Creating Visual Stories: Behind the Scenes of a Painting

I have been creating visual stories on canvas for nearly 35 years, and for the past two decades, my work has focused on telling stories about Canada. Over this time, I have created nearly twenty paintings that reference the iconic Hudson’s Bay point blanket and its distinctive multicoloured stripes. These familiar bands of red, green, yellow, navy, and cream have become a recurring symbol in my work, offering a rich visual connection to Canadian culture, history, comfort, and identity.

Every so often, I feel the pull to add another painting to the series. The inspiration for my latest work, Adrift, began with a photograph by a Canadian photographer. I had encountered the image several times while researching Hudson’s Bay blankets, and it stayed with me. In the past, I have staged my own photographs using these iconic blankets as reference material for my paintings. This time, however, I was so captivated by another photographer’s interpretation that I reached out to ask permission to use the photograph as the starting point for a new painting.

For me, creating a painting is a process of translating an image into a visual story. A photograph might provide the initial spark, but the finished painting develops its own character through colour, composition, symbolism, and the decisions I make along the way.

From Sketch to Colour

When I begin a painting, I sketch the composition directly onto the canvas, establishing the placement of the figures, objects, and major shapes. From there, I begin colour blocking and building the underpainting, laying down the first layers of colour across selected areas of the composition.

Underpainting is an important part of my process. I often use complementary or contrasting tones beneath the final colours to create depth and intensify the hues that follow. These early layers establish the foundation of the painting, allowing the colours to interact and giving the finished surface a greater sense of richness.

Once the underpainting is in place, I begin layering the final colours and tones. This stage is about finding the right balance, adjusting the relationships between colours, and allowing the composition to come together. I am drawn to bold colour, simplified forms, and strong graphic elements, but achieving that clarity takes time. Each layer contributes to the overall feeling of the work.

As the painting develops, I move into the finer details. I define edges, refine shapes, and bring the figures to life through small but important touches, from facial features to details such as toenail polish. These seemingly minor elements can make a significant difference, adding personality and a sense of intimacy to the scene.

When I feel the painting is complete, I take a final look across the entire surface, checking the details, colour relationships, and overall composition. The finishing stage includes applying varnish to enhance the depth and richness of the colours and protect the painted surface. I then title the work, and once it is ready for its next chapter, sign and wire it for display.

Behind the Scenes of a Painting: Adrift

Adrift is a celebration of late summer and those first warm days of fall, of intimacy, leisure, and the particular luxury of having nowhere else to be.

A young couple reclines together in a boat, surrounded by the deep blues and turquoise waters of a Canadian lake. Their closeness creates the emotional centre of the painting, while the expansive water surrounding them suggests a moment suspended outside ordinary time.

The boat becomes more than a vessel. It is a private floating refuge, carrying the couple into a world of their own. Beneath them, a Hudson’s Bay striped blanket introduces a distinctly Canadian symbol of comfort, heritage, and domestic luxury. Its familiar stripes transform the boat into something unexpectedly sumptuous, bringing the comforts of home into the wilderness. In this meeting of textile and water, culture and nature, adventure and ease, the painting explores the many ways we attach meaning to familiar Canadian objects.

I am interested in the idea of Canadian luxury, and how it might be defined beyond material wealth or extravagant surroundings. In Adrift, luxury is not a grand hotel or an elaborate interior. It is time, privacy, beautiful surroundings, good company, and the freedom to let the hours pass without obligation. The boat, the rich textile, the couple’s carefully chosen clothing, and the sensual colour palette elevate an ordinary day on the water into an almost cinematic vision of Canadian leisure.

There is also a touch of mid-century romanticism in the couple’s clothing and relaxed pose, while the bold graphic treatment brings the scene firmly into the present. I am drawn to this tension between nostalgia and contemporary life, between the familiar imagery of Canada and the ways we continue to reinterpret it. Through these visual references, I create paintings that are not simply depictions of a place or a moment, but stories about how we experience and imagine Canada.

The boat points toward the horizon, yet there is no urgency to reach it. The couple is simply adrift, carried by the water, the weather, and each other.

At its heart, Adrift is about the luxury of being completely present. It captures that fleeting Canadian summer moment when the landscape becomes both destination and sanctuary, when the water stretches endlessly outward and time seems to slow down.

For me, this is the beauty of creating visual stories. An image can begin with a photograph, a familiar object, or a passing moment, but through the process of painting, it becomes something more personal. It becomes an opportunity to explore our relationship with the landscape, the symbols we carry with us, and the experiences that give a place its meaning.

Sometimes, the greatest luxury is not what surrounds us, but the freedom to simply be there, together, with nowhere else to go.

This painting, Adrift, is available through my Newfoundland dealer the James Baird Gallery here.