“THE MOUNTIE”

When Suchiu painted “The Mountie” his mission was to show you the Canada he lovingly claims to be the safest, cleanest, most beautiful country in the world.

So he searched through hundreds of his photographs and employed several of them that offered tasty little snippets of Canadian. These included the mountains, an actual Rocky Mountain bridge, and of course the majestic Mountie.

He then began to arrange them in his mind until he could visualize what he would call the perfect Canadian scene.

Such explains his process for creating this scene. He would close his eyes and imagine planting his feet down on the most perfect spot in Canada. He would take a look around and create in his minds-eye a scene that would make him crave to be there. Ron calls this “having self-induced daydreams”.

With all the proper things in place, he then proceeded to sketch the image out mainly to double-check all the aesthetic balances.

After choosing what he felt to be the proper size canvas for the piece he then formulated the color palette needed to create the desired atmosphere. In this case, Ron wanted us to feel the cool clear mountain air while catching the subtle earthy smells of an aging forest and mineral-rich stream.

For those of you who do not know this artist well; one challenging commitment that Suchiu makes which helps him continually improve his artistic abilities is to add something new that he has never attempted in a painting. This could be an object he has never painted before, a uniquely applied texture or brushstroke, a new way of hiding a secret message, or even a fresh learned or newly created technique for a special effect that he is attempting to achieve.

In this art piece, the latter is the case.

Ron has mentioned with enthusiasm how proud he is of the pool of water in the foreground of this work.

He recalled from his journeys in the Great White North that northern streams, although clean and clear, usually have tangles of waterlogged trees below their peaceful surface. Because of the rustic sediment the water usually appears to be dark amber in color.

In this painting, Suchiu was determined to show the depth of the pond and at the same time the clarity and warm color of the water. To achieve this he tried a technique that he did not know to exist. He actually painted the riverbed dry, that’s right, he painted the entire bottom of the stream with no water in it, complete with a waterlogged timber, a branch that would ultimately break through the surface, and let’s not forget the two fish who are hovering near the sunken log. Even the shadows of the shoreline rocks were added prior to the water.

After all, this was done the painting was allowed to dry thoroughly. He then used a semi-transparent mixture to add the water’s surface and the horse’s reflection over top of all the riverbed details.

This painting and its subsequent Giclee production represent Ron Suchiu’s very first time-limited series. This works in a very simple manner and is a great way to guarantee the print’s collectability.

As of November 19th, 2006 at 5 pm the sale of this print will be forever discontinued. That’s right whatever volume of prints are sold and spoken for, up to that moment in time will be the only limited edition pieces ever produced from The Mountie painting.

Don’t miss out on this one… it’s time to become a Suchiu Art collector and investing in art doesn’t get any better than this.