Boat hunting

I've taken a couple of weeks holiday and have been using my time searching for boats, planning paintings and generally working like crazy on the art side of my life.  Funny how we think of holidays as relaxation - seems that's not on the cards for me much, but I do fit in some lounging time to sit with my coffee or wine in a chair in the garden.

I travelled all over the Burin Peninsula for three days, searching every cove and harbour for wooden boats.  Armed with a tireless driver and knowledgeable navigator, boats were found but it did take some looking. The trend is towards fibreglass boats instead of the traditional wooden boats and I can understand the change, as it makes fishing easier with low maintenance and lightweight structures.  But the lines and shapes of a handmade wooden boat are things of beauty and its sad that they are becoming harder and harder to find.

The boat that is reknowned in this region is the Grandy Dory, a large sturdy  fishing boat used for generations of inshore fishermen.  It proved very difficult to find one in the water, but finally on a day that was pouring with rain, one turned up. 

I am creating working sketches to go along with the paintings for my wooden boat series.  I'm using pen and wash to create the sketches, along with notes and additional information about location and boats that will be included in a small book about the paintings.

Sketches

Sketching is the exercise for artists.  It keeps eye/hand coordination sharp and drawing skills intact.  Like anything that you wish to become proficient at, it takes practice.  Daily practice. Its easy to say there is no time to sketch, but I disagree.  There is always time.  However we choose to use it becomes the issue.

I choose anytime, any place.  Here was my vantage point for the top sketch.  A trailer was left in the meadow and it made a comfy platform from which to sketch in the sun.

One of the portions of my current art grant project is the production of a book of sketches on the boats that I will be painting.  I don't think I would have ever ventured down such a path if my sketching and drawing skills weren't polished enough to consider it worthwhile.

Tomorrow I head to the Burin Peninsula in hunt for some traditional boats specific to that region.  Hopefully, I'll find a Grandy dory in its birthplace, Garnish.  Between sketches and photographs I hope to have some material for a couple of paintings.  There's a French influence on the Peninsula, which is made up of numerous small towns and is the gateway to the French islands of St. Pierre & Miquelon.

These sketches are in a Stilman & Birn Alpha Series 9" x 6" sketchbook, using pen & ink with watercolour wash.

Sweetwater

 Sweetwater

6" x 8"   Available from Daily Paintworks

I've wanted to try a collage using torn paper as the medium for awhile.  There are some beautiful pieces from artists around the world and the process seems fairly straightforward.  I had some decorative papers in the studio as well as a handful of newspapers and the star of the show - a KitKat wrapper!

Armed with paper and a liquitex varnish medium I made a HUGE mess of tearing paper, gluing, peeling, layering and generally covering myself with a layer of paper and glue.  However, I quite enjoyed the process and will try it again.  Its very similar to painting with a palette knife. The colour goes down in blocks,  mixing on the surface is not possible (with the exception of layering tissue), and the overall look is impressionistic.

I used a prepainted canvas panel for the substrate.  The painting on it was  reject that was due for elimination, so it was a perfect candidate for my experimentation. And with the use of the red KitKat wrapper, the name just had to be Sweetwater...

Iceberg season

Oh I'm slacking again in the blog posting department, but I have excuses, honestly!

Its iceberg season.  This is a bumper year for them and they sail past in numbers, some closer to shore than others.  Some are huge and very spectacular and of course I had to get some photos of them.  It seems like the weekend flew by in minutes and left me wishing I could rewind and do it all over again.

These shots were taken off Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America.   My camera's zoom doesn't do them justice, they are quite beautiful.


I was involved in the art opening for the group exhibition at Peter Lewis Gallery on Saturday night.  The opening was well attended and one of my paintings sold at the opening, one of my favourites - Fox Point, seen on the far right in the image below.  I had five paintings in this exhibition, mostly boats, which are a prelude for the series I'll be working on this year.

I've been working diligently on a 24" x 48" boat commission.  I'm afraid I can't show the piece to you until its approved and shipped to the collector.   While I wait for a layer to dry a little I started another for fun.  This is called Smooch and is 10" x 20" on canvas.  I loved the combination of colours and of course those gouramis ready to lock lips always make me smile.   I hope to have it and the commission finished by the end of the week.

 

I'm doing some planning on where to go for my boat hunting expeditions for my art grant project.  As I, along with a lot of other artists, did not receive full funding for the grant due to government cutbacks, I've had to rethink my travel plans in hunting down the appropriate boats.  That and time, becomes a challenging factor.

But supplies are on their way and I have some sketches up for consideration for the 15 paintings that I'll need to produce before the spring.  Deadlines work wonders for inspiration.

Jewels of June

I'm happy to be part of a group exhibit at Peter Lewis Gallery.  I'm in very good company with five other artists, so it should be a visual treat for those attending.

I'll have some of my new boat paintings in this exhibition which is a preview for the series of paintings that I will complete this year for my grant project.  I'd love to meet you there and tell you more about the background of the paintings.

The opening is on Saturday June14th from 6:30 - 9:00pm and the exhibition will continue until July 5th.

I've just splashed out an obscene amount of money on supplies for my new series and even if it is grant money, it still makes my heart beat a little.  When I reach the point in a funded project where I start purchasing and planning, it turns into reality.  That reality turns into momentum and the closer the deadline creeps, the stronger the impetus.  I should have the project completed by the end of March 2015 and ready for exhibition in the spring of 2015.

Study for Pink Gin

I won't be sharing the paintings with you through my blog or website except through snippets here and there as I want to make a splash at the exhibition.  But it won't be silence and there will be lots more art and sketches to share along the way.

Catching up

 

Underwater Attitude

Available from Daily Paintworks

 

I have been extremely busy since the last blog post and while vowing to up my game at the start of the new year, I haven't always met my promise of twice to three times a week. Forgive me. I shall try harder.

Summer becomes the season for gallery activity locally with seasonal galleries reopening after languishing all winter and exhibitions taking place, projects coming to life and weather (at last) improving. As with each year, I bemoan the fact that I am so busy with the season, but I enjoy it also, as productivity and deadlines are the things that drive me forward.

 

Pink Gin

20 x 24" oil on canvas

Available from my website

 

So many paintings have headed out the door lately that I barely have anything left in the studio and work continues to build with commissions, teaching for workshops and private lessons as well as a major project taking form.   I was lucky enough to be provided with a grant from NLAC that will allow me to create a series of wooden boat paintings using a palette knife. I will also produce  sketches of the chosen boats, the type of boat, its environment, etc. and make them available in hard copy as well as e-book version.  This exhibition will culminate with a solo exhibition in early summer 2015.  I like to allow myself plenty of time to fit in everything I need to do for this as well as all my other work.

Moored Speedboat

pen and wash, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

One of my designs was accepted by Clean St. John's and I will be painting it on a traffic box in the city in July.  I can't tell you much more than that right now, but will find ways of sharing the experience and the final painting with you as it progresses.  Its great to see colourful original art around the city and research shows that it deters vandalism through graffiti so I hope the program continues until every traffic box is painted.  If your city doesn't have a public art program then start one! It brings community together and supports local artists.

Revisiting Zorn

 

Each artist formulates their own palette over time by adopting an initial colourway based on another artist or through an instructor's choice.  But as subjects change and experimentation occurs, additional colours are added that enhance what the artist tries to achieve and a personalized palette of common colours are used that become part of a signature style.

yellow ochre, cadmium red medium, ivory black, titanium white

 

Even though I do mostly boats and water now, there was a time when my main interest was in portraiture.  And for portraits, the Zorn limited palette cannot be beaten, in my opinion.  Skin tones ranging from lights to darks are endless using the four colours of cadmium red medium, yellow ochre, ivory black and titanium white.  A few years ago I used a Zorn palette to paint this portrait of Bill Grant.

In portraiture a limited palette is quite useful as it forces you to create colours and removes reliance of convenience colours in tubes.  The range of values and hues that can be achieved with limited colours can be explored using a colour chart.  This becomes a reference for future paintings when you're considering the colours you need to achieve an accurate representation of what is front of you.

With internet services all over the map lately and completely dying last week, I took advantage of some time where I would not be distracted to create another of my colour charts.  You can read my previous blog posts about creating colour charts here and here and here.  The chart shown here is based on the Zorn palette and shows the amazing range of colours that can be achieved using just a few colours.

Old work

 Parisian Reds

8 x 10   oil on panel  Available on Etsy  $65

What do you do with old paintings that don't sell?  We all have them.  Usually they are pieces that were done when learning a technique or starting out on an artistic journey, they may even have had gallery space, but they never found the right connection with someone.  This one below, Single Red Female, is one of those pieces.  Its been shown in exhibitions, available online,  yada yada, but hasn't found its forever home.  Its on my hit list for removal. 

For me, I paint over pieces where possible, depending on the surface and medium and recycle them that way.  I may keep a photographic record - or not - depending on how painful the image seems to resonate with me.  But it is transformed into something new.  It may take elements of the original that are incorporated into a new piece or it may be totally obliterated and disguised.

Trotting out old pieces over and over for sale at reduced prices is a bit disrespectful for collectors who have bought from you at full price and tends to devalue your work.   The occasional studio sales is fine and we all have them, but not for old work that isn't the best, its for genuine unpredictable sales of usually small pieces that may not be gallery worthy but still quite beautiful for someone looking for an piece of original art.

The ultimate of course is destroying the piece. It eliminates it from view, it confirms that you have moved on in your art career and that nothing becomes too precious.  Fire is the all consuming and a little caveman-like method, but quite satisfying.  Simply tossing pieces out with the trash becomes fraught with danger as they could be 'rescued'.  And would you really want your rejects on display or worse still, resold without your knowledge perhaps even under a different name?  No, permanent destruction or disfigurement prior to trashing them is required to ensure you don't lose sleep at night (or potential revenue!).

How do you eliminate old work that doesn't sell?  Do you recycle, eliminate or pass it on?

Northern gannets

I've had a bad internet connection for the last week or more that slowed to a creep over the weekend. Fortunately a technician came out today and was able to finally repair it so I'm back up to speed again. It almost reminded me of dial up speeds.  Remember those?  Yikes!

A couple of years ago I took a trek to the Bird Rock at Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve where thousands of northern gannets nest.  One of the largest nesting colonies in North America.  The birds are magnificent, flying over the ocean, sailing past on huge wings and gathered, covering every inch of rock on nests of grasses and fishing nets and ropes found in the ocean and on the shore.

 

I did paint a gannet  in flight and enjoyed the process of finding form and feathers.  I was revisiting my trip in photos there and zoomed in on a section of an image where a line of gannets nested, each with a different post and it got my mind thinking about painting it.  As I often do, I created a study to help me make up my mind.  Pen and ink, with watercolour wash sealed the deal so I think this may be a future painting.

I did this in a Stilman & Birn sketchbook in the alpha series, 9" x 6".  I love how forgiving the spine is to bend so I can draw across the page and how accomodating it is to washes of colour.  It ripples a little but not much.  I'm working my way through the series of S & B sketchbooks to see which ones I like best.

Let me share a little of the experience with the gannets. There are lots of other birds that call it home there too:  Thousands of gulls, razorbills, common murres, black-legged kittiwakes, northern gannets, and double-crested and great cormorants nest here. Its where 20,000 scoters, oldsquaw, harlequin, dovekies, thick-billed murres, and kittiwakes winter.

I think you might like to visit...

Tide's Edge

 Tide's Edge

12" x 36"  oil on canvas

Available for purchase from my website

I really need to up my game as my promise of a minimum of two blog posts a week is not materializing consistently enough.  I will try harder.  Its not as if I don't have things to share, because I do.  Fitting in everything I want to do becomes the challenge.

This is my most recent painting, Tide's Edge.  I love long rectangular canvasses, they are such perfect shapes for waves and repetitive patterns.  Last week I drove to Pouch Cove, just the next little town on the coast, to purchase some canvasses and an easel from another artist who was leaving the country.  I came away with two easels, more canvasses, brushes, paint and  books, all in excess of my original expectations for my dollars.   Its pleasant when something like that happens, both in helping out another artist and of course overachieving expectations.  I am considering how to pay this forward for the future.  I believe when good things land in your lap, there is an obligation to do something similar for another person.  The form it takes varies, but it must happen.

I've been fighting technology to create a short video showing the process of creating this wave and software keeps crashing at crucial moments.  So until I conquer that process, here are a couple of progress shots of the piece for those interested to see how shapes and colours change and evolve in the creation process.

 

 

Observational skills

Artists look at objects differently than most people.  They observe detail in shape, value, colour that differ from what their 'left brain' tells them should be there.  The analytical side of the brain tells us that an apple is round and red.  Wrong.  Even if round and red, there are many changes in colour and shape that occur and must be translated into a drawing or painting for it to look recognizable as an apple.

Learning how to observe is one of the most important elements of learning to draw and one of the techniques I use in drawing workshops is blind and continuous contour drawing.  This focuses the mind on exploring an object and blocks out the analytical side which keep trying to tell you how something should look, instead of how it actually looks to your eyes.

Blind contour drawings are done by observing an object and drawing it without looking at the drawing as it progresses. The tip of the pencil never leaves the surface of the paper and you are forced to really look at the nuances that occur in the subject instead of comparing it to the drawing.

Continual contour drawing takes it up a notch by allowing you to look at the drawing and the subject but still never allowing the tip of the pencil to lift from the paper surface.  It forces you to observe and make decisions on what areas will have crossed lines and where they should go in creating the drawing.

Neither blind or continuous contour drawing could be called realistic but they are often quite abstract and beautiful.  These are a couple of demonstration drawings that I completed in a drawing class this morning. The moment when a student really starts to understand how their observation translates from preconceived 'left brain' drawing into true representation of an object is amazing and always makes me smile.  I see lightbulbs fill the studio classroom as it happens and I will never become tired of that moment, because I know people are heading down the path of learning how to really see.

Finding your style

 Study for a boat painting

 How do I find my style? Its a question that I get asked by artists starting their journey and my answer is " You don't. It finds you."

A style is something that makes your work recognizable as you. It can be a subject, a medium, a palette choice or technique of applying paint to a surface.  Whatever it is, it becomes associated with you - your style of working in art.

Development of a style comes over time.  Initially there is a lot of experimentation with technique and materials and subject matter until you find yourself doing the same thing over and over.  The repetition shows how something pulls your interest and never leaves.  You spend your time expanding your knowledge of the subject and honing your ability with a technique and realizing that is now your comfort zone.  It becomes almost like a comfortable chair.  You sink into it, knowing the contours, creating colours is intuitive and you could draw/paint it in your sleep.

But it does take time.  And experimentation.  And hard work.   Style  doesn't come easily or instantly usually.  As artists evolve over their lifetimes, style will change and adapt, and the artist may explore other aspects of a subject or medium, testing its limits through abstraction to realism or vice versa or toss the brush and reach for the knife instead.   

If you lined up all the work you have produced, what would be a common element in them?  Colour, subject, or technique?  You should see a thread connecting them all, even if it is just a glimmer.  Continuing to build on that thread by constant painting and drawing constantly. 

Step outside the box of safety and really paint using instinct as well as theory.  See what is there or invent it. Choose your own colours, not what you see in front of you.  Become an artist, not a copyist.

Be prepared to fail.  Not every painting will be good.  A lot will be horribly bad.  That is a good thing.  Its how we learn.  Keep painting.

Your style will find you.  Paint your path and meet it half way.

Hidden secrets

 

Hailing a Wave

6" x 8" original drypoint etching

Most artists have a variety of tools that help them ply their trade.  There is always something new to tempt either in the art supply store or online and the temptation shouts loudly, doesn't it?  I'm guilty I know.  I accumulate 'stuff'.  I have paper and paint and more paint and tools that I know I'll rarely or never use.  Now, to defend myself, most of the obscure tools are relics from my distant art past.  (I even have some original tubes of dried out paint from the first set that I ever bought.  I'm a sentimentalist, or so I tell myself, otherwise why would I have carted them across an ocean and kept them for 30+ years when they are no earthly use to anyone?)  

Experimentation in early days of artmaking is common and encouraged until a style emerges and a medium is adopted as a preference.  For me, its water, boats and fish, with oils as the medium of choice.  But when I need a break or the muse takes a vacation, I dabble in other mediums and am glad that I haven't banished them from my studio entirely.

Still inbetween paintings, I'm playing with etchings and decided to invest in some new etching styluses.  Of course I had to add some new inks, papers and acrylic plates to the order - to get the free shipping of course...  I have inks, I have papers.  I am weak where art supplies tempt.

 Etching Supplies

However, the tools do make a difference to the final product.  They don't have to be expensive, branded tools, but they should demand a sufficient enough investment that you know you have quality and that they will do the job you ask of them.  Buying a tool, whether paint, paper, ink or brush because another artist uses it will not magically provide you with the capability of that artist.  You will simply have another tool in your studio that may or may not be useful to you.  

 Dry Pigment

I am clearing the studio and finding things that I am putting to one side.  These are tools that I thought were vital or interesting but now I know they were more likely a random purchase and if they have not been used, they are of little use to me.  But.......you know how difficult it is to let them go. There is always the 'I might use them to make...." syndrome.

What are your hidden secrets in the studio?  What have you bought but never used?  Maybe we all need a swap meet and simply go home with a new range of tools that we may or may not use.

Take five

 

Every day I sketch something - anything.  Drawing and sketching are the keys to keeping those hand/eye/brain skills sharp and I can't recommend it enough.  With  a laptop, tablet or smartphone there is no shortage of opportunities to capture and share sketches, no matter where you are, like this sketch I did on a plane, then captured on a webcam in my hotel room.

I had to travel to Ottawa this week for a few days on business. Travelling gives me a chance to study people in airports and on planes and see how many faces I can capture on a page before they move on.

No time?  For those who say they don't have time - you do have time, you just need to make the decision and grab it. Many of my sketches take five minutes or less.  This little sketch of the rabbit top on a sugar bowl took less time to draw than it took for my coffee pod to process.

• Sketches are ideas, snapshots of a shape or movement, not finished drawings.  Let them be rough, show the construction lines and rethinking that goes on.
• If you spend hours on a sketch, its not a sketch.  Don't try to make it perfect.
• Sketches are usually from an object in front of you, not a photograph.  Drawing from life lets you see shapes and values more accurately and gives you a wide range of opportunities to capture subjects that you never would be able to otherwise.
• When drawing people be aware that they move all the time.  That's ok, they'll always go back to a similar pose and you can start where you left off.  Simply start on another person while you wait.
• You can sketch with any marking tool.  Pencil, pen, crayon, twig, whatever you like- and on any support.  Some of my best sketches are on the back of envelopes or brown wrapping paper scraps.
• If you sketch daily, I can guarantee that your drawing skills will improve immensely.  As drawing is the backbone of all art, its a skill that is essential for all artists.
• Look carefully, focus on negative shapes and values.  Fill in the broadest shapes and values then work on detail.

Fraternal twins

 Fish Head

4.75" etching on Stonehenge paper

I'm still on my little etching path and reusing disc protectors as etching plates.  As a result, a fish is born.  Well, two, to be precise, and likely more.

I was looking at the acrylic protector and thinking how could I incorporate the central hole into the etching, then of course! The pupil of an eye.  I scratched the image into the disc with a little etching needle.  I torn some Stonehenge paper into 6 x 8 sheets, sprayed then and put them into a ziplock plastic bag to sit overnight and become pliable and plump.  The next morning I coated the plate with Caligo oil based ink in Carbon Black (I love how intense and matte this ink is) then ran a print under the press.  The first print was great (but a couple of tiny flecks of ink on the surface); the second print ok and the third a bit blurred as the paper was too damp.

Fish Head - colour

4.75" original etching on stonehenge

With the second print, I added watercolour washes to it and like the effect as I can see the lines clearly through the pigment.  Put next to each other they look like fraternal twins.  Alike but different.

I'll be printing more of this image as long as the plate holds up.  With acrylic plates the lines compress and burrs become less distinct as the run proceeds, so most are limited editions due to the more fragile nature of the plate.

I've ordered some acrylic plates and etching needles as well as some more printmaking papers to try.  I'm familiar with a lot, but there are always new ones coming out and its good to keep testing and see what may become a new favourite.