INTRODUCTION

Welcome!

Here is a gallery of Realist Fine Art, including Paintings, Drawings and related materials. Books, Articles and Essays can be found in the Literature section. The viewer is invited to tour the pages and enjoy the pictures, the descriptive notes and the essays. Comments and discussion will be welcome. Click HERE for link to the feedback section. 

New:

The photo-documentary book "Everybody's Port Hope" is now in electronic form on CD for viewing in Adobe^® Reader^®. It is available from RANDALL'S, on Walton Street in Port Hope.

 

About the Artist:

In keeping with a considerable interest in the history of society, Albert has served the community in several capacities such as library boards, historical societies and various advisory committees to Municipal Councils. He has researched, written, edited, illustrated and produced books and essays on topics related to community history and architectural preservation, for which he received a Civic Award from the City of Brampton in 1979. 

Most of Albert's art work is now produced in watercolour, pen and ink or alkyd materials, frequently with a focus on landscapes and architectural subjects. A fairly strict realist style is used in most cases, although photographic reproduction is not the intention, unless required specifically for record purposes. Since student days, he has, like most others, experimented with different styles of painting, but maintains that realism makes it easier for viewers to appreciate the message that the picture is intending to convey.  

About Paintings - for those who don't already know!

Starting in kindergarten, watercolours are the usual medium for introducing most people to the joys and frustrations of recording their artistic thoughts.  Embracing a wide range of characteristics, from subtle transparency to solid opacity, water-based paints were originally finely ground pigments suspended in water, with a binding agent such as gum arabic to hold the colour in place on the support when dry.  Transparency was realised by using thin washes, allowing the paper, or other support material, to reflect light back through the pigment.  Opacity was achieved by applying thick coats of pigment.  

Since our society has become industrialized, and particularly since the 1960s, many new developments in paint production have introduced an extensive range of new painting materials to the artist.  In some cases, this has resulted in new techniques and new types of tools with which to achieve results.  Although relatively unchanged in concept, traditional "transparent" watercolours have benefited from developments in the chemistry of their production.  Advances in polymer chemistry have been adopted in the manufacture of many types of fast-drying, water-based paints, both for artistic and commercial purposes.  For the artist, these are usually known as "Acrylics".  They are normally used as solid (non-transparent) colours, and because they dry quickly, they are not always suitable for the ponderous painter steeped in the traditions of oil paints that can be moved around on the support to achieve subtly blended transitions.  

The advent of artistic grades of alkyd paints has bridged the gap between slow-drying traditional oil paints, and fast-drying acrylics.  They have the solid brilliance of oils, but dry in a fraction of the time.  Some of the pictures included in this Web site have been painted with alkyd materials.  Many are watercolours, and most, if not all, of the black and white drawings are pen and ink.  

It sometimes takes more than one attempt for the artist to achieve precisely the required result in a painting.  Occasionally it may never happen.  Watercolour is a particularly unforgiving medium and changes of mind or direction can often mean a restart.  More than one of the pictures in this gallery are the result of several attempts to get it right!