Uxbridge Studio Tour

Last weekend (Sept 19/20 2009) I participated in a wonderful regional studio tour in and around the town of Uxbridge, Ontario.  Potter Cynthia Cupples (http://cynthiacupples.com/) generously invited me to share her home/studio space, so I happily set up a variety of paintings, my easel, and my pastels on Saturday morning. The results exceeded my wildest expectations.  A near-constant flow of people came through, politely asking questions, picking up cards, signing my guest book, and buying works large and small from both of us.  Thank you, thank you to all--it was a great pleasure to meet you and share my work with you!  I hope to see some of you again when I return for Cynthia's seasonal open house on Nov 7/8. And thank you, Cynthia, for sharing your space and clientele!

I actually got a bit lost on my way to Cynthia's on Saturday morning (trying a new route to avoid driving through Uxbridge) and, in my meanderings, came across a wonderful marshy area between Scugog Lines 12 and 14.  On Saturday evening after the tour ended, I deliberately returned the "wrong" way to be able to take photos of the marsh in the late afternoon light.  On Sunday, I painted a large pastel from this photo, which promptly sold off the easel (before I remembered to take a photo of it, in fact), but here's another painting, a bit different and smaller than the first.  I look forward to doing more works from this series of photos--the colours and textures are marvelous. Stay tuned!

A Soft Touch

Recently when I was buying supplies in my local art supply store (Bijan's, in London, Ontario), the owner/artist persuaded me to try pastel painting on suede matboard--maybe because he had a big box of it on sale at the time? :) I'd had one or two experiences with it previously, but decided to give it another try--what's $10 for some experimentation, right? I chose a dark brown sheet, and cut it into two sections: a square and thin rectangle. The surface is extremely soft and deep, and I found that the use of a pencil to sketch in the initial layout of the scene left indentations that never did fill in--so don't use pencil or any other sharp-pointed implement! I suggest laying out the scene with the blunt end of a pastel instead.

I loved the ease with which I could spread the colour over the surface of the board, but it sure wouldn't take many layers, and tight or fine detail was out of the question.

So, I ended up with two nice little pieces that are uncharacteristically "Impressionaistic" and even a bit abstract.  Fun, but ultimately the experience didn't persuade me to rush out to buy more of the suede matboard--sorry, Bijan!

Some viewers LOVE these pieces, and others are lukewarm--it just goes to show that tastes differ.  In the end, the artist must be true to what pleases her or him self.

Pretty in Pink?

At the introduction to pastel workshop I taught at Meta4 Gallery in Port Perry last weekend, one of the students mentioned that a former instructor had told her she wasn't "allowed" to use pink in her paintings!  I'm sure this must have been said in jest, or perhaps it was a playful way to make some legitimate point about colour (not sure what point that would have been, but I wasn't there, so...) but the comment stuck with me... Yesterday, I completed my first attempt at a painting using water-soluble oil paints (see below, more about that experience in a future blog posting).

Afterwards, I was trawling my photo files looking for inspiration for a pastel, and came across a bunch of fabulous shots from last summer's Caribana parade in Toronto.  If you've never been to this celebration of Caribbean culture, you can hardly imagine the driving, finger-snapping, toe-tapping music and the fabulous costumes and floats--completely over the top.  When I saw this shot, of a gorgeous woman hauling a personal float decked out in the glitteriest, most intense PINK I've ever seen in my life, I knew this was the image I wanted, to take on that "no pink" challenge! It was pure pleasure to paint, though differentiating all the wacky parts of the float with various shades of pink, peach, orange and yellow was a true challenge.  Fun, eh? I found a few other inspiring shots in the file, so watch for more colourful figures to turn up in my "Figures" gallery. This one's for you, Leslie--be brave, and use pink whenever you want! :)

The students last weekend (many of them brand new to pastels) did some awesome work--I'll post some shots of them hard at it on the Workshop page soon.

PAC Juried Show Acceptance

I have just received word that two of my three entries into the Pastel Artists Canada juried annual show have been accepted: Indrawn Breath (the painting I performed "tree-age" on, as documented in a former post to this journal, and seen framed --with a reflection of me--below) and Salt Spring Summer (also see below).  The show is August 12-September 3, 2009 (opening reception Aug 13 7-9 pm) at Neilson Park Creative Centre, 56 Neilson Drive, Etobicoke Ontario. I am thrilled that juror Bill Hosner, a very well-respected American pastelist, saw merit in my two works--now we shall see if they are deserving of any prizes when the awards judging is done! And because you see a framed pastel below, let me also comment that I am moving toward framing my pastels with no mats (just a spacer to keep the pastel off the glass itself)--it makes them look more like oil paintings, and seem to be more popular with buyers--comments welcome.

A Day with the Pre-Raphaelites

I recently attended a fabulous exhibition of pre-Raphaelite paintings at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  This group of English painters from the mid 1800's decided that art had gone downhill after the Rennaissance painter Raphael and they determined to paint in the manner and style of the early Rennaissance painters (hence, pre-Raphaelite).  The group included Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais.  I love the drama and luminosity of their works, and the arresting expressions found on the women depicted.  I've always wanted to turn my hand to a painting in this style and today, a rainy Saturday when I'm home alone with nothing much on the agenda, I decided to give it a go. I had a handful of pages torn out of a wedding magazine article featuring gowns designed to mimic Renaissance gowns, and one of these provided inspiration.  Sadly, my artistic integrity impels me to reveal my source, which means I can never enter the painting in a juried show nor sell it--it is a clear breach of copyright to paint from someone else's photo (especially without permission!).  However, there is no law against doing so simply for your own pleasure and learning, and that's what this was.  After all, generations of atelier students have painted copies of the Masters in museums in order to learn their techniques.  As long as you are honest about it and make no attempt to pass off your copy as an original, no harm done. If I ever want to do one of these type of paintings for show or sale, I'll have to hire a model and some costumes and make my own source material!

Anyway, I loved the chiaroscuro effect in the photo (commonly used by Rembrandt, this is a technique in which much of the image is dark, with the figures emerging dramatically out of the gloom), and the sense of an arrested moment in time.  The expression on the face of the young woman, and her body stance indicate to me that she has just been startled by the entrance of someone unexpected, and that the interruption has broken into a serious interaction with the rather belligerent-looking mysterious figure in the rear.  One is invited to speculate--is she rejecting a lover? or justifying herself to a judgmental brother who has just opened the door and interrupted the conversation?  What will happen now?  Write your own story...

As well, it was a fun challenge to represent all the textures in the scene: her satin gown with its touches of lace applique, her heavily ornamented cape, the dark (velvet?) of the man's robe and hat and his heavy jeweled collar, not to mention the lady's porcelain skin and glorious red hair--what a visual feast!

I've called the painting The Intrusion, and am so pleased with it that I intend to frame it with a suitably baroque frame and hang it somewhere for my own enjoyment!