Also re-linked from the following index page

an echtral

The Celtic discoveries and recoveries of North America in pdf format

See on Montague Street

These are available at $9.00 each. Want one?

This free electronic book is again available

I accidentally scrubbed the files from the host server about a month ago and just noticed the absence in re-checking links on my web site

This tome was commenced in 1990 and completed in 1997 but it has never been fully edited and the illustrations I prepared for it were never added. It is at http://rodneymackay.com/ . You can find it by clicking "non art items" on the homepage. On the latter page itw ill be found under "writings." Haven't had any feedback on this item in quite a few years although it has been the third most popular download.

The Bluenose II heads for the Atlantic

The Railway Wharf appears in the foreground

Ruth just snapped this photo from an upper window

The Bluenose II leaves port under sail, a very unusual happening as summer winds are usually contrary to making this exit with the sails set. Also a good comparison shot showing the four-rigged Picton Castle in the foreground. The Lady Janet is at left tied up at the Railway Wharf

Sir William Van Horne wrote that folk should

Folk should never buy a picture that you do not fall in love with, or it will always be an incubus and a source of dissatisfaction. The purchase of a picture, like the selection of wife, can hardly be done by proxy.

Van Horne was cautioning against being led by art agents or critics. Because paintings should constitute at least a mild flirtation for the buyer if not outright love, and because beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, there are all kinds of markets for artwork. Visual artists come produce work which is so highly individualistic there is hardly much real competition for available dollars. I have gone through a number of seriously committed patrons who have been collectors of my work and little else. Locally, there is not much overlap in styles or subject matter among local artists, although they do copy one another now and then.

In selling art connections whether physical or electronic are important and it is better for the community of painters if they recognize the value in co-operation. This is particularly true when it comes to selling art from the web. Individualism is a fine trait when it comes to producing paintings. I don't like working in groups as the socializing slows the plow, and I can't afford that.
On the other hand managing a website demands links, the more the merrier. I don't mind telling you how I use links as a means of self promotion. Click my website using the major link above my photo at right. On the homepage click "Rod's related web pages" (that may take a little scrolling) . On the "Rod's painting Worlds Page click "Using The Web". If you have control over your website and would like to exchange links, let me know?

Selling paintings from the web.

Moving from St. Stephen, New Brunswick to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia was a difficult but worthy venture. Lunenburg is alive with subject matter for painters. The bad news for me is that I am now almost lost in the crowd of artists craftsmen and artistes. While I have an extensive body of work at my studio (more than seventy completed works) not much of it is being seen by the local public. Currently, the Cheescake Cafe and Gallery in Mahone Bay is displaying two paintings but this is not likely to have much impact. My patrons remain in New Brunswick and I continue to sell from Serendipin' Arts and Crafts in St. Andrews.

The move to Nova Scotia spelled the end of my original website (thecaledonian.com). Someone else now uses that name. It went on line back in early 1995. There was a hiatus of a few months before we became established in new digs on Pelham Street, but in May of this year, I uploaded some of my content from the old site and started redesigning my hobby as well as commercial pages.

Already, there are some results. Four paintings have been sold through the World Wide Web this summer. Two went out by mail order and two have been picked up at the studi0. The web can work for any artist, but websites require more than casual attention to be of use. Unless some time is given over to making connections (called links in the e-world) the effect is somewhat like posting a notice on a telephone pole in Lunenburg in thick o, fog. Soeone may see your haniwork but the odds are against it.

A new painting session

I've been doing this work since 1972 and I typically begin at 8 a.m. and work until noon. I like to blog as a break from the process.

These days the weather has improved so that a bit of plain air painting is possible. Unlike other artists, I see no particular virtue in painting-out-of-doors and I do hate dragging along equipment. I notice that amateur painters (and there are 10,000 of them here every summer) always have a surfeit of fancy do-dads. I have two reasons for abandoning the studio now and again: the need to wander, and the possibility of talking with strangers. Lunenburg is hardly a Group of Seven locale. Wherever I am, the painting always begins with a very rough sketch on stretched canvas
and the establishment of the dark values using a mixture of French Ultramarine Blue and either Turkey Burnt Umber or Italian Raw Sienna (that's how they used to label these colours). I use Sienna where the painting leans toward the warm side of the spectrum and Umber where the painting will end with cool values.

The CTV Television Cameraman

Catches the Cachalot as she moves from the Harbour with a cargo of memorial wreaths.

The Lunenburg Seafood Festival

took place this past weekend. Saturday events were flooded out, but Sunday dawned bright and clear. Here we see a scallop dragger at the annual blessing of the fleet. The wreaths are memorials to seamen lost to the Atlantic and will be cast on the water outside the Harbour.

That same day Ruth & I visit Blue Rocks

That same day:

A couple of local teenagers take the plunge off the public wharf into near Arctic waters.

Ruth has completed her Medical Transcription Course

After six intensive months of on-line work. Here she takes a well-deserved moment in the sun.