I presently have a piece hanging at the Penticton Art Gallery along with a wonderful variety of work by other local artists. The intention of this exhibition is to highlight the immigrant experience. Each artist was paired with a new immigrant individual or family. I was introduced to Martine and Michal from Slovakia and after hearing their story I gave some time to consider some ideas before beginning. I decided to look to their future, a young couple moving from a small mature country steeped in culture and history to a massive adolescent country full of opportunities and uncertainties. I chose a 48X88" substrate which replicates the aspect ratio of the Canadian flag. I titled this painting "This Majestic and Fragile Land". The moose is a metaphor for all that is grand and majestic in this country. In my plein air work I have come across these beasts in the field and they felt like good representatives for the scale of this place. I placed my couple comfortably relaxed in their new home. The butterflies stand in for all the threatened and vulnerable species and ecosystems that we all are responsible to coexist with. This gives you a sense of the scale of the piece. I painted oils on cradled hardboard. The forest was underpainted with red oxide and then glazed with viridian green. I think that turned out nicely. So to Martine and Michal I say "Welcome Home!" "Welcome/Home" the exhibition runs until Mar 15 at the Penticton Art Gallery.
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This post is all about a three day workshop "Portrait painting from a photograph" that I participated in this past weekend. It is mainly for you painters out there, a bit technical but I'll be succinct. This is a brief overview of what Kristy had to share and an encouragement for you to take in one of her workshops if it seems of interest to you. Those who are aware of my preference for painting from life may be surprised at my enthusiasm for this process. I am a big admirer of Kristy's work and as she is based in New York there will not many opportunities for me to take advantage of her teaching sessions so regardless of the subject I believed that I could glean some knowledge from Kristy and I did and was happy to attend. If you are not familiar with Kristy Gordon take a look at her website http://kristygordon.com/ Day One: Preparation of the substrate began with a liberal coating of gesso tinted with yellow ochre and mars black. Once our surface was coated we were instructed to smooth out all brush marks using the flat of our gloved hand. Set to dry - takes about 20 minutes. Once dry, lightly sand smooth being careful to avoid removing your ground where it is stressed by the stretcher bars. Clean off the dust and you have a porcelain-like smooth greenish surface. Next we transferred our chosen subject to the painting surface. We prepared for the workshop by having a same size photograph printed onto standard stock paper. Using our gloved fingers we coated the back side of the photocopy with non-thinned burnt umber. Next we laid the copy painted side down onto our canvas, taped it in place and traced the image with a pencil. When the paper is removed we were left with a proportionally accurate (if your photo is) line drawing. Okay, I admit this process was counter intuitive for me after all the effort I've put into learning to paint directly but it certainly is a good way to get a beginning subject onto your canvas quickly which is an advantage in a short workshop. So ethical snobbery aside I pressed on. Selecting our values as we laid in a design with burnt umber. At the end of the first session you can see my painting taking shape. Settling our paintings aside we used the last half hour of the session to lay out our colour palette for day two. This was the fullest spectrum I've ever used and although I did not exploit each colour fully it was worthwhile to have them to experiment with. Starting at bottom left and moving clockwise: A Jeremy Lipking inspired cool flesh colour consisting of Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Permanent. A JL inspired warm flesh tone consisting of Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Cad Red Light, Alizarin Permanent and Lipking cool flesh colour. Titanium White White and Yellow Ochre Lemon Yellow Cad Yellow Cad Orange Cad Red Light Alizarin Permanent Yellow Ochre Burnt Sienna Viridian Green Cobalt Blue UltraMarine Blue Mars Black You can see which ones were partially mixed with a thread of white giving plenty of colour selection. Day Two: Armed with our full colour palette we laid in all skin areas that were lighted while trying to separate cool and warm, lighter and darker values all within these lit areas only. After that we laid in our shaded colours again attempting to create visual interest with different temperatures and values within our shaded areas. Kristy was very gracious with support and demos when needed. She runs a very non threatening workshop which allows for painters of all levels to advance. Great reminders to always think about colours cooling off as they retreat around forms, to soften most edges between transitions of values, to place hard edges to amplify important sections and much more. She gave a demo on painting hair, eyebrows and lashes. Great fun was had by all. There was no alcohol consumed in the filming of this workshop (to my knowledge). My painting at the end of day two below. Day three: There was good advice on describing different parts of the anatomy correctly (by correctly I mean classically representational as opposed to subjectively stylized). Kristy demonstrated methods of dealing with the eyes, nose and mouth. These short talks were personally quite benificial. In my solitude I do tend towards painting everything as a shape,a colour and a value without always understanding why things appear as they do, for example why the shaded side of the eye holds the most exciting colour. Great stuff! The whole process was worthwhile and I enjoyed painting on a smoothly prepped surface with, yes, even smaller brushes. I even had to pull out some reading glasses for a few passages. At the end of day three my painting looked like this. Well, sort of. Not a great photo but you get the drift. There are some very nuanced colours here that really please my sensibilities. I will paint through some passages again when they dry as things got muddy particularly in the shaded background. The burnt umber mixed into some lovely blue which turned to muck. I will post the finish later.
Well, that's it for today's post. Do check out Kristy's website for future workshops. It was with great sadness that I received the news that my friend and fellow artist Thea Haubrich passed away . Thea was stricken with a number of strokes and in spite of her tenacious spirit and gracious heart she left this life in 2013. Her husband Peter has set up a legacy trust in Thea's memory to assist upcoming encaustic artists with their education. To that end he created a calender in order to raise additional funding and also commemerate Thea's contrbution to and passion for encaustic art. I was honoured to be asked for permission to use my portrait of Thea for the cover of this calender. A large group of people whose lives were touched by Thea gathered at the Shatford Center for the Arts in December to celebrate her life. She will be missed. I am preparing a painting for a winter show at the Penticton Art Gallery that is another stretch for me and also should be a great event. Each participating artist is paired with a new immigrant family and has been asked to create a piece that is inspired by the new Canadian's experience. The event is called Welcome/Home and will be supported by some other social gatherings, perhaps sharing ethnic foods and music. Pretty cool I think. My newcomers are a young couple from Slovakia and after my visit with them I noodled a few ideas and am now well on my way with my painting. You can see me leaning into it below. The large scale of this piece presents challenges and also is fantastic fun to work on. I started with a 2 and 1/2" brush and am able to paint from the shoulder which is very comfortable and exciting. I am now down to 1/2" brushes and closing in on a finish. I was considering the idea of cutting this into three panels to symbolically replicate the Canadian flag and also simplify tranport and the substrates support but............... as sometimes happens I've gotten a bit too invested in the image as a piece and I am concerned that sectioning it may jeapordise it's impact. We will see. As a member of the collective of artists exhibiting at Tumbleweed Gallery I spend a day on location every five weeks or so. Last week I decided to bring in some materials and work between visits from clients and friends dropping in. I have several coveys of quail wandering around my studio every day and have been thinking about focusing on them as subjects for some smaller pieces. To get me started I did this one of a young quail contemplating how to navigate from the top of a large rock to the ground below. I am really excited to be able to take in a workshop with Kristy Gordon in a couple of weeks. I have been following Kristy's work for about five years now and when I heard she was going to be in our area (she lives in New York) I organized a workshop through our local FCA chapter. I look forward to learning some new skills from this excellent painter. I will post my resulting work next time.
If you haven't seen my video on the "My Tribe" opening night at Summerland Art Gallery you can link to it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMoSSNsELXA Thats all for this post. I wish you all a Happy New Year full of blessings! Much variety in activity in the past couple of months. I worked through a commission of a little British girl that was a bit challenging; I had a reference photo that the family supplied me with that was wanting. I have decided that in future commissions I'll have to insist on physically meeting with the subject and drawing/painting from life or at least gathering my own photo references so I can control the light and arrange the composition. If the artist is restricted to a particular photo he/she misses out on the nuances that describe the subjects individuality. Lesson learned and ultimately I was able to provide a painting that the client was happy with. I am enjoying being part of the Tumbleweed Gallery in Penticton. Its a great group of artists and it is a pleasure to get out of my studio and be involved in something larger than myself. We had an opening last weekend that was a great success. The weather was cold but the public was tenacious and several hundred people braved our northern climate to take in all new art. Sales were good and new friendships were cultivated. I decided to present a winter theme so I framed a little group of my snowscapes that haven't been shown before. I have learned much about painting outdoors in the winter and this selection are the latest versions of that subject. Thanks to Susan for having the foresight to photograph them. On another front I am working on an exciting project that is a cooperative venture between the South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services and the Penticton Art Gallery. A group of artists and a group of new Canadians are individually paired up. Each artist interviews the newcomers and creates a piece that is inspired by the story of their new friend(s). Pretty cool. I have met my people, a lovely young couple from Slovakia and am noodling some ideas. I will post my completed piece someday soon. It should be a very interesting exhibition.
Well, you can see that there is plenty of opportunities to stimulate my creative impulse. If you would like to see more new work come on out for a studio visit. Please call ahead 250-494-7892. Click the like button below if you would like to share this post. Thanks. I was recently asked to lead a workshop entitled "Painting Expressively". A great group of 10 committed artists gathered with me in the Naramata Elementary School for two days of boundary pushing exercises. My intention was to get the group to work through several processes that would force them to exercise the creative/intuitive right cortex rather than in the default-mode analytic/predictable left cortex. There were some pleasant surprises amid the straining and searching. Here we are painting with sticks. For those used to working in a small scale with #2 brushes it is quite a departure. As well as stick painting I asked the group to paint with their left (or least used) hand,complete a painting in 37 strokes, complete another in 37 minutes, do a contour line drawing and build some loose transparent glazes or washes over that structure. At the end of day one we had a room full of tired painters with many colourful and expressive studies livening up our space. For day two I asked the group to do whatever they wanted and I attempted to offer any individual help that I could. From my perspective it was a great time, I only hope that the participants benefited in some small way for their patience with me and I thank them for their disciplined response, working through my exercises. A big thank you out to the Shatford Center in Penticton for allowing me to use a couple of their mannequins for this weekend. Much appreciated. I was not only a teacher this month as I was able to be a student in Judith Fosters relief printing workshop. Great fun to play with the process again and I plan to explore this medium in more depth. Here are the results of a couple of exercises from that workshop. Until next time.
I have been musing over the relationship between artists and collectors recently. Perhaps it is a result of my participation in Art Walk 2013 in Lake Country this year. Hosting my booth and attempting to interact with as many of the 7,000 visitors as possible gave me plenty of opportunities to observe and consider the role my collectors play in my development as an artist. An artist derives much of his/her confidence and joy from the process and realization of making their art. Solitude and isolation are often necessary and desirable if one is to nurture and harvest their art. Eventually the artist will present some finished work to an educated and critical community of fellow artists and also to the greater public. Positive criticism and awards from your contemporaries validates you and all your effort seems worthwhile. Most often an artists peers are considering the painters technical ability and their artistic vision ( or how he/she executes that vision). That is satisfying to a point but an artist is really expressing a point of view, a feeling or a dream that they hope will resonate in the heart/mind of another human. Something beyond the academic. Enter the collector. These are the essential ones who see an offering of art, are pulled in by it and some kind of intangible connection is born. These are the ones who walk into your space that is full of a variety of art and they stride directly towards a particular piece as if guided by a tractor beam. They usually wander away from it and examine other paintings by you or perhaps other artists but if a connection has been made with a particular piece they will return to it. Of course not all those who connect with your work find it convenient nor possible to purchase it. But your collectors do find a way. This relationship is hugely validating to the artist, the realization that someone is willing to part with hard earned money and take one of your works into their home to make their own. The opportunity to observe and interact with such a large number of people at this recent event gave me some insights regarding collectors. They don't need to be "sold". If the artwork is presented with decent lighting and in a reasonable location (they may not want to lay on the floor to see it) they seem to discover it on their own. Most collectors seem to form a connection on their own and after that initial bonding they may be interested in some of the back story. So I am indebted to my collectors, most recently Trish and George, Sheldon, Alice and Chuck, Jim and Marietta. You and all my other essential collectors play a massive role in the realization of my dream to live as a full time painter and to hopefully grow into an artist. Thank You!! As the days shorten on "My Tribe" residing at the Penticton Art Gallery I thought I would share a great panaview shot my buddy Lyle put together. I think it gives you a good idea of the display that Paul and Glen came up with. There will be a couple of videos forthcoming about this exhibition. I will post them soon.
I have been asked to teach a workshop to the Naramata painters group this October. They have asked me to help them explore ways to painting more "loosely" or expressively. There is no room for any more participants in this workshop but if there is interest in this subject I would be happy to take on another group in the spring. Until next time, have a great autumn! Sometimes I have an idea for a piece, I attack the work in my usual way and the result is okay but doesn't communicate my idea effectively. The picture below "Encounter" was one of those paintings that fell short but one that I couldn't resolve. My impulse for the painting was to express the innocence of this young girl and also her joy and freedom of new discovery, in this case her encounter with these Mallards. My original work resulted in a matter of fact, thickly rendered picture, not the ephemeral feeling I wanted. I set the painting up on my easel this week, scraped it down and went at it with some transparent washes, prussian blue, veridian green and some yellows. I am much happier now. The little girl fairly glows and the scrapes and washes create an interesting surface that contribute to the idea. "My Tribe", the portrait show will be opening at the Penticton Art Gallery later this month. It will be fun to see how they are presented in this new venue.
I was honored this week to be informed that the Summerland Art Gallery was interested in acquiring some of my work for their permanent collection. Barb (she's really not that sleepy), Sue and myself with "Forgotten Fruit". It is humbling to have my work included in a collection with some outstanding Okanagan artists. Irvine Adams and Marjorie Croil were very encouraging to me in my early days and it is exciting for me to see my painting along side of their work. I thank the Art Council for considering me for this honor.
New painting off the easel today. "On The Wind", 24X30" Oil on canvas. $950 in a nice dark wood/linen liner frame. This one began as a response to the beauty of this woman's face. As it progressed I felt the impulse to paint more fluidly and the resulting piece seems to imply expectation and anticipation with an element of mystery. If you or someone you know would be interested in purchasing this oil painting I would be happy to deliver and help you with hanging it on site.
I have been focusing on the beauty of the brushstroke as well as finding beauty in my subjects lately. I am moving into a season of figurative work and will explore different ways of manipulating my tools to teach myself to paint simply but in a manner that is more sophisticated than my present work. Time will tell the story. My inspiration comes from the great Spanish painter Sorolla. I have so much to learn.. "My Tribe" opened at the Summerland gallery with a wonderful reception. Plenty of friends and visitors. I will post a video of the opening soon but for now here are a couple of images I shot just before my artists talk on friday. Have a great June!
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July 2017
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