Peter Sidock

Portrait of the artist:

I've spent most of my time in the heart of the Ottawa Valley where it is rich in stunning beauty with the changing of light from morning to evening, season to season, giving me a never ending stock of visual inspiration to explore. The light, colour and shading are powerful elements that form our understanding of the world. While it's constantly changing my challenge is to choose that precise moment in time and show it to you. That is the basis for my illustrations.

I don't know if I chose the medium of graphite (pencil) or it chose me as most of my time was originally spent with photography and quick sketches, but with more time ... and a gentle nudge from my wife ... the sketches became more detailed and took on an energy and a life of their own. In adding more time and detail the question became "When is it finished?" and that one may never be answered except to say ... when I believe it's complete.

I still rely on photography as the camera becomes a means to store an instance of time and place which will invoke the idea that will become the foundation to build on. Although each illustration is done completely by hand, today's technology helps to compose the photograph in the digital darkroom and give framework but once the image is composed the computer stage is discarded as the process moves forward.

The final photograph is then used as a "blueprint" to begin illustrating from. As the work takes on a life of it's own the end composition is as big a surprise to me as it is to you ... the viewer. Having done commissioned works of homes and businesses and with all the time spent on a drawing, each one of them end up being personal and one of a kind.

Reproductions can then be created from a high resolution scan of the hand-drawn original. With great improvements in digital reproductions the quality of prints have come a long way as there is no deterioration in quality. With the advent of print-on-demand there is no longer a requirement to order hundreds at a printing run. These type of prints for artwork are called "Giclée".

The term Giclée (pronounced "zhee-clay") originated in early 1990s with the intention of distinguishing "fine art prints" created with digital output from those for non-art or commercial purposes.

Giclée are printed on 100% cotton fiber mold-made paper that features a beautiful texture, and at 256 gsm or 310 gsm (grams per square meter) they have a quality feel. The paper is ph-neutral, acid-free and lignin-free with no optical brighteners (natural white paper only) or calcium.