Interactive art

 

One of my treats while away was to spend some time with my daughter and grand daughter.  She's four now and its interesting to see how children explore the world and how interactive everything is.  It reminded me of how much of that we lose as adults and how much we need to strive to keep that as artists.

These thoughts formed as I watched her interact with the world and the pleasure she got from art both 2D and 3D.

• Take time to see what is in front of you.  Up close.
• Don't be afraid to touch something, climb on it, taste it.
• Embrace colour
• Concentrate
• Go outside the lines
• Little details count
• Pancakes have potential for sculpture

Now that I'm home again and getting back on track, I'll revisit what's in the studio and should have a sneak preview of a new painting tomorrow or the next day.

A blogging break

I'm having a short break from blogging, about a week, as I'm doing some travelling.  Although I always have good intentions when I'm away, time usually wins in the end and I can't fit in all that I want.

I'll be doing some sketching as and when I can and am currently looking at clouds covering the peaks of the Rocky Mountains as I write this. Inspiration is always around me from vast landscapes like this to intimate studies of small objects so you never know what I'll post when I return.

Overflow complete

 Overflow

10 x 10  acrylic

I've finished this smaller painting, trying to make the smooth surface and the flow blend together. Painting water is always interesting and I often need to see the source before I can complete it.  It was no different today.   I went out to a lake to study water this afternoon so I could commit to memory its movement and surface.  I needed that reinforcement of reality before I could complete the final touches to this piece.

Water, like any other object can be simply broken down into darks and lights, but familiarity with the subject helps a lot, especially when working from several sources, photos, life and memory.  That intimate knowledge of a subject and the time spent drawing and painting it over and over and over is required before ever trying to commit a memory effectively into a painting.  

Out of My Depth

 Out of My Depth

monoprint 8 x 12

I'm working out ideas for a collograph print and while doing so, remembered a little print that I did last year.  Not a collograph, but a basic relief print which was impressed into foam then printed on BK Rives paper. 

I had dampened the paper prior to printing and didn't blot it enough so there are splotches on the surface, but I rather like the look of them.  I added some colour to the print, just playing around and this was the result.

 original print

I'll work out more ideas for the collograph in my head and on paper over the next day or two and hopefully have something to show for my efforts.

Overflow

This is a few hours into a new water painting.  The smooth water is drawn downstream to pour over a stone ledge, forming a small waterfall.  

The values of the water as it moves can be created through reference photos, but being able to study the water in real life is the only way of becoming very familiar with its movement.  Repetitive motion remains the same but the changes of light on the surface can bring very different results.

Here, the brown, boggy bottom turns the water to tea in shadows and to rich blues where it reflects the sky.  On a cloudy day the colours would be silvers and greys.

This is a 10 x 10 painting in acrylics.  I'll add more detail and depth over the next few days to try to get that smooth surface that moves into rougher texture.

Trees for Life Charity Fundraiser

 The Gatekeeper

6" x 9"  mixed media

Update:  This piece is now on the Trees for Life Fundraiser website and available for sale.   You can see it and other pieces of art as they are posted on the TFL site.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.


I am pleased to take part in the Trees for Life charity fundraising exhibition which will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The exhibition will open 1-13 November at Out of the Blue.  The opening will be on November 3rd. The initiative is spearheaded by Trevor Jones, a Canadian, living in Edinburgh. 

Twitter to the rescue!

Through the phenomenon of Twitter I want to track down 140 generous artists who will each create a 6x9 inch (16 x 23 cm) artwork inspired by the forests or some element of the natural environment where they live. I will be organising a two week exhibition and sale of all the artwork in November in the wonderful space at Out of the Blue art complex in Edinburgh, Scotland.

All money raised from this project will go to the worthy cause of restoring the Caledonian Forest supported by the charity Trees for Life. Each postcard will sell for £40 and, along with donations and opening night fundraising, we’re aiming to raise £10 000!

One of the many goals of Trees for Life in 2011 is to plant its one millionth tree! The money raised from this event will help the charity achieve this while laying the foundations for its ultimate vision of restoring a ‘wild forest, which is there for its own sake, as a home for wildlife and to fulfil the ecological functions necessary for the wellbeing of the land itself.’

A special online gallery will be set up to view and purchase the artwork. Links to each artist’s website will be attached to their work.

After a bit more tweaking, I will be shipping this painting to Scotland within the next few days.  Some of you may recognize the tree from a previous post done a couple of years ago of an old decaying larch tree on the edge of the woods in my garden.  The tree has lost limbs and bark, its fissures and rough bark show its age.  I think of it as the Gatekeeper to the thick forest behind it, old and gnarled but hanging on til the younger ones are strong enough to take over.

True to the theme of nature and trees for the exhibition, I wanted to go with as natural materials as I could. I used a piece of TerraSkin for the base, a treeless support made of ground stone. On this I added a layer of gesso, then Japanese mulberry paper that I tore for texture, with more gesso over those.  I added washes of watercolour that brought out the texture of the tree and background and used ink for definition and texture in the grasses.

Questions, questions, questions

 Pink and white - not your average boy

Some days it feels like such a farce, this art stuff.  I go to my studio and produce a mess that I try to turn to gold without success.  And it makes me second guess myself and the purpose of the materials around me and why I'm doing this or trying to do this.

Then there is the pretention of the art world.  Not the artists usually, but those who feed off their efforts.  The galleries, framers, dealers, critics and exhibition organizers are the vultures waiting to pick the bones of artists.  Artists are like farmers.  They bust a gut to produce a product, whether potatoes or paintings and the merchants become rich off the proceeds.

Then there is the uninformed buying public who think there's no difference between a mass produced reproduction from Walmart and an original painting and want the same for $19.99.  Framed. Or commission  a complex piece with all their relatives and animals, make endless changes and haggle over price as if its a pound of sausages at the butcher's.

There are also the artists who consider that they are superior because they can afford a particular brand of paint or brush or slavishly use the brand and palette of an artist they admire, as if by owning or using it, it gives them magical powers of mastery over that medium.  Or the slightly mocking, patronizing tones of those who can only produce a painting from life instead of reference photos or who use oils instead of watercolour  because the masters did or use watercolour instead of graphite because the latest workshop guru told them to or who could never use a grid or projector...it goes on and on ad nauseum.

What has happened to art and those that artists choose or must choose to interact with, ply their trade?  When did it become big business and so cut throat? When did artists begin to hold technique so close to their chest and not share in case someone might learn how to do the same thing?  Did they forget how they learned?  Wasn't it from someone else?  When did artists start counting statistics of how many people visit their blog or website instead of concentrating on simply producing beautiful art?

I don't expect answers to these questions.  They are what rattles around in my head sometimes when I think about the often futile and fickle world of art production and sales.

Ok, rant over.  You can come out from behind the sofa now.  Its safe.

Free Advertising

Well, nearly. I  did have to purchase the signs, but after that tiny investment, every exposure of the words to the passing public is free.

I'm always searching for new avenues for marketing my art and had considered mobile signs for awhile.  These are magnetic images applied simply and quickly to your vehicle, weather resistant and easily removed without any damage to the car surface.

How many signs to do you 'read' when you're on the road.  Billboards, store signs, bus and truck signs all bring messages that we absorb, sometimes even without knowing that we see them.  My drive to and from work is about 20-30 minutes each day which gives me an hour of exposure to thousands of vehicles and pedestrians.  Another cross town trip a few times a week and I have exposure to a different section of the public.  The costs for the same exposure commercially would be enormous and never within my budget.

So I'm giving these signs a trial to see if they generate any additional interest or visibility.  There's one on either door of my car. (I put one on the back of The Other One's truck, but don't tell ok?) :)  Its an inexpensive way to get my name in front of the eyes of the public.  Who knows who will pass by and see it?

Marketing is a huge part of art.  If you make it, they won't come and see it unless you tell them about it. So get out of the studio and start spreading the word about your art!

Vertigo update

Vertigo

oils

I'm determined to finish some paintings that got put to one side, ostensibly for drying, but then life took over.

This piece of a Northern gannet was one of them.  I'm working on the water and its getting to where I want it to be, but there are  number of glazes to bring it to completion yet.  I quite enjoy glazing and its so effective in building colour, but a slow process, having to let each layer dry before adding another.  I'm also working on the wings of the bird to define feathers - not something I really enjoy, but one at a time and I'll get it done.

Aligning the planets

I've had a week of being ill, nightly insomnia and a house guest.  As a result, art has taken a back seat.  I always feel more out of sorts when I can't make progress in the studio.

I've browsed and read and planned and sketched but didn't get too far.   Tonight I'm working on the water in a previous painting Vertigo to finish off that painting while another previously abandoned piece waits in the wings to be revitalized.

Its interesting how, at least for me, everything physically must be in sync for paint or pencil to create its magic.  If just one thing is off kilter, it throws everything else.  I'm also at a bit of a crossroad.  So much is happening with me in art in terms of opportunity and commitment I wonder just how much I can fit in or what needs to change to accommodate it more easily.  Even with insomnia, there are still only so many hours in the day.

So I'll leave you with a sketch.  If all else fails, sketches still work. They don't demand the same level of planning or commitment as a full drawing does and allow me to skill practice, even if only on a small, brief scale.

Fragments of the galaxy

I am more of a representational artist rather than abstract, but occasionally fragments of colour or light happen that please me and they are usually arrived at quite unintentionally as it is with this piece.

This is a small (8 x 8) gallery canvas that I originally earmarked for experimentation with gyotaku printing.  I had layered the canvas with different shaped pieces of various Japanese papers, some showing through in colour or texture.  The resulting surface was the support for a print that never really happened.

Late last night I found a piece of textured paper, very thin, with spirals covering it, held together with threads of fabric/paper, almost like a lace doily.  I put a piece of this over the canvas then randomly chose a colour to apply.  My hand pulled out a perlescent liquid acrylic called 'galactic blue'.  A bit wild but what the heck, it was an experiment.  I poured it over the textured paper and brushed it on pressing it well into the gaps, rather like a stencil.  When I pulled it off, it had the desired effect of leaving the papered canvas with fragmented shapes of the spirals.

Early this morning (my wish for surviving on less sleep seems to be coming true) I studied it again and decided to slap on a series of fairly complementary gold, orange, yellow and red to fill the empty fragments and spill over onto the acrylic ink surface.

Its a unique piece that is almost impossible to photograph because it changes in colour completely depending on the lighting, going from intense blues to rich purples and greens.  It  may be worth experimenting with it on a larger scale with different acrylics and textures to see what will happen.

Roller

I've had a bit of a fallow period this week as I've been so busy with other things.  And it may be a few more days before I get back into production mode again, although I have several ideas brewing that I'm working out on paper now.

I've been sick with some sort of bug over the last couple of days and of course creativity flies out the window for me then.  As well my sister is visiting for a few days too.  When other aspects of life kick in, it makes me realize how much time I need to devote to production just to stay on top of it.

This is an oil sketch of a wave rolling in, done on 8 x 8" gallery canvas.  I was using up the paints on the palette from my previous painting .  I can't stand throwing out perfectly good paint and often use the palette leftovers and 'mud' to work out ideas or put down the base of another painting.  I don't think I'm the only person who does this, perhaps some of the purists just don't admit it. :)

Final Limpid and exhibition

I'm calling this piece done for now.  The foam may get a few more tweaks in days to come, but other than that it will sit and dry and wait to be framed.

A previous painting of a wave, called Landwash, has been accepted into a juried group exhibition at the Newfoundland and Labrador Craft Council.  The exhibition is called Blue and runs from May 7th to June 12th.  The opening is 2 - 4pm on Saturday, May 7th, at the Annex Gallery, Devon House on Duckworth Street.

Calm, sad, delicious and profound – the many unique characteristics of water inspire this group show.

Water sustains life and takes it away. Occupying 73 percent of the Earth, water is still unavailable in a drinkable form to one-fifth of the population. The range of water's colour, its reflective qualities and other characteristics unite and inspire the diverse work in this show. Come and see how craft and art mix with the ecology and politics of water.

  I have another couple of projects on the horizon but am keeping them under my hat for the moment.  More on them after the weekend I hope.  And now onto another painting!

Red Snapper

I'm having a small break from the water tonight and am finishing a couple of gyotaku prints.  This lovely red snapper turned up last week and the defined scales and gill covers make a good candidate for printing.

The fish measures 17" nose to tail and its printed on 18" x 25" okawara paper using Caligo ink.  I added the eye using watercolours and he's ready to go once mounted.

I took another couple of prints from the same inking left on the fish using lightweight art tissue.  I love the delicacy of tissue but it tears so easily its a bit frustrating to use.  This is the print directly off the fish without the eye added.

Limpid - the end is in sight

I'm working towards the finish of this painting, adding details that bring it to life.

I love this stage of a painting.  Well mostly.  There are some sections that I have to talk myself into completing simply because they are repetitive and a bit tedious, such as picking out subtle values on the water surface and darker shading of tiny waves and ripples.  Patience and the ability to let my mind concentrate only  on the particular section that I am working on at the time help.

A few more hours of detail work and I'm hoping to call it complete then move onto the next piece.  There are a few ideas in my head, but I haven't made a firm decision on what's going to be on the easel next.

Limpid continued

I'm deepening values in the wave and creating a stronger form to it.  I've started to add overall shading to the water in the rear and will work on the foam in the foreground soon too. The wave itself is a little shelf of smooth water just before it crests and topples over with the shelf reflecting the foam gathering behind it onto the water leading to the crest.


I'm using thin layers of oils which gives a tacky but not slippery surface to paint on.  I'm now adding poppy seed oil to thin the paint a little for the wave crest instead of liquin or turps.  I'll continue on with liquin and turps until I get the rear and foreground values in place. 

I've also decided on a name for the piece.  Limpid.  The wave is soft and gentle, clear water moving slowly.  Thesaurus also works well in looking for inspiration for names of pieces.

Water update

 
I've added a few more layers to this wave and its coming together as it should.  I am conscious that I am behind in my water paintings this year.  Although I have not committed to a particular number on paper, I have in my head and hope to produce at least a dozen before the year is gone.

Of course life and work gets in the way as well as other commitments.  I am finishing my final report for the gyotaku project and should have it in the mail by the end of this week.  Then I can concentrate on some other projects, however the gyotaku will be with me for some time yet.  It will be part of an art group exhibition later this summer, but more about that at another time.

For now, more layers, more blending and coaxing colour and paint into water.  A name for the piece still hasn't made itself known to me.  One of these days it will just happen I'm sure.  A whole post could be written on the process of naming paintings and likely has!

Untitled water

The ocean has been in a gentle mood when I've gone to visit her lately.   Waves roll in but they're not aggressive or menacing, but have a calm feel to them and are almost sculptural at times when I catch them in a freeze frame.  The name for this piece hasn't come to me yet and suggestions are always welcome.

I liked the shapes and colours in this wave and the foam in the foreground.  This is its first stages of blocking in shapes and colours.  This is a 12 x 24" canvas panel and I'm using oils.  I switch back and forth between acrylics and oils when one or the other frustrates me.

Finding the right values to capture the light through the water is always a challenge at first, then seems to just happen as the painting progresses.  A couple of newish colours that I've added to my arsenal of oils cover several brands:  Old Holland Carribean Blue; Richeson Oils The Shiva Series,  Ice Blue and Classico King's Blue Light.  You just never know where a new favourite pops up when it comes to creating water.  I'm not looking for a perfect match out of a single tube, but just the right colour of blue, green or turquoise that help move it in the right direction when mixed with other colours.

The long road

I think there are some pieces of art that can take a lifetime to complete. They evolve over time and take thought and planning to execute well.  This may well be one of them.


I started this piece several years ago.  Its a 22" x 30" drawing in graphite on illustration board.  The subject is a symbolic self portrait, inspired from a class with Armin Mersmann.  I  began with some elements then was stuck and still am to a large degree.  The foreground defeats me and though I've fiddled with it over the last day or so, just what to add still evades me. The size of the piece and the medium can be daunting too, as graphite is not a quick technique to work with.

Created a symbolic self portrait is not a simple task, at least to me.  It involves a lot of self analysis, some of which isn't always a good thing, to make a decision of what elements in the world make up your own personality.  The viewer can see a variety of objects, some of which may be clear, some not as to why it could represent a person.  That is part of the appeal, to let the viewer create their own story around the images.

This piece may well be on and off the shelf for another few years before it is complete.  There's something comforting to know that part of me sits there, waiting.

Easter chick

I'm not a great fan of Easter chocolate and with no children around, there's very little that makes its way into the house.  However, Easter isn't about chocolate or shouldn't be.  Like most religious holidays, manufacturers have morphed it into a money making enterprise that removes it far from its origins.

I'm far from religious, but Easter to me is a time of rebirth.  Of the land, of nature, animals..everything moves into a new cycle in spring and Easter seems to be the pinnacle that announces it officially.

New life is amazing, whether human, animal or plant.  Here, the new life is a day old chick.  Fragile, but strong and full of potential.  Just like all of us.  The image is one I took a few years ago. I drew a pen and ink piece using the reference and found the image again and thought I'd try another version.

I did this sketch using the end of a palette of acrylic colours on some canvas paper.  The pastel colours seem to suit the little bird.