Natural distraction

I'm staying at our new summer place this week on beautiful BC's Sunshine Coast. I've set up a studio here - hardly had to purchase anything to equip it as I seemed to have doubles of everything in my home studio. I'll have to purchase some more brushes though as I have favourites that I can't live without and don't want to bring back and forth.  The hunt it on for long thin liner brushes - I haven't been able to find anything even close to the brushes I inherited from an older artist many years ago, even at Opus. If anyone knows of a good source for lovely long liner brushes, please let me know.

I had every intention of getting some painting done yesterday, but then I spotted this critter out the kitchen window. I've only ever seen grey racoons, so I was quite fascinated to see an auburn one, so outside onto the deck I went, camera in hand.

Soon he/she was joined by a friend of the usual colouring.

I enjoyed watching them foraging for food on the rocky foreshore and they didn't seem to mind me spying on their activities.

I never thought about raccoons swimming, but evidently they do.

After about 20 minutes, the two of them disappeared under the neighbour's dock and although I waited another 20 minutes, they didn't reappear.

By then I was distracted by three bald eagles that swept by repeatedly in search of who knows what kind of wee creatures to devour or to take back to their young.

Later I saw turkey vultures, a variety of ducks, Canadian geese with goslings, a raven, hummingbirds, and beautiful little yellow birds.

I'd like a better camera to capture images of some of these birds in flight - the eagles, especially, took my breath away.

Maybe I'll paint tomorrow ...

Here's a truer image of Out on a Limb. I'm happy to announce it was juried into the Arts Council of Surrey's Arts 2012 Show at the Surrey Art Gallery - June 23 to August 19; opening reception June 23, 2-4pm.

Out on a Limb

Worked hard on this one for the last couple of days, trying to have it finished to deliver to a jury tomorrow. Many layers of glazes, several sandings, more glazing, a couple of layers of paint for vibrancy and now it's nearly finished (my back is killing me after 12 hours straight working on this piece). The work has a lot more red in it than appears in the photo. I hope to give it a clear top coat of gel medium - hope it isn't sticky when I deliver it! Wish me luck.

Here's the preliminary sketch.

Cover Girl!

I'm thrilled to announce Tree of Life is featured on the cover of Arts Council of Surrey's May 2012 issue of Spotlight Magazine. You can pick up a hard copy by visiting any recreation centre or public library in Surrey this month. Thank you to Arts Council of Surrey, Ursula Maxwell-Lewis, Leah McCullough, and STCcreatives.com for doing such a great job of showing off my work!

Hand painted paper

These are the result of a long day of hand-painting papers and cutting my own rubber stamps last week; all in preparation for a new collage piece.

Mermaid

At long last, she's finished!

More work on the mermaid

It's been three weeks since I last worked on the mermaid, and I always find it a challenge to come back to a piece that's been left cold for more than a day or two. I decided to jump right in by developing a greater sense of contrast and depth. I added shadows and highlights to the scales and added another layer of torn patterned paper.

I gave her a serene face, added more paper to her fringe and had some fun adding curlicues to her hair. I like the contrast between the calligraphy-like detail of the curlicues and the roughness of the collaged bits.

Although the improvement in contrast doesn't show up well in the photo, I darkened the stone and added highlights to the crabs, starfish, and to her tail, and they improve the piece substantially - you can compare the difference by clicking here.

For the next step I will collage seashells into the bowl. Stay tuned ...

New Orleans

I was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras this year - what a hoot! Aside from the crowds and outrageous costumes, I took note of the charming architecture and took photos of several character homes; the tiny facades belie the surprising depth of the structures. I hope to try my hand at painting a few. I won't be the first artist inspired to try to capture the charm of these cuties; check out the artwork of James Michalopoulos, Amzie Adams, Melanie Douthit, Heather Galler, and Terrance Osborne.

Don't think, just create!

Earlier in the week I painted two coats of gesso over a number of unfinished canvases and yesterday afternoon I began a mixed work on one of the canvases. I wanted to try some different techniques than my usual, so thought I'd give a large collage piece a go. I kept telling myself not to over-think what I was doing and as a result I'm having a lot of fun with it - it's all a grand experiment, using a canvas that's already been painted over twice. I worked very quickly and am pleased with the results so far.

2012 Challenge

While I told myself 2012 would be the year I challenge myself to create a new artwork every week (fleetingly I even contemplated creating a very small work every day, as many more disciplined bloggers do) here it is, late January and I have created nothing but the beginnings of something: yesterday's distressed panel.

Every day for the past couple of weeks I've sought inspiration by looking through my collection of travel photos, reading other artists' blogs, magazines, books, sifting through on-line images of classic and contemporary artworks, YouTube demonstrations of encaustic, collage, and painting techniques, and ... zilch ... I seem to be having some kind of mental block. I explained my dilemma to my daughter and she told me it sounded like I'm inspired to be inspired but am stuck. She's right - I am stuck. I notice there is a plethora of information on getting 'unstuck', including an article in the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine I purchased yesterday: 52 Art Prompts for 2012. Must go read it now before I get stuck doing something else ...

Attempt #1 - Encaustic Painting

Over the past many weeks I've been gearing up to begin an exploration of encaustic painting: I've purchased books, equipment and materials, spent many hours researching various techniques on-line, and even signed up for an on-line video workshop with Oregon encaustic artist Linda Womack.

Yesterday, keen to get going, I began work on a 6" x 6" wooden cradle panel. I painted a couple of layers of wax medium (dammar crystals mixed with filtered beeswax - commercially produced) over the panel and attempting a photo transfer from one of the pictures I took of a hallway in Kilmainham Gaol while my youngest daughter and I toured Ireland last year.

My first problem was with the thrift store griddle I'd purchased for melting the wax medium - it overheated and the medium began smoking; second problem - I didn't have the proper ventilation required for drawing away the toxic fumes, so I threw my studio door wide open and the icy breeze cooled down the wax too quickly; third problem was attempting a photo transfer using an inkjet photocopy rather than a toner-based photocopy. My second attempt at the transfer seemed to be coming along nicely until I hit it with the heat gun and the transfer suddenly shrank severely, cracked, and lifted off the waxed substrate - eeeeek!

I was picking the brittle bits of transfer off the wax, silently cursing and wondering if I should attack it with a scraper and begin again at square one. Partway through the picking and scraping, I stopped to examine the distressed surface and decided it was beginning to look interesting; just for the heck of it I added some red wax medium and decided the experiment was taking a turn for the better. I quit then and will continue to work on it again soon, once I've purchased a new griddle and thermometer to ensure a minimum of toxins in the studio.

Must do more research before I return to the panel... stay tuned.

Negative Space With Crows, With Apologies and Thanks to Mordecai Richler

I recently attempted to read "Solomon Gursky Was Here," a novel by Mordecai Richler. I've read and enjoyed a few books by Richler, but I thought this one was nothing but nonsensical babble - I mean, really bad, dull and verbose in the extreme. This review sums it up.

I feel compelled to finish a book once I've started it, but in recent years I've decided there are far too many good books out there for me to waste time plodding through bad ones. As for this book, I didn't want to pass it along to another unsuspecting reader, and my life-long love of books wouldn't allow me to throw it into the trash, so I decided to recycle it in my own special way. Feeling like a bit of a devil, I began tearing pages out of the book - and I must admit the more I tore, the more I enjoyed it!

I've done some painting over collage elements before and felt pleased with the effect, so I used a mixture of water and acrylic medium to adhere bits from the torn pages onto a wooden cradle panel and began painting. I've created four works so far incorporating pages from the book and have several other Richler-collage substrates awaiting. Best of all, I sold one of these works just a few days after I'd finished it and two others are hanging in the Watershed Art Gallery!

Painter's Remorse

Three Women at the Spring, Picasso, 1921 (MoMA, New York)

Several years ago I was inspired by this painting and created my own version, incorporating the colour palette and symbolic elements I often employ in my works:

Three Women at the Spring, After Picasso, 2007 (now lost, Delta, BC)

Here it is on my easel, close to being finished (alas, I cannot find a photo of the finished work).

The painting hung on the wall in my dining room for many years. One impulsive morning, when I was overflowing with inspiration and had no suitable substrate at hand, I took it down, removed it from the frame, and painted over it. Never regretted it or gave it another thought until this morning when I was surfing through blogs and discovered this post by Felicia Marshall.

Her lovely painting started stirrings of regret in my wee brain. I worked on my painting for months and it turned out not too badly, in fact, members of my household were more than a little annoyed with my impulsiveness and claimed it was a favourite. Okay, okay - lesson learned. In future I shall attempt to be less impulsive and more circumspect. In fact, perhaps I shall paint over the paint-over and go for a reinterpretation ...

Winged Woman as Vessel

There's nothing like a swiftly approaching deadline to push me back into the studio. I've had this work sitting, half-finished, on my easel for months. Finished it just now and will deliver it to North Delta's Firehall Gallery tomorrow; show opens Friday.

Back in the studio again

I've been in the studio all day working on a new Woman as Vessel piece - stay tuned ...

The Emerald Isle

My youngest daughter and I returned last week from a fabulous two weeks in Ireland. What fun we had and what delightful sights we saw!

One of the finest examples of a Celtic cross, Monasterboice.

Monasterboice

Over a garden wall.

Cliffs of Moher, 214m high at the highest point and range for 8 kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean on the western seaboard of County Clare.

Dunluce Castle, North Antrim Coast.

The Giants Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, North Antrim Coast.

Inspiration

Rowan Leaves and Hole by Andy Goldsworthy

These past few days my mind has been wandering aimlessly in something of a post-Christmas daze and I was beginning to feel guilty about my lack of meaningful concepts for future artworks. I definitely needed a jump start to get my creative vehicle moving forward. Fortunately, I was flipping through channels last night and stopped at the Knowledge Network to watch Rivers and Tides, a documentary (that feels more like an art film) about the awe-inspiring and often evanescent environmental sculptures created by British artist Andy Goldsworthy.

I'm embarrassed to admit I had zero knowledge of Goldsworthy until last night. In college I learned about Spiral Jetty and other earthworks by Robert Smithson and was impressed with the originality and scale of those works. Goldworthy's works tend to be less monumental, more ephemeral and decidedly delightful than Smithson's. I think Goldworthy's success is connected not only to his love of natural materials, but also to the fragile nature of his works; in the careful placement/balance of each and every leaf, stone, delicate bit of ice, or twig, and the intimate scale of his works. The simplistic appearance of Goldsworthy's works belie the complexities behind his concepts and the physical challenges involved in the resultant sculptures. If you get the chance to watch Rivers and Tides, don't miss it. You can view some highlights from the film here and here.

Watching the film brought me back to the sculpture classes I enjoyed in college and the joy of creating intriguing works from the simplest of materials. I think I'll revisit the lessons I learned and the outside-the-box thought processes I employed way back then. Thank you Mr. Goldsworthy!

Woman as Vessel #2

As mentioned in the post before last, I was inspired to start a new painting after flipping through an old sketchbook and becoming inspired to revisit the concept of woman as vessel. Here's the canvas in the early stages of the painting process in late September:



I struggled with this one - painting over areas that became bogged down with too much detail (oh how I love to get lost in complex detail). Eventually I created a balance between areas of calm and areas of detail and now it's close to being finished. I'll work on the face when I'm back in the studio next month.



Sorry for the poor quality of the pic - it was taken at night, using the flash, and the reflected glare doesn't make for an accurate image.

A little time away from the studio

Visited family in San Francisco with my mom last weekend and enjoyed the sunshine and sights, not to mention the food and the excellent company.

It was fleet week, so the city was teeming with naval personnel.




The Blue Angels put on quite the performance for us.



We schmoozed with the locals...



Enjoyed the public artwork...



And yummy chocolates...



Checked out the UC Berkeley campus.



Played at a beach off the beaten track...

that turned out to be a missile launching site from WWII.

We even took our lives into our hands by driving up the extremely narrow one-way road to the top of Sausalito and took in what is arguably the best view of San Francisco.



Had a fabulous time and am looking forward to a return visit.

Style change leads to no-go stack

Because the peacock painting wasn't entirely different after all (as mentioned at the end of my last post), I decided to revert to a style I used many many years ago when I first started painting - dark background and loose brushstrokes. After many hours working on the peacock in this manner, I remembered why I gave up this style oh so long ago - it leads (in my case, at least) to paintings with an overall generic look. The peacock is now facing the wall in the 'no-go' stack.

At a loss as to what to paint next (I admit I was pouting a bit due to the peacock disaster), I began flipping through my old sketchbooks and discovered some 2006 sketches that lead to Woman As Vessel:


Definite possibilities for new works there, so I've hoisted a new canvas onto the easel and have covered it with a wash of red and a conte crayon drawing and am once again in happily-painting-mode.