My daughter Sarah and her friend Jasmine are spending the afternoon in our backyard. My older daughter, Charlotte, age 15, is with them.
From my deck-high vantage point, I spy this view of Sarah, tying back her hair.
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It’s spring, and a bit too early for the “INFLATE-O” pool, so they opt to blow some bubbles. Jasmine and Sarah run back and forth, waving
their plastic wands, creating streams of soap bubbles for Charlotte. Anchored in her wheelchair, she gamely pops the bubbles as they come into range.
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Acrylic, like any medium, has very distinct characteristics. For this experimental painting, its characteristics suited the approach I was planning and the
effect I was trying to achieve. The subject of this painting is clearly recognizable. For me, it’s the colouring, style and composition that are the abstraction.
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In the past, I’ve done the occasional cartoon, using black ink and a fine sable brush, emulating celebrated cartoonist and close family friend,
John Yardley-Jones. When I was 14 years old, he came to visit with us for a while on a holiday. When he returned home, he sent caricature drawings
of everyone in our family, in various numerous situations. The fluid, tapering stroke of his brush technique carried far more expression than pencil ever could.
It was amazing work, especially considering that John had lost all of his fingers as a child to blasting caps.
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I planned this painting around that same brush-stroke technique. It’s a Zen process that brings to mind the marks carved by skaters on a sheet of clean ice.
My hand skates around the canvas. It’s very liberating. And besides ... I’m terrible on real ice.   Mark Heine