 Loaded 34 paintings into the Jetta today for a trip through the coast range to Vancouver. It was a tight squeak but they fit with room for Joanna too! It will be interesting to see a range of different techniques and mediums that I have worked with over the past 8 years or so all hung together. A common subject, the winter landscape should give the exhibit some cohesion. I hope to see you there.  I am getting organized for a solo show in Vancouver next month. I am really looking forward to sharing my work with a new crowd of art lovers. I was asked to put together a collection of my winter work so this exhibition will consist of paintings created over six or seven years. Some of my collectors graciously allowed me to borrow their paintings to help me present a good overview. If you are in the area around the opening event please join us; it would be great to see some familiar faces.   I picked up my spring edition of the Shatford Chronicles today and was pleased to find my painting "Iris" featured on the cover. I will be teaching two workshops at the Shatford in October, one on Outdoor Composition and the other on Spirituality and Art. They are described inside along with many other opportunities through the spring and summer. The Shatford is really growing in to a vibrant hub for the arts in the Valley. Many thanks to Jane and all the workers who make this possible.
I am trying to maintain some elements of light and color even while I simplify and exercise restraint.Here is where I am beginning:  I have laid in some pure colour over the gold leaf. I will now begin glazing lifting out value where I choose hoping to achieve something that looks like this:  There will be more colour than this but the emphasis is on value to create the mood I want. Building up textures and following impulse.   In my artistic journey I have traveled far and wide, initially in the fields of plein air painting, seduced by the immediacy and the intimacy with nature that discipline demands. I then stretched my ability to observe and concentrate when I committed to paint one hundred portraits in one year. After inviting the world to come to my studio I had the pleasure of meeting with and painting portraits of one hundred people. This project culminated into "My Tribe", a collection that has been exhibited in two public galleries and may venture out into the world in the future. In my studio work I had been seeking a medium that would enhance my ideas and aid me in communicating personally and identifiably. I was very excited to discover new qualities and challenges when I combined traditional oil painting techniques with precious metal leaf substrates. After sealing the canvas or panel I adhere the metal leaf and then protect it from tarnishing with a coat of shellac. Once cured the surface is then receptive to being painted on. The completed work allows ambient light to pass through the transparent oil paint and reflects off of the rich metal ground. As in all my past work I continue to respect and build upon proven principles of composition, design, value and colour. With this medium I must submit to a degree of ambiguity, allowing the characteristics of the medium to direct my creativity. The resulting dance between chaos and control affords me new opportunities of expression. Initially I turned to this medium as a means to communicate my belief in the universal connectedness and the divine nature of all things. I found the icon painters of the past to be misleading when they used precious metal to separate the spiritual from the physical, the blessed from the cursed, the "them" from the "us". I see the divine in everything and so I paint every subject over a ground of gold or silver which results in a unified whole. The resulting work has passages of shimmering colour and light and other counterpoints of darkly veiled richness all dependent on the relative transparency or opacity of the oil paint. The metal substrate serves to unify both my individual painting and my greater body of work regardless of the diversity of my chosen subjects. I look ahead to miles of canvas and pounds of precious metal in the years that I am given as I search for the light within.  Worked through the process and methodology of Edgar Payne with five hard working artists for an intense two days this weekend at the Shatford Centre. Preparing to teach a worshop has many benefits and I found that the reinforcement of time honored compositional principles was hugely valuble to me. It will be interesting to consider composition more intentionally in my current thread of paintings.  Six tired painters after two days of classtime and fieldwork.
This summer I intentionally put down my brushes, avoided all things artistic and stayed away from social media. Joanna and I spent our days visiting family and friends, camping throughout our province and generally recharging our batteries, feeding on new experiences. Now being refreshed I feel excited about getting back to work making art. You will see me struggle with new materials this year and hopefully some worthwhile paintings will be conceived and developed. I participated in Art Walk 2014 in Lake Country this September and have some exciting news coming out of that which I will share in a forthcoming post. For now I will just share a work in progress and let you know that I am back at it and will be posting regularly again. 
Here is a link to my upcoming workshop in Octoberhttp://www.shatfordcentre.com/show2920a/Bill_Hibberds_Composition_of_Outdoor_Painting
If you are interested in honing your skills I will do my best to encourage you through our mutual study of one of Americas most respected landscape painters. In an effort to meld my vision with a process that supports and communicates my belief in the unity and interconnectedness of all created things I have arrived at a new doorway in my art journey. I am now painting with oils on gold, silver and variegated metal leaf. The technical challenges are immense and at this stage I will be experimenting with each new work. This is also a strategic plan for me as well as I do hope to create work that is beautiful, compelling and uniquely identifiable as my own. I have these three pieces availble at Tumbleweed Gallery in Penticton. 
CHERRY BLOSSOMS
THE DANCE
GRASS LAND
I encourage you to view these in person if you are in my area. To appreciate the beauty of the medium you need to interact directly with the piece. The ambient light and even your physical presence in front of the painting affects its appearance. I hope that you enjoy them. Here is one of my Siberian Iris' that I am presently working on. 
Until next time.
I will be teaching a workshop through the Summerland Arts Council this June.
Sat & Sun, June 7th & 8th A weekend of Painting Just for Beginners (Oils and Acrylics) 10:00 to 4:00 with 1 hour for lunch both days Cost: $200/ Supply list will be provided, Max students: 10 Absolutely no experience required: Join renown FCA Painter Bill Hibberd as he guides you in the basics of painting. This gentle class will teach you skills and techniques from the ground up and will get you on your way to working on your own. This will be aimed at the complete beginner with some new tubes of colour and some sticks with hog hair on the ends or the experienced but perhaps lapsed painter who is looking for a refresher. I will gear the curriculum to those who know absolutely nothing to others who are looking for help in all areas of working with oils or acrylics. You can link here http://summerlandarts.com/programs/weekend-workshop-series to register. |
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July 2017
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