I recently found out my submission has been chosen to appear among some of the industry's best, in this year's Applied Arts Photography and Illustration Annual. I'm particularly happy that I will be featured in the portrait category, which has always been a main area of focus for me. The portrait is of none other than Canadian rap star Drake, as seen in an earlier post.

The issue should be in stores by May, and the Winner's Exhibit is scheduled in Toronto for late October. You can check out the full post and winner's list on the Applied Arts blog.

After buying an inversion table, I had a bunch of large cardboard lying around that I couldn't bear to recycle without attempting to repurpose first. Based on a blurry roadtrip photo, this painting of an old barn, seemed to make pretty good use of the material.

My idea was to harness the natural cardboard grooves and turn them into the wood planks of the rusting barn. Barns themselves can be quite interesting subjects to paint with the various shades and textures of weathering and degrees of decay. Though the scene is from a bleak winter day, I wanted to accent all of the cool grey and white with some warm colours popping around the composition, to generate a bit more interest.

 The expanded version of the article about my painting in the Tribune also ran in the St.Catharines Standard. Page two article, along with an unexpected cover inset. Here are a few screen shots of the layout.

Check out the article in The Tribune about my painting purchased by the City of St.Catharines. The portrait of Bill Burgoyne Arena, exhibited back in the spring as part of the city's gallery show, seems to be striking a chord with a lot of people. Canadians do like hockey, after all.
http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2970955

Sometimes a rebranding happens, and you find yourself wondering what exactly the point of it was. In general, spending a bunch of time/money to take a step in the wrong direction, or even worse, backwards, just isn't a good idea. The redesigned Zehrs logo now going up in store locations across Ontario, is feeling like of those big steps backward.

While the old logo and its typical grocer blocky typography could certainly benefit from a refresh, the new version is entirely questionable. It just doesn't really make sense...some sort of custom middle-eastern script fusion logotype that looks like one of the the fonts you get in the 10,000 free fonts packs. It doesn't feel very contemporary or have any connection to the fresh local market vibe that Zehr's interiors are going for. Then throw the old serif Markets which really doesn't fit in, and its one heck of logo grab bag. Should have just stuck with the old logo