Multicoloured white

Definition from Wikipedia.org: "White is a color, (more accurately it contains all the colors of the visible spectrum and is sometimes described as an achromatic color—black is the absence of color) that has high brightness but zero hue. The impression of white light can be created by mixing (via a process called "additive mixing") appropriate intensities of the primary color spectrum: red, green and blue."

There is a coloured pencil project available in Wet Canvas. The project is about "painting white without using grays". I am in the process of deciding on a reference to use for this project. I enjoyed coloured pencils and learned a lot in Cindy's class last winter. I've had a little break from cp's and its about time I got back into them again. They are time consuming to build the colours, but the time is well worth spending for the end result. Here is one of the references that I am considering using for this project. Its an image of my daughter and me, sitting on the patio in very strong light. I'm not sure if the image is 'white' enough. I need the image to say 'white' immediately. The other option of a flower image may be more suitable. But if there's one thing I hate drawing or painting, its flowers. I don't know why, but they never appeal to me. Yes, they look beautiful, but the thought of drawing them makes my creative side shut down entirely.

I have started on the second scavenger hunt, as the first finished with a clear winner. It wasn't me. I'm way to slow to even be in the running these days. But I enjoy the process and drawing from life forces me to observe closely those simple day to day items that I would often overlook in favour of something more exotic. Whoever thought I'd enjoy drawing the mess on the kitchen counter after supper!

Here are a couple of the drawings completed so far, including the kitchen counter tonight which I did in pen and ink in my Moleskine. I'm stingy using the Moleskine as I've nearly filled it. I have ordered another. Its crazy, I can never get them in Canada, so this one is coming from California. Borderless shopping. Whatever works. Other sketches here include my keys that I lug around daily like the jailor, and my nose. Its quite disconcerting to draw a nose that's disembodied.



The kitchen scene was done in my Moleskine sketchbook with pen and ink, and no underdrawing in pencil. The elipse on the bowl isn't wonky, its an eggshaped bowl (and weighs a ton!).

Technorati Tags: sketch, white, drawing, scavenger hunt, moleskine

Life cycles

The little chick that I nestled in my hand 8 weeks ago is now a large bird and ready tomorrow to travel with its pen mates to King's, the processor. When we raised the first batch of broilers a few years ago, I treated them more as pets. I talked to them, I let them out of their pens to play each day and I felt horrible when they went to the processor. I managed to cook the chickens but couldn't eat them. My memories of them were too emotional. But I got past that point and came to terms with their role in life and how to deal with it.

I have to admit that I still am not crazy about the thought of them going off and I do go in with them the night before and tell them I'm sorry (yes, I know, I'm a wuss). They come back, looking like supermarket chickens and I know they have had good lives and were treated well, fed well, and humanely killed. I can't offer them more than that in this life cycle.

I took this photo of the last group of chickens loaded into crates on their way to the processor. They have space, light, air and are calm and relaxed. I believe if the public knew the facts behind their average chicken dinner produced on a large commercial chicken rearing facility, they may reconsider who they buy them from. And the same applies to eggs. But I won't go into my rant about animal rights and humane treatment. If you want that argument, email me.

Pastel is not something that I'm good at drawing with. I see artists who produce amazing pieces with it and I can only wonder at the process and muddle along with childlike colours of my own. I loved the colours in this piece - the blues and yellows speak of summer. Unfortunately, the photo of the piece didn't come out well and I haven't done a scan of it yet.

Tags: broilers, chicks, chickens, pastel, drawing

Birds, birds, birds

I have missed my Sunday update of the goslings progress into the world. They are about 6 weeks old now and nearly half the size of the adults. Here is the first image of them taken in the barn just after hatching. And again at 2.5 weeks old. Here is last week's image of them. Their feathers are just starting to come in and they look like gangly teenagers, growing into their bodies. The funny thing is that you expect them to have the voice of an adult almost as they are so large. Instead, they have the same little baby peeping voices that they did as hatchlings. It makes me laugh each time I hear them. The photo was taken on Sunday, I just haven't had time to get it uploaded til today. Its been one of those weeks.

Here they are striding across the yard with Lucy, their mother. The goslings don't have names as of yet, but should. They are very similar in looks, one being just a little more yellow than the other. Its near impossible for me to tell the sex of them just by looking at them at this stage. That usually happens as they get older and the male geese are a little larger with deeper voices than the females and in the case of this breed, Chinese brown geese, by the knob on their head as they get older.

Four of the stock geese were sold and travelled to King's Point in Western Newfoundland. It was a six hour drive to transport them there, but the man who bought them did telephone and report that they made the journey unscathed, if not a little pissed off at the indignity of being in a crate for so long.

He asked if we wanted four peachicks. I haven't had any experience with peacocks personally, but remember people that I knew in England having them wandering estates for show. They are magnificent birds - at least the males - but they are also very noisy with piercing calls. Just as well we don't have neighbours. I'm still mulling over whether I want peachicks or not.

One of the reference images for the All Media Art Event was a peacock. I love the brilliant turquoise irridescence of the feathers and the elegance of the bird, so I had to paint it. Watercolour in my sketchbook.


Technorati tags: goslings, geese, chinese brown geese, peacock, peachicks, art, watercolour

Water & rocks

"If you want to know how much I love you, count the waves."

Waves are endless and constant. They ebb and flow no matter what the weather or the season. Sometimes they are hidden under ice or blurred with fog or snow, but they are always present. They are timeless and ancient, mysterious and beautiful.

Living on an island and having the ocean within sight is something I am never really accustomed to, even though I live near the ocean and have it within my sight as I drive to work, when I drive home, and throughout the day when I go about town on business. It is always there in some form, perhaps hidden by everyday life, but always there, moving, swaying to an age old dance. Each time I see the expanse of water stretching into the horizon, I am in awe of its beauty, strength and power. And I am drawn to it, fascinated and inspired by it.

Yesterday, I wandered on Middle Cove beach and without thinking bent to find stones ground smooth by the waves over time and coaxed to reveal their secrets of lines and colour. Wet and cool in my hand, they glistened and felt as if they were alive and telling their story of deep cold water, small fish, giant whales and storms. Those pebbles became a drawing, partially to complete a promised task, partially because there was no choice but to capture them on paper.

The ocean made me do it.

Technorati tags: ocean, drawing, Middle Cove, water, waves, beach

Who am I?

Since the Renaissance, artists have used self-portraits to answer the basic question, Who am I? A mirror or a photograph can tell a person what he or she looks like, but that outer image rarely reflects the whole self. Self-portraiture asks artists to think carefully about personality, character, mood, and physical appearance in order to make decisions about how to represent themselves

Here are some practical reasons why artists make self-portraits:

They get a model who is always available and works for free.
Self-portraits are a good way for artists to practice representing different expressions and moods.
Self-portraits advertise an artist's skill. A potential customer can compare the image in the self-portrait to the actual person and decide on the spot to hire the artist—or not!
Self-portraits live on. They preserve memories and let the artist leave his or her image behind—a way of fulfilling the human quest for immortality.

The National Portrait Gallery had a wonderful exhibition this year, this major exhibition brings together a painted self-portrait by 56 of the world's greatest artists from 1433 right up to the present day, including 14 by women painters. Works by artists renowned for their self-portraits such as Rembrandt, van Gogh, Kahlo and Bacon will be included alongside works by less well-known artists such as Pieter van Laer, Johannes Gumpp and Hans Thoma, whose self-portraits are of exceptional quality and interest. The international range of artists represented includes Carracci, Velázquez, Hogarth, Kauffmann, Courbet, Warhol, Hopper, and Freud.


The Self-Portraits of Albrecht Dürer

Rembrandt's Self Portraits The debate over why Rembrandt made nearly ninety self-portraits continues, but the first exhibition devoted to these works reveals a profound forty-year exploration of what it is to be human.

The portrait above is my own self portrait, done for a challenge in a thread in Wet Canvas. I have done a few sp's in the last couple of months and each one is unique and different. Each one isi a learning experience and a legacy for the future.

Technorati Tags: self portrait, watercolour, art

Memories, technology and trivia

Everytime I draw something, I discover something about myself or I unearth a memory that has lain beneath the surface of everyday thinking.

Memories are a collection of images, sounds, colours,sensation that can be stored untouched for years, then a trigger lifts them from their dusty cabinet and they shine again and become new once more.

The bear in this drawing is known as 'Boston Bear'. My daughter was offered a job in Boston before she graduated university. She refused it, wanting something in Canada instead. The prof she was doing research with at the time gave her the bear when she initially learned of the American job opportunity. Hence the name. Another memory for storage and today it was revitalized.


Now for something completely different...as Monty Python used to say.

Imagine walking into a department store or any big box store, and while browsing an aisle you find a display where packages hang; which, at first glance, seem to contain large action figures. Upon closer inspection, you realize they are actually bizarre, altered, bipedal mammals sealed in a plastic bubble where they uneasily rest in some kind of induced hibernation.

A series of glowing and beeping heart monitors on the packages gives a hint that they are alive. The rising and falling of their chests as well as their occasional twitching, shaking and clawing, albeit limited by the tie-wraps, which keep them in place, confirms the life of these creatures. They are there, ready to take home and add to your life as the next entertainment gadget; bioengineered creatures, mass-produced, and pre-packaged for your convenience.

Adam Brandejs, a Canadian artist has created a controversial 'pet' that people are clamouring to buy. They are similar to some works by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini.

For the brave, check out the GenPet website. Its bizarre!

Want to spill your guts and have no one to tell? Let it all out at PostSecret. You'll laugh or cry, or both. But you'll know that others are in the same boat too. Frank Warren, the owner of the blog, says he has had nearly 30,000 postcard secrets sent to him in the post, with hundreds of new ones being sent each week.

Technorati tags; art, GenPets, drawing, sketch, teddy bear, secrets

Vlogging

When you can't sleep and dawn is breaking over the barn and the sky is tinged with colour and drama, what can you do but photograph it or paint it? The camera was more within my capabilities at 5am.

It was inevitable: Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to tech tips to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work, thanks to the latest web trend -- video blogging.

Video blogs -- also known by their shorter, clunkier name, vlogs -- are blogs that primarily feature video shorts instead of text.

So said this article: Blogging + Video = Vlogging.

Will it ever take the place of art or writing? I doubt it. It has a place and a story to tell, but I can't see it posing a threat to the classics and reliability of pen or brush to paper. Here is a sample of vlogging and art. I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to communicate art and ideas. This may be part of the process and I will examine more thoroughly when I have a chance.

I have produced another couple of drawings for the scavenger hunt at Artwork from Life. I'm at the halfway point just about and will tackle more tomorrow. I really need to put my mind into other projects. These sideshoots are like little tasty appetizers that I find difficult to resist. They are quick and simple and satisfy the side of me that needs instant gratification instead of weeks worth of work before a project is complete.



I WILL start my new illustrations and drawing. Tomorrow.

vlogging, dawn, sketching, art, goose eggs

Its the little things that count

Farms are places of discovery and this small farm is no exception. There are any number of things which capture my imagination and provide fuel for drawing. This image was one of them. The horse's sweet feed bucket one morning had a visitor. A young field mouse who had dropped in and couldn't get out.

I haven't got a love of mice, but I do find them appealing little creatures. Unfortunately the barn is full of them. Animal feed and seed plus shelter is a combination that is irresitable to them and there are constant traps being set to capture them. The crows benefit from the surfeit of mice, rather like a buffet, as they are thrown to the barn roof after being removed from the traps. Its a circle, the same as the 'arrangement' with the foxes to remove old eggs or chicken casualties from the big compost pile at the end of the field. Its amazing that something can be put ther and within half an hour or less it will disappear, as soon as you're not looking. Its a bit odd to think there are always eyes looking at you from the woods...

The old layers now have free access to the yard. Their egg laying capacity is diminishing along with shell quality, so they'll live out their time digging in the compost pile where they squeal in delight when they scratch up a worm and coo to themselves as they dispatch their find. Its a natural environment for them and their diet as freerange birds enhances the egg quality and the yolks are always a rich orange colour as a result.

I seem to be in a pen and ink rut right now and need to break out of it soon. I was always terrified of the medium but once I tried a class in it, I realized that it is a lot more forgiving that I originally thought. The addition of a colour wash to pen and ink brings it to a new dimension.

This is a drawing that I completed this week in that technique. Flowers aren't my forte, simply because I don't enjoy the complexity of leaves, petals, sepals and shading that makes me concentrate too much perhaps. Its one of those perceived difficulties that, once into it, it becomes a simpler task. However, I rarely tackle flowers, beautiful as they are.

Another addition to the scavenger hunt is a stack of books in my office. Lunchtime drawings provide a challenge and a break in my day when time permits. However, I may run out of things in my office to draw that fit the criteria for the hunt soon!

Technorati tags: mice, drawing, pen and wash, farm, freerange chickens

The hunt continues...

The scavenger hunt at Wet Canvas that is. I have 10 items created out of 26. I am definitely not leading the pack in this event,but I am enjoying the freedom of sketching from life. here are a couple of sketches that were done today. An african violet and a baseball cap.






I've had my sister and niece staying with me for a couple of days, so time has been limited in many ways. My niece is off to Europe tonight for a couple of weeks. One week in London, the other in Venice and Florence. Lucky girl...sigh. Its her graduation present. I threw in thirty pounds spending money as my graduation offering. She also managed to wangle my new fleece sweater off my back - literally -at the airport. Oh well, easy come, easy go. Perhaps it will come back as the well travelled sweater.

Technorati tags: scavenger hunt, art, drawing, sketch, travel

Sometimes we just need to smile

And today is one of those days.

I had the thought of trying to put some video of life on the farm on my blog and was investigating how to go about it. In the process of doing so, I came across this little snippet and it makes me smile each time I play it. So I thought I'd share the smile. Turn up your sound and watch the the antics. It is art in a true form. It is designed to bring the viewer to another place and creates its own story. Combined with another art form, of music, it turns into simple pleasure.


I am taking part in a scavenger hunt in Art from Life. Its a virtual scavenger hunt. I find 26 items and draw them, post them. The first person to draw all 26 items wins. So far, I've amassed 5 items. Here are a couple of them, my glasses, and an Inuit sculpture.





Technorati tags: video, art, sketch, drawing, smile

Lawnmowers and boxes

Kit, the remaining horse, works part time as a lawn mower. She's quite selective though about what she eats. She refuses mustard and ox daisies, preferring short sweet grass and clover. Luckily we seem to have plenty of both. Its what adds the green to the lawn. She eats constantly, greenery dripping from her mouth as she takes another mouthful before she's even swallowed the first. She does do a good job as a lawnmower however, if the ground is wet, she leaves hoof imprints, so she's only useful in more decorative areas when its dry.

She also had to be tethered in areas such as the garden as she likes to sample things like flowers and herbs. She's especially partially to huge mouthfuls of comfrey. I guess her bones will be strong, looking at the chunks she's taken out of the large plant in the back garden! She also loves chives. Have you ever been close to a horse who smells like she's just eaten a hamburger with the works?

Kit seems to have settled since Lady was sold but I catch her deep in thought sometimes and I wonder if she's a bit lonely. She often hangs out with the Embden geese, leaning over the fence of their enclosure and watching them or snorting horse breath on them. They aren't as partial to her as she is to them however.

I've taken the weekly photo of the goslings, now a month old and growing fast. They're taking on the characteristics of the adult geese and even trying a charge or two to show just how fierce they can be. They wish anyway...here they were a week ago.

I started a new drawing today - The Box People. It started out as the girl in the top left box, then seemed to go on from there. I'm not sure if I like the current composition as its too symmetrical. I still have to transfer it to my main paper and I think I will enlarge it as well.

I'm toying with the idea of going back to the original single girl in the box on a sheet about 20 x 30. On the other hand, I like the multiple images. If I had to chose, the girl on the top right would go. The pose is a little unnatural and the scale doesn't quite fit in with the rest. Ahhh decisions, decisions...

Technorati Tags: horse, lawnmower, art, drawing, boxes,

Artist retreats

This sketch was a copy of a self portrait by James McNeil Whistler, completed in 1858. It was a quick charcoal sketch for the Weekly Drawing Thread at Wet Canvas. I enjoy recreating the masters work. It gives me a sense of what they saw and felt and the process of their drawing as I complete mine.

Artists and creative people require time away from their homes, their cities and away from their daily lives of thought and imagination. They must "breathe" by getting out and experiencing the majesty of nature. Without this they are too easily trapped in their own thoughts, isolated and, moreover, their creative impulses and works suffer as a result.

One option is a artist's retreat where you can live and breathe your art for a week or a month or longer. The appeal is great, and the possibilities expansive.

The closest artist's retreat to me is the Pouch Cove Foundation, in a small town (1500 pop.) where I used to live. So many artists from around the world have settled in Newfoundland, first drawn by retreats, then entranced by the rugged wildness of the island and unable to stay away. A number of artists who experienced the Pouch Cove Foundation artist retreat have now bought ocean-side properties in Pouch Cove.

Worldwide there are many artist residencies offered. Even within Canada, the numbers increase yearly. Its a matter of choosing wisely, asking questions of other artists who have been there and ensuring that you will make use of your time.

There are artist retreats and artist community living which are a bit different.
Retreats differ from artists’ communities in two main ways. First, the full or majority of the cost of a retreat is typically the responsibility of the artist, whereas most or all of the residency costs are provided by an artists’ community. Second, retreats are generally open to artists on a first-come first-served basis, whereas artists’ communities use a formal artist selection process.

Of course funding is usually required to attend a residency unless your work is well known and well sold or you are independently wealthy. There are a number of sources for grants for residencies and in the Canada Council for the Arts is a good jumping off point. A fuller list of worldwide grant opportunities is here. More local and Canadian grants and opportunities are listed with the Craft Council.

Technorati tags: artist retreats, art residencies, pouch cove, art grants, James McNeil Whistler, charcoal sketch

Reality or fantasy?

I have tracked down a life class, but at the wrong time of day for me. I'll keep looking. I believe there is another through the Anna Templeton Centre that is held in the evenings. They run the course provided there are enough bodies to make it viable. Here's hoping.

Meanwhile, I've started some sketching of the human form to get back into the feel of it. I found some good references and was interested in some more non-traditional ones. Artists so often draw perfection. Yes, that is what many people want to see; perfect bodies and perfect faces, but I usually find that sugary sweetness quite boring. I like a face that shows character and a body that represents the average person, not an airbrushed version of reality.

So I chose my first image to show a more 'rounded' view of reality, not fantasy.

I just came from the barn where a rooster attacked me and I'll have some good bruises to show for it. I was walking down the middle of the barn and the little bugger crept up behind me and drop kicked me...several times. I turned around to face him and he did it again. He was coming back for another try when he was 'persuaded' otherwise...grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and hanging him upside down by his feet. Horrible beasts are roosters!

Technorati tags: art, drawing, figure drawing, life class. rooster

Roots

I came across some old notes I had taken after talking with my mother years ago. I was trying to piece together some history on my materal grandfather's side of the family and my paternal grandmother's side. It is a bit piecemeal, but I found out enough to give me some knowledge of the times and thoughts of those days.

There are gaps as to be expected, where individuals broke with tradition and were ostracized by family and society at the time. Yes, every family has some skeletons in the closet and mine is no exception.

What started all this was an image sent by a cousin some years ago of my great grandfather. My sister had an art student at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College translate it into a drawing (this was before I rediscovered art) and she gave me a copy (not a very good one) of it. I always think he's rather forboding looking and wonder what he was like in real life. William Henry Reid, who was my maternal grandmother's father. Like most family roots, he was from England. In fact, on my maternal side, geneology was traced back to the 1600s to a small town in Dorset in England.

Since then others have dug deeper on various sides of the family and came up with regimental records. It was interesting to have a glimpse into other's lives and speculate how they got where they did in their lives.

The one I have particular interest in is my own grandfather. I have clear memories of him and his patience as I seemed to be stuck like glue to him from an early age until his death. He never turned me away or refused me anything. He played with me, made mudpies in the garden, walked with me, amused me and loved me. I spent every waking hour with him close by.

I must get some photos of him from my mother and do a portrait of him. I think I would enjoy that process.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, geneology, dorset

Making time

I wanted a better likeness of the girl I worked in watercolour a few days ago and tried it in graphite. Its far from complete, but I believe the likeness is better than the original watercolour. Graphite is my comfort zone. I can control it and know what it will do. Watercolour I am still becoming familiar with and it tricks me more often than not.

There isn't enough time in my day - or night - to accomplish the things that I want to do.

Yes, I get a lot done. I work all day,b ut some days I just seem to tread water and not get anywhere with constant interruptions that keep me from completing a task. So my desk is littered with lots of different tasks at different levels of completion.

Life at home is similar. I go from room to room, doing little bits of cleaning or cooking or rearranging or washing.

Now I find its moving over into my drawing. I was doing ocmplete drawings and now with time pushing me always, I seem to have switched to little drawings or sketches. They have their own charm, but I want to do something significant, with substance that has completion all over it.

So over the last couple of days I've still done small drawings, partially finished and wonder why I can't push myself to tackle something large. Its all in the mindset I believe. I have the references, I must stop procrastinating and tackle something and not get sidetracked by the simple things.

I tried this family portrait from the WDE at Wet Canvas. The likenesses aren't as good as they could be, as the reference wasn't very clear, but I liked the composition and interaction of it.



Technorati tags: art, drawing, portrait, time

Life classes and memories

Its been a long time since I've had a chance to draw the human form. I remember clearly my first life class, probably around 1980 maybe. I had the chance to attend a Thursday class held by Tom Greenshields and, as it turned out, I became a regular then and a protege of his until I left the UK to return to Canada. The class was held in a converted studio over the barn. You reached the studio by climbing up a set of stairs rather like going up a ladder, they were so steep. Armed with large sketchpads and bags its a wonder none of us fell up or down those stairs.

The studio itself stretched over a section of the barn and a door led from the studio into the house itself, albeit through a bathroom. I even recall drawing there one evening, as the power had gone and so no electric fire, the model was getting cold, so we put her into a bath of warm water and drew by fading light and candlepower. The same bathroom was where my daughter posed for reference photos for Tom's sculpture of her and where we trooped by family members having baths or brushing their teeth. It was unique.

The studio had several small windows, one of which let grapevines inside the studio and one year we had a bunch of grapes actually growing inside the studio window! The floor sloped, so that any pencil that was dropped, rolled off into oblivion. You learned to bring a number of pencils just in case...

But that first life class...I was so nervous. There were a variety of people of different ages present, seated on drawing donkeys around the room, with the model on a daybed raised on a pedestal. The background was littered with drawings in frames, books, sculptures, works in progress and work of years gone by. My nervousness was part due to just being in the presence of these people and partly by not quite knowing what to expect. Then faced with the nude figure. I remember the butterflies in my stomach and forcing myself to look at purely light and shadow and concentrate carefully to get something vageuly resembling a figure from my shaking hand.

These are a couple of the drawings from those classes. I am still searching for new life classes, but just haven't found ones that fit into my schedule yet. I'll keep trying, or perhaps just start my own.

technorati tags: drawing, life class, art, tom greenshields, nude

Rediscovery

Artists have wild desires and a terrible hunger to achieve... Without it they haven't the juice for striving or loving. But desire also can make them greedy and turn dreams into unrealizable obsessions. (Eric Maisel)

About a year ago, I rediscovered art. It was such a strong part of my life for so many years but for a number of reasons, it got left behind. Lack of time, commitments to my children, no studio space, etc., etc. I had all the reasons not to do it and no push to do it.

What was the push to start again? Some came from within, some was external and I tentatively picked up a pencil again to see what appeared out of the paper. This was the first thing that I drew in nearly 10 years perhaps. It has just moved on from there.

I liked the photo of the two goslings sitting in the puddle, so decided to recreate it in watercolour. Watercolour makes me think, as one misplaced brushstroke can ruin a picture. I am not experienced enough in the medium to control the paint as well as I want to and I'm not experienced enough to trust myself with using stronger pigment washes to deepen the colour for impact. I know it is an area that I must work on. This one was created with a set of Winsor & Newton watercolours that I bought many years ago in London. The fact that I still have them and that they're less than 1/3 used shows that I haven't practiced much in this medium.

I will try to do a little watercolour sketch most days to try to bring some control to this medium.

Technorati tags: art, rediscovery, drawing, goslings, watercolour

Growing up

The goslings are growing rapidly and seem to stride across the garden and field with the parents from dawn to dusk. They have access to standard feed but prefer to graze on grasses and weeds, and they're getting suspiciously close to the strawberry beds...

This sketches were done when the geese brought the goslings close to the house to rest in the shade yesterday. I was working with my watercolour pencils so had time to start a sketch. Its a bit pale, I really need to work on deeper tones to create a more intense image. This is too pastel looking, but it does imply the softness that the young bird possesses.

I am working on developing a series of gosling drawings and paintings that I hope to compile into a storyline with the help of some friends who have experience in the business of publishing and writing. The continual hatching and development of goslings and geese on the farm provide a constant source of material to work with.

The photo is of the same goslings, who've discovered a pool of water in the driveway after a shower of rain yesterday. Its a perfect baby-sized paddling pool, as they have had to be 'rescued' out of the large paddling pools a couple of times. And if you've every had to rescue a gosling with the parents standing guard you'll realize that its no easy task, as they don't want to let you anywhere near them!

Lucy, the mother goose, stands guard while the babies sit in the puddle. She's ever watchful, but at times seems to get a little fed up and hands watcher duties over to Angelo. Angelo is so named as he has a disability found in waterfowl called 'angel wing'. It causes him no distress, but he is unable to fly. In a domestic situation there should be no problems but in the wild it would mean that he would not survive.

Technorati tags: art, watercolour, gosling, angel wing, drawing

The Danger Tree

July 1st is Canada Day which is a celebration of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada.

In Newfoundland, while still Canada Day, at least since 1949, July 1st is commemorated for a different reason. It is Memorial Day. The 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. On July 1st, 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment fought its first engagement in France, its costliest of the whole war. At Beaumont-Hamel, the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment, part of the 29th British Division, lost two-thirds of its entire strength in about an hour's exposure to German artillery and machine guns.

At the end of June, 1916, the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment comprised slightly more than 1,000 all ranks. On July 1, 1916, 798 all ranks deployed into the trenches (excluding 33 others detached to Mortar and Machine Gun Companies) and 22 officers and about 758 other ranks were sent forward against the enemy (approximately 10% of a battalion was held in reserve during any attack). Of these, all the officers and slightly under 658 other ranks became casualties. Only around 110 remained unscathed.

And the Danger Tree? The Danger Tree is an infamous memorial to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who went into battle on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in World War 1, 1st July 1916. It is merely a replica of the remains of a tree trunk, but it marks the spot where the casualties were highest. The Danger Tree was used as the spot where the Newfoundlanders were ordered to gather once they got into No-Man's Land. From there they would receive a new plan of action. However, nobody had realised that the Germans could easily see the tree and concentrated their fire there, thus killing the troops who reached that spot. It is rumoured that nobody made it past the tree alive on the first day of the Somme campaign.

Nowadays, a cluster of small trees grow next to the bare trunk of the Danger Tree, and they are believed to have grown from the same root system as the original Tree.

Kevin Major wrote No-Man's Land. Set in France during World War I, it pulls the reader into the lives of the young men of the Newfoundland Regiment at rest in the village of Louvencourt, preparing to set out for the trenches and what will come to be known as the Battle of the Somme.

An exerpt:

Of the countries he had sailed to after his training, only now, for France, did he feel much attraction. The grain rippling with the wind made him think of the lakes where he went as a boy to fish. The colours were stronger, especially the red of the wild poppies along the roadside, but the solitude was the same. He had come to fields such as this when they first arrived, with thick flakes of snow flying in the air, and he was reminded of the times he had gone with his uncle across the Topsail barrens to hunt partridge.

Even now, with concentration, he could ignore the artillery, as the villagers did. From his tunic pocket he took a pen and the paper he had been saving explicitly for writing a letter home. He unfolded the paper and placed it against his field notebook. He rubbed out the creases as best he could, then in neat, handsome script, he began.

The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial was dedicated to the memory of those Newfoundlanders who served during the First World War and specifically commemorates those who died and who have no known grave. The memorial site was opened June 7, 1925, by Earl Haig.

Writing about this made me think of the role of artists in war. Every country had its own official war artists and Canada was no exception. One of the better known was Alex Colville. During a long and extremely productive career ranging from the 1940s to the present, Alex Colville has made some of the most powerful and instantly recognizable works in Canadian art history. Colville’s work is often mistakenly termed "magic realism" in reference to American artists of the same period, such as Andrew Wyeth.

But Colville’s work is so personal as to defy an easy categorization, consisting of a huge body of intricate, symbolically rich paintings that document and comment on the human condition. A war artist during World War II who sketched what he saw in some of the Holocaust death camps, he brought back with him to Canada a somewhat darkened sensibility that is visible in his works. His early works were typically taken from family and regional subjects, while his later works are more varied in both subject and symbolism. Inspired more by Quattrocento artists than by artists of his own time, Colville succeeds in creating a virtual world in each of his paintings. Some of the strength of his paintings is due to their careful structure. His works are designed using proportional systems such as root rectangles and other geometrical organizing principles, and are carefully executed over a long time. And while not known primarily for his paintings of animals, he has nevertheless represented among the most memorable and monumental depictions of crows, dogs, horses, and other animals.

Colville himself remarked in 1983 concerning his life and work: "I do have a fear of chaos and a strong sense of the fragility of civilization." The National Gallery of Canada website observes: "Precise. Meticulous. Crisp. The work of Alex Colville is austere in its stark realism. The immediacy of a moment, the intensity of the present, and the impermanence of life – translated through the eyes of the artist into a controlled, frozen scene."

The sketch today is Newfoundland Memorial Park in Beaumont Hamel, France, showing the remains of the trenches in the field from 90 years ago. Done in a sketchbook, graphitint pencils and wash with pen and ink.

Technorati tags: canada day, memorial day, newfoundland regiment, battle of the somme, the danger tree, newfoundland memorial park, beaumont hamel, sketch, watercolour, war artists

Academic art

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw.

She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"

- Howard Ikemoto

I picked up my copy of Art & Fear today and have been delving into it. I keep saying 'Yes, yes, yes' to myself as I read it, as if it is unravelling the secrets of my mind and letting them spill out.

There is a section on the academic world which rings true in many ways and explores the role of art education as either student or faculty and compares either as being 'as attractive as standing beneath a steady drizzle of dead cats.'

"The discouraging truth is that MFA degrees were created largely to provide - and then satisfy - a prerequisite for obtaining teaching jobs. This in effect rendered the entire system a pyramid scheme: it worked only so long as there were a dozen entering freshmen to match with each graduating MFA. For better or worse, this pyramid began crumbling years ago. Today, art education is a steady-state universe, creating virtually no new jobs at all. Chances are - statistically speaking - that if you study art with a goal of teaching it, you'll end up with a career in sales. You study artmaking in order to learn about artmaking."

The numbers of people I have talked with who have gone to art schools and come away disturbed and turned off art makes this statement ring true more and more. Someone teaching you THEIR technique and insisting that is the only way is detrimental to self expression and can stifle creativity and deaden the soul.

I have been experimenting with watercolour tonight in an effort to produce some test illustrations relating to children. A combination of pen and ink and watercolour seems to work. The reference wasn't what I wanted, but I consider it a 'warm up' for the real thing.

Technorati tags: art & fear, art, academic, watercolour, portrait, child

Sculpture

Many years ago I was introduced to sculpture through Tom Greenshields. Tom helped me discover the concepts of clay modelling and casting, though I never did really take to it. Tom, however, was the master and created many beautiful bronze pieces, one of which was my youngest daughter. At the age of three, she was the right size and shape and posed for a number of sculptures that Tom did, one of which Tom gave to me after it was cast. Unfortunately, in travels the arm broke and was lost. I must get it repaired or order a new one.

The other piece of sculpture that I own was a gift from someone that I found a job for in Cape Dorset. It was a summer lifeguard job for a student who worked with me one year. He used to phone every few days just to speak to someone familiar I think, due to the isolation of that northern community. When he returned to Newfoundland, he brought this little bear with him. It sits on my bookcase and is so smooth and silky and is often picked up and stroked. There is no number on it or identifying mark to trace the artist who created it, but it continues to live with me and brings back memories always.

Technorati tags: sculpture, tom greenshields, inuit art, cape dorset

Watercolour pencils

Watercolour pencils are specifically manufactured with a binder that dissolves in water. They look the same as 'normal' pencils, but if you check the lettering stamped on them you'll see a little symbol to show they're water soluble, such as a water droplet or a small brush, or the word 'watercolour'.

One of my more recent acquisitions was a 24 set of Derwent Graphitint pencils. These are watersoluble pencils that may be used either wet or dry. The colours of the set are soft and muted, well suited for landscape or portrait use.

I have a number of brands of watercolour pencils, ranging from some basic pencils that I inherited from the kids offcasts years ago, to others that I have picked up in travels and some Faber Castell pencils that I rediscovered lurking in the bottom of a drawer that are 20 years old!

To be honest I don't see a huge difference in the watercolour effects of the brands, but then again, I'm not a purist and unless I'm after a particular effect or colour, I do tend to mix colours and brands without ill effects. The difference in using them as main drawing instruments, similar to coloured pencils seems more apparent to me.

Some of the brands that I use:

Staedtler Aquarelle

Faber Castell

General

Derwent Graphitint

My new Niji Waterbrush turned up in the mail yesterday and I had fun experimenting with it. This will be a big help to me when I go out sketching. It saves hauling pots of water with me. The brush can just pop into my pencil case with the watercolour pencils.

The drawing is the result of my experimentation. A pen and ink base drawing, graphitint colour and then a wash with the waterbrush.

In May, I spent some time in Saskatchewan in Regina and Moose Jaw, where I experienced the wonderful Temple Gardens Mineral Spa. While there I searched for grain elevators and found four or five that I could photograph for later reference. I had planned on spending time sketching in the open landscape or the prairies, but it didn't seem to happen. Here is one of my favourite elevators at Stony Beach. I always think the name a bit amusing considering that I was on a flat,dry field with never ending sky. I'm sure someone will let me know the origins of the 'beach' ending to a number of places in Saskatchewan.

Technorati tags: watercolour pencils, art, drawing, Regina, Moose Jaw, grain elevator

Self portrait # 4

This is another submission to Crack Skull Bob's Self Portrait Marathon. It was a little experimentation with Photoshop. Its amazing what you can come up with when you haven't got a clue what you're doing, isn't it?