This December, Los Angeles-based visual artist Michael Markowsky will be touring Canada by train. Making along the way semi-abstract oil paintings and drawings of the landscape as it zips by. He will also be stopping along to talk about his artwork, namely at Les Territoires Contemporary Art Gallery, here in Montreal, on December 17 th at 7pm. He will also speak at Carleton University in Ottawa, and Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Michael will use the artwork he makes along his journey to make giant oil paintings of the Canadian landscape this January, during a residency at the Banff Center with renowned artist Ken Lum. The finished work will premiere in a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Calgary in 2010, and will then tour to various venues across Canada.

"Over the past decade, I have been making landscape drawings and oil paintings while riding inside or on top of moving vehicles such as cars, buses, airplanes and speedboats.   I have also made artwork following in the footsteps of a number of real and fictional persons. For instance, I have re-traced the infamous journeys of O.J. Simpson, James Dean, Errol Flynn, and Jack Nicholson's movements in the 1970 film 'Chinatown'."