Fall sketches

 Pumpkin stack - watercolour

I sketch every day.  Its an ingrained habit now, like brushing my teeth or getting coffee in the morning.  It doesn't have to be an elaborate sketch and many sketches are the working tools for future paintings.

Fall apples - oil

I use all kinds of mediums in whatever sketchbook is to hand, whether the paper is made for wet or dry media.  I never consider a sketchbook to be precious and full of perfect drawings.  I consider it to be a  tool and the messier the better.  I try to draw from life when I can, but sometimes an image catches my eye and I'll go with that instead.

Fallen apples - pen & wash

Here's a glimpse into the sketchbook I'm currently working in.  It's an Earthbound recycled sketchbook that I "re-found" in the studio when looking for something else.  Yes, I do lose things in the studio.  You do too.  Go on, admit it...  This sketchbook is produced by Daler-Rowney, I'm not sure if they still do, but its quite pleasant to work on the tan paper.

 The last strawberry - watercolour

2016 Calendars

 2016 Wall and Desk Calendars

Available direct from the artist

I know its too early to think about 2016 and I won't say the dreaded ******mas word, but you know we're in the last quarter of the year and, for me at least, time speeds up lately.

I was determined to get some calendars ready well in advance this year and sifted through boat paintings that I had created over the past year, picking out a dozen of my favourites.  I hope I picked some of your favourites too.  A painting of Flatrock harbour, in the town where I live, is the cover image for each calendar.

I have made the calendars available in wall size - $25 (11" x 8.5") and desk size - $12 (8.25" x 3.75"). Shipping is included in the pricing within North America. You can see all the boat images in the calendar on my website.   Which is your favourite painting?

Benoit's Cove

 Benoit's Cove - SOLD

24" x 30"  oil on panel

Boats often have specific colours that attach them to communities or regions and this can been seen in Newfoundland as you travel across the island.  Shape, structure and colour play a part in defining the role of a vessel and its ties.

On the east coast you find mostly white boats, with dories being traditional "Dory Buff"  (yes, it is a colour!) but reserved for the Grandy Dory of the Burin Peninsula. When I say boats, I mean working boats, not recreational, although some boats flip from one to another depending on need. The standard yachts and sail boats tend to be white in most parts of the world.  I always wonder how people find them in a crowded marina.  But the working boats, small fishing craft, tend to be individualized or represent their region in colours.

The west coast of the province sees the introduction of oranges and blues to their boats and this past summer I wanted to add some orange boats to my painting arsenal.  When I was on the west coach, teaching in Gros Morne, I took some time to head down the coast from Corner Brook towards the Bay of Islands where I found lots of orange and green boats.  This one was sitting on a home made dock at Benoit's Cove.

There will be more orange boats in the future, as its difficult to resist that colour!

Sweetie Pie

 Sweetie Pie - SOLD

5" x 7"

This time of year the markets start to ramp up towards the Canadian Thanksgiving (first weekend in October) with a variety of squashes and pumpkins for sale.  The little ones always catch my eye as they're so cute.  The variety Sweetie Pie is pie sized and a perfect miniature of its larger pumpkin cousin.


October in Canada is the federal election and back in July I was asked to participate in a national CBC series Voters of Canada.  The project consisted of interviews with Canadians from a variety of professions who would speak about issues they felt were important.  I was the artist in Newfoundland & Labrador and the resulting interview can be seen here.   The image below shows the producer in the studio filming the painting I was working on at the time - Red Boat.

Interview content when aired is always misleading as so much is condensed to so little. The interview took three hours by the ocean and in the studio and ended up as about 2 minutes of footage. There have been a lot of funding cuts for arts across the country and recognition for the work that the arts contribute to society both economically and culturally is very important. Strong arts policies and appropriate funding should be a crucial part of the support for the arts.

Late Summer Fields

 Late Summer Fields - SOLD

6" x 6"  oil on panel

Late summer always brings rich colour that heralds change.  The colour zigzags across the landscape, pulling the eye with it and leading into the next, reminding me of those lines in old pinball games leading down and up to guide the ball.

This is a small painting done with leftover paint on my palette after a larger painting was complete.

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil.
And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb color effects as from August to November."
-  Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905

Labour Day for artists

Home Port

 24" x 30" oil

Available direct from the artist

For artists that work full time in the profession, Labour Day (or many other holidays, statutory or otherwise) tend not to exist.  Oh they exist in the day to day world with store closures and public building shutdowns and well deserved some of these holidays are for those in a 9 -5 job.  Artists, like many other workers outside the 9 - 5 realm, tend to work through holidays, unless prearranged plans prevail.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking holidays, I'm all for having a break from work, its needed to refresh and unwind.  But if you're self employed, holidays are a bit iffy.  I always seem to find myself in the studio at some point in the day, no matter what day it is.  Yes, even Christmas.  Especially Christmas! Its a refuge from the madness. :)

Its part habit, part necessity.  Yes, an artist can take a day off, but usually feels guilty if they do and has that niggling feeling all day about the current project and what needs to be done with it.  Inevitably, its an "I'll just go to the studio for 10 minutes." Which turns into 2 hours or more.  There should be no guilt taken about when or if you take a day off.  It doesn't have to be on the day designated for the rest of the world.  In fact, taking a day mid week is wonderful, as everything's much quieter then.

But even then, I'll bet most artists will still find their way into their studio at some point unless they are physically distant from the location.

Whatever your job, whenever you take your break, enjoy it, indulge and if you work, make sure you enjoy what you do.

Using oils in a sketchbook

After being away from home for three weeks I needed to test my painting ability again.  When I don't have the opportunity to paint for an extended period, it both inspires and freezes me when I get back in the studio.  To break the spell, I needed to just jump in and paint.

This is a study of some tomatoes from the garden, basking in full sun in a lovely old blue bowl that is one of my favourites. I've used my palette knife and oil paint in a regular sketchbook.  Yes, you can use a sketchbook for oil paints.  For me a sketchbook is a working tool, not a showcase of pristine pieces. My sketchbook is messy and I like it that way.  Of course, with oils, I need to wait until the paint is dry before closing the page and I do take the precaution of adding a sheet of deli paper on the back while it dries in case any oil seeps through.  However, once dry, I have never had any problems.

Yes, I hear the purists say "What about the future?  The oil will degrade the paper!"  That may well be, but as my current working tool, my sketchbook is not designed to be museum quality and if in a hundred years, it is crumbled, I have absolutely no problem with that.

I'm researching options for painting these tomatoes from sketch to completion live online, enabling interaction and others to paint along with me if they wish.  I need to test some camera and equipment capabilities first, but it could be fun.  I'm not sure of the platform yet, perhaps a YouTube Live Stream or UStream.  Bear with me while I experiment!

Studio Tour

I'm back from my travels, catching up on timezone changes and getting ready for a studio tour on August 29 & 30th. In my travels I had some time in the Canadian Rockies with a hike around Moraine Lake in Banff National Park.  The glacial lakes are amazing in colour and clarity, looking surreal.  Apparently its "rock flour" that gives the water that turquoise colour and even in August, the remnants of snow and glacier ice can be seen on the mountain peaks.  There's a few paintings waiting to happen there.

This year I will be taking part in the Pouch Cove Open Studio event.  This is a two day event where Pouch Cove area artists and artisans open their homes and studios to the public to showcase their work. This year I am one of the two artists from Flatrock who will be participating. On the tour you will find paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and photographs.

I'll be making my organic vine charcoal available only through the studio tour and will have a range of prints and original paintings to browse through.  If you're in the area, take time to visit all the artist studios, you never know what treasures you'll unearth. 

 

A little break

I've just gotten back from time on the west coast of the province in beautiful Gros Morne National Park, where I taught gyotaku in Rocky Harbour and had some tourist time, as well as getting reference material for future paintings.

Bright and early tomorrow morning I'm off west again, but this time further afield to Saskatchewan and Alberta to visit family and explore and research more painting material as well as be a bit lazy.

Crossing the Line - SOLD

With travel and renovations at home, painting and drawing time have been limited.  But I am taking my sketchbook and pens with me and hope to fit in some work.

I'll be back in the saddle on August 19th and no doubt anxious to get to the studio and do some painting.

What you don't know about artists

The Red Boat  30" x 40" oil on stretched canvas - SOLD 

A comment overheard at a gallery recently made me think about the contribution that artists make to the economy, something which seems to be overlooked. The comment was about pricing for a painting and the person said something to the effect of  "That artist must be making a fortune.  And funded by government money too."

For individuals who are not artists, it may seem that the artist pockets all the money paid for a painting in a gallery.  However, there is a significant investment in time and money before a painting can end up on a gallery wall which eats into the final amount that the artist ends up with.  Industry springs up around artists, but artists are often the lowest paid and those who are asked  the most for discounts, deals and donations.

Artists contribute to the business community, such as art supply producers and sellers, framing businesses, marketing materials such as business cards and posters, book sellers for all those "how-to" books, website hosts, media industry for interviews for newspapers and magazines and to the tourism industry in communities, producing local images, prints, greeting cards, t-shirt designs, etc.

Without grants, artists may not have the resources available to explore new work and create new art.  Investment by government into the art industry is vital for healthy communities and growth of the culture and heritage.  Like the behind the scenes work and dollar investment that goes into a painting before it ever hits a public wall, a grant doesn't pay for trivial things.  It is essential to create, innovate and exist sometimes without undue hardship that affect these things. 


But still artists have to fight for a place to be seen in the world and have their work recognized and yes, sold.  It is a business, after all.  Of course art must be of a high enough quality to feed these industries and meet public need. With the deluge of "artists" who have discovered the internet, the market is flooded with images and it takes a strong soul with lots of time to weed out the doe eyed children painted on velvet and find quality art.

But before it ever reaches public display there is a cost and a risk to the artist.  Investment in tools and supplies, training, practice and inspiration all go into the production.  Then framing.  Professional quality framing is required, no off the shelf frames for most reputable gallery representation and of course that comes with a price tag. Transportation may be required if pieces are large.  Insurance if stored in a studio or home.

Gallery commissions take a portion of the sales costs, anywhere from 30% to 50% of the price on the gallery wall.  And they do their work when representing an artist, from holding paintings to insuring, marketing, sales and shipping if required.

So with the upfront costs incurred, commission fees and the hope that the right person comes through the door and loves your piece enough to purchase it, you can see that it is far from all profit for the artist.  This is why artists diversify into teaching, writing, design, prints and second jobs as the industry can be fickle and expensive.

However, I still love what I do and wouldn't change it.

2007 or 2015?

 Mission Figs

6" x 8" oil on panel   -  SOLD

Eight years ago I painted figs with oils using a brush and wrote a blog post about it..  The fig painting sold at an exhibition but over time I kept thinking about that image and it kept popping up when I looked for things to paint.  Over time an artist's style changes and I thought it would be interesting to paint the same image using palette knives and my current palette of cool and warm colour and compare the two paintings.

Similar colours are present but my style is quite different now. It is looser and impressionistic.  The 2007 version is tight and controlled but soft. These days I am bolder with colour and contrast levels.  Both values and colour saturation are more marked in the 2015 version of the painting.

If the person who bought the 2007 version saw the 2015 version, I wonder which they would prefer? 

Summer scheduling

I think life has speeded up since I left the day job at the end of February.  Not that I'm complaining about it.  I enjoy the pace and the variety and potential for the future that is unfolding.

Between working on a number of projects and commissions, I have managed to finish Flatrock Harbour and tackle another large piece that I'll share in a post another day. 

On Saturday July 18th, I'll be heading to the Wooden Boat Museum to do a painting demo of a new piece.  I painted at the museum last summer and its always interesting to meet people who come through and let them have a try at painting with a palette knife.  My new business cards should arrive next week, just in time to take with me as I'm running very low.

Then at the end of the month I head to Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne to run some gyotaku workshops. A dash back across the island, then I get on a plane to head to Saskatchewan and Alberta for a couple of weeks. Finally at the end of August I'm taking part in a local studio tour that winds its way through communities close by.  I haven't done one previously so am looking forward to taking part and comparing notes afterwards.

Meanwhile renovations are taking place to put in a new kitchen, patio doors and deck.  With some delays making work run behind schedule, I've had to cancel the first two workshops for September, but hopefully all should be done before the last two workshops are due to start.  

So with my schedule I may be even more scarce on my blog than I have been this month, but I'll try to get more posts in when I can.  You can always find me on Facebook or Twitter and follow my adventures there.

Reduction printing

 Shallow Water

I have never done a reduction print.  I've done lots of lino prints, but nothing that takes a lot of left brain thinking like a reduction print.  I decided to tackle one - a very small one - and see I could create.  I had a 3" x 4" lino block and used Rosaspina paper torn to about 7" x 10" and Akua Liquid Pigment to print.  Reduction prints are also called suicide prints.  Pretty much sums up what I was considering after the first couple of steps!

Reduction printing involves cutting away areas of lino, printing a colour, then cutting away more, printing, cutting...until you have reached saturation point and have little printing surface left.  The final lino is no more than a skeleton of the print and has no further use.   Of course a registration jig is required as well to ensure effective lining up of colours and I did try that.

Original tri-colour print

Being me, I was in a hurry and didn't take quite enough time to make either the jig or the paper guide completely square so after applying the second print colour it made me think I was drinking.  What to do?  There was no point trying to adjust the registration jig so I thought I'd do them by hand and hope that the printmaking gods would be on my side.  I put on the final dark colour in the hopes it would pull it together a bit and it did to a degree, but I think I wasn't generous enough with the initial ink loads and the result was a bit patchy.

What to do with nine prints?  Add colour!   I used a variety of mediums from watercolour to coloured pencil to transparent marker to add layers of colour to the prints.  And this is the result.

What did I learn from the exercise?  Planning is everything.  Patience is everything.  Luck comes into as well as troubleshooting.  I will try another reduction print when I have time and I enjoy the process of printmaking.  And the good thing?  I found the etched plate I was looking for after I last cleared up the studio!

Flatrock Harbour

 
I tested some of my handmade charcoal for the underdrawing of a new painting. These are some small boats tied up to the wharf in Flatrock Harbour, in the town where I live.  Flatrock is tiny, with about 1400 people and rural.  Its on the coast as much of populated areas of the province are with a small fishing community, but most activity around the recreational fishery in July and August.

The charcoal that has been produced is what I'd call soft, meaning it gives a dark, rich mark.  Its very smooth to work with and to blend.  After the underdrawing, I sprayed it with fixative to prevent the drawing smearing and mixing with paint as I applied it.

I've blocked in colour for the background of the wharf and boats and will refine detail as I proceed.  I build layers of paint with a palette knife, which is my usual painting tool, the same way as I would with a brush.  The initial layers are thin as I establish colour and placement then I increase paint amounts to the final textured painting.

The palette is fairly subdued in the shadows of the wharf and boats with light hitting the ends of the flats (boats).  The foreground of the water is much brighter and will provide the visual interest with the subtle colour and value changes that I love to paint.  The painting is on a 15" x 30" canvas panel.

After the exhibition

I'm drifting down after the flurry of the last week with the solo exhibit opening last Friday night and the artist talk on Saturday.  Both were well attended and it was good to meet old friends and make some new ones.  Here's a look at some of the fifteen paintings that were hung at Peter Lewis Gallery for the exhibition.  You can see images of each individual painting on my website on the Wooden Boat page under What's New.

All the pieces are in oil and measure 30" x 40".  I think I'm going to paint in miniature after this!  The exhibition runs until June 26th if you have a chance to drop in and see it.

 

I produced a book to accompany the series that I distributed at the artist talk.  I've made the book and my presentation available as a download from my website if you'd like to read them.

Artist Talk, June 13, 2015

I've been drifting a bit in terms of starting new work and I think that's pretty normal after producing a series of work, exhibiting, etc.  I've freed up my summer (or tried to) until workshops resume again in the fall.  But I do have a couple of commitments.  I'll be teaching gyotaku (Japanese fish printing) workshops at The Glass Station in Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne on the west coast of the province in late July/early August.  Gros Morne is full of spectacular scenery and I can't wait to fill up on some new ideas for paintings while I'm there.

Tethered  16 x 20 oil

 On July 18th from1 - 4 pm, I'll be doing a boat painting demo at the Wooden Boat Museum in Winterton.  I did this last year and had a great time meeting and talking with people coming through the museum.  Now I need to decide what to paint while I'm there!

Final countdown

The final touches are in place for the opening of my solo exhibition tonight. Touch wood!

I left Maria, the gallery curator, busy unwrapping and hanging paintings at the gallery yesterday.  It really is a gorgeous space to have an exhibit in an old heritage building in the heart of St. John's.

On Saturday, I'll be doing a talk at the gallery at 2pm to provide the background information, sketches and photos of boats and areas that inspired the paintings.  I have a limited number of draft books that accompany the project that I'll be giving away at the talk.  I'll also be making the book available as a free download from my website and an option to purchase a hard copy.

I hope to video the artist talk and have it available online and will try to do a short video of the paintings hung in the gallery for people unable to attend and/or in far flung places.

I did an interview with The Telegram, a local paper, about the exhibition and series  which you can read here.

Crop from "Home Port" - J Jobson

So start your engines, I'd love to see you at the opening tonight and/or talk on Saturday!

Handmade charcoal

Vine charcoal sticks

I've dabbled at making artist charcoal in the past, but over the last couple of months I've gotten more serious about it.  With several grape vines in the greenhouse and lots of early spring cuttings before the sap rose, I thought I'd put them to good use.

Mark making with vine charcoal sticks

With a fair bit of hand work in cutting, seasoning and removing the bark, some experimentation was done on burn times to come up with a product that worked well.  Charcoal is produced by subjecting wood/vines to intense heat but eliminating oxygen so that it doesn't burn. Resins and water are eliminated and it becomes carbonized instead of turning to ash as it would in an open fire.  Prep time is tempered with patience and waiting.  Nothing about making charcoal is quick.

Peeled vine sticks, ready for a burn

The test burns have exceeded my expectations and are still ongoing.  The vine charcoal that has been produced so far is what I would class as a "soft" grade, meaning it gives a very dark mark on paper.  I'll be working with other woods available locally to see what grades of charcoal I can produce.

Test charcoal sketch

I've done a few quick sketches with the vine charcoal that I have produced and will create a full drawing on an appropriate paper to really give them a test drive. The wave above was a 10 minute sketch on the bottom of a letter that came in the mail, copy paper.  The streaks are marks on the paper itself, not the charcoal.

Erased lines in charcoal - newsprint

I'll do a pilot test with some charcoals later in the year through artists who are familiar with using charcoal as a medium and who are willing to answer questions about its quality and usability.  If charcoal is one of your primary mediums for drawing and you would be interested in testing some handmade charcoal, please let me know and your name will be added to a list of potential testers.

Tips for artist talks

As part of my upcoming exhibition which opens on June 12th, I am giving an artist talk on the day after the opening (June 13th).  For me, public presentations are not usually something that make me nervous as when I was working in my day job, I did a lot of public speaking at a variety of levels.

 

 I believe that if you comfortable with your subject, talking about becomes easier.  And for an artist, talking about their art comes naturally, or should!

To keep audience attention in any talk the following points should be kept in mind:

1. Know your subject inside out.  If you are not familiar with a section, practice it until you are.  If you don't know your subject, it will show as you "umm" and "errr" your way through it.
2. Speak in layman terms about your art.   While "art speak" may be the norm in some presentations about art creation, it does confuse listeners, even if they are artists themselves.  Explain what you created and why in as plain language as possible.
3. Inject a little humour into the talk.   Making people smile at the beginning of a talk sets the tone for the session.  Keep it general public appropriate, you don't know who will be in your audience and you do not want to offend anyone.
4. Have a logical sequence, don't jump all over the place.  Have a start, middle and end so there is a flow to the talk.  Give an introduction at the beginning outlining what you'll be talking about before getting into the presentation itself.
5. Use visuals.  You're an artist, of course you'll have visuals!  Visuals keep people interested where words don't, so sprinkle them liberally throughout the talk but make them relevant.
6. Keep questions til the end of the talk.  Questions that randomly pop up make you lose your train of thought and interrupt the concentration of others who are present.
7. Keep to the time allotted.  Stay within the time frame for the talk.  People have lives and places to go.  Anything over an hour and an audience becomes fidgety unless you are absolutely rivetting in your talk.
8. Thank your hosts, sponsors and those attending.  These people are the reason you are here.  Thank them warmly and genuinely.
9. Mingle after the talk for those back room questions.  Often after the talk, more questions arise.  With your coffee or glass of wine, talk informally with people.  Seek out quiet people and make a point of speaking with them.  Don't be monopolized by any one person.
10. Have lots of business cards available.  Provide business cards on a side table before and after the talk as well as have some in a pocket to provide to individuals you speak with.
    

Brush or knife?

 Deeper Water

8" x 10"  acrylic on panel

I made a transition to palette knife a few years ago and haven't really used a brush much at all since then, aside from sketches in watercolour.  I had some acrylics out for a value exercise in a class over the weekend and thought it might be fun to further test my brush skills.

Any tool that is used to transport paint to a surface has similarities.  The difference is more in the way you put paint on the support than the vehicle for getting it there.  Palette knives provide texture and cover canvas more quickly but brushes can have a similar effect depending on how thickly paint is applied. The process of building any painting is the same, starting with large shapes, blocking in colour and working down to detail.
I use the same technique with this brush work as with all paintings, with little blending, and colour placed one stroke at a time on the surface and keeping the edges soft.

 I don't enjoy using acrylics for palette knife work, even with a thickening agent.  For me, they don't have the same buttery feel that oils contain.  Of course either can be used, but acrylics are more challenging to use with a knife, especially on a larger support, because of their quick drying tendency - both a good and bad thing.

So will I return to brushes?   Unlikely.  I like the texture of painting with a knife and the loose impressionist quality I can get.   I think brushes will remain for some demonstrations and for adding colour to sketches.

Fast and loose

I ran a three day palette knife workshop this week on boats and water and it was great to spend time and concentrate efforts on the subject.  Every workshop, no matter what, I learn something new, I test myself and meet new people of all levels of expertise.

Like all my paintings, I start with an initial sketch and colour study before moving on to the painting.  Studies are fast (30 minutes to an hour) and loose.  Detail is NOT on the agenda.  It really does help to familiarize yourself with the subject shape, composition and test your palette colour choices. 

Here are some of the colour studies demos done during the workshop.  These are in oil paint on sized paper.  I could use acrylics for the same purpose, but my colours would be slight different than those in oils and the paper holds up well to the oil paint.