Sharing The Roijoy

 A service engineer came to our house to carry out some work. While inside he and his crew took some time out to have a look at my art which is displayed on some of the walls in our house. There was one picture and style that caught their attention and eventually, one of he guys asked, how much would it be to have a painting done by you? He explained that it would be of his family and we talked about the size etc. In a few minutes we came to an agreement and here is the painting that resulted. Portrait 002 Acylics on canvas 30 x 20 inches

 We were admiring a painted portrait by a local artist, and the woman who was standing with me commented, "I've never had my portrait painted". "Would you like that?" I queried. "Yes it would be awesome" she responded. "OK, I'll do you one" I offered.  And that's how I came to do this painting.  And here is a video of my progression. Portrait 001 Acrylics on canvas 12 x 16 inches

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss Acrylics on canvas 30 x 40 inches This painting is a mixture of dream recollections, memories, experiences and emotions. Although there may be specific meanings here to me, nothing is explained so that the viewer can overlay their own experience on this painting and see if it resonates. In spite of the skull, this is not intended to be a morbid composition. I feel that life and death are tightly entwined and wherever there is life you will find death and vice versa. Below is a short video showing how the painting has been built up.

  The Halloween shoot for Motorbike Rentals and Alternative Adventures in Belize was a little batty. The main model was Emma the business owner and co-starring was her cat, Ducatty. As usual, Emma provided her own clothing and props and did her own make-up. I did camera, lights and post production. For the main shot, I lit Emma from the front but also placed a light behind her to make sure she was separated from the background. And also to give a subtle outline to her upper body and a spotlight behind her head. We shot quite a few frames so that we would have a pose and positioning that we were happy with. Then I set to work cleaning the image up and making enhancements including adding the bat insignia to the front of the bike. I also took out anything that was too distracting and added a suggestion of movement to the background. Once this was done I just needed to add Ducatty in her co-starring role. It took 2 shoots to get Ducatty just right. In her first shoot, everytime she w...

The 2024 Thanksgiving shoot for Motorbike Rentals and Alternative Adventures, Belize , Had a slightly different twist to it. Emma , the business owner, decided to explore 'Spanksgiving' which really is a thing. Despite it's various guises, if you visit Emma's Instagram , the words in her post with this image gives the composition relevance.    We did the shoot at her bike shop in Hopkins, Belize, and just the two of us brought this image, and other variants, to completion. Emma did her own wardrobe, hair and makeup and modelled. She also printed the bag in the foreground to say Happy Spanksgiving. I took care of the lighting, art direction and photography. We hung a red light close to the ceiling positioned around 1 o'clock, angled toward the scene. To prevent the whole scene going completely red from the lighting, I added a daylight fill light aimed front and left of the scene.  Once I had the lights balanced we were able to shoot a bunch of variations and poses to...

The components of this painting include, dream fragments, life experiences and feelings past and present. If you've read Genesis, you'll know how Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. At the beginning of their exile from the Garden, the entrance back into the Garden was guarded by 'cherubims and a flaming sword'. In my dreams, I see the dreams of Adam and Eve. Their dreams become a recurring nightmare of Paradise being just out of reach. Even though they can see where it is, it's totally inaccessible.  Even when they find some of the exotic fallen fruit, as soon as they collect it, it's suddenly infested with worms. Paradise is up the stairway and on the other side of the mountains. On the other side of the gorge where the creature guards, there is already fresh water and succulent fruit falling from the sky since this is already the approach to paradise. The creature is entirely from my dreams, and regardless of how it looks it is wholly benevolen...

 This year's May 4th image for Emma at  Motorbike Rentals & Alternate Adventures - Hopkins, Belize   featured Emma riding a Speeder bike through the jungles of Belize. There are no outlets to buy Star Wars toys here in Belize but Emma was able to use her contacts and have one brought to Belize from the USA. Once we had the toy we went out to do our shoot. A friend gave us permission to shoot amongst some trees on their property on Sittee River. To help with getting the correct angles we had a ladder that Emma could sit on as if she was sitting on a life size Speeder bike. I also used lighting to define the direction we wanted the sunlight to be appearing from. We shot various spots around the trees and mixed poses and directions so that we could have choices when it came to putting the final image together. Once we had the location shots, it was time to shoot the Speeder bike. The Speeder toy is 20cm in length so I was able to light and shoot it on a tabletop from var...

  After 12 months of saying I'm going to do another painting, I finally have. When people ask me what it is I tell them it's sort of a selfie. When I paint like this it's almost like a daily journal and the symbolism gets more complicated. Some are influenced from life, while others are taken straight from dreams I have while sleeping. I've titled this piece Insides Out. It's acrylics on a 40 x 30 inch canvas. You can see my painting sequence in the video below.

Recently I had a newborn shoot to do. In addition to some more conventional shots I also did a few fun shots. So that everyone understood what I was aiming for I drew a visual to show to the parents. Once I had the green light it was time to get my props organised. I bought a toy toolkit. The plastic construction, being much lighter and not having any truly sharp edges, would be easier to manage in case the infant moved around while in contact with the props. The pink construction hat and fluffy blanket was supplied by the parents. Now the only thing needed were miniature concrete sacks. I cut up one of my old white tee shirts and then sewed six small pouch pockets. Stretching each completed pouch flat, I was able to hand draw a simple logo onto the front of each one. When the ‘sacks’ were ready, I filled them with cotton wool before closing the open ends. Next I prepared the set and arranged the lighting for the scene. I shot this on a tabletop using a white seamless photography backd...

Viewing prints digitally on a screen can be enjoyable but viewing a physical print adds to the experience. And when that's the case, sometimes bigger is better. I have a whole range of prints that I currently print onto canvas and have them available for sale. I’ve also been receiving order for larger format prints. My largest so far included 2 prints that are 9 feet by 3.5 feet each in size. These larger canvases were for 2 bedrooms in a resort.  The majority of my work is currently Belize based. The canvas prints are printed for me in Belize City and the wooden frames are made to custom sizes by  Kelvin  Baizar   in Belmopan. (Kelvin is also an accomplished artist so check out his work). Finally I mount and stretch the canvases myself. I have a searchable collection of my Belize photography and you can see my photos  here . If you'd like to see my range of photography subjects and styles, browse  here .

Whenever I’m asked to do a photoshoot with any sort of complexity, I like to produce a visual to give the client some idea of where my head is going. Sometimes I sketch the visuals with markers onto paper, other times I will draw and paint electronically on my computer. And at other times I’ll do a combination of photos and digital drawing to create the visuals. A couple of days ago, Adobe put up a Beta version of ©Photoshop that has an AI engine at the heart of the release. So I signed up and downloaded it today and played around with it for a while. It’s still in Beta but really amazing and the potential is undeniable. In its current beta release it doesn’t handle large high resolution images but for day to day visuals and for some social media need or smaller hi-res images it is usable. To give you an idea of what the AI part of the software can currently deliver, I’ve included this image that I made in less than ten minutes. To create this, I started with a blank workspace on my...

Emma called me, "Hey, I have this really cool idea for a shot for May the 4th. I'm dressed in motorcycle gear but I'm riding an Eopie ". Well it sounded a little off the wall so how could I not say yes! Emma owns and runs Motorbike Rentals & Alternative Adventures - Hopkins, Belize , and I often collaborate with her on photoshoots. Emma would be the model — not a problem. The shoot would be on a beach location — not a problem. And we need a full-sized Eopie from Star Wars — hmm. After scouring the inter-webs we found that good old eBay had a supply of the creatures, but they were only 3 inches tall. If you've worked with me on anything creative you'll know immediately that size really doesn't matter. What was concerning though was getting the Eopie delivered to Belize in time for me to shoot it and have the image ready to go live on May 4th. Again, Emma reached out through her business connections and found someone who would be in Belize on May 1st, a...

  How we got the shot. First of all, this shot only exists because of the pass that we get for posting prank images on the morning of April 1st. Which means that the posted image is what is commonly known as an April Fool’s Day prank. I regularly collaborate with @dualsport_emma and her business,   Motorbike Rentals & Alternate Adventures - Hopkins, Belize . Emma is well known for her willingness to push the envelope in all that she does so a shot of her performing an x-games type motorcycle stunt would not really be too unexpected.   The only issue with getting the shot is that she isn't able to do these types of stunts, at least — not yet! But on April 1st, anything goes so we set out to do   the shoot. Emma came up with the props and equipment. At first we were going to use an A frame ladder as part of the set up but after doing some trials Emma found that a safer way of providing the support she would need meant constructing something to be used specifically ...

  Title: Chef Acrylics on canvas. 12 x 16 inches I decided to do something that was just for fun and here is an abstract portrait based on a Chef I know. So what are you looking at? Starting with the face in the middle of the composition, you'll see that the face is both front on and side profile. The constant refocusing of attention in a busy kitchen. Then we have the knives being juggled referencing the many dishes and serving options offered in a busy serving.  To the right you have the saucepan, hand and hotplate in a morning breakfast service. The pan is rendered more smoothly and the hand is darker. The breakfasts are less demanding to the evening sessions as the menu is a standard one with choices rather than choices of many quite different dishes. The hand being darker is because there is more reliance on natural light which can sometimes cause more shadows in the kitchen area. The dinner menu is included here because it is put together early in the morning ready for e...