the old and the new

The old and the new are coming together lately.  Taking a few months off to make small explorations and not worry about producing anything for any of my galleries has had an interesting effect on my perspective.  

Here are a few things that are happening lately.

1.  At the end of 2013, AXIS Contemporary Art Gallery closed its doors for good.  Owner Rob Mabee and I had worked together since 2008.  My paintings were featured in two solo shows, one double-artist show and quite a few group shows in the gallery over the last 5 years.  

Artists and collectors alike will miss working with Rob at AXIS

I still like these small abstract works, returned from AXIS 

2.  After a two-year haitus, I have again taken up doing portraits via Skype.  Last week I connected with a mom and daughter duo and we had a blast!

Many more images here

3.  Again after a two-year haitus, I have begun revisiting the Snapshot series.  Stitching photo-prints together with canvas both raw and pre-painted makes for some very interesting juxtapositions.

New "Snapshot" series underway, mostly unfinished as of yet

4.  Another exploration then laid aside mostly incomplete about a year ago.  I would like to revisit this idea, complete the pieces I started and continue with some new manifestations.  I think of them as the "Plane" works.  Here's an example of one of the finished pieces:

Aerial, acrylic on stitched canvas, 54w x 49h inches

5.  In November I took a workshop with Lori Lukasewich and it got the old abstract juices flowing.  Completely, totally 100% non-representational paintings is something I have not done since art school - 17 years ago!  After Lori's workshop I made some abstract explorations with acrylics, and it was great fun.  Now I have begun to try a bit of oil painting.  I'm doing this slowly and carefully, ever mindful of air quality and cleanliness in my home studio.

re-painting of unfinished oil works

6.  And lastly but not leastly: I have taken the leap!  I will be sending 7 small landscape paintings to the AyrSpace Gallery in Ontario, just as soon as the touched-up edges are dry enough to ship.  I've been doing plein air paintings for about 3 years, and have never yet shown any of them, so this is a pretty big leap for me.

The works that Jill from AyrSpace got to choose from

Feels like I am going into 2014 with a lot of ideas...!  I need to make sure I work on just one "main" idea at a time so that I don't get confused and stretch myself too thin.   

OK.  I have begun this year with a focus on the photo-print "Snapshots" series, which I'm thinking will occupy me for at least a couple of months.  My vision is that I will focus on the Snapshots until they are almost finished.  At some point I will need to set them aside and work on something else - perhaps further developing my stitched abstract ideas, like the"Plane", the Skin or the Paperworks - and then going back to finish the Snapshots.  I think this kind of back-and-forth gives me a more complete view of my own work, and also helps me to see how all my ideas relate to one another.

In between I will surely make more plein-air paintings, simply because I love the outdoor meditation of observing the landscape around me.

I also hope to continue making Skype portraits from time to time, because I think it is a good way to keep in touch with other artists, especially if we are not geographically near one another.

I feel I've been off on tangents for the last couple of years - ever since I switched to acrylic paint and the home studio - and now I begin to see how all these things relate to one another.  This is very good!

:)