Seed Stars

 A couple of months ago I posted this work in progress.

It's finished now, and currently available at Grant Berg Gallery

Seed Stars, oil on two canvases, 20x22" each

I decided to put the the two together in one frame.

First time I ever tried that, and I like it.

Today the weather has turned cool, the yellow leaves of the trees are glowing against a backdrop of grey skies, and the very air smells exciting!  

I do love autumn.

I hope you too enjoy this day, wherever you are, dear Reader.

Small adjustments

Well, hello there!

It's time to make another blog post.

Yesterday I installed my Fragile Planets at the OAG.

Here is my brief newsletter about it

Today I got back into my studio.  I'd been working on some small oil colour studies, applying the paint quite thickly.  Last week I tried translating some of that onto a larger canvas, with less than stellar results.

Not quite right, is it.

Let it sit awhile, while I prep and install the Fragile Planets...

... Today I added a bit of pattern, some of it very subtle.  I find it interesting to create subtle effects with bright colour.  This is not always possible, so I feel happy when it works.

Better orientation, don't you think?  This painting may be finished.

(oil on canvas, 23x25")

A more accurate photo for colour, with less glaring light.

I really need to wash those brushes...

A yellow painting made last month.  After many weeks of teaching, I flew into the studio and released my pent-up anxiety.  This painting was made in one fell swoop, and it may be finished!  Just like that!  *laughs*

Acrylic on canvas, 40x40"

Another one from last month, still in progress.

Acrylic on canvas, approx. 30x52"

And look, there are our names on the marquee.

That gives a nice feeling.

Thank you for reading.  Hope your new year's off to a good start too.
:-)

"Mobile" sketches

Yesterday was all-day, all-in studio.

I was planning to stretch a canvas

and try drawing with oil sticks on it

but I felt too lazy to do all that prep work

and I've been feeling ambiguous about canvas lately anyway

So I cleaned up the studio a bit, and found a pad of bond paper

very lightweight, translucent, and acid-free

and drew on that instead with the oil sticks

plus a bit of oil medium with brushes & a rag to smudge

and: kapow!

I have used these very materials in my portrait books with excellent results (of the materials if not the image at times, haha). However, this bond paper is somewhat different from the various sketchbooks' papers, so just to be on the safe side I will wait a few weeks to see if the oil medium bleeds and/or stains, before going forward with this particular process.  Testing, always testing.

Regardless of the long-term outcome of this particular little body of work, I must say it was a fantastic studio day, very energized and leaving me feeling full of possibility.  Really, I just love drawing, in whatever form.

Now today is errands: tending to the ever-burgeoning garden, mowing the lawn, dealing with a bit of laundry, hitting up the library for more books and picking up groceries on the way home.  Maybe I'll even make dinner!

Ambitious, huh?

:)

turn, turn, turn

I've been able to spend a lot of time painting in the last month.

Several projects on the go, with deadlines coming up soon...

work in progress: based on the Mawson plan

for exhibition with Art Calgary

at Calgary's new Central Public Library

another exploration of Mawson plan

work in progress: Kama oil sticks on Arches oil paper

work in progress: Kama oil sticks on stretched canvas

under and on top of oil paint layers

_________________________________

And now my studio is turned over to "intallation mode"

Artist Frances Vettergreen and I are collaborating

for upcoming exhibition at the Leighton Art Center

preliminary explorations: ink drawings on paper

The thing with creating installation artworks, for me, is to allow the work to respond to the space.  I don't want to just impose my thing, you know?  The Leighton Art Centre is located in the foothills of Alberta.  Rolling landscape with copses of poplar trees and more densely wooded areas, and also open vistas and wetlands.  Thus, my plan for this exhibition is to create tree-feeling things and river-feeling things.  

I also want to use materials found in those areas, such as twigs dipped in ink to make drawings, as above.  Which by the way will NOT be displayed on the walls.  Curious?  Come out and see!  (or wait for the blog post with photos of finished installation)  :)

I will find ways to also incorporate my circles throughout the work, because circular imagery is so important to me, and relates very much to the landscape in balance.

walking above the river near my home in the evening

daylight hours increasing rapidly

And later this week I'll be doing some workshops 

for the Calgary City Teachers Convention at the Arts Commons.

Life feels very busy and very fun right now.

snippets

today - reworking older stuff

yesterday - five seasons, dancing

last week - framing

last winter - the kiss

couple of years ago - re-learning how to paint

portraits of RM

Portraits of RM, made in the summer of 2015.  About five weeks ago we received news of his death.

Making portraits is very interesting to me.  Often in the finished work I find I have caught something of my sitter's personality that has not been apparent to my conscious mind.

One thing I like to do when looking at portraits (drawings, paintings or photographs) is to cover first one half and then the other, looking at each side separately.  I find there are usually two personalities contained in every face.  Of course there are many more than two sides to a person, but it seems at least two are evident in almost every portrait.  Maybe two sides of the artist as much as of the sitter.

working on it

Sometimes painting is easy, other times it is difficult.  

A year ago I began a new series of paintings.  The first stages involved layering several blind colour sketches on each of about a dozen stretched canvases.  I'd been making blind drawings in a sketchbook and had decided to try translating the technique on a larger scale.

Here is one of the "beginnings"

it languished for some months

but then I worked on it again

and now it looks like this.

I am not sure whether it is now a better painting; it is certainly a different painting than it was.  Sometimes after I work over a painting I feel a sort of nostalgia for its youth, so to speak, but it is never possible to go back.

I also worked on this painting a tiny bit

whose orientation is still unclear

and I'm calling it finished for now.

Please feel free to use your imagination to see various tonalities of reds & oranges... which my camera unfortunately does not differentiate between very well!  :)

sometimes you have to be ruthless

Sometimes you just have to be ruthless in order to get to the good stuff.

first incarnation

wiped, begin again

finally, the good stuff

I really like like the way this portrait turned out, despite some anatomical imperfections.  Very glad I wiped it halfway through.

To my amazement, the whole endeavour took only 1h 15m.  I get that my drawings are done very fast, usually about 20-30 minutes in my 9x12 sketchbook with watermedia...  but this was an oil portrait, and the first I'd done in a very long time.

Must've been an exceptionally good model.

:)

in-progress

in-progress Augury studies

oil on canvas panels

12x12 in. each

in-progress studio table

(detail)

Waiting for paint to dry

While waiting for paint to dry, I begin some new sketches.

primed with acrylic colours

drawn on with oilsticks.

Canvas panels are new to me; oilsticks I've only tried once before.  The oilsticks seem capable of greater subtlety than I'd previously realized.  I'm curious what will become of these sketches.

Finishings, or Leavings

Unsure whether a painting is finished?  Just leave it for the time being.

I began this year by working some of the oil studies from last summer.   When I was feeling unsure about any of them, I said, "good enough" and moved on to the next one.

Finishings: Augury studies, oil on canvas

Then I pulled out some of the paintings which I began last January.  A whole year has passed since I was able to focus on this body of work.  What a great feeling to get into them again!  I'm calling these finished....  for now.

"All That Piano"  oil on canvas  17x18.5"

"Downstreet" oil on canvas  17x18.5"

"Forms of Composite Composure" oil on canvas  17x18.5"

Leavings: a few of the "Augury" paintings in my studio

Yesterday I was able to spend almost 8 hours in my studio without interruption.  What luxury!  Making studio time a priority this year was a good decision, and I feel so very fortunate that I'm able to do this.

I hope your year is off to a good start too, dear Reader.