The Urban Tulip | by BHAT BOY

Being in an event with 200 other artists is always a test of strength. How am I going to stand out?

For me, it is not about how many paintings I sold, but instead, making an indelible mark on the memory of everyone who attends Art in the Park. To stand out I need colour and I need BIG. They say the camera adds ten pounds, well, an enormous park can make your paintings look tiny, so I need my largest works and as much colour as I can muster just to be seen.

Art in the Park is also an opportunity for see how new ideas are received. I often present these new ideas as small paintings at the back, behind the big ones. I must provide the sense that my clients have found these tiny paintings, as if they are a mystic secret. Every hunter likes to find their own treasure.

This year my new idea is the Urban Tulip. I always like to take Ottawa’s perspective on my work and in the last few months I have combined our city’s passion for tulips with some of my favorite iconic buildings. The resulting fusion of flowers and neighbourhood are an expression of my community and immediately identifiable as being Bhat Boy, my two favorite things at the same time.

I have created a series of Urban Tulip Paintings for the park this year. Some are Bank Street businesses sprouting in beds, others are garden like lines of houses. I have painted churches and museums and corner stores. They bring some of my greatest strengths together: my ability to paint architecture; my sense of whimsy; and my passion for colour. On Art in the Park weekend I will see what people have to say about them, and of course, how they sell. I will take my cue from there.

Know what you want, and make it simple. I want to be the artist whose painting people go home and remember when they rest their head on the pillow. 

To see more paintings for the Art in the Park festival, click here>