Ottawa artist Andrew King has an already storied background – as a syndicated cartoonist while studying at university in industrial design, then as a television animator and now, a rising painter.

His bold colors, unconventional shapes and strong sense of humor have made him immensely popular, despite his own caution that “I don’t have any formal painting training. I’m a cartoonist, so I have no idea how paint works,” as he put it in an interview on an Ottawa Citizen blog.

His subjects include a surplus of trains, planes and automobiles.

The architecturally oriented pieces he favors flow from King’s design background.

This video of an opening night of King’s previous work at Ottawa’s Wall Space Gallery captures the artist (black suit, black tie) as the central but typically somewhat isolated centrifuge of the event.

His current show at Wall Space runs through Feb. 26, 2012.