Snowmen

I don't know why I have a fascination with snowmen/people.  Their simplicity and brevity of life makes them appealing.  The reflected colours from their environment create levels of interest.  The character that emerges depending on placement of facial features is endless.

This afternoon, after a busy morning I got cozy on the sofa and created these little snow characters in watercolour.  They're in a watercolour Moleskine sketchbook and tiny, just 3 x 5 inches.  Just right for experimenting.

Christmas giveaways

Just to prove that I do paint other things than fish, here is a crop of a  painting that I'm working on of a pile of kittens.  Perhaps they're looking for fish...

“Be the change we want to see in the world.” Ghandi

Because Christmas should be about the spirit of giving, I will be giving away some gifts for seven days starting on December 24th, Christmas Eve.  The gifts will be a piece of my art, a set of notecards, prints, etc. Yes, I know Christmas officially has twelve days, but I'm shortening it a little to allow me time to catch up on other things over the holidays.

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on my blog up til midnight on the day of the draw.  I will draw the name using www.random.org and announce the winner in the next day's post.  Of course, here's the catch:  the person who wins then has to Pay it Forward. The winner each day must provide a creative gift or do a good deed for three people and post about it on their blog.  I won't be checking up on you, I'll take you at your word that you will Pay it Forward, but if you let me know about it, I'd love to share it on this blog too.

 Check back on December 24th and start planning your way to to Pay it Forward this season!

Many of you may have seen the movie or read the book “Pay It Forward”, a story about a  young boy who did 3 good deeds for others in need. In return, all that the child wanted was that they pass on the good deed to three other people and keep the cycle going.

One good deed might not seem like much, but if everyone did something good for someone else, then the cycle of generosity and kindness can spark us to become better people. Pay it Forward is a powerful reminder of the positive difference we can all make, regardless of our age, background or wealth.

New note cards available!

At last the Salt Cod I cards are available.  These are sitting on the wonderful Ruby, my lumpsucker friend.  These cards have a lighter background than the original cards and I think this pale turquoise sets off the gold/brown well.

These cards are 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches and include a plain envelope.  I'll be making them available for purchase on my Giclee and Cards page.  I will also have these available in sets of 8 cards in a kraft coloured, clear top box, with matching envelopes, tied with a ribbon.  They would make a wonderful New Year or birthday gift.  They may possibly be available locally in time for Christmas, but some wild winds are slowing the ferry delivering parcels to the island, so it may not be possible, but I anticipate they will be available by January 1, 2011.

Poinsettias

I did this little watercolour while on the telephone the other night.  Its a small piece, perhaps 3 x 5 in a little Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, that I'd forgotten I had. (Cleaning up the studio unearths all kinds of treasure!)

I love the look of really large poinsettias and have tried year after year to keep them growing until the next season, but eventually they curl up and die in my hands.  There's a trick with light levels I know for getting the bracts to turn colour, but mine just die completely with barren stems.  I think artificial ones might be better for me.

This little watercolour will be one of the Christmas gifts that I will be giving away in my newsletter.  Join today and see how you can have a chance to win it and other pieces. But be quick!  The newsletter is published on the 15th.  You can join the list by adding your email address in the box on the right side of this blog.

Tomorrow I pick up the Salt Cod I note cards from the printer.  They forgot me it seems.  Two weeks ago I ordered the cards then checked on them today.  Funny how quickly they can move when they realize they're at risk of losing a customer.  The cards were ready by end of business today.

Gyotaku exhibition

Tonight St. John's gets its first glimpse of my gyotaku pieces.  I brought six pieces to Bacalao, a wonderful nouvelle cuisine restaurant in a unique setting that will showcase the pieces in their dining rooms for patrons to view and purchase.  The restaurant is in a renovated older Victorian house in the centre of St. John's consisting of several small, cosy dining rooms with the original fireplaces.  The food is local and delicious and I'd strongly recommend that you book a table for a special lunch or dinner soon.

Bacalao (bak-al-OW) and its dirivitives is the word for salt cod throughout the Mediterranean and in Portugal and Newfoundland had very strong ties with Portugal for hundreds of years with the fishing fleets that populated St. John's harbour.  One of the pieces being shown at Bacalao is Salt Cod I - the first in a series of salt fish gyotaku prints, so the fit with this restaurant works very well.

I have a limited number of this print available as well as note cards that will be available for purchase soon.

Moving ahead

Creating a body of work takes up space, both in production and storage until it can be exhibited and/or sold.  My studio space is currently maxed out and I have a very large set of shelves in another room that houses drying pieces and stores completed images.

Once pieces are completed and framed, I usually try to hang them on a wall at home.  This lessens the risk of damage from someone walking into them and breaking the glass.  But even then there is only so much available wall space in my house.  However, some pieces will be moving out soon.  More on that  later.

Meanwhile I continue to produce and wet mount more gyotaku and have been framing a few more pieces tonight.  Framing in its own right becomes an exercise in frustration sometimes and a learning experience always.

This piece is a crop of a gyotaku/watercolour of bluegill done on batiked masa paper.  Since I provided a brief overview of how I created this batiked paper on the blog, it is one of the most popular page hits on this site.  Its good to share information and knowledge and see what others do with it.

Aranciata continued

Remember this watercolour of the bottle of San Pellegrino that I started a few weeks ago?  Its still in progress and I devote small amounts of time to it as and when I can.  There are hours and hours left to go in this piece and that's ok.  Its rather therapeutic to add layers or a few little details when I have a few minutes, knowing its building towards completion.

This piece is on a 22 x 30 sheet of 200lb paper.  I really like the heavier paper because I don't have to stretch it beforehand or flatten it after I'm finished.  Its also quite forgiving in terms of scrubbing back when I need to.

The glass of the bottle is textured and I'm trying to create a sense of the texture.  Its starting to come together and I hope once I put in the background it will look better.  The background is another challenge that I haven't wrapped my mind around quite yet...

December crush

Christmas is rapidly catching up with me and I'm caught in a whirlwind of printing, painting, commissions and marketing.  That combined with shopping and wrapping and posting.  Its all go and seems to be what suits me in some ways.  The constant push for deadlines is what helps me actually make deadlines instead of procrastinating.

Today I picked up three more pieces from the framer.  There may be just a couple of pennies rattling round in my piggy bank now, so these pieces will need a home soon.


I'm in the midst of organizing exhibition space for the gyotaku and a lovely local restaurant has agreed to hang some of my work.  I'm also finalizing some capelin printing and painting and will have some smaller pieces available for sale soon.  This little fellow may be one of the giveaways in my December newsletter.  But you'll have to sign up to find out... The newsletter will be out on the 15th and will be a virtual cornucopia of goodies, giveaways, downloads and information including Nick Simmons, watercolourist extraordinaire, who answers my Twelve Questions.

You can join my mailing list to receive this newsletter direct to your inbox by clicking on the link on the right of this page.  Its that simple.

Fish stress

My printing table is littered with capelin carcasses in my quest for the perfect print of this little fish. 

I want to print a school of capelin and of course you know the dangers that is fraught with, don't you?  The precision of inking, the correct weight paper, the right printmaking ink, just the right amount of molding paper around the little body, not getting any additional ink residue outside the print area... and that's juse one.  How many fish in a school???  And what are the chances of getting ALL of them as acceptable prints on the same sheet of paper?

The image here isn't of capelin, but their close cousin, smelt.  I've printed these using white and gold inks and added detail later.  Holding my breath, I wet mounted this Moriko Kozo paper on plain mulberry paper for backing.  I was afraid the dark blue might run when wet, but all was well and the colour held.  This is one of the more expensive sheets of Japanese paper, but worth it in terms of versatility, texture and look. 

Now back to the capelin...

Water study

I don't dabble in abstraction often, but that doesn't mean to say that I don't enjoy that art stream.  I've always been pulled in the direction of representational art.

I've had an idea in my head for ages of a piece that I want to create that is quite abstract but based on reality.  Reflections on water that is moving slightly gives a complex form that at first glance is seen as colours and shapes, but when explained, becomes very clear as to the subject.

Its that mix of the two that I want to create and I have created a 6 x 6 acrylic study of where I want to go generally with this.  I will draw out the final piece this weekend and make a start on it using oils.  I wanted a large square format,but the only square canvas I could find today was 20 x 20", not that large.  The art store in town decided in the spring to close on Saturdays, so unless I make a special trip there during the week, I'm out of luck for instant gratification.  So I'll work on 20 x 20 for  now and if that works out as I plan, I may try another water reflection piece on a larger scale.

How not to hang art

Its interesting how each person's idea of curating art is so different.

I have a number of pieces that I'm framing and have hung some on the walls at home to keep them more out of harm's way than use as decoration.  I had this gyotaku print of starfish framed nicely and was struggling to hang it early one morning. The Other One, who can't bear watching anyone do anything that he believes he could do better, decided he would hang them himself while I was at work.

So when I came home, it was hung.  Just not in a place that even vaguely resembled having connection with other pieces on the wall in either size or position.  The other piece, a similar size and shape was hung on a wall in a corner so inaccessible I'm not even sure how he got it there and it was so high up, you'd need binoculars to see it.

'Hang it' obviously has very different meaning for artists and non artists.  Now I'm not being ungrateful.  Yes, they were hung and yes they were out of harm's way, so technically the task was literally completed.  But in as much as he'd prefer to wield the hammer and hangers, I'd much prefer to prescribe just where they go.

Painting and printing

 
As  usual I have a dozen things going on at once, and sometimes it becomes a little overwhelming.  However, when I sit down and break it into chunks, I usually can wrap my head around it.

I've been finishing some more gyotaku prints to meet my self imposed deadline of December 31st to finish them.  This time its capelin.  I can't get away with painting them larger than life and have to deal with one by one inking their tiny bodies and molding the paper gently over them to get a good impression.  Some you win, some you lose, some the capelin loses.  Capelin are fairly fragile being small but I usually manage to get about 8 or 10 prints from a single fish before it starts to disintegrate.  Yes, I know, more information than you need to know.

While waiting for the capelin prints to dry before I can add more detail, I did some more work on Monty, the bulldog. It still has a ways to go yet and I'm not sure if the proportions are quite right now that I look at it.  He has the look that says he knows where the biscuit tin is and he's not moving til he gets some. 

Monty

Portraits, whether of animals or people are often done in a standard, three quarter view compositions, making them fairly predictable.

I like portraits to be a little different, so this perspective appealed to me.  This is the start of an bulldog portrait done in acrylic.  Apart from my initial reservations about acrylics, I am warming to them but they still give me fits a lot of the time with their quick drying.  Its both a blessing and a curse, even when using extender.

I'll work on the portrait over the next few days between other pieces and put up the final shot later this week.  Oh, its on an 8 x 10 panel.

Red Fish II

 

I have a never ending collection of prints of ocean perch, or red fish as they're often called in Newfoundland.

This one was printed onto a batiked piece of masa paper and measures 8.5 x 16".  I love the mix of colour and almost textural effect of the fish and background.  The washes of watercolour that I used over this gives a strong presence for this gem of the Atlantic.

As I need space and framing funds, you can find this guy for sale on the Original Works page of this blog.  If its a Christmas gift, let me know when you pay and I'll include a free Christmas note card!

Marbles

Although I don't do a lot of digital painting, sometimes I like to play around with it and see what I can produce.  It saves me hauling out paints and brushes and satisfies the lazy part of me.  I have a number of paintings in my head and that can lead to overwhelm so often a little study here and there keeps the craving in check until I get a piece underway.

This little study is in oils.  I liked the effect of the light through the glass marbles and tried to capture it.  I love drawing glass but haven't painted it much.  I need to follow through now and put some on canvas.  This also appeals to me as a drawing or pen and ink piece.  The beauty of creating digital art is the flexibility of changing mediums and doing studies.  Just another tool to help the process of composition, colour and technique.

Angels

I have a craving to do a detailed drawing of an angel.  Why I have no idea.  Perhaps its the season or something that's triggered the thought somewhere.  In cemeteries that I wander through I always look for lovely angel statues and end up with lots of images.  There is a certain bleakness of stone angels in that setting.  The greys and greens are the contrast of life and death, maybe that is the appeal.

I did this sketch of an angel, I can't remember where the reference came from.  The photo is of an angel found in one of St. John's oldest cemeteries where a number of relatives are buried.  I think there is a painting in there, I just need the right lighting so a few more visits may be necessary and perhaps the addition of a little snow could be interesting.

There is a lot of appeal is setting up your own compositions and images from choosing the subject, the lighting and composition.  With images from other sources being always a chancy proposition these days, artists need to rely more and more on their own resources and abilities to create the perfect piece from start to finish.

Rejection has a good side

I was bemoaning the fact that I had three pieces tied up in a jury process preventing me from adding them to an exhibition, but today's letter resolved that problem.  None of the pieces were chosen and I now have free rein to do as I want with them.

There's always a twinge of regret when a rejection letter arrives, but in this case its rather more relief as I needed the pieces to bulk out the body of work.  Also I am waiting for another response from another two juried competitions.  One I should hear from sooner, the other not til 2011.  The waiting time is always the killer for me.  Part of me wants to know right away and the longer I wait, the more opportunity presents itself for the very piece being juried but I just have to put the ideas to one side and pretend that piece doesn't exist until I hear officially.

Rejection is accepted more easily now than it was many years ago.  The pieces aren't as precious to me so I don't take it so personally when an organization doesn't accept them.  I know there are more still in my head that will have their moment in the future.

Meanwhile, I am making more decisions around final pieces for the gyotaku.  This ocean perch on a green Dainshu chiri paper appealed to me.  I've added the eye using mostly coloured pencil with a touch of watercolour to add depth.  On Japanese papers, the sharper tip of the pencil roughens the paper til you're eventually just moving fibres around instead of applying pigment, so a light wash of watercolour helps add depth.

Of course, I don't have a frame to fit it here.  That's always the way when I like something, so if I want to include it, I'll need to have it custom framed.  It may sit for a day or two as I have a few other prints of these perch that are in the running too.

However, tomorrow its off to the printer to get some reproductions of a salt cod print done and perhaps a workshop poster if I can get that completed tonight.  The prints will be thank you gifts for people who have helped me along the way, with some original prints for those who really went out of their way for me. I wish I had an illustrator's mind set when it comes to creating posters, I seem to make the most boring ones imaginable.

The list

Rebel

Gyotaku print on rice paper with watercolour

This is the completed print of the smelt that I started on its road to completion in the last post.

I really have to get my thumb out and start getting things in gear for the end of this gyotaku project.  Part of me is a perfectionist.  I complete a piece, put it in a frame, then do another piece that I like more.  And so the cycle goes, as if I'm always trying for something better.

My to do list includes:

• obtaining exhibition space
• media releases
• poster
• promoting the workshop
• completion (perhaps 3 more) and framing of gyotaku pieces
• completing gyotaku book
• thank you prints for those who helped me find fish
• hopefully create a virtual exhibition

Each of these tasks is worthy of a blog post in its own right.

I've set myself a deadline of December 31st to have all these tasks complete, so blog posts may be a bit scarce over the next month.  Oh yeah, Christmas is in there somewhere too isn't it?

Watch your plate...

After a hectic couple of weeks at work its finally Friday again and despite a horrible cold, I'm trying to make some progress on pieces that were sitting in limbo, waiting for attention.

One of the pieces was a print of smelt.  This was done on mulberry paper that has a slight veining through it.  I've added washes of colour to the piece and will wait until it dries to add more detail to the fish and complete it.

While I was at dinner one evening in Winnipeg another guest had ordered lobster and at the end of the meal I was fascinated by the shell.  I've seen lots of lobsters, but none like this one, it sure didn't come from the Atlantic ocean!  I sent the wait staff to the kitchen to find out what type it was and they said it was a Bermuda lobster.   Now I find it odd enough that lobster is on the menu in the prairies, but Bermudian lobster??  Whatever the case, I got them to package it up for me so I could take it home to paint, print, etc.  Most of my colleagues no doubt now think I've completely lost it when I scavange from their dinner plates!  What we do in the name of art...

And here is the lobster.  Its colours and patterning is amazing.  It reminds me of a painting I did some time ago of what was classed as a shrimp, but now I believe it may well have been one of these lobsters as the patterning is so similar.

To date or not to date

 Here is a small update of the Italian soda bottle.  It has a long way to go yet, but the layers of pigment are starting to give form to the bottle and the contents.

There are two schools of thought on adding a date to your artwork.

One says that it should never be on the front with a signature, but added as a piece of provenance beneath the paper backing or with a certificate of authenticity.

The other says that dates for work should be prominent and have as much importance as the artist's signature.

Art that is sent to exhibition or competition is often time sensitive with juries demanding work between one to three years old.  I never quite understand that as the antiques side of me longs for date confirmation of items and paintings and the knowledge that sometimes one's best work could be 20 years old - or 100 years old. Otherwise why would experts be carbon dating, x-raying and inspecting old masters paintings for clues to when they were painted?  There is obviously two sides to this debate.

Where did this need for current work come from?  Is there a 'sell by' date on art?  Do the buying public believe that only recent art is worthy of money being spent?  What about the need for documenting the history of an artist's work and style over time? There is a thought that perhaps dated paintings, if older, are a sign that they have not been able to be sold.  Galleries only want newer paintings and often artists do not date work purposely to ensure pieces are considered new.

To keep the sellers and buyers happy, I sign my pieces on the front then provide a month/year on the back along with title, medium and artist name on a label on the back for reference.  How stable that little rectangle of information is over time I may never know.  I recommend to buyers to write down the information and keep it catalogued, along with other works of art they may own for future records.

What is your thought on dating pieces of art?