get back

Then:

New series under construction, December 30, 2013

Now:

Snapshot #9: Direction
mixed media on stitched canvas
19.25w x 36.25h inches

Snapshot #10: Priority
mixed media on stitched canvas
33w x 17.25h inches

Snapshot #11: Someone Pushed It
mixed media on stitched canvas
33w x 17.25h inches

Snapshot #12: K4A Anonymous
mixed media on stitched canvas
33w x 16.75h inches

Not sure that they are all complete...  but liking them a lot at this point.  

So far I've started this year with these "Snapshot" series, then I jumped over to starting some more abstract works (see previous post), then I travelled to visit my mum for a week, and now I've jumped back to the "Snapshots"... and in between I made a couple of portraits and one plein air landscape painting.

Funny thing: when I talk with other artists they invariably tell me that they focus on one thing at a time.  This one thing could be a style of painting with various subjects, or an ongoing exploration of one subject using various styles.  

I did spend several years focussed on one thing - the "Ecosystems" paintings which were made with oil glazes on stitched canvas, and I did get very good at making them.  However, since switching to acrylics a few years ago, I have developed a habit of jumping back and forth between several ideas and painting styles simultaneously.  Lately I have been wondering whether, in doing so many things at once, I run the risk of becoming the proverbial "jack of all trades and master of none".

In the end I tell myself that this jumping between and across ideas and styles should be viewed in the context of a lifetime spent painting, and in the context of cyclical explorations (since each time I return to an idea or style it is with added information from the other things I work on in between), and then it makes more sense, the whole lifelong endeavour of my work does show a continuity of development.

And after all, I only have this one life.  May as well spend it engrossed in lifelong exploration of the visual languages.

plotless?

stitching and colour by Verna Vogel
shaped wires by Ross Melanson
(lamp by Sylvania)

Later:

2nd incarnation

then a little colour adjustment

Plotless?  Not exactly, but trying to keep an open mind as they develop.  So far they're are looking rather a lot like home-dec items...  so, maybe push them a bit more?  Or just accept them for what they are?  ....

explanations and the plotting of trajectories

This week in between other work I've been playing with some abstract ideas.  It all began with an image of tree branches reflected in a bank of windows at dusk.  At the moment this work is more clumsy than elegant, and I've no clear idea where it's going, only just a glimmer of possibility:

I've had some interesting conversations lately about things like whether an artist ought to explain their own work, or whether it is up to other people - exhibition curators for example - to put artists' work into context.  On the one hand I think an artist ought to be able to explain their own work... but then on the other hand I also think that explanations often obscure true meaning, that visual imagery IS the language, and when used well has no need for wordy augmentation.

Also I have been asked "Where do you see your work going?" which in my mind borders on the nonsensical.  Too much focus on destination, perhaps.  Certainly there are ideas I want to explore in my work, but where those ideas may lead...?  It seems presumptuous to attempt such predictions.

As it happens, lately I am surrounded my people for whom explanations and the plotting of trajectories seems to be a focus.  And I cannot really explain anything; the best I can do is to say that the images I create are the result of my taking in the world around me, holding and stirring, and spitting it back out, Verna-style.  That is my part, and the rest will take care of itself.

And I think that will do.

:)

Edit - and then I thought of this article with David Quinn.

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.

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!

:)

Ayrspace for landscapes

For a few years now I've been intermittently making small plein air landscapes.  I've made 78 of them.  69 are still around, some having been given as gifts and some destroyed.  Wow, 69 landscape paintings!

I've been saying to myself that I've got to start thinking about showing/selling them, since they are creeping through the house, high on the walls like decorative plates, and soon we will run out of space.

Lo and behold, just before the solstice I was contacted by Jill at Ayrspace Gallery.  She'd had a look at my website and liked the landscapes!  Her gallery online - and her outlook on life and art - are quite appealing to me.  After some discussion, she may be taking some of the landscapes to show in her gallery.  

So I've spent the last couple of days hauling them into the studio to really have a look at them, consider which ones may be good enough to show, which ones I'd like to keep, and which ones should maybe be destroyed.

There they are, piled up on my studio table.  

And there they are on the studio wall unedited: all 69 of them, bad and good together in no particular order.

Soon I will have a portfolio of available plein air works for Jill, and we will take it from there...

Funny how there is some emotional investment in this for me.  It's been awhile since I felt this way about my work - my urban paintings have been going out to galleries for awhile now, and I have learned for the most part to disassociate myself from them once they are gone.  But these little landscapes now, they are closer to my heart that I would've thought, even after a few years of making them.  Feels good.

:)

little and big

I've been working very small for the last few months - the paperworks, the small abstract paintings, a few landscapes, a few skype portraits - with the exception of the work I finished for TREX, I've made nothing over 16x16 inches.

Ideas for larger work have been simmering in the back of my mind for awhile... but I've wanted to wait, tie up loose ends, give myself time to explore freely.  One must be ready for the planning and specific type of focus required to make big paintings.

This week I crossed that field.  Hauled out a stretcher measuring 73x21 inches and began playing with layouts:

There are three elements here: a photo taken 2 years ago in Castro, Brasil; another photo taken 5 years ago in Toronto, Canada; an old canvas that I painted way back in 1997 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Below is the layout I went with.  Still needs a bit of work, but the base is there:

Feels good to be working large again!

season's greetings

Wishing you all a holiday season filled with love, peace and joy.

May 2014 bring renewed strength and unity among people in this ever-evolving world.

Starting today, the daylight hours are increasing!

xo

Verna Vogel

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.

Paperworks coming to fruition

I've been feeling a bit blue this week.  It's not the weather - I love snow - but rather, I think, the severely shortened days, lack of sunlight, and lack of family proximity.  For 25 years I've lived far away from my parents and siblings, who are all within a days' drive of one another but clear across the country from me.  Canada is a big country, and after all this time I think the distance between us is catching up with me.

Not feeling very driven to create in my studio, I have instead turned my attention to documenting some of my recent work.  Here's a portfolio of the paperworks.  Please feel free to have a look, and feedback is welcome.

In that portfolio the images are cropped, so the beautiful edges of the paper cannot be seen.  Here are a few less-cropped examples:

These works will need to be framed, so I'm thinking will send them to one of my galleries that does framing.  Seems easier that way, as shipping framed work can be a bit of a hassle.  

Meanwhile, perhaps I ought to re-photograph them on a plain backing rather on my easel as shown here.  That way the edges of the paper could remain visible, and the images would look more professional than these...

portfolio

I have just updated my website's Portfolio page.

This has been quite an endeavour, because I explore many themes and processes on a regular basis.  I want to show the different sides of my artistic practice, but also want to maintain some form of cohesiveness.

Updating one's website seems an appropriate endeavour for a snow day.  Just look at that drift.  :)

the search

I am on a search.

Last week I made some abstract paintings.  How I made them was to make some loose, strong brush marks on canvases that had already been painted with washes of colour.  I like the results very much:

Those first ones were a lot of fun - they seemed effortless because I painted them quickly.  Well, the coloured ground took some time to make, but the finishing went very fast.  

This week I've been trying to make more abstract paintings, and it has not been effortless!  

Isn't it interesting how, so often, the first time you do something it just flows, but when you try to recreate the flow later it doesn't want to happen.  I remind myself that whatever happens, it will at least make a ground for a future painting.

Above photo - the one on the left is nice but not quite exciting.  The one on the right was made really slowly, with many stops for consideration.  I'm not sure if I like it.  I tell myself "what do you want, a formula?"  No way.  I had a formula for 5-6 years with those glazed city paintings and that was good for awhile but then it got boring.  Now I am on a search.  

Yesterday's work - a few more starts and building up the grounds.

Here used photoshop to desaturate, which I like very much!  Perhaps today I will focus on using neutral tones.

This is the search.  It feels very clumsy and awkward sometimes, and I have to remind myself that sometimes discomfort is an indication of growth.

Draw 'Til You Drop - part II

mixed media on paper

9x12, 12x16 inches

Nov 30 and Dec 1, 2013

Well that was really, really fun and also really exhausting!  Being around so many people for so long was quite a challenge for me.  However, we were all mostly focussed on our work, so it was not like having to talk to people for that long.  Here are a few of my favourite pieces from the weekend:

This last one is interesting - I know how to render what I see fairly accurately, but I get bored with that. I'd rather be working fast, with colour, and make expressive things: I'd rather catch the feeling of the model than their exact proportions...  interesting how so many people do not respond to work unless it is "accurate" though.

So on the way home I had this little thought: it has been said that my urban paintings are interesting because they do not show any specific city, they just show "city"....  well lo and behold, seems I like to draw "human" rather than any specific human.

One day I will scan and upload images of my life drawings from 10-15 years ago.  I was doing the same thing then: catching the human.

oh, p.s.: about the panels I prepped in the last post - wound up using only 1 of them.  Haha.