There are cycles of learning in a painters life, periods of furious production when I am confident in my process and objective and other periods of confusion and redundancy. I liken these latter times of struggle to the uncertainty I have experienced thrashing through the underbrush of an old growth forest, unsure of where I am going, getting scratched and bruised but always hopeful that the darkness will clear and I will stumble out into some glorious new vista.. I have been diligently working through some ideas and a process with little to show for it over the past month but I see some light and am just a bit surer of where my art is directing me. I will be combining my love of the landscape and people into something different from my previous work. Below is my recent oil painting "Spring". My portrait exhibition, "My Tribe" will be opening for a six week run at the Summerland Art Gallery next week. Reception is at 7 to 9 on May 9. I look forward to a "homecoming" with all my generous sitters. See you there.
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Occasionally we will experience mild and humid conditions in winter. The air is full of moisture that freezes as it contacts the bare tree branches. Makes for a magical scene. Next month I am looking forward to teaching a workshop as well as exhibiting my portrait show "My Tribe" at the Summerland Art Gallery. The workshop is full. The reception for the show is 7:00 on May 9. I will have giclee reproductions to give to each of my sitters which I will hand out at the event. I am looking forward to seeing many of you there. I will be giving a talk on portraiture at the Leir House in Penticton on April the 6th at 11:00. I would like to get a dialogue started about thematic process rather than exclusively portraiture. There are great advantages to focusing ones energy on a particular subject for an extended period of time and I'll share what the benefits have been for me.
The days lengthening light is reaching further down into my familiar canyon. The sounds of freshly liberated water overwhelms the crack of ice under my feet. My days of safely exploring the upper reaches of this private little landscape are diminishing and the promise of springs new life stimulates my imagination. Climbing up onto the hillside above Okanagan lake affords a view to the south; low fog above the lake and earths colours breaking free of winters cover. A good friend sent me a picture of his children playing at one of our local beaches and as the day was gray and I didn't feel motivated to leave the warmth of my studio so I lept ahead to my favourite season. Painting scenes of children at play always brings a smile. Very enjoyable.
Today's title is confusing but there are two very different subjects running through my mind this morning as I frame this edition. I was listening to a discussion on the radio about the growing number of young people from around the globe who today are embracing Leninism as a reaction against capitalism. I was musing over artists and where many of us fit into these philosophy s. Consider a successful painter today, gathering together about $200 worth of materials and creating an original and unique piece of art valued at $2000, $10000 or even much more. A selling price of $2200 is realizing a 1,000% profit. Remarkable. I'm not minimizing the decades of consistent work without any appreciable reward that go into any artist's preparation for a "successful" career but perhaps artists should actually be considered as super-capitalists. I am spending my search for motives or ideas in the low valley and hillsides around Okanagan Lake. The above painting is typical of our late-winter weather with fog stratum suspended above the lake, a low sun crossing the southern horizon and patches of vegetation breaking free of winter's blanket. At this latitude and at this particular time of year I feel the constraints of some kind of seasonal stalemate. I observe the land, the sky and the weather and it seems that my painting can go either way, trending toward the warmth of spring or falling back into the frozen winter. These new paintings come out of some of that ambivalence we northerners experience each year, an expectant stillness, hoping for the sunshine of spring but braced for yet more frigid weather. "Clear cut Survivor" garnered an Honorable Mention award at the New Beginnings FCA show in Osoyoos. In my early morning walk I travel through rabbit bush and bulrush as my trail meanders along the lake shore. A fresh canopy of snow transforms the decomposing vegetation into lace and cotton. I climbed up Giants Head mountain to enjoy the heavier snow load at the higher elevation. These paintings are all 20X24" Oils. My painting "Clear cut Survivor was successfully juried into the FCA show "New Beginnings" in Osoyoos. The exhibition will open this friday at the Osoyoos Art Gallery and run for a month. Check it out, the quality of work is very good. Until next time. I have just finished my first attempt at painting on a new substrate for me, 22 karat gold leaf. I start with a birch panel, apply four coats of traditional gesso, sanding to a smooth surface. I then applied sheets of gold leaf VERY carefully with a special adhesive. It is imperative to not handle the gold and so after the adhesive is set I protect the gold with shellac. Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug who reside in India and Thailand. It is getting a bit difficult to locate but still available. Once that is dry I could begin painting on this unfamiliar, smooth surface. If you are wondering why I am choosing such a costly substrate I do have a very good reason which goes to my world view and I am happy to share but only to those interested. The effect is much more beautiful in real life but I wanted to share this with you today. I hope to push my technique for some time. Early Memory 16X16" Oil on Gold Leaf I decided to reconsider a familiar tree this week. Looking pretty lonely out on a clear cut hill out behind my town it made a wonderful subject under a recent snowfall. I last painted this guy around five years ago. Snow is fantastic to paint. There are always great patterns and abstract designs to play with. I think this little tree turned out great. It is 24X20" still wet and is available for $800 with a nice frame. I am experimenting with a new substrate for me, 23 carat gold leaf. I'm having lots of fun but it is a huge learning curve. As soon as I have something completed I will post it. I think that the finished product needs to be seen in person though. The gold captures and reflects the ambient light back out through the paint and changes as the viewer moves about in front of it. Very beautiful. That's the theory anyway. Until next time.
Having just taught a couple of weekend workshops I was asked by a number of participants about how I begin my process or as I like to call it "my point of departure". When beginning a new work I may occasionally have a very specific idea that is burning in my mind and it is really just about putting that down on canvas. Most often I will have a general idea and I need a method of clarifying the idea, beginning and discarding until I can distill the noise down into a simple design or scene. There are tools and techniques I can utilize and one I will suggest here is thumbnail sketches . These are usually no more than two inches square rendered in less than a minute. Think of them as mini value studies, a way of getting the idea of where things will be placed and what things are most important. Here are some examples. As you can see these are not precious, I am not invested in any of them, they are just a quick tool. I then can use these to draw up a larger and more committed picture. I should mention that these thumbnails are only roughly based on real scenes. I have taken parts that I like and edited out parts that don't help me to COMPOSE my picture. Art is never about replicating exactly whats in front of us. That is best left to illustration and documentation. This is about 12X16". It gets to my main idea which is the scale of these clay banks and their proximity to our local farmlands. If you look closely you will see grid lines drawn. I will use these to transfer my composition onto a 36X48" canvas which is below. I can now proceed with painting. The thumbnails are a great way to begin your process. Try it. "FINI" Okay, so my 36X48" landscape is finished now and just waiting for varnish. It is a great challenge painting at this large scale. I am working on two other large landscapes and am researching a totally new process which, if it actually works, will be very exciting for me. What I love about painting is.................................. "It's never too late to begin and you are never finished" If you would like to see this in person, please feel free to drop in to my studio. My Nov 17-18 Workshop is full and Karan at the Summerland Art Gallery is working on filling out another workshop for Nov 24-25. If you know of anyone who may interested, there is space available. My focus on both of these weekends is observation and selection, in other words simply seeing. I'm sure I'll be talking about many other aspects of art making as well. It will be fun. My picture "Warm Vally" is accepted into the upcoming "South Okanagan Impressions" event. Here is the painting and the information. This framed painting is available for purchase at the opening. I will have a few new paintings available to view and purchase at the annual George and Friends show at Leir House. George has gathered a diverse group of local artists for this event. I'm sure it will be a feast for the eyes. I will be at the opening (a bit late as I'm teaching that day) but please say hi if you see me. That"s what I'm up to for the next couple of weeks. Hope to see some of you somewhere.
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July 2017
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