A Week In The Life

No part-time "other job" for a few months now.  I am feeling so very grateful to be able to work as a full-time artist.  Sure, there are continuing struggles both external and internal, but underlying all is the feeling that here is the proper rhythm.

This is what my working week has been like:

Monday:
Mailed a package of the Paperworks to the Front Gallery.  Cut the last birch plywood strips into short lengths for small stretchers.  Picked up newly ripped spruce plywood strips from the lumber store.

Tuesday:

Tried an interesting experiment with Chris Wikman, an artist located in Saskatchewan.  We connected via skype while working in our respective studios, hundreds of kilometres apart.  We each worked on our own projects while talking (or not talking) listening to music (or not listening), and generally being companionable.  It was a fun and productive day!

Chris' daughter was intrigued with what we were doing.
What interesting times are these!

While skyping with Chris I worked on a painting which my parents-in-law have commissioned.  This is the third commission of my career.  It's pretty close to being finished:

Alberta Landscape #52
oil on birch panel
original: 10 x 10 inches
enlarged: 30 x 30 inches

Also while skyping with Chris I coated the first two sets of multiples with self-levelling clear gel, which is one of my favourite acrylic mediums:

Spin, Drift, Pool, Settle - blue pieces
House Of Leaves - gold toned pieces

Wednesday:

Skype-ing again, this time to make portraits of Russell Mang, another Saskatchewan artist.  First one was very fast:

portrait of RM
sharpie marker and acrylic ink on gesso'd 60lb paper
9 x 12 inches

Second one took a bit more time:

portrait of RM
oil on gesso'd 15oz canvas
10 x 13.5 inches

There are some technical deficiencies in anatomy and lighting, but overall I like it, mainly because of the style of brushwork.  Total time spent was about an hour and a half.

Thursday:

Preparing the new spruce plywood strips into strongbacks:

The neat pile on the floor to the left are prepared strongbacks.

Here's a blog post I made a few years ago, detailing how I build my canvas stretchers.

Building stretchers is a process that I love.  There is something very relaxing and uplifting about building really good painting supports and thinking about the paintings to come.

Friday:

Office-variety paperwork.  (If all goes according to plan.)

Besides the studio work there are household errands and helping a friend fallen on hard times and phoning my far-away parents and some volunteer work at the seniors' centre.

It's a simple life in many ways, and it took a long time to find, and I am so very grateful for it.

fortunate life

This week I barely got into the studio at all.

I did get all my year-end bookkeeping finished, and I did update my inventory of work made in 2013, and I did do lots of other little niggly things of the sort that pile up until you can't ignore them anymore, like banking and grocery shopping and replacing the battery in my watch.  And I did ship out some paintings:

7 landscapes shipped to AyrSpace Gallery

I am eagerly waiting for the landscapes to arrive and be unpacked, very curious what the response to them will be in real life compared to on a computer screen.

I also found a perfectly beautiful coat in a thrift shop, of a style I'd been on the lookout for for years, and which fits like it was made for me.  This is almost as exciting as making paintings.  :)

And yesterday I finally did get to make some paintings!  More skype portraits:

1st portrait: Ross Melanson
sharpie marker and acrylic ink on gesso'd paper
9x12 inches

6th portrait: Chris Wikman
oil on gesso'd 300lb rag paper
11x15 inches

7th portrait: Chris Wikman
sharpie marker and oil on gesso'd 300lb rag paper
11x15 inches

2nd portrait: Ross Melanson
oil on gesso'd 300lb rag paper
12x13 inches

Chris Wikman is a full-time artist - here is Chris's website.

Ross Melanson is an artist and also works at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery.
Here is Ross's website.

The skype session lasted 4 hours!  I have never had a skype session that intense, and it didn't feel like a long time.  We had some very interesting conversations, and I made 7 portraits in all.  

So it was a fantastic ending to a week filled with paperwork and mostly mundane errands.  I feel that I am very fortunate in my life.

more skype portraits!

I have picked up doing skype portraits again.  Here are images from 2 sessions done over the last 5 days.  I love to work with people who will make portraits of me at the same time as I am making portraits of them.  

My portraits of Lori Lukasewich:

oil on primed 300lb archival paper

Graphite and acrylic in 9x12 sketchbook

Lori's portraits of me:

oil on canvas paper

charcoal on paper

My portraits of Veronica Funk:

graphite in 9x12 sketchbook

oil on birch panel, done over an old acrylic painting

Veronica made some drawings of me too:

These two women happen to be professional artists, but that is not a prerequisite for making portraits.  Anyone can do it!  

The trick is to lay aside any preconceived notion of how a portrait should look.  This is especially important when painting live from a computer screen, which is different from a photo and also different from being in the same room together.

Veronica also told me about another artist who makes portraits via skype: Barbara Muir.  I was sure there must be other artists who do this - but it never occurred to me to google it!  Well, it seems there is a whole world of artists using skype for making art!  How cool is that?  Very cool, says I.

If you are reading this blog post and think you might like to try doing a skype portrait with me, please contact me and I will give you more information on how I set up these sessions.  It's pretty informal, but there are some permissions I like to get before I post anything online, and a few other privacy protection details.