Art Journal: Class Demo

A demo I did in my recent class. Someone spotted a face in my random paint splatters, and I just went with it. I
think it looks vaguely Asian... like a kabuki mask. 

Over the month of March I taught a class at a local senior's centre. I wasn't so sure about the teaching thing... I'd done a couple workshops, but they were short enough that I couldn't really get to the core of my subject. It ended up being more like a step by step thing than an actual class where I imparted any kind of wisdom. This class was different... not only because I had more than a few hours to get all my information out, but because the class was based on the thing I have struggled with for most of my artistic life: how can we generate ideas?

That was always the thing that was my biggest stumbling block. When I was in school it was something we never touched on. Everyone else seemed to be overflowing with possibilities, while I doodled in my sketchbook and stared at my blank canvas wishing something... anything... would come to me. It really sucked. And it made me feel like I was somehow less than the others. Less of an artist. Not creative at all, in fact. And that, combined with all the other stuff... the brutal critiques, the absence of technical instruction, the complete lack of support... made me reluctant to label myself "artist". 

Twenty years later and I've figured out how my brain works. For me, anyway, it's about latching on to something that fascinates me, and working through all the crappy ideas until I get to the good stuff. Sometimes it takes a while. There's writing, there's reading. I am usually obsessed with something for a while before it starts coming out in my little books. The books themselves are like some little time-travel journey through my brain... a working through ideas until I hit on the thing that I think I can take somewhere interesting. I brought a pile of these journals with me on the first day of class, and everyone had a chance to take a good look while I babbled on about how important it was to work in a series so your ideas have a chance to percolate and the easiest, most obvious things get out of the way. It must have had some sort of impact, because everyone showed up on week two with a book started, and an idea ready to go.

One thing that really impressed me about this class was how open they were to everything. I have some pretty unorthodox ways of working, especially when I'm beginning a project... I start without any idea of what I'm going to do, I use all kinds of homemade and improvised tools, I work with what shows up rather than planning everything out. I'm a fan of painting over things that don't work. I got no resistance from this group. The tried everything. It was awesome.

I hope I'm like that when I'm "old". But you know, not one of them seemed old to me. Could be because I'm no youngster myself...the older I get the less a difference in age seems to mean. But I think it was more their spirit of adventure and openness to new ideas. That's the thing I need to hold on to.

Creative Immersion

 Happy Day 11: The only painting I actually completed this week. Believe it or not, this was painted from a model. As in a human. I know, it looks like a landscape. The exercises we did really stretched the way we look at things. 

Happy Day 9: I pulled up in front of the
main studio building. I managed not to 
get too lost this year... I got lost, but 
was only about 10 minutes off course. 
Much better than last time.    

I spent this past week in Dunedin, Ontario, at the Creativity Art Retreat (so apologies to those looking for my #100happydays posts on social media... the internet connection was a bit spotty). Long time readers might recognize the name from my visit there last year. It was such a great experience I decided I would do it again. And it did not disappoint.

HD 10: Awesome, light filled studio space
at the retreat. And some truly inspiring 
people to spend time with.

The workshop I decided on this year was working from the figure, with artist V. Jane Gordon. Right from the first day she tested our willingness to be open to the new and different. It was certainly not like any workshop I've ever done, or like any figure drawing/painting experience I've ever had.... we had the model moving constantly, were changing the orientation of our work as we worked, we were incorporating things we found outside, we had to change materials, go from standing to sitting, get right up close to things... it was a very, very different experience.

Day12: Awesome collection of books
here... and time to sit and enjoy them! 

Happy Day 13: I got out my quill pen and
ink for this assignment... I had forgotten 
how much I like drawing in ink.  It's been 
years since I've used anything but a marker. 

Behind V. Jane's thinking is the act of inquiry. She has written a book about it, which I purchased for myself, because there are so many things I am curious about and I'm positive I have only scratched the surface of what this is all about. One thing she has managed to convince me of is the need to carry a sketchbook, for what she calls "data collection". That's something that I've tried to do, off and on, for most of my adult life, but never really did with any conviction. I think that stems back to my University days, when we had to pass the book in to the professor every couple weeks... the feedback I got was how to make the images better as finished drawings, so I never really saw it as a tool to collect information, but only a way to practice my drawing skills. I preferred to do this on a larger scale, so my sketchbook largely remained empty. In a lot of ways, I seem to have missed the entire point of it.

A drawing done while looking at the model, while
at the same time running my fingers over my face...
I would get confused as to what I was actually drawing,
me or her. The final result is certainly more interesting
than your typical life drawing.

I think it is going to take me a while to absorb all the things we worked on and figure out how I can apply them in my own practice. It is such a different way of thinking that  if I can work it out, it may have the potential to transform my work. I have a couple projects to finish up before I can truly get going, but I'm pretty sure I will be spending a fair bit of time over the next few weeks, sketchbook in hand, intently studying some little detail of something or other, and recording it for future use.

I was playing with the panoramic settings on my camera... the view of the river, from behind the River House, where I was staying.

Finding the Image | One Day Workshop at the Art Gallery of Lambeth

"The Brass", 24x36" Acrylic on Canvas

There was a time when starting a painting was the most difficult thing ever. In all the classes I had taken we did sketches, thumbnails for composition, worked out everything in advance... but for some reason that just didn't work for me. By the time I got started there was too much already in my head, and within minutes I was anxious and unhappy with the way it was looking.

That all changed when I discovered there was a whole group of painters that worked without a plan. Intuitive painters. They worked things out as they went along, solving problems as they came up. What a revelation for me!! I was fortunate enough to take a workshop with Jesse Reno, who in sharing his many words of wisdom, set me off on the path I've been on for the last few years. 

The time has come for me to start sharing what I've learned. I've put together a one day workshop for painters who find starting the hardest part. We will do a couple short creative exercises, then move on to a small painting on canvas or paper, starting with.... well, nothing. It will be messy, it will be fun, and by the end you will have one more tool to beat that block that comes from staring at a blank canvas. 

Call the Art Gallery of Lambeth (in London, Ontario)  at 519-652-5556 for registration details. Supply list will be sent by email to participants, or you can buy a materials kit directly from the gallery. I want to keep the class small, so registration is limited. 

Saturday January 17

Intermediate - Some Experience Required

10 - 4 pm

$75  + HST

+ material kit available at the AGL

See you there!!

New Direction

Series of work created at my retreat last week. "Sound of the River", 1-4.
Each canvas 24x24", Mixed media. 

 For me, part of the lure of going on an art retreat, like the one I was just at, is the potential for learning something new and exciting. This one wasn't quite as far outside my comfort zone as the last one I did, but it was a good opportunity to do something different under the guidance of an artist with a different aesthetic. The weeklong workshop gave me uninterrupted creative time, and Steve Rose gave me some great new tools to work with. Last week I posted photos of the location, this week I thought I'd share what I did while I was there.

Our only real requirement for the week was that we work in multiples. He was aiming for a diptych/triptych kind of thing, but he got more of a series from me. They go together, but they don't necessarily have to stay together. I've got these ordered more or less how I produced them, although I worked on them all at the same time, working on one while another was drying. Right near the end of the week I had a hilarious conversation with one of the other participants... she hadn't actually realized I had 4 canvases on the go. She thought I had been painting over the same one day after day. And she wasn't alone... a couple others had thought the same thing!

"Sound of the River | 1"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

"Sound of the River | 2"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

"Sound of the River | 3"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

"Sound of the River | 4"  24x24" Mixed Media on Canvas

You can see I was getting bolder by the day. The first one is pretty much paint with a bit of texture medium added here and there. By the end I was attaching stuff, troweling on drywall compound and using found objects to print with. If you click on them you will get a bigger image... you can see it better. I haven't decided yet if I actually like these or not, but I really did have fun making them.

A Week Away

The main house where the retreats are held.
Studio space on one side, b&b on the other. 

I spent my vacation from my day job this year at Creativity Art Retreat, in Dunedin Ontario. I live only about an hour and a half away from Dunedin, but I had to look on a map to see where it was... I'd never heard of it. There's not much there, but for a week of uninterrupted creation time, that works extremely well.

The place is like going to a country cottage. There's an old claw foot bathtub in the upstairs bathroom... and a door that opens onto a balcony. Yes, from the bathroom. The place is right beside the river, and they held daily yoga classes outside on the deck where you could hear the river rushing through. The owner, Lynn Connell, is quite the powerhouse. She is not only an accomplished painter, but she also founded the art retreat, AND an orphanage in Africa. Pretty inspiring person to spend a week with. Shelly, who handles all the day to day stuff, is really warm and welcoming. Within a day or two it felt like I was visiting with a friend instead of a paying guest. I had an overwhelming urge to help with the dishes. She wouldn't let me.

The artist that worked across from me for
the week.

Lynn and another participant working away.

My workshop was with Steve Rose. "Freedom of Expression: Abstraction to Non-Objective painting". I have a lot of good things to say my instructor. He reads people extremely well... He's one of those people who takes about 5 minutes to figure out what you need to get out of the course, and changes his approach to suit. There were a couple people who were new to abstract painting, and to those people he gave a fair bit of guidance. For those of us who have been on the path for a bit, it was more of a question/answer session... did you try this? What happens if you do that? He gave me some problem solving skills that will help when I run into my usual compositional issues. Light or dark? Tear a page out of a magazine and stick it on... which way looks more balanced? Stuff like that... it was immensely helpful. I left with four, good size paintings in my car that were more or less finished, along with a few smaller ones that were done in my usual less-than-planned way, but utilizing what I'd learned and making them work. And while I wasn't really sure about them at the time, they've grown on me. And I'm feeling a bit more confident that I can continue on, and maybe actually get somewhere.

The "living" room. Books everywhere, and all art books. Must have
taken years to amass such a collection. I could have spent the week just in here. 

The kitchen of the main guest house. There was another house on the property,
and a group of participant stayed there.

The main studio space. Lovely and bright with lots of windows.

Wired

The photo I started with... Not even
close to what I ended up with 

So, I figured since I posted all my drawings last week I should go ahead and post my wire "portrait", no matter how it turned out... after all, the whole point of taking a class is to try something I'd never done before. It was interesting figuring out how to bend the wire into the correct shapes (or close, anyway), how to make the connections, what to do with the ends... overall an interesting project. I couldn't manage to make it 3d like some of the other people in the class, but it did seem to take on a life of it's own at one point. I had no intention of making it this big, but I started with an eye and had to keep everything else to scale. It's about 20 inches. And a bit unwieldy.

Here I have a close up of one area so you can get an idea of how the connections look. I've clipped it here to a piece of black mat board, so it shows up better. I may go ahead and mount it to something... not quite sure what. I'll let it stew for a bit and see what I can come up with. 

I have to say I was very impressed with the finished projects in the class. All of them were completely original and showed a lot of willingness to take risks. I think the credit for that has to go to the instructor, Kim Lee Kho. Most of these people have taken classes with her before, and I was assured at the start that this was a judgement free zone. All artists need that from time to time. No matter how useful a good critique can be, sometimes it is just not required.

Reaching

Reaching For Infinity
18x24" Acrylic on Canvas

I finished something... finally. I've had up to 8 canvases on the go for much of the last 2 months. Painted and painted over, with a few sitting at that almost finished point with one area that I just can't get right. It's been faces for the most part. Something looking just enough off that I can't let it go. This piece has had the face repainted 4 times. I'm happy with it now... the expression is what I was after... though it is perhaps a little more detailed than I wanted. I was going for something a bit more indistinct. Maybe I'll have to give the pose another try. My husband suggested turning it to horizontal... and that might be intriguing. I'm thinking of doing a few canvases based around water. Since water has dominated my life the last little while, I wasn't surprised to see it coming up in the creative exercises I was doing. This pose could work well around that theme, perhaps with the angle of the head changed slightly. Gliding or swimming... flowing... not sure yet, but maybe...

a stencil I cut from a plastic sheet.
I figure since I seem to have a
fascination with hummingbirds, I
will use this one again.

I've been taking some photos of my working process... mostly because I've been asked to teach a class at this year's "Doors Open" event at the Art Gallery of Lambeth. I have never taught adults, though I've volunteered in my son's classroom in his younger years and have thoroughly enjoyed working with the kids. I figured I should get the process nailed down.... even though it changes with each piece, I do have a basic process I go through with pretty much every canvas.

Work in progress

I tend to like working with stencils. I make these stencils myself... usually I will size my drawings on the computer and cut them out of paper, or if i think it's something I will use repeatedly I will cut it out of these little plastic sheets I get at DeSerres (they are in the baking section, not the art supply section. You can find some seriously awesome tools in baking sections). This particular drawing I also used to carve myself a stamp. In this photo you can see difference between the stencil and the stamp. I like the roughness I can get with a stamp. It's always more evident on stretched canvas because there is no hard backing. If I want a clear impression I will lay the canvas on the floor and put a hard cover book underneath it.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to walk through during my class, but I've got to start thinking about it. It would be kinda fun to just wing it and work through a small piece on the fly... but I don't know if the organizers would like that too much. I'll probably be painting on site most of the weekend, so I might leave that for my demo. Sometimes working from my gut gets much more interesting results. If you happen to be in London on Sept. 28 or 29th, stop in and say hello. I'll be there all weekend.

Oh, and I've finally got my website online. Want to check it out? I'm at incolorstudio.com.

New Artwork Created at ArtFest

After writing about how great my Artfest experience was, I think I need to post what I created while I was there. Photography of my art usually poses a problem for me... I really need to get myself a good camera and figure out how to light things to avoid the glare. I'll put that on my "to do" list...

Both these pieces were from Jesse Reno's class

The third piece I did from this class I think I inadvertently ruined. I rolled it up to fit it into my suitcase, and even with a week of having very heavy books lying on top, it won't seem to flatten out. Well, lesson learned. It's my least favourite of the bunch anyway. 

These next three pieces are from Erin Faith Allen's class. After two days with Jesse Reno, I found starting very easy and just got right to laying in the background. I think I might have had a problem starting if I'd done this class first... the blank page can sometime stop me before I start.

Acrylic and charcoal on paper. 

Acrylic and collage on paper

Acrylic, image transfer, charcoal and pastel on paper

These classes were probably the most productive workshops I've ever attended. I approach a class as a learning experience, really not expecting to produce anything I'd ever show anyone. My work gets filed away, I move on and sometimes what I've learned shows up in my future pieces. I think these classes have definitively changed the way I will forever approach my canvas.