

His masterpiece, The Kiss (1907-08), is a celebration of his deeply held belief in the transforming power of love. The male figure in the painting is actually Klimt himself, embracing his life companion, Emilie Flöge. In his book Klimt, author Gilles Néret describes the scene beautifully, noting how the woman completely abandons herself to the man while sexuality shimmers right through her clinging gown. This masterpiece was created during Klimt's "Golden Phase," a period when he used actual gold leaf on his canvases, bringing him incredible success and critical acclaim.

 For years, I had dreamed of seeing this masterpiece in person. In January 2020, I booked flights to Munich and reserved hotels for a month-long backpacking trip through Central Europe. My wife, Suzanne, and I planned to visit 11 cities across eight countries—including Vienna, Austria, where many of Klimt's works live. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared just two months later, and our dream trip was completely canceled.

I’ve been lucky enough to see a few of Klimt's other works over the past decade. I saw the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I at the Neue Galerie in New York City back in February 2013, Hope I at the National Gallery in Ottawa in April 2014, and a wonderful small exhibition called "Judith and Edith" at the Kunstmuseum in The Hague in May 2016. But The Kiss remained on my bucket list.

 

While waiting for our travel plans to get back on track, I kept painting. This piece is actually my sixth installment in a series featuring giant Hershey's Chocolate Kisses. It is a seasonal treats that usually only hits store shelves between Christmas and Valentine's Day.

This specific combination of Klimt and chocolate is incredibly close to my heart. Suzanne and I got married on Valentine's Day back in 1986. For this painting, I wanted to play on the word "Kiss" while celebrating our own love story. By placing the commercial, seasonal box of chocolate Kisses over a calendar marked for February, I wanted to contrast the fleeting, everyday ways we celebrate Valentine's Day with the timeless, golden romance of Klimt’s masterpiece.

Three years after our initial disappointment, in the spring of 2023, Suzanne and I finally made it to Central Europe. On May 1, we tried to visit the Upper Belvedere Palace in Vienna just two hours before closing, but all the tickets for the day were completely sold out. We scrambled online that night and secured a timed entry slot for the next morning.

That was the moment I realized just how massive this painting's legacy truly is. The gallery room was absolutely packed with admirers waiting to get their picture with it. In terms of crowd size and pure fame, it felt exactly like standing in front of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Picasso's Guernica, or Van Gogh's The Starry Night. The Upper Belvedere houses several other incredible Klimt pieces, and we also explored the Leopold Museum—which has a great replica of his art studio—and the Secession Art Museum, where you can see his iconic murals downstairs.

Standing there with Suzanne on May 2, 2023, looking at The Kiss after all those years of waiting, was the perfect full-circle moment for a journey that began with a canceled trip and a paintbrush.

with The Kiss at the Upper Belvedere Palace

Vienna, Austria - May 2, 2023

This painting is currently on view in a two-person show with Jon Wilkinson at the Fog Forest Gallery, entitled:

"Still Lives, Silent Places"

October 16 – November 6, 2026 

• Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2026, from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
• Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

To acquire this painting please contact:
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
fogforestgallery.ca

Got Milk? Got Warhol.

 

8 x 16", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

Painting #314, 2026, black wooden floater frame

-SOLD

When I spotted this vintage 9 oz milk bottle at Recollection in Salisbury, NB, I knew right away that it was a keeper. I can only vaguely recall glass milk bottles in our family fridge growing up. By the late 1960s, the Maritime provinces started introducing bagged milk. When Canada adopted the metric system in 1970, dairies transitioned from imperial quarts to metric measurements, as plastic bags were far cheaper than retooling glass lines.  

When conceiving this piece, I wanted to play on the famous "Got Milk?" marketing campaign that dominated pop culture from 1993 to 2014. During those twenty years, more than 300 celebrities and public figures were photographed sporting a white milk moustache. Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz captured more than 180 of these ads. A diverse mix of subjects ranging from Taylor Swift to Lisa and Bart Simpson got their "stache on"! 

In 2015, DesignCrowd launch an invite to its designers 

to reimagine stars from the past, while using Photoshop to 

transform them into modern day advertisements. 

 Since Warhol died in 1987, he ended up among the most popular

of the submitted entries.

To bring my "Got Warhol" concept to life, I turned to Andy Warhol's classic cow imagery. Warhol created his Cow series in 1966 using a photograph of a Jersey cow from an agricultural magazine, selected by gallery assistant Gerard Malanga. At the suggestion of his art dealer Ivan Karp, it was printed as wallpaper rather than standard canvas art. Today, a dozen major museums, including the MoMA and the Andy Warhol Museum, feature it in their permanent collections.

Tate Modern, London - May 2010

Over a span of ten years, Warhol produced four official color schemes for the Cow series to alter the look of specific gallery venues. To promote his first Paris exhibition in 1971 at Le Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, individual sheets of a new colorway—orange-red cows on an acid green background—were printed on a heavy wove paper stock instead of thin wallpaper rolls. Because of this durable paper, these exhibition posters became highly sought after by collectors for framing. I really liked this striking color combination for my background, though I did need to add a fine white outline around the lettering on the bottle so the letters wouldn't disappear against the red background.

The milk bottle rests on a Marimekko paper napkin featuring the classic poppy pattern named Unikko. Marimekko is a Finnish design house founded in Helsinki in 1951, known for its bold graphic prints and bright colors. When Maija Isola created the Unikko floral motif in 1964, it became the visual trademark of the company. The brand gained significant recognition when Jacqueline Kennedy purchased seven of their simple cotton dresses during her husband’s 1960 presidential campaign.

This past spring, Suzanne and I vacationed in four Scandinavian and Baltic countries, spending four memorable days in Helsinki, Finland. We visited two Marimekko stores, toured several art museums, sampled local dishes like their delicious salmon soup, and even tried a traditional sauna followed by a cold plunge in the Baltic Sea.

Marimekko Flagship Store in central Helsinki,

right next to the Esplanadi Park, May 2026

This painting is currently on view in a two-person show with Jon Wilkinson at the Fog Forest Gallery, entitled:

"Still Lives, Silent Places"

October 16 – November 6, 2026 

• Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2026, from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
• Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

-SOLD
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
fogforestgallery.ca

The Old Man goes to Fogo Island, an homage to Ernest Hemingway

12 x 10", acrylic on cradle aluminium panel

Painting #313, 2026, black wooden floater frame

-SOLD

In early July, while preparing for this two-man exhibition, it dawned on me that I should try to conceive a painting that could create a bridge between Jon Wilkinson's work and mine. Jon Wilkinson (1940-2012) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. After moving to Newfoundland in 1975, his artwork focused primarily on the landscapes and interiors of Newfoundland, specializing in serigraph prints.

July - serigraph print by Jon Wilkinson- 1997

Lighthouse in Twillingate, NL

-personal collection

I read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway back in 1999 and have wanted to paint a piece inspired by this specific book ever since. What was missing was the right narrative, and this joint show finally created that link. For the setting, I used a photograph I took in Joe Batt's Arm on Fogo Island while on vacation in October 2018. This picturesque spot is often featured in publicity shots by Tourism Newfoundland and Labrador to promote the province. If you squint, you might even be able to see the Fogo Island Inn located to the immediate right of the Old Spice bottle.

The original storyline for this maritime drama takes place east of Havana, Cuba. The old fisherman, Santiago, breaks an unlucky 84-day dry spell when he hooks an 18-foot marlin. He battles the fish for three days and three nights, only for it to be devoured by sharks before he can bring it to shore. I thought, why not give Santiago a break and see if he would have better luck fishing further north in the cold waters of the North Atlantic?

I couldn't find any record indicating that Hemingway ever visited Newfoundland, though he did live in Toronto twice during the early 1920s, spending just under a year there working as a journalist for the Toronto Star.

Because the term "Old Man" is often used informally to refer to one's father, this painting carries a parallel narrative dedicated to my own. My father left school after the 8th grade, as the one-room schoolhouse in Cap-Lumière focused entirely on primary education and continuing his studies would have required relocating. Instead, at just 13 years old, he became a fisherman. He eventually owned his own boats, naming one of them "Alvin" after I was born. Before the age of 50, he sold his fishing rig to work for the UMF fishing plant. Being a jack-of-all-trades, he wore many hats over the years. At times, he bought lobster at the wharf and tended the live lobster tank house. Later, he shifted to building maintenance, worked in the garage servicing transport trucks, and did vehicle bodywork. Like many New Brunswickers of his generation, he also ventured out to Labrador during the 1950s, where workers were heavily employed by defense contractors like the Fraser Brace Construction Co. to build early-warning radar installations like the station at Cartwright.

I vividly recall seeing a bottle of Old Spice aftershave underneath the Christmas tree, a recurring gift to my father from my mom. Once, the Old Spice even came in a clear bottle with a Fresh-Lime scent. The iconic white bottle, adorned with its trademark sailing ship, felt like the perfect anchor for this piece.

Old Spice 1972 commercial

Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, and it became the key work cited when he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. The Scribner paperback edition featured in the painting was printed in 1968, with cover artwork by Victor Mays Jr. (1927-2015). Mays was a highly regarded American illustrator and fine artist renowned for his historically accurate maritime paintings. He illustrated more than 80 books, alongside dozens of magazine covers and commercial book jackets, before pivoting entirely to fine art in 1977.

Family visit at the Hemingway Home in Key West.

 Home to nealy 60 six-toed cats.

This painting is currently on view in a two-person show with Jon Wilkinson at the Fog Forest Gallery, entitled:

"Still Lives, Silent Places"

October 16 – November 6, 2026 

• Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2026, from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
• Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

-SOLD
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
fogforestgallery.ca

Field of Dreams, the Blue Jays at 50

 

12 x 12", acrylic on gessoed aluminum panel

painting #312, 2026, black wood frame with a 1" white linen liner

-SOLD

Some paintings take months and some are even years in the making; others arrive simply. The spark for this piece was ignited last fall during the nail-biting Game 7, when the Toronto Blue Jays went deep into extra innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Standing on the precipice of a World Series title, the country watched as a 9th-inning lead evaporated, culminating in an 11-inning, 5–4 loss. Yet, despite the defeat, a profound shift had occurred. The Blue Jays did something rare that gradually developed during their entire post-season run. In a deeply divided world—they kind of brought an entire nation together. Even though no Canadian actually plays for Toronto, the team's chemistry and the pride they displayed for the only franchise in our country was so awesome. The sheer joy that the players showed on and off the field truly cemented this roster in the hearts of fans from coast to coast. The morning after that bittersweet game, I walked into Canadian Tire and bought this pristine Rawlings baseball.

The purchase felt even more resonant given the milestone on the horizon: 2026 marks the Blue Jays' 50th anniversary. Earlier this spring, coming home from Europe, we managed a quick two-day stopover in Toronto and caught the May 11 opener against the Tampa Bay Rays. Even though they dropped the game 8–5, the energy inside the stadium was electric. We watched Kevin Gausman collect his 2,000th career strikeout, while Andrés Giménez hammered a career-high two home runs in a single game. What struck me the most was the attendance—39,336 fans packed into a stadium at 4:00 PM on a Monday afternoon in early spring. The love for the game was palpable. In a strange twist of baseball fate, those same Tampa Bay Rays just clinched their spot yesterday to face the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2026 World Series.

I've only played a bit of baseball during my youth, but the game never truly left me. I still recall the Blue Jays winning the World Series in 1992 and 1993, and following the Montreal Expos during my teens and as a young adult. Another enduring affection belongs almost entirely to Phil Alden Robinson’s 1989 cinematic adaptation of the novel Shoeless Joe by the late Canadian author W.P. Kinsella. Field of Dreams is my all-time favorite movie. I was 27 years old when I first sat in the dark of the Riverview Mall Cinema with Suzanne. By the time the final credits rolled, the film had completely wrecked me. Driving home that evening, I was bawling so hard I could barely keep my eyes on the road. Decades later, the morning after the Jays lost Game 7, I went online to ThriftBooks and tracked down a used copy of Kinsella's novel.

Click to play trailer

I began working on this panel in August, often painting with the television playing in the background as Toronto battled through a tight wildcard race. One quiet evening, flipping through channels on a light sports night, I stumbled onto Field of Dreams just as it was starting on TSN. During a completely ordinary scene, the background score caught me off guard, instantly tugging at my heartstrings until my eyes welled up. A quick search revealed why: the film’s sweeping, emotional score was composed by James Horner, the same brilliant mind behind Titanic.

Immersing myself further into the story, I listened to the audiobook of Shoeless Joe and discovered a narrative far more intellectual and complex than its Hollywood film. In the book, the protagonist Ray has an identical twin named Richard who is entirely absent from the movie, and the ultimate reconciliation belongs to this estranged brother who fled home at sixteen and the father. Furthermore, the reclusive writer Ray kidnaps isn't the fictional Terence Mann, but the notoriously private J.D. Salinger, the author of Catcher in the Rye. When Salinger, found out that his name was attached to this book, he was none too pleased, so to avoid a lawsuit during the screenwriting, a fictional substitute took his place. When W.P. Kinsella openly admitted that reading Phil Alden Robinson's finished script brought tears to his eyes. He recounted saying to himself, "This is my own work doing this to me. How can this happen?" He deeply admired how beautifully written it was, particularly because Robinson managed to protect the core integrity and emotion of the story.

It is without a doubt that what makes this film emotional for me is the father-son relationship. If I possess an ounce of manual or artistic talent it is a direct inheritance from my father. My father could practically do anything manually. He could figure out how things work and was great at problem solving. He valued craftsmanship and aesthetics. I remember him turning a replica of the Stanley Cup on a lathe from an antique oak baluster before my eyes. He also used my grand-mother's sewing machine and made me a duffle bag for my hockey equipment. It had a drawstring (army style), made out of canvas with sewed handmade C-H Montreal logo in the front. One of my father’s most enduring legacies is a simple piece of advice that has stayed with me throughout my life: "When you start a project, finish it."

My dad was 37 years my senior, and the generation gap between us was wide. He was a short man, just five feet tall, a relentless worker who never exercised or walked for pleasure, yet he possessed guns for biceps and the chest of a natural bodybuilder on a slim built. We viewed the world through entirely different lenses—I grew up shaped by many more opportunities presented to me and the wonderment of television; he was shaped by a starker, harder era. By the time Field of Dreams came out, he was 65 and his body was already breaking down under a myriad of ailments. Looking at a photograph of him circa 1950, he was a vibrant young man of past 25. When I was that exact same age, I wanted nothing more than to step through time, meet him as a contemporary, and just bond and hang out with him before life took its toll. Watching Ray Kinsella get his second chance at the end of the film allowed me to live vicariously through that exact dream.

Now, at 64 years old myself, listening to the audiobook in my studio, a profound "a-ha" moment washed over me. Midway through executing this challenging composition, a breathtaking coincidence came to light: the twin brothers in Kinsella's novel are named Ray and Richard. United, they form my father's full name: Raymond Richard. The painting was no longer just an idea; it felt guided, an absolute inevitability.

My Dad - circa 1950

When I launched this Blog in 2007, it was a novel concept of posting my artwork on-line and connecting with artists who were in the realism realm, thus creating a form of networking. We often shared blog links located on the right column. For the first time, it felt like I was being seen because I could control the narrative and use this platform as an archive. A lot of the artists that I followed started bypassing the brick and mortar galleries and selling their paintings through eBay. While I didn't myself, I did however acquire dozens of amazing works from this community during the following decade.

One of those artists was Mick McGinty. I knew that he was a celebrated illustrator; he had done album covers for famous rock bands and for video games. But he was mostly known for his movie posters of Hollywood Blockbusters. I corresponded a bit with him and would acquire two of his paintings very early on, a still life and a street scene from New York City. It was only when I did the research for this painting that I became aware that he also did the movie poster for Field of Dreams. Sadly, he died of stage IV lung cancer at the age of 68 in 2021 shortly after being diagnosed. In 2020, prior to his diagnosis, he, his wife, his son Jobe with his family visited Dyersville, Iowa, where the setting for the movie has remained and is currently a tourist attraction. Jobe played catch with his Dad!

Field of Dreams Movie poster by Mick McGinty

The backdrop for my own painting is rooted closer to home: CN Ball Field #9 on Rhéal Cormier Drive in Moncton. Cormier was our local baseball titan from Shediac, a legendary left-handed pitcher who spent 16 seasons in the Majors and proudly wore the Canadian jersey at two Olympic Games before he, too, was taken way too early by cancer in 2021.  He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

CN Field #9, Rhéal Cormier Drive, Moncton, NB

The baseball glove in this painting is also by Rawlings. I bought it when my son Jean-Luc was young so we could play catch together. 

This painting is currently on view in a two-person show with Jon Wilkinson at the Fog Forest Gallery, entitled:

"Still Lives, Silent Places"

October 16 – November 6, 2026 

• Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2026, from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
• Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

-SOLD
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
fogforestgallery.ca

Jacks on Jack Daniel's, an allegory

 

9 x 12", acrylic on cradled aluminum panel

Painting #311, 2026 | Black wooden floater frame

-SOLD

The initial concept for this painting surfaced back in November 2015. While browsing at HomeSense, I spotted a classic set of Ball & Jacks inside a retro, cylindrical cardboard box. At the time, I envisioned a narrative about personal struggle, pairing the game with Margaret Atwood’s book Moral Disorder and an almost empty bottle of whiskey—a cautionary tale regarding dependence, gaming, substances, and losing one's way in life.

I carried that imagery in my mind for over a decade. However, a whole new narrative unfolded simply by changing the book at the center of the frame. While I retained the vibrant teal color palette inspired by the Atwood cover, the physical book transformed into George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The result is an allegorical piece infused with symbolism regarding the current political climate in the United States. At its core, 1984 illustrates how a nation collapses into a dystopian state when extreme nationalism and political apathy allow a totalitarian regime to erode the concept of objective truth. Orwell warned that a state can completely dominate its citizens by rewriting history, policing language, and demanding absolute, unquestioning loyalty to a leader whose manufactured cult of personality replaces all human affection. Ultimately, it is a chilling reminder of how easily democratic values vanish when a population surrenders its critical thinking to psychological manipulation.

The physical elements of the still life bring this warning into the modern day, built layer by layer:

• The Gold Jack: Out of the set of twelve metal jacks, only one is painted gold. Recognizing gold as the President of the United States' favorite color, it sits prominently atop the stacked arrangement.
• The Silver Jack: Balanced precariously on the Jack Daniel's bottle, this jack represents his administration, the right-wing media apparatus supporting his rhetoric, his enablers, and the MAGA movement.
• The Bottom Jack: Cast down against the book, this piece represents all those who oppose the current regime, whether they be American dissidents or global citizens united in solidarity.
• The Monopoly Card: The "GET OUT OF JAIL FREE" card directly references Donald Trump’s sweeping mass clemency actions, which granted sweeping pardons and commutations to individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
• The Marble: This represents the pervasive mind games at play—denying the validity of the 2020 election, erecting barriers to restrict Black voters, and weaponizing falsehoods to reshape reality. The way the glass marble subtly distorts the surface beneath it mirrors how these strategies twist the public's perception of truth.

This political strategy relies heavily on the old saying that "if you repeat a lie often enough, people will eventually believe it." Since his return to office, we have seen systemic shifts that mirror Orwell's warnings: the breach of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) through blanket tariffs, the subsequent Canadian retaliatory restrictions on American goods (including Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey), the erosion of international alliances, and executive directives aimed at altering historical narratives within federal institutions and national museums. From pulling out of global agreements to threatening the sovereignty of close allies, the guardrails of American democracy appear entirely down.

I have visited the United States upwards of 25 times. My last visit was during the summer of 2016, when my family and I ascended Mount Katahdin in Maine's Baxter State Park. I have chosen to personally boycott travel to the US ever since. While I had planned to return after the 2020 election, watching the systemic delays that prevented accountability after the insurrection convinced me to stay put.

As a Canadian, I love the United States and hope to return one day when institutional order is truly restored. In the meantime, I am deeply proud of our Prime Minister, Mark Carney, for standing as a true statesman in defense of our nation and serving as a vital voice of reason on the world stage. We must collectively remember Benjamin Franklin's timeless warning that a democracy is "a Republic, if you can keep it."

This painting is currently on view in a two-person show with Jon Wilkinson at the Fog Forest Gallery, entitled:

"Still Lives, Silent Places"

October 16 – November 6, 2026 

• Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2026, from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
• Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment.

-SOLD
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
fogforestgallery.ca