Keith  O'Connor 
paintings
  tinman Gallery logo by  keith o'connor  2008 - Paintings by: Keith

                                                                  last update July 6 - 2008

currently working mostly on portraits see home page for link
for best viewing check your monitor color balance
: click here for information
Latest Paintings added to bottom

 

Latest Painting:

See below for details

Flowers
16 x 120in. acrylic on canvas

Flowers
2008     Jan    

Acrylic on Canvas
16 x 20in

Again I am using simple shapes as a means of ingesting the outside world into myself.

I am seeing more in terms of the interaction of energy systems as opposed to static appearance.

Falls
16 x 120in. acrylic on canvas

Falls
2008     Jan    

Acrylic on Canvas
16 x 20in

Tired of white paint gobs representing splashing water and partially painted trees that mark a forested background shape.

I used graphic marks to create an emotional equivalent to nature. In place of being in nature I reversed the process and ingested nature - much like bringing the outside world inside and in the process reconstructing it.

Flowers
24 x 18in. acrylic on canvas

Flowers
2008     Jan    

Acrylic on Canvas
24 x 18in

Although I have avoided flower paintings: flower gardens formed a large part of mychildhood visual experience.

I composed the red coloured foliage rhythms while listening to Little Richard's high energy music.

My objective is not to move the eye around the painting in the traditional fashion as it is to move the eye between low medium and high energy elements.

Flowers
24 x 18in. acrylic on canvas

Still Life
2008     Feb    

Acrylic on Canvas
16 x 20in

This is a repaint of my April 2007 still life with most colours changed using my latest colour system.


Storm Clouds over Gros Morne Nfld
29 x 34in. acrylic on canvas

Storm Clouds Over Gros Morne Nfld
2008     Mar    

Acrylic on Canvas
29 x 34in

This painting was a struggle. Ideas changed a dozen times. It has been over painted as many times.

Warsaw Caves 3
14 x 18in. acrylic on canvas

Warsaw Caves3
2008     April    

Acrylic on Canvas
14 x 18in

This is a repaint of my of my earlier painting. All colours have changed as I am now using my latest colour system.


Village Church
22 x 30in. acrylic on canvas

Village Church
2008    April  

Acrylic on Canvas
22 x 30in

Inspired by a Casson serigraph. Casson was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven. I started this painting in 2002 and finished in 2008. Having made minor changes to the basic composition it was then underpainted in grey scale and sat for six years.

Using ideas from colour field painters I added more colour than Casson would dare for his time period. Although Casson sometimes played with adding more colour he tended to return to more naturalistic painting.

Traditional painters used colours which changed very little under varying light conditions. It is with the use of more vibrant and higher keyed colours which introduce a wider range of colour change in modern paintings due to environmental lighting..

 

Village Church Copy
22 x 30in. acrylic on canvas

Village Church
2008    June  

Acrylic on Canvas
22 x 30in

This copy was made for my wife's cousin. Like the original it will hang on a shadowed wall. The simple black frame helps lighten the painting through sim-contrast. The pigments mixes have been designed to reflect as much light as possible. The redish to yellowish pigments will darken as evening approaches and the blueish will lighten.. The row of orange trees which in the above graphic appear light yellow are painted with mica-orange-pigments.

Both these paintings add an incredable amount of colour to a shadowed drab wall.

 


Waterfalls
16 x 20in. acrylic on canvas

Waterfalls
2008     May   

Acrylic on Canvas
16 x 20in

Originality painted Aug 2006.Overpainted with new colour system in May 2008.

The dark cobalt blue sky is the only colour that appeared to work with the others.

Red Wave No.1
18 x 14in. acrylic on canvas

Red Wave No. 1
2008     May   

Acrylic on Canvas
18 x 14in

You either like it or you don't. It's that simple.


Volunteer Appreciation Day Kanata Seniors Center 2008 June 5
30 x 22in. acrylic on canvas


The black frame is part of the sim-contrast colour system.

Volunteer Appreciation Day Kanata Seniors Center 2008 june 5
2008     June    

Acrylic on Canvas
30 x 22in



I set up my regular pigment based colours to scatter the surface reflecting light causing more problems for the camera but not for the human eye. The painting tends to glow under proper lighting conditions.

I also used mica-based pigments in the grey hair and gold jacket causing intense reflections further disturbing the camera . Note the grey hair going from silver to matte grey because of reflection.


Modigliani Deconstruction
14 x 18in. acrylic on canvas

Light bouncing off the surface creates a glow of colour

Modigliani Deconstructed
2008     June

Acrylic on Canvas
14 x 18in

This deconstruction illustrates the compositions curved pickup lines usually hidden by traditional art styles.

It is a small painting but radiates a great deal of presence. The eyes convey the mind. A lack of body surface detail reduces the erotic component but begins to ambiguate self as mind and, body as other to both the self in the painting and to the viewer outside the painting.


Reality Construction
14 x 18in. acrylic on canvas

Reality Construction
2008     July

Acrylic / Mirrors / No.3 Brush /on Canvas
14 x 18in

Didn't know when I started what it would look like when finished.

The core concept deals with the idea that we construct our own views of reality and convince ourselves that our constructs are real.



The real brush with its pool of paint stuck to the surface represents the tools that we use to construct our paintings. The four mirrors on the bottom right allow us to treat the painting as an every day object by seeing our own reflections.

It is interesting how the four mirrors with their half inch separations and a viewer standing at an optimum distance blend the separate images together in the minds eye.

Our minds tend to work like a CD music player that encounters a bad spot and quickly interpolates the sound just prior to the bad spot and just following the bad spot. We don't notice the bad spot because it has been replaced.

Guilt, Shame and Fear are the three word concepts used by all religions and all marketing spin doctors to control ideas and construct your reality..

How many times have you used these word concepts to win your point in an argument ?

Don't you care about (insert issue here).

We (the believers who have constructed reality ) must do something (insert either appropriate or inappropriate action here).

We (the believers who have constructed reality) have to set the example and then others will follow.
We (the believers) always say others cannot do enough. If we ever say others can do enough then we lose our purpose and moral power over others..

Painting, Music, Language all use various forms of reality construction. With most paintingt and music we generally know its a construct. Some painting and some language attempt to become associated with reality to the point of becoming and illusinon of reality.

Unfortunatily we can be tricked by these illusions of reality more often than not.


Classic Nude
14 x 18in. acrylic on canvas

Classic Nude
2008     July

Acrylic /on Canvas
14 x 18in

Pose History:

Giorgione: Sleeping Venus / 1508

Titian: Venus of Urbino
/ 1538

Modigliani: Nude with Necklace / 1917

Keith O'Connor: Classic Nude / 2008


The upper right background is an orange red. The bottom left background is a violet red. Both converging towards red. The figure is divided into a greenish yellow against a greenish blue. Both related by green. The hair is divided between yellow and blue.

The figure is blocked out using straight lines of differing lengths. Long parallel straight lines tend to flatten parts of the figure. Short straight lines used to build opposing curves tend to volumectrically round other parts of the figure.

It is a very strong painting for its small size.


October
26 x 30in. acrylic on canvas

October
2008     July

Acrylic on Canvas
26 x 30in




The flat shapes are being filled with thick paint. The objective is to produce a happy painting that changes as the light conditions in the room changes.The sky forms one colour unity set, the hills and foreground another unified colour set. The water forms a fourth. yet joined to the sky colour set.

It is the relationship between these colour sets that build the structure.