Nice is nice

This is one of my favourite shots from my vacation last year. We passed through Nice on our way to St. Paul de Vence and spent just long enough there to know we wanted to go back for an extended stay. I was fascinated by the order of the umbrellas. It was almost as if there were rules for placement that everyone adhered to.


Not too far from the beach, there was a surprise waiting on a rooftop.

And how is this for a wall decoration?

Surely there's inspiration for a postcard collage here somewhere? Time will tell.

New work - collage

Postcard collage Garden #1 (2009) paper, acrylic on board, 4 x 6 in.

When I am in a garden I often think about the "goings on" I cannot see, the new growth, the minerals in the soil helping out, the roots, and of course the constant decay. I am trying to capture this process abstractly. This is my first organic attemept.

New work - Postcard Series

Postcard Collage #1 Venice (2009) paper, acrylic on board 4 x 6 in.

My postcard collages are moving along well. Several weeks ago I re-organized all my travel photos and as I sorted and filed images it was like a flying trip through different places. The experience left me with a bombardment of visual snippets of colours and textures. It was a synthesis that had nothing to do with the emotion or memory of the place. I found that very interesting because so much of my work revolves around the passage of time and memory. This was a much simpler visual response that I decided to act on.

This experience occurred at the same time I wrote about For Carrie 1907 and the follow up post about evolving ideas in art. This collision of ideas resulted in the postcard collage series. I am continuing to refine my original thoughts about how this series will be organized. Right now I'm creating groupings of 3 (e.g., Venice #1, #2, #3) and will display them in this way. They are on 1/4 inch birch plywood and will be backed with another piece of word on the back that is 2 x 3 inches and 1/2 inch thick which will hold the hook. I wanted them to stand out from the wall for viewing purposes and I also needed some consistent way to hang them evenly as they will be displayed in grids. I plan to create a jig (living with a carpenter) to ensure they are all backed and hooked exactly the same.

I'm also creating a series of postcard collages from the gardens at Birr Castle, just ot keep my mind on that project as I take this little detour from my usual work. I want to stop thinking about what I'm creating and just create. I feel the sheer joy I watched on childrens' faces for years - I'm having fun!

New work -collage

Postcard collage #1 Asian (2009) 4 x 6 in. on board

I just wanted to play around with various papers while I was on my brief summer home visit. Collage is very portable in such situations. I have a large box of paper ends left from previous projects. I just dump the contents into a garbage bag and away I go. This is an unlikely colour scheme for me because I rarely use orange and as a matter of fact orange is my least favourite colour. I have to admit it was just right to complement the black Asian flavoured paper left over from the endpapers of a journal folder I made last year.

I plan to create a whole series of postcard collages that are influenced by the cultures of various countries I have visited or enjoy reading about. It will be fun to share these experiments with you in the coming months. While I love the colour and texture of these small studies, and making them relaxes me and frees my mind and invites playfulness into my practice, they serve a more important purpose; they give me ideas new larger work.

New work -Poggio S. Cecilia Tuscany

Poggio S. Cecilia (2009)acrylic and paper on board, 10 x 8 in.

This is a small painting completed as a gift for friends who shared a holiday with us in 2006. I always find the greens in nature a challenge and there is so much green in Tuscany. I'm still looking at this painting with a critical eye because I find the greens somewhat boring. For the life of me I don't know what to do with it. I would appreciate any suggestions. I've paper as a base and the foreground poppy section began with a photo transfer of a field that has been much integrated into the body of the painting by applying paper and over painting. It's my favourite section of the work because it is lively and organic looking. Perhaps that is why the rest seems boring to me.

I have no concerns about the topic because the place carries fond memories for me. The wild poppies are everywhere in this region of Italy. On the distant hill you can see the outline of Poggio S. Cecilia near the town of Rapolano Terme in the Siena section of Tuscany. This village was founded in 1200 by the Buoninsegna family. Over the years the little village saw several defeats in battle and in 1600 it was rebuilt. It was abandoned in 1960. Today you can find Trattoria Dal Vecchio Prof. operating there. The food is fabulous and the walk down the mountain in the dark is an adventure in itself (more sensible people drive up). We have very fond memories of our evening there and voted the pasta wit truffles the best we ever had in our lives.

To the right of the scene depicted here is the beautiful Agriturismo Villa Buoninsegna where we stayed for a week in Apartment Podere Goito. It was reasonably priced, comfortable and beautiful. The working vineyard was a plus for the wine drinkers in the group. We were a group of ten so there was always lots to say, see and do.

New work in April

I've taken a break from my garden series to create work for a commission and as gifts to mark different events in the lives of friends. While I've used some photo transfer in this work it is mostly straightforward acrylic painting rather than mixed media, which I've used in the last two years.

I was excited to accept this commission from a friend's husband for her birthday. I've made a decision to only accept commissions from people I know personally because I like to have a good sense of the person I am creating work for. Under these conditions I don't find it a stressful venture.

I included several photos that I used to create this paining in an earlier post. I was trying to combine the beach scene and the sunflower together but I could not make it work. In the end I decided to match the heights of each piece so they could be hung side by side. Sadly my technology prowess is still lacking. I could not get these two pieces to look the same height. More tuition needed for sure.

Life continues (2009) acrylic on canvas, 10 x 30 in.

Life continues II (2009) acrylic on paper on board, 10 x 8 in.

The idea for this work was prompted by my friend's (who received the work) story about finding a sunflower growing in the middle of the beach while out for a walk. She is an avid beachcomber but a sunflower in the middle of nowhere was quite intriguing. I was fascinated by this and thought about all the other things I have found on my beach walks. The remnants of life are found on beaches and pairing things as I have done here creates interesting narratives. I loved the old yellow bone handle which reminded me of flatware my grandmother had when I was a child. The ropes and wood reference the seafaring men that dominate the history of Newfoundland. If you look closely you will find other references.

Back to reality

It is liberating to go off to Duntara for almost a week and not have any connection via internet. I forget how ruled I am by this form of communication until I have to do without my daily fix. I especially found it difficult to leave my blog and the blogs in the community I follow. After about day three I had all but forgotten that part of my life.

I had a lovely time painting, reading and thinking. I took some photographs, made decisions about new work I am considering and celebrated my birthday with several friends who live near. It was so good to get back into the swing of what my summer space means to me. I was disappointed that I only saw one iceberg and that was well out to sea. It also snowed! It gave new meaning to "summer house".

"Yes, it was sunny, no it wasn't warm!"

A close up of my beach collection, nestled up in snow.

The community of Duntara, across the harbour from my patio. There are currently about 48 year round residents. When I spent summer vacations here as a teenager the population was several hundred. It is a beautiful, peaceful community.

A promise of things to come.

Evolving ideas

I wrote this before I left for my mini vacation when I discovered I could schedule it to post by changing the post time under post options. Imagine that!

In research on characteristics of creative people , the pattern of one idea leading to another features prominently; it is referred to as evolution. This is the method of incremental improvement where new ideas or solutions grow from previous ones. Constant incrementation of ideas accounts for many of the discoveries in the world. Other "thinking"characteristics work in concert with the evolution of new ideas from old. They include:

• willingness to try new things/take risks
  
• ability to see relationships and make mental leaps
• curiosity about new things
• broad interests in many unrelated areas

I see evidence of evolution (of ideas) in every aspect of my life, but especially in my art practice. I can use my last post about the use of a vintage post card in a mixed media work as an example of how you can move along with an idea. Originally postcards were a logical extension of my interest in memory, passage of time, culture, identity and family connections. I didn't think much beyond them as an example. If I want to build on this topic/idea there are strategies I can use to increase the number and range of responses.

1. Brainstorming is a great way to see where an idea can go. Here are my thoughts on postcards:

Postcards

• art of the ordinary person
• intimate in scale
• inexpensive, economical
• commercial
• thin cardboard
  
• travels
• special events
• photo size (4x6)
  
• used across cultures
• souvenirs
• transportable
• topic based
• not age specific
• long history of use
• nostalgic
  
• present positive views
• collectible
  
• sites of interest
• messages
• public
  

2. Sort and re-sort
Create a list of words (as above), phrases or drawings from you random thoughts, look for connections and sort your ideas, then resort. One way is to write all your random thoughts or scribblings on sticky notes and continually rearrange them. You might want to record your connections. This usually yields general themes. My list above could be sorted into characteristics, uses, types, etc.

3. Extend categories
Then try to generate new ideas under each general heading. E.g. uses (exhibition announcements, used for political advocacy, humour, etc. )

4. Extend your list
Give more examples or ask questions.

Postcards

• art of the ordinary person (is there a way to make them elite?)
• two sided
  
• intimate in scale (is it still a postcard if the size changes? )
  
• inexpensive, economical (make them precious, expensive)
  
• commercial (create personal, one of a kind postcards)
  
• thin cardboard (what other formats are possible? canvas, small boxes, video, puzzle format, metal)
  
• travels
• special events
  
• photo size (4x6) (what about same content in large sizes, same impact?, no longer economical or intimate, use of video? )
  
• used across cultures (examine styles of postcards across cultures- ideas for styles?)
  
• souvenirs
• transportable (what happens when you alter the size?)
  
• topic based
• not age specific
• long history of use
• nostalgic (political, spiritual)
  
• present positive views (pose questions, highlight significant issues)
  
• sorted and labelled
• sites of interest
• messages
• public
  

5. Research beyond your ideas
This is where you link with the ideas of others. Be careful here because there is a fine line between copying and extending.

From web research, the traditional idea of postcard is certainly extended.

See various definitions of postcards on the web.

Then there is the world of Mail art where artists enter into the fray.

Video postcards accompany music, illustrate family vacations, show interesting places that are fun and real.

The history of postcards is traced back to 1490 when a medieval nun sent one leaf painting of Saint Barbara to another nun.

It seems the word postcard is part of many song titles with my personal favourite - Mark Knophler, Postcard from Paraguay . Check out many more on YouTube.

Visual art and the postcard

The postcard has been used by artists for many years to create various kinds of art. See the connection British artists Gilbert and George have to postcards.

Art of the Japanese Postcard was presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Themes in Japanese postcards are categorized and samples are presented.

Postsecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a post card. Very interesting...

Julianna Parr uses the postcard as a legitimate artistic medium. See her Time Stamp: A Diary in Postcards 1998-2008. This is the passage of time charted through visual imagery and much commitment .

And finally there are a half million hits on Google images for postcard art.

And yes.... this post has helped me come up with an idea for new work for a summer show I am in. Now I have to get busy creating!

Gone iceberg hunting

We are going to open our summer place and take a little r & r for a week. If we're lucky the icebergs will be on the move. An internet connection is not high on our priority list there. Sometimes I can check mail at a friend's house, sometimes not. I may even get a quick post in. I'll be back on track on April 20, hopefully with some new work to show for my break.

For Carrie 1907

For Carrie 1907, 10 x 20 in. (2007) Mixed media collage

Can you have a series if you've created only one art work? If I can count the ideas still lurking in the mulling centre of my brain, then For Carrie, 1907 is part of a series based on old postcards. The original postcard rests under the iris painting with the signature in gold ink (a faint trace of human presence ) representing the voice of the sender who is forwarding best wishes for Carrie's birthday. I found this particular card tucked away in the corner of a box in an antique store. I dreamed up a world for Carrie to celebrate her birthday. I love the fact that I created this work exactly a hundred years after the postcard was sent. My only regret is that I didn't copy the postcard before using it in the collage. It is forever shrouded by my interpretation of it.

The postcards that I find most appealing have embossed floral motifs, lots of gold and flowing script. They remind me of a time when such objects were in direct opposition to the the lifestyle of the recipients. Life was hard and there was little time for beauty. I place these postcards in the same category as the lavish wallpapers that even the poorest women managed to acquire for their homes.

There are many sites to purchase post cards. This one has very nostalgic images that are accessible with the purchase of a one time membership .

Other vintage postcard information and/or purchase source are:
TMonline Vintage Postcards ( 1907 vintage)
Joyce M. Tice (my favourite featuring the Language of Flowers)
Cottage Collectibles and Postcards (featuring tinted cards)

and of course you local antique shop or your grandmother's dresser drawers.

Life continues

Italy is one of my favourite countries. It has been on my mind in the last several days because of the earthquake in L'Aquila. Watching clips of the community burial service in the town square was heart wrenching; I have no way of imagining how the families and community members must have felt even though many news services attempted to put a personal face on the catastrophe. The devastation was immense, and now families have to go about rebuilding their lives without loved ones. History has taught us that life continues in the aftermath of extreme hardship. It will grow and bloom in new ways.

These photos were taken on a recent trip to Italy. I was attracted to the signs of life and the need for beauty that existed in unlikely places. To me they were reminders that we are alive and will survive under very adverse conditions.

At ground level

or high up, most windows have some evidence of life sitting on their ledges. Sometimes scraggly and sometimes lush, they bloom.


Outside a very nice restaurant in Venice stood an old, boarded up building. I could not figure out who had planted geraniums there or why thy were in this location.

Beauty and purposeful destruction together. I know there is a graffiti art movement, I understand the ideas behind it, but I cannot like it no matter how hard I try to give it space in my mind.

It came in the mail

Yesterday was a good day. Apart from my husband's birthday, a family dinner and baking a cake with my granddaughter who also sang Happy Birthday (the two year old version), three of my works from the Remnants series were published in a local magazine.

The Newfoundland Quarterly magazine began publishing in 1901 when Newfoundland was an independent country. It is the province's oldest magazine, and the second oldest in Canada. The NL Quarterly in now owned by Memorial University and is published through the Newfoundland Quarterly Foundation, established in 1982.

My work appeared in conjunction with an article called First Impressions. Tim Marsh, a Californian, was asked to remember his first impressions of Newfoundland. Tim is a poet, essayist, and a graduate student in Folklore Studies at Memorial University in St. John's. He recalled the tensions and fear experienced by many, including his family, during the Rodney King riots in 1992, and how this was the backdrop for his first glimpse of Newfoundland on the cover of a calendar in his mother's "dream basket". I could identify with his mother, a third grade teacher, who exposed her students to the broad world that existed outside their neighbourhoods. The only difference was that I lived and taught in the other world of predictability and safety. This paragraph says it all.

"There are 10 million people in the city of Los Angeles; approximately 500,000 in the whole realm of Newfoundland. One cannot easily imagine what an incredible difference of human presence that is. It is the difference between living in a community, linked by common heritage, and living in an aggregate of communities, ready to fall apart at the first serious shock." pg. 14, Volume 101, #4, 2009 Newfoundland Quarterly

While my images did not relate directly to his article, they related to my memories of life as a young teen growing up in Newfoundland.

Image resizing

My research into digital image resizing for the web led me to a great site, Bob Atkins Photography. Finally I found something about this topic that is easy to understand and my questions were answered.

Self taught artist gave great advice when she said to change the pixel height and width. When you display a digital image on a monitor using a web browser the only thing that determines the size of the image when you enlarge it for viewing is the width and height of the pixels. I was surprised to discover that all other data in the image file is ignored, even resolution (ppi data). By fiddling with Adobe Photo Shop, I discovered that changing the height and width in pixels also produces a smaller file size (kb). That makes sense. The aim is to size the image so that when you click on it to enlarge it, it fills the computer screen without "going over" and to have it load quickly. Resampling your image to 640 by 480 pixels works well with most monitor sizes.

It seems I was mistaken when I thought that resizing would affect the amount of detail visible in my image on the web. The smaller the file size the less detail available when you print the image. The proof is in the pudding:

600 pixels wide

2232 pixels wide

What did I learn by comparing these two images?

• no difference in the amount of detail visible
  
• both are the same physical size in the post
• can't tell how large they will be when enlarged until I publish the post

In addition

• decreasing pixel height and width affect the size of the image when you enlarge it
• decreasing pixel height and width affects how quickly an image loads
  

Novice needs help

In Between (2008) Mixed media on cradled panel, 10 x 30

Today I'm experimenting with the file size of the images I upload to my posts. I am such a novice when it comes to anything having to do with digital output. While I can manipulate file sizes, I really don't have a firm understanding of the effects of these changes apart from the obvious that you lose detail. Is there an optimal size to use in your posts? What other factors should I be aware of? I'm hoping for comments from my readers to add to my expertise in this area. The top image is at 252 KB while the second one is 1.0 MB.

I have an additional problem with photographing my work. There is usually an element of subtle texture in it as is present in the right side of this work. Often these areas are quite dark which adds to the difficulty of capturing these subtle areas. Any tips to help with this problem would also be welcome.

It's that time again

The ice is skirting the shores of bays and harbours around Newfoundland. I'm waiting for the first drive of the season to Duntara to open our summer house. The last hour of this drive takes us on a winding course along the side of the ocean and yields lots of iceberg sightings.

The ocean outside St. John's harbour was coated white with ice last week. Here's a picture my husband took from Signal Hill looking toward the Atlantic.

This is what you see from the opposite side of the hill. It's the downtown portion of St. John's that wraps around the port.

An friend of mine, Tara Bryan, painter and book artist, has created many beautiful paintings of icebergs. Originally from Texas, she now lives in a very different landscape and views the sea every day.

Tara's artist statement states: "I am drawn to light and subtle shifts of colour. The air in Newfoundland is tangible, softening and dispersing the light and making the landscape delicious and mysterious. Through distilling the coastline to its essential forms and colours, I strive to represent the strength of its raw power and beauty. Since I first visited Newfoundland in 1989 I have been painting the coastline in oils, watercolour, acrylics and making books about this intriguing place." 2006

Iceberg Study# 2 , 2008, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 in.

Iceberg Study# 3 , 2008, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 in.

Iceberg Study# 4 , 2008, oil on canvas, 8 x 8 in.

Anatomy of a painting - Part 2

This is the photo that ended my previous post. It could be considered complete and for awhile I thought so too. Then I began to think back to the experience of finding this wrapper behind a statue in the gardens. I think it was the only piece of trash I saw in my two week stay on the grounds of Birr Castle. I couldn't help viewing it as proud of its ability to defy the normal cycle that the natural world was engaged in. The bright colours seemed to add to this defiance. I knew I had to reconsider the scale of the wrapper.









A new photo transfer was prepared and inserted over the previous one. Then the job of integrating the image into the background began.
When an image is inserted into an almost completed work it sticks out like a sore thumb, and it takes much patience and subtle applications of paint and paper to make it look like it belongs. This usually means additions to the whole piece to draw it together.











Here's the end result. I've also readjusted the colours away from the obvious green and set it on a path of decay. My trusty Tri Art Transparent Brown always saves the day when you want to age an image.

These highly textured, dark pieces are very difficult to photograph. I build up using gloss gel because it creates a better sense of depth, but the added shine is a problem when you photograph the stages of development of a work.

As this work is part of a series, I will wait and varnish it with all the other pieces. Then the satin varnish is more receptive to my limited photography skills.

Anatomy of a painting- Part 1

This week I'm putting the finishing touches on another painting from the Garden Series. I've photographed the work during development to give an idea of how I build things up.

This work is on cradled panel (10 x 24 in.). I seal the masonite with acrylic gesso and then add a layer of Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish to decrease the absorbency of the gesso for the application of papers that I use as a base.

The next step is to apply the acrylic skin transfer to the board using matt medium. This is a black and white image transfer from a photo I took in the gardens. Once the acrylic skin was applied to the board, I then over painted the bar wrapper. I wanted to keep just enough information to recognize it as a candybar wrapper.

Following this, a paper with bits of bark and leaves was applied to create basic texture and colour to build on. I'm sorry I don't have the proper name for the paper. I obviously need to create an archive of all my papers with a sample and name.

I also began to physically build up the ground and leaves under the wrapper by simplifying the information in the image transfer and adding new information of my own. As you will see later this was all for naught because I changed the scale and orientation of the wrapper .










Additional papers were added to strengthen the composition. The black lace paper so obvious in this shot created problems because it created too much contrast with the other choices. This necessitated much layering to cover it up. So much for great ideas.













Things are looking up here. I'm managing to cover up all the black and the various textured papers are integrating well to produce that decaying look I was after.