Thursday, February 4, 2010

Linking

Artists manage to find uses for all kinds of materials and are quite good at seeing possibilities in the ordinary. Don Michael's recent post When Experiments Work is a good illustration of this point. Rather than smearing the paint off his palette knife on a paper towel as he usually does, he decided to do so on a canvas. Check out what happened as a result here.

Don's experiment reminded me of the work of another artist I know personally. We are both the products of the same educational institutions and lived in neighboring communities growing up. Bill Rose created a series of exquisite work in oils and displayed his mixing and brush "rubbings" as part of the composition. Double Lucetta is one of my favourites. You will see why when you check it out here. Double Rembrandt uses the same technique.

Over the years Bill has taken on most of the big themes in art and is equally comfortable commenting on a range of subjects from pop culture to religion and politics. You tend not to forget his images once you've seen them. All of his work is based on the grid. It is obvious in some and subtle in others. If you're interest is piqued, check out additional works at Christina Parker Gallery and the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. Bill has other talents as you will see when you check out his My Space site.

Have you had any" ah ha" moments lately that were the result of one thing leading to another?

5 comments:

-Don said...

Margaret, Thanks for featuring my work today. I am proud to share the page with Bill Rose. I went to all of the links you provided and I'm very glad I did. Not only is he an outstanding visual artist, but also a very talented musician. Happy Creating! -Don

Unknown said...

I'm a big fan of Don's innovations in his artistic creations. I hadn't heard of Bill Rose until you mentioned him here. Thanks for the link to his work, which I looked at. Wonderful!
I'm presently working on a new series but haven't reached the "aha!" moment. It's more like a "hmmmm..." moment. Hope that changes soon!

hw (hallie) farber said...

I follow Don's interesting blog already. Thanks for introducing Bill Rose--loved his torso.

Four Seasons in a Life said...

Greetings Margaret,

Thank you for featuring Don's work.
I just recently started exploring his blog and having a look at greater depth of his work. For me the use of the palette knife is very foreign, preferring the brush. Maybe someday I will give the knife a try. For now I will study other artists work.

Thank you for sharing,
Egmont

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