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.

Fall action

The weather cools and my thoughts turn to a more scheduled life. My extended stay at my summer house comes to an end every year in early September. There will be two more short visits there and then the doors close until April. The summer flew by. I created seven paintings in all , four for my new series which I'm getting ready to unveil, and three poppy paintings, two of which already sold in the Leyton Gallery summer show. The other one I'm saving for the Christmas show at the gallery.

This weekend my friend Carol and I are teaching a two day introductory encaustic workshop to 5 participants. Today is out set up time and tomorrow we refine out teaching topics. It will be a great weekend. We have a series of open studio days and intensive workshops planned throughout the fall. All are sponsored by R & F Homemade Paints. With our small population 5 participants in a workshop is a great number. Carol and I are planning an encaustic group blog that will highlight all things encaustic that happen in the area. as a result of our worshops and out own explorations in the medium.

Fun painting

I'm back in the city for a week. It will be good to get caught up on recent posts. Being restricted to only email on my Blackberry is a bit of a hardship for me this summer. The local community internet access site at the high school didn't get funded this year so we are without internet access. It's a loss for us.

I've had two weeks of fun painting and relaxation and the last two years of painting for my recent exhibition have faded away quickly. What is fun painting you ask? It's the painting you do to relax. It doesn't get a lot of heavy thought beforehand, it's not usually loaded down with meaning, it happens as you work, you take delight in it and you really don't care about much else except the process of creating. I continually return to poppies when I want to feel good when painting. I always do something fun for The Leyton Gallery Summer Show which starts next week. This summer is no different.

Garden Patterns #1, 16 x 16 in., acrylic, image transfers, paper and mediums on canvas

Garden Patterns # 2, 16 x 16 in. acrylic, image transfers, paper and mediums on canvas

I'm pressing my luck with the awkwardness of this composition but it gives the poppies a certain self consciousness that I like. I also worked to give them some individuality. Usually poppies look like they don't have a care in the world and are just hanging out in the wind.

These two works were inspired by the poppies in my friend Pauline's garden in Axemouth, Devon when we were there last summer. Alas, my photography of my work does not have the same vibrancy as the real thing.

What's up now?

I woke this morning just in time to hear my interview on Weekend Arts Magazine. After it was taped I couldn't remember one word I had uttered. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I sounded articulate and hopefully interesting to listeners. My artist talk went fairly well today after technology glitches got straightened out. It doesn't seem to matter how much you prepare ahead of time with machines- they get you in the end. It was great to see old friends and new faces for the talk. Jeanette Jobson, fellow blogger showed up and it made me feel very connected to blogland.

That was my last commitment for awhile. I feel fancy free right now. Tomorrow I go to my summer house for two weeks of relaxation and painting. I am in a summer show at the Leyton Gallery at the end of June and I plan to finish two paintings for it. I have some general ideas that will become specific as I start to paint.

My posting decreases greatly in the summer months because the only internet access is by dial up. This summer we've decided we just can't bear the slowness and would rather do without. Email by Blackberry and cell phone will be our connection to the outside world. This will have to do.

All of my work is now up on the Leyton Gallery site for those interested in checking it out. My next post will be in two weeks.

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.

Spring and all it brings

Do you have traditions that celebrate the arrival of spring?

As the earth wakes up with its smell of new growth, the sound of birds and the ever present sun , we are draw silently toward our summer house in Duntara.

From Long Shore looking toward Duntara. If you were a guest of the Ryall's this is what you would see from the guest bedroom when you raised your blind in the morning.

It's the same feeling we get every spring and we know it is time to begin again. This is what marks the new year for us. It is always a time of excitement and expectation as we barrel over the highway to find how the elements have left our house over the winter. It's too early for icebergs yet but you can always hope.

This winter we've had some dandy storms with high winds, but our spot has endured eight years of such weather and nothing has marred it yet. The positive of such high winds will be the fantastic beach combing opportunities. More on this later I'm sure.

I will be away from blogging until Thursday. Right now I'm looking forward to a break. My pieces for the show are almost finished, but it is taking longer than expected. I didn't count on being sick for a week and a half. I've decided to take along two to work on and I'm also delighted that my bet critiquing buddy is back in town and ready to come for a visit.

Each spring The Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, the gallery that represents my work in St. John's, holds a special exhibition titled " Guests of the Gallery" which profiles various artists who are new to the gallery but not represented by it at the time of showing. In 2007 this exhibition was my first opportunity to show my work in a commercial fine art gallery. The opportunity was an important one for me because I had to do all the things I had read that professional artists do as they get ready for a show both mentally and creatively. Guests of the Gallery 2010 is now posted on the Leyton Gallery website. There's an interesting mix of artists and work ranging from sculpture to collage and phototransfer. While I am familiar with the work of some of these artists, most are new to me. When you live in a small city it is much easier to keep tabs on who is creating what kind of work and who is new to the scene.

Which artist/work speaks to you and your interests?