Canada Council Art Bank

New ducklings June 2007

Next Purchase

DEADLINE: OCTOBER 15, 2007 (postmarked)

The Canada Council Art Bank is pleased to announce an open call for submissions to its purchase program. We would appreciate if you could share this information sheet with all other artists in your community to ensure that we reach as many artists as possible.

Please keep the following points in mind when deciding which work to submit:

• One (1) work per artist (if more than one work is submitted, the entire submission will not be accepted); work must be current (within last 5 years); and the artist must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada
  
  
• The work must be suitable for public display in an office environment
  
  
• The amount available for this program is $350,000
  
  
• Artist, artist’s gallery, and/or artist’s representative may submit (submissions of work by deceased artists will not be accepted)
  
  
• Slide or digital image is acceptable. Multiple slides will be accepted if required to best present the work. Note that slides offer the best quality of reproduction of the work to the jury (please refer to: The Guidelines for Submitting Digital Images for the Art Bank Purchase Program in MSWord or Adobe Acrobat format)
  
  
• Work will be juried in November 2007
  
  
• Results will be mailed in December 2007
  
  
• If work submitted is sold, alternate work will not be accepted
  
  
• Submissions should be sent to Suzanne Wolfe, Inventory Administrator, Canada Council Art Bank
  By regular mail: P.O. Box 1047, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5V8
  By courier: 921 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 3B1

You can download the Purchase Form 2007 (in MSWord or Abobe Acrobat format)

For more information, please print our guidelines, email us at artbank@canadacouncil.ca, or call 1 (800) 263-5588, extension 4636

Please note no results will be given over the telephone.

Surf and turf

I've been slowly working on my symbolic self portrait for Armin Mersmann's class. I try to do a little bit each day, mostly evenings before sleep or very early mornings when I wake. The image is 22 x 30 on illustration board and done with a variety of mechanical pencils and some regular pencils in harder leads that I can't get locally for mechanical holders.

There are just a handful of us left in this class still plugging away at our drawings. Progress when in high detail and large scale goes slowly, but is satisfying. I've mentally called it Surf & Turf, due to the elements of the drawing and can't seem to get that out of my head now.

I am still doing thumbnail sketches of what images I want to fill the right hand side of the drawing and/or some of the foreground. I have to admit that the rocks are defeating me a little but I'll persevere and get them to do what I want. The far left rock is starting to achieve the level of realism that I'm looking for. Fins of the fish are still in progress and I need a real fish to compare translucency and distortion of objects behind it. Guess I'll have to spend a bit more time at the fish counter. Finding a whole cod in Newfoundland is a lot harder than you would imagine it seems, but I guess another fish fin would do for comparison.

I've found the process of thinking through to reach the concept and come up with the ideas really stretching me and I enjoy it thoroughly. Like many things, initial difficulty is perception, not reality, because once you apply knowledge and careful thought, things fall into place.

Framed

At last I framed the Best of Show certificate that I received from the Realist Artists last month. Its a odd size, 14 x 18, but its done now and look quite presentable.

However it had a bit of an accident yesterday. I had a large portrait resting on the mantlepiece and a strong gust of wind slid it off crashing down on to the newly framed certificate I had resting below. With it came a Gallilean thermometer from the mantel which broke, spilling its liquid over everything including the certificate. It seeped into the back of the frame and crept up the certificate.

Luckily the certificate dried out and no damage was done, besides a chip to the portrait frame. I was amazed that no glass was broken aside from the thermometer.

Moral of the story: Put your framed piece on the wall - immediately.

The Pout

Why is it that Mondays always seem so busy? Everyone saves up their problems all weekend then lay them on my desk it seems. However, I got through the day with just some minor bruises to my ego and brain then took myself off for a run.

I used to be a runner til an ankle injury put a stop to that. Drawing isn't exactly an aerobic activity and eating too much helps middle aged spread -well spread - and I have missed running so I am making an attempt at getting back into it again using the Couch to 5K Running Program. I found a great podcast for each week that gets me through the runs, giving timing signals, music, warm up and cool down times. Its great. But the run was hard today and only into Week 1. It was warm and quite windy and I had been at work all day so not at my peak. I really need to run early mornings instead.

I have a box of 'goodies' that I collect while out and about of toys that I keep for when children come to visit. My house doesn't have small children living there anymore and there are few toys still lurking around so I add to the box when I see something that appeals to me.

This was one of a series of dolls that had those realistic looking faces and the expression on this face was irresistable to me. More so to draw it as well. Now, it sits in the box with an assortment of others waiting to be played with. It reminds a little of the expression I captured in my own daughter when she didn't want to do something. I believe my grand daughter may have similar expression at times.

I did it

I gritted my teeth and buoyed by suggestions from others, I tackled a flower. Now its not a great flower, and I know there are elements of it that I could change, but it IS a flower. And flowers scare me. I guess I should make that the past tense: flowers scared me.

They still do,but I think it is because my interest lies more in drawing animals or people rather than landscapes or flowers, so I shy away from them. However, the experience wasn't quite as painful as anticipated, so maybe I'll have a go at another one. This was sketched out in pencil, then a wash of watercolour and finally some touches with my rapidograph pen.