A summer's work

  Over the last two summers I have devoted my time and creative energies to installations from reclaimed wood and other found materials.  I wrote about my initial interest here and posed the question... Is this art?  I've decided it is.

This summer I realized that I was compartmentalizing  my art making by location.  I paint in  the city (St. John's, NL) and I create installations at my summer home in Duntara.  It makes perfect sense really.  My head is in a totally different place in the summertime.  I spend my days looking at the ocean, prowling beaches, seeing the effects of the passage of time on buildings as they slowly sink to the ground or are blown into the ocean only to wash up in another location.  I watch summer people lovingly restore old homes that would otherwise have fallen into disrepair.  How can I not make work that references my most immediate  summer life?   Added to that is the practicality of not having to drag all my painting supplies and supports  back and forth.

Composition in Time #2, 18 x 28 in., Margaret Ryall, 2013 (Private Collection)

Thanks Carol Bajen-Gahm for loving #2 and giving it a home where I can visit it whenever I want!

This piece created last year, is totally composed of beach finds that were cut and composed (no additional colours are added. The bandsaw and PL Premium adhesive have become my new best friends.  These constructions are heavy and my regular adhesives just didn't do the job.

 I never set out with a preconceived notion for a composition;  I determine its size based on my inspiration piece/object.  In this work it was the worm eaten red piece of plywood.  The curves are a natural extension of this choice with the driftwood replicating the rounded lines.   The nails and roofing materials came from another piece of wood and were added strategically.  The yellow clapboard is a constant colour for houses on the  Bonavista peninsula and the red  is the preferred colour for sheds.  These colours creep into many of the compositions and bring consistency to the body of work without  much thought on my part.  A palette controlled by the foibles of nature, people and location is  a narrow one.  Lots of variables doing  their own thing removes a great deal of decision making for this overthinking artist.

 It was a fruitful summer.  I created 14 assemblages varying in size from 16 x 16 to 36 x 36 to add to the 4 I created the year before.  I sold three of them (always a bonus), received a request to show three  more in a group show in 2016, and organized a venue for a solo show that same year.

Yes, things are moving along nicely and now that my summer fun is behind me, I am looking forward to starting back to work at my White series.  Stay tuned for much more art blogging this year.  I'm excited and back on track.

And yes, I have to stop taking photos of art work with my iPhone, and yes I am getting a new camera and a tripod!