What's up?

It seems my whole art career during 2013 is in the stage of getting ready, but never really getting very far.  If doing everything related to art  counts I am in the thick of things. If  art production is the assessment criteria I'm a dismal failure!  I am involved in art related things thought.....

•  I wrote project  grant for the new body of work I've begun called Black or White.  Fingers crossed for funding. 
•  I taught  a two day encaustic workshop focusing on building complex surfaces using collograph and stencilling and learned lots myself while preparing .
•  I'm mounting and framing two bodies of work for two different shows at The Leyton Gallery , one in June and the other in the early fall.
• Finally, I am going to Europe for a month beginning the end of May.  I've spent lots of time deciding what galleries I want to visit. That I'm sure will lead to new work My trips always inspire me.  

I will be writing several posts related to stencilling, collograph and encaustic when I get a free moment.  My students created inspiring work using both techniques and we had a load of fun in the process.

It was such a pleasure to go to The Leyton Gallery's 10 anniversary show yesterday and see a piece created at my workshop. The ever delicate touch of Louise Sutton is always an inspiration.

  Louise Sutton, Far From Here, encaustic on panels,  2013

Who knew cotton lace could inspire such work....  

Louise and I will be in a show together this fall.   Interesting times ahead. 

What an opening

 If you follow my blog, you'll know I've experienced all kinds of art opening adventures.  This is another one. Weather seems to be a dominant theme!

The morning was rainy and damp, the opening was happening on the newly built "bridge".  There were thoughts of make shift awnings and who would be the lucky contractor.  All that worry for nothing.  It turned out to be a lovely day with a great turnout for the inaugural exhibition opening at 2 Rooms Contemporary Art Projects in Duntara, NL.  I've been to a lot of openings but this one beat them all. 

 Photo:  Pat Tracey

 Photo: Pat Tracey

  Photo: Pat Tracey

 

Photo: Pat Tracey

Photo: Margaret Ryall

 Photo: Margaret Ryall

The lovely, energetic Catherine Beaudette chatting with a friend, an almost perfect composition!

 Later that evening artists and friends got together to celebrate with a fire on the beach, a celebration tradition in Duntara.  The evening had...

 lots of  spirit and spirits

 

 and good food - moose, salad, watermelon  and the like.

 As night fell we settled in for chats,

 relaxing ,

 and music.

 Of course that was a fitting ending to a day with a lot of differences. Not many openings occur in such idyllic surroundings.  Thank you Catherine Beaudette for your energy , foresight and interest.

An exhibition like no other

 We remember things for a variety of reasons and my exhibition at St. FX University Gallery in Antigonish, Nova Scotia  will go down in memory as my most unique one -not soon forgotten.  It went like this...

After settling in at the B & B, Don and I went to the gallery to reattach one of the wax castings that had broken free in shipping.  The work looked very comfortable in the setting because it was a relatively small space with lots of nooks to meander around.  Because of its intimate scale my work would look absolutely lonely in a spacious gallery.  I was impressed with the consideration given to the placement of the work.

 

 

I left feeling good and greatly anticipating the next evening.It was time to take in the sights of Antigonish and have a relaxing dinner.  The next morning all the chatter about town was of the upcoming snow storm. Now I'm a planner and I checked the weather  before leaving St. John's and packed accordingly.  My suede slip ons were not going to cut it, and we spent that morning shopping for boots!  By mid afternoon the writing was on the wall.

We tried to get a taxi rather than take our rental car with no snow tires.  Unfortunately we couldn't get one and started for the University. It was slow going and somewhat foolhardy on our part.   We didn't really have to worry about where we parked.  The lot was empty

This doesn't look too promising.

But everything was ready inside.

Bruce Campbell (Gallery Director) and Don are being encouraging.

I've decided that wine is the answer.

Our first guests show up. Thankfully students don't mind the weather and these two had lots of questions and comments about the work. I'm engaged.

After half an hour passed we had several more students who happened to be passing by and were encouraged to come in, take a look, and have a snack.  At this point I'm laughing and having a great time.  Perhaps it's the wine.

Our next visitor shows up.  This is hilarious. 

Not to be outdone, Santa's elves wanted in on the action.  Yes, all maritime elves are this spritely.

I would like to think that Don is admiring my work.

This doesn't look so promising.  I was right.  We spent about ten minutes getting out of the parking lot.  With the skidding that went down I'm surprised the tires were in one piece. Going at 20 km. an hour we breathed a sigh of relief as we neared the B & B, .... 

It was picture  perfect, but the driveway wasn't plowed.  I was elected to walk through the drifts in my new $25.00 boots to get some action. The innkeeper solve the problem quickly. 

Soon we were nestled in our Victorian room  and  reliving the night's events. The story doesn't end there.  After waiting at the airport in Halifax the next day for five hours, five minutes before loading the flight was cancelled because of St. John's weather.  Time to look for a hotel .

Do you have and exciting exhibition story?

On the road again

On Tuesday my husband and I fly into Halifax and rent a car for our journey to Antigonish, Nova Scotia where my Remnants exhibition is slated to open.  We are looking forward to our brief little holiday and seeing my work in a new temporary home.  I find every gallery different and the work exists in different ways in each space.  My trusty camera is packed so I should come back with a glimpse of the show.  Until Friday ... I'm away.

Part of the exhibition as it appeared at the Leyton Gallery in St. John's, NL in 2008.  ? concerning St. FX University Art Gallery show,  but stay tuned. Remnants keeps growing as I re-interpret the wallpapers and objects I've collected.

Me as subject

It's a very busy art week for me in all ways possible.  I am cleaning my studio, painting, taking a workshop  on Saturday, attending a friend's opening and reading about art.  A friend, artist  and fellow arts advocate Tina Dolter is opening an exhibition this weekend. 

In this series of figurative works Tina  

"takes on a universal theme that explores the feminine allure, the positive influence that maturity and life experience has on the perception of female attractiveness and the idea of the female as the centre of human sensual power.

The exhibition is comprised of a series of twelve full sized portraits of women from St. John’s, from varied and diverse backgrounds, all over forty, experiencing the most creative and dynamic time of their lives."

Check it out at Christina Parker Gallery ,you may see a familiar face!

Exhibition opening

Openings are invigorating and tiring at the same time. I left the gallery today with mixed feelings. I enjoyed talking to people about my work, but I certainly enjoyed coming home to a quiet room. Two years out of your life painting, painting, painting, and then suddenly it's all over.

It was a lovely afternoon. Many friends and family as well as other artists showed up. My work always looks so much smaller and brighter in a gallery setting. Much thought was put into how the work would be paired and hung. I liked the overall effect. Next Sunday I'm giving an artist talk about the work and my two week stay in the gardens at Birr Castle.

Looking for a quiet corner to take a shot literally put me in a corner. This shot mimics my compositions. My isolation and the compression of the two walls made my portrait correspond to some of the tight compositions I'd used in the work. An artist friend, and mentor (much younger than I am), noted that this work is the one that is fighting for more space visually. I agreed. This work received much consideration over the last few months. In the end I decided that the scale of the flowers worked for me. Daylilies are bright and sprawling plants that always seek space and attention.

This gives a good idea of the spacing and groupings used to present the work. It was a challenge to hang the show because all the pieces were the same size and format. My intent was to provide slices of a garden as if one was looking through a hedge opening or the bars in a gate. No lush panoramas for me! One of the strategies we used to break the visual sameness of the format was to provide various groupings and uneven spacing between the works.

I hope all his serious discussion is about my work, but I doubt it. Long time friend Helen is talking to my daughter Sara. They hadn't seen each other in years. Sasha is a blurr of movement. It was her first opening and she took it all in. Any reason to wear a party dress is impressive for a three year old.

Oh,Poppa! There's treats on the table. Let's go...

One of the difficult things about hanging this work was trying to provide relief from the obsessive amount of detail in each piece. There were not many works that had visual resting places but we did find ways to break up the detail with larger forms and colour. This grouping of three was one of the solutions we used to calm things down.

These are four of my eight encaustic pieces that focused on the benches on the property where I sat and wrote my reflections over my two week stay. If you enlarge the shot you will see that some of my text has been layered into the work. Small and eloquent, these are some of my favourite works.

It was a great afternoon.

The last piece

Tomorrow my exhibition opens at The Leyton Gallery. Everything is done and up on the gallery walls. I'm just waiting to dress up and appear. I always get last minute jitters. It's putting yourself out there that's the difficult thing. Your art is so much a part of who you are, you laying your soul bare that causes the stress . As my friend says "It is what it is".

This is the last piece I created in the series.

Sunset 10 x 24, mixed media on board

It 's different from the others. There's quite a bit of actual patterning in it and it is definitely decorative in nature rather than realistic. Perhaps it heralds a new style, interest, focus etc. Time will tell.

Just a little history to ground the work.... There's quite a history of plant collecting noticeable as you walk around Birr Castle Demesne. Many trees were collected from China. In the exhibition centre on the grounds you can see some of the correspondence that references this. It was quite prominent in its day, but this practice has waned over the years for many reasons.

Is this piece also the sunset for my Reading a Garden? Maybe, maybe not.

Update

I'm beginning to think the boundaries of my life are controlled by the four walls of my studio. I've been getting up early, working too late and fretting about the times I'm not able to work. I am happy to report I see an end in sight. I've been checking things off my exhibition prep list with enthusiasm.
Artist statement-check;
press release- check;
master list of titles and prices- check;
final varnishing- check;
eye hooks attached for wires- check;
final coat on sides of canvases-check.

Boy did that ever feel good. My list is now minuscule.

• Put on wire (darling hubby will do this tomorrow while I'm at work)
  
• sign work (on the back for me)
• look closely at each piece for quality control, make minor corrections
  
• wrap and box paintings

Leave for Banff and points beyond on Wednesday
Work hard at CARFAC meetings
Have fun and see lots of art
Return on May 23, totally refreshed to:

• Bring work to gallery on May 25 ; pick up invitations I will personally distribute
  
• Breathe deeply, maybe do an interview
  
• Enjoy the opening on May 29
• Give an artist talk on June 6, without doubt work on it for a week
  
• Go to summer house for two weeks on June 7 and decide what's next in art
• Give myself permission to do whatever strikes my fancy
  

Travelling gal

I'm home! Do I still remember how to write a blog post? I guess I do. Today I have the opposite problem I usually have when I sit down to write. There are too many topics rattling around in my brain and all my reference photos have yet to make the journey from camera to computer.

I plan a series of posts about the highlights of my two week trip to New York, Springfield, Boston, and points in between here and there, but it will be awhile before they are composed because my immediate life dictates time in the studio. I an off to Banff, Alberta for CARFAC's National Conference of Visual Artists on May 12 and then to Kelowna, British Columbia to visit friends before returning home on May 23 .

With just one week in between my two trips I have a short window of opportunity to do all those last minute things to get my work delivered to the gallery on May 25. My heart is beating a little faster these days. I haven't felt this time crunch and the resulting body stress since I left my full time job as a school board consultant nine years ago.

Today I have to revise my artist statement, write a draft press release (this takes me days) and begin to consider titles for 11 works. Then there's repainting the sides of all my cradled panels and varnishing eleven pieces, wiring backs, signing work, and sighing many times as the days progress.

For the regular readers of my blog.... I was very excited to meet Kathy Cartwright and Carolyn Abrams at the Clark Museum during my trip . My friend Carol drove for two hours so I could have this experience. For that I am very grateful. Reading blogs gives you a good idea of what people are like as individuals. I was not disappointed in meeting Kathy and it was also great to meet Carolyn and talk about her independent study with Kathy. When Kathy posted about our meeting, I had a great chuckle at the photo of me. Tip: never stand in front of a beige wall for a photo if you have white hair. I was the great disappearing act and certainly not the center of interest in the photo!

Changing times

We Are Neighbours (2009) 9.5 x 10.5 in. encaustic mixed media on board

What's going on here? No flowers, no peeling wallpaper, no rusty objects, no family imagery. Where did this work come from? Is it from the same person as the work in the previous post? I did mention not censoring my experiments in a new medium, but I wasn't expecting a whole change in content. Although this work might not look the same as most of my other work, there is a subtle link to the passage of time and its effects - my consistent theme.

My mind has been immersed in child like things lately because of my two granddaughters. I'm buying new children's books and games and talking about childlike things. I'm seeing the world through innocent eyes. A child's ideas about the world and how to exist in it develop early through family and schooling. While most parents try their best to model positive treatment of others and provide experiences that will develop a social conscience, the world that children grow up in doesn't always fit their upbringing. Things can go wrong, lessons can be forgotten and a new beliefs formed. We are not always neighbours.

What's in a word?

locked

secured
obstructed
confined
restricted
contained
imprisoned
enclosed
impeded
____________
gate

I've written previously about naming/titling artwork. Sometimes the right title comes to you immediately and other times you may labour over it for days. Too many choices is just as bad as having few ideas. That was the case with this painting which is part of the Reading a Garden Series currently in exhibition at Cube Gallery. It is one of my favourites in the series and no name was good enough for it. I went through the list above and finally settled on Gate. It says it all.

On my summer vacation I took this shot in Copenhagen and it has all the same connotations as Gate. I especially like the door knob on this one. You could switch it up and call it Access.

Same but different

Time flies and I'm not even having fun! I'm late posting this link to the group exhibition I am part of at Cube Gallery in Ottawa (my work is the first panel on the left.) Thanks to a travel grant from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, I was able to travel to the opening. It was an honour to see my work among that of five other artists who were all using photography in some way to inform their work.

This show is about a merging of aspects of modernity (photography) and tradition (painting) which is one of the cutting edge genres in contemporary art today. The artists' use of both media asks the viewer to consider what is original and what is representational, what is real and what is not, what is tradition and what is modern.

One of the things that is limiting about living on an island is exposure to different types of art and artists. After awhile you get to know what many artists are creating and it all becomes too predictable. It was interesting to see five artists who, on paper, were working in a similar way to me, and then to discover that we were all quite different in how we were using photography. There was certainly a continuum of how obvious the use of photography in the works was. My photo transfers were very integrated into the composition and you had to spend a great deal of time looking to see what aspects were photo transfer and what was painting.

I discuss this in my artist statement...

My work begins with image transfers from photocopies of my photographs. I consider this "the real", knowing full well the limitations of photographs. Through a series of manipulations using paint, mediums, papers and sometimes ephemera, the image transfers are altered in varying degrees or totally subsumed to reflect my memory of the event. These memories are diminished in specific details in favor of complex meanings associated with sensory experiences that evolve during the process.

As time passes what I actually remember from my two weeks at Birr Castle Demesne is fading. With each new work completed there are less and less of the actual photo transfers evident. I am synthesizing my impressions and often adding new information that feels like it should be there. In summary, my process of creating these works mimics the actual process of remembering (and forgetting) over time.

If you would like to explore the work of the artists in more detail check out their websites: Katherine Jeans, Jennifer Lawton, Amanta Scott, Karina Kraenzle and D.H. Monet who is the owner of Cube Gallery.

Continuing the theme

The tedious job of titles has been completed and my twelve pieces have been shipped off to Cube Gallery in Ottawa. My plans are made to attend the opening on September 6. This is the first time I've shipped work outside the province. I checked several options but in the end went with good old Canada Post which was not too expensive. I'm waiting to hear that it got there in good form. I can't imagine there will be any problems because it was packed up with great obsession!

Thanks to Babs and her comment to the previous post, I named the work in question Entangled . It certainly fitted my intent for the piece. Tangled(pun intended) up in my thoughts were: ideas of the long line of decendants in the Rosse family tree; the whole history of the English in Ireland; the fact that the tree fell on a commerative flowerbed; the complex nature of tree growth; the sadness of seeing a stately and well loved tree fall; and, my relationship to the tree when it was standing and how this changed when it fell.

I'm now working furiously at part 2 of Reading a Garden for a solo exhibition in 2010. I think I will continue to explore this theme for quite some time. Rather than running out of ideas I keep getting more.

Searching for title

I'm back in the city for several days to get my work ready to ship to Ottawa. I spent yesterday brainstorming titles and I actually came up with some great ones. There are still several that are nagging at me. The image below was created in response to an event that occurred while staying at Birr Castle Demesne. Right now Tangled, Uprooted, Connections, & Family Tree are the top contenders. Any input will be appreciated.

What's new?

The last week has been very productive for me. I now have 13 works completed for my Reading a Garden Series that is off to Ottawa next week. Yesterday I took them all to my photographer friend's studio to have them photographed - just in case some of them sell. How's that for tentative positive thinking?

It was very interesting seeing them all lined up as a physical manifestation of my two weeks movement and being in Birr Castle Demense last summer. In the combined work I saw emotions, sensory responses, social and historical commentary, symbolism, botanical information, and ecological and philosophical issues represented. I did not have a master plan as I began this work; one work lead to another and all these responses started to fall out. I am feeling good that I have captured the depth of this garden. It is frustrating for me not to be in a position to upload some of the pictures of the new work . I promise a thorough posting of all of them when I get back to my home computer at the end of August.

Today I am sitting to write commentary about each of the pieces for my reflection journal . I usually take time out from creating to reflect on what I have learned from creating the work, what I might have done new in terms of process, what questions I might have, new ideas from old work and how I am feeling about where I am in my practice.

After the reflection, I need to title each of them. I've decided on one word titles that will give the viewer a basic idea of where I was going with the piece or why I bothered to focus on it. I find titling difficult. I did consider just numbering them as Birr Castle Demense #1 , #2 etc. and discussed it with several artists and non-artists, and there was a general consensus that such an approach is annoying/frustrating . I would love to hear some commentary on your feelings and methods for creating titles (or not) for your work.

Good news

I am excited to report that I will be exhibiting 12 of my Reading a Garden paintings as part of a group exhibition called Pix and Paint at Cube Gallery in Ottawa, Canada. This is my first exhibition outside of Newfoundland therefore it is an important milestone in my career development. Cube Gallery +has an open call for submissions for themed shows yearly. I read about it in our provincial visual arts e-bulletin and submitted my work for consideration . All the artists are utilizing photography in some way in their work. It was a perfect match for my mixed media with photo transfers. I'm glad the owner thought so too.

I am hoping to attend the opening with will be September 6th. Because I have to ship my work mid August, I have been painting at least ten hours daily for the two weeks. I have four new painting in progress and I'm moving from one to the next so I don't overwork them. I am hoping that by the end of this week I will have some choice for the 12 I want to send. I am planning on creating 16 for this series (not this week). Isn't it great when you're on a roll!