Ongoing...

Continuing on with my theme of quietness from last week, here are a couple more completed experiments. They are small... only 8x8". Working small has it's advantages. It's fairly quick to get something completed, and if it goes horribly awry it isn't a big deal. Just add another layer of paint and keep going....

"Stillness",   8x8" Acrylic on Canvas

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've got a 30x40" canvas on my easel that is a great big mess and I just can't seem to get it to work. Sigh. I'm pretty sure I'm just over-thinking it... I do tend to do that, particularly with the abstract work. With representational stuff I'm pretty confident in my methods, but not so much with this type of piece. I see that as a good thing... stretching and learning and all that... but it can on occasion be pretty frustrating. I'm thinking I'll just set it aside for a few weeks and move on with my Jazz Legends series. 

"Rooted", 8x8" Acrylic on Canvas.
I had been working on this the other way around, with my "roots" being trees. I think it looks much better this way. 

I have a 5 day workshop scheduled in August with Steve Rose... I am SO looking forward to it. I'm sure I will come away from that with a load of new ideas. I haven't done an intensive workshop since Artfest in 2012, and that one forever changed the way I work. This is a much smaller group, and much closer to home. It will be different, but I'm sure it will be wonderful. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures.  :D

Inspired by Nature

"Fable"  Acrylic on Canvas

Recently, I spent a few hours on a long hike in the woods. It's one of those things that's really good for your soul. Living in a large city and not having much contact with nature can be draining... the world is not just concrete and hustle, and we all need some quiet time to filter out the noise. I'm trying to make this a much more regular thing. Always, the next day I wake up feeling so much better, so lately when I've gone into my studio, instead of turning on the music and going straight to my ongoing project, I let the quiet in and start working on a few small experimental canvases inspired by how I was feeling.

The texture in the background was done by scratching into the wet paint with a BBQ skewer. The first time I used this as a tool was in my mail art project  from a couple weeks back. I think this is a valuable reminder about the value of playtime.... to make progress you have to try new things and take some chances. Right? Something not that easy to do if you are totally focused on production.

I've got a few more canvases the same size (oh how i love a good sale at an art supply store... I've got a stockpile...) so I've started a few more in the same colour/style. I'll see how they turn out. So far I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Toronto Outdoor Art Show - 2014 Edition

The fountain at Nathan Phillips Square surrounded by artist booths. This gets turned into an outdoor skating rink in the winter.

I love the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit. As a visitor anyway... I'm not terribly fond of being in outdoor shows, as somehow if I'm participating there is bound to be some kind of extreme weather. I've had extreme heat, torrential rain, hurricane force winds... it's been many years since I've been brave enough to try again. But as a visitor? This show rocks.

First off, it's huge. I tend to be a bit chatty, so if the art strikes me I will stop to ask questions and talk to the artist for a bit. This year it took me the entire afternoon to get around and see everything. And the space was packed, which was wonderful to see. I'm hoping the market is starting to pick up a bit... this is the second show I've been to this year where I've seen people walking around with packages under their arms and artists telling me sales have been good. Makes me hopeful. 

The highlights for me this year were for the most part non-objective painters. There was one landscape painter that did these gorgeous pieces with metallic underpainting... they glowed. But taking a photo that showed their beauty was next to impossible for me, and she doesn't have a website, so I can't really share her work, as much as I loved it. Here are a few of the others I came across...

This is Lori Mirabelli. Her work felt very organic to me... very light and airy, and she uses a lot of my favourite colour combinations. Very friendly as well... we had a great chat about abstract art in general. And that huge piece on the right? Sold. How awesome for her.

This is Nancy Farrell (in the hat... she doesn't like to have her photo taken. I let her believe I was just shooting the painting). Lots of bold, bright colours here that really grabbed me. We had a long talk about process... she works much the same way I do, with very little planning in advance. She just goes with what is happening, and makes it work. Beautiful. I'd really like to own one of these one day. And I'd like my own abstract work to be even half that good.

This is Thelia Sanders Shelton. Thelia works at my neighbourhood art supply store, so we knew each other already. I'm in there about once a week, after all. But I had never seen her paintings before, so I was excited to come across her here. Her work is bright and bold, much like her personality. She had a good show too, with decent sales. We mostly talked about how hot is was in the spot she had... apparently when you apply you can ask to go in a specific spot (not guaranteed, but they will consider it). From my own observation the best places would be around the water, preferably on the south side where there is more shade. She was right smack in the middle.

So theres my short run-down. Once again, I'm considering applying for next year. I never do... first there is my weather issue, but also my husband is away this week every year to visit his family, so I'd be on my own. I'm not sure I can manage a tent on my own. I think I just have to bite the bullet and apply, and worry about the hows if I get in. I'm sure I could recruit a couple friends to help out. But applications are a long way off, and a lot can happen between now and then.....

Explorations: An Art Journal

I've only had a bit of time this week to focus on art... I've had prints to figure out how to ship, work has been crazy, my husband has been away... it's been pretty busy. Trying to stay with my commitment to expand the sources of my inspiration, I took a couple hours to go for a hike with my camera. This resulted in some nice photos and a feeling of calm that's lasted for a few days. When I sat down to try a bit of journaling, the result was obviously influenced by time spent in nature. I like the colour combinations... I think I may work with that a bit on future pieces. 

I have a thing about art journals. I know they are supposed to be much like written journals, where you put all your feelings out there on the page, but I've never really been able to do that. Maybe it comes from being the youngest of four kids, and never feeling like i had any privacy. Or maybe because I'm just not much of a writer... my thing has always just been pictures. Anyway, I did the journaling part, then covered up most of the writing with paint. Doesn't really matter what I wrote, nobody can read it now anyway. Maybe that's the secret to this whole thing... I might have to do a bit more to figure it out. I have a couple books around to guide me through it. 

In the meantime, my working photos for my next Jazz Legend portrait have started to post on Global Vernissage. This month I'm working on Ella Fitzgerald. Follow along and leave your comments... we're giving away 3 signed, limited edition prints to the most active commenters. Good luck!

My art journal, focusing on my time out in the park. The writing is just stream of consciousness about my hike and how it made me feel. Then I worked over it in paint. I don't think this page will ever fully close now... there's a few layers of paint on there.

A photo from my hike. I've always had a problem getting a shot of dragonflies... they move so fast it's hard to catch them. I was surprised this came out so well. It seemed to sit still for me... like it wanted it's picture taken. 

This turtle was hard to see until it came up to the surface.  They can really camouflage themselves. 

Mail Art

I have a nephew who lives on the other side of the country. They moved a lot when he was young (military family), so I don't really know him all that well. Just the same, I suspect we are somewhat alike. He's very creative. He likes art, music and cooking. He gets attached to his animals. Recently, my sister (his mother) tells me he has discovered jazz. Not just jazz in general, but the early stuff. The stuff I've been completely submerged in for the last couple years. I've been meaning to send him something in the mail for some time now, but never really knew what. This week I picked up a copy of a documentary on the history of swing, and figured I'd make a nice little package to send it in. That way I can get in my own playtime, and still cross something off my to-do list. This makes me happy.

This is the front of the package before I addressed it. It's all acrylic. I painted in the block of white in at the end, figuring I'd need a place to put the address that can actually be read. 

Figured I might as well paint the back too. Why not, right?

Finding Inspiration

It would seem I've been doing the same thing for quite some time now. I'm in the middle of my portrait series of Jazz Legends (which will be posted over the next few months), and my mind is wandering to what's next...

And truth is, I have no idea. I feel like I'm getting near the end of my current series, and while I've been working a bit on my non-objective work, I really don't know what's coming. I think I might need to take a bit of down time... let my brain lie fallow, so to speak.

Over the years I've been following a few artists who are well known in the world of art journaling. I find them inspiring. If you are not familiar with art journaling, take a look at the work of Orly Avineri or Erin Faith Allen... its pretty wonderful. Or Julianna Coles... really raw and intimate. It's a different kind of art. A lot of it is stream of consciousness and a mix of images and words. And all of it is made without judgement and is extremely personal. The point is (I think...) to help the artist get to a place where their work is truly authentic. With so much art constantly available to compare ourselves to, that is no easy feat.

I've tried art journaling a few times over the years. I have filled one little 10 page book, which took over a year, and started a second, which has one page half completed. It's not that I don't enjoy doing it, it's more that I have had this overflowing store of ideas that I wanted to get out, and my studio time was extremely limited. I have what I call my little "playbooks", but they are not exactly the same thing. I pick up children's board books at my local goodwill, sand and gesso the pages, and use them for anything and everything. I try out new techniques, new tools, new combinations of media. (The other day I poured rubbing alcohol on a page that had acrylic under oil pastel, just to see what would happen. The answer? A puddle of mud. But now I know). Even that I don't really have a lot of time for. It's more of an "I only have half an hour so I'll work in my book" kind of thing.

But things are changing for me... I now have a reasonably large inventory of paintings to choose from when I find a exhibit or juried show I want to apply for. I don't have to panic that I don't have enough work to fill a booth at an art fair. As my husband regularly points out, I could sell half my inventory and we'd still have work on every wall in the house. It would seem that right now, for the next couple months anyway, I may have some time to just play.

So, I am committing to this: apart from my ongoing Legends series (for which I have set myself a schedule and a deadline), I am not going to focus on producing. I am going to try a bunch of new stuff that may or may not work. I will write about it, and I will take pictures, which may be ugly. In fact, I'm pretty sure they'll be ugly. I'll post them anyway. I'm going to try to start a journaling practice, if only to discover if it's valuable for me. I'm going to take at least one class. And I'm going to find out what's next.

To print or not to print

I've never done prints of my work. If I can't manage to sell my originals, why on earth would I want to also have prints of it?? A few thing got me reconsidering my point of view. First, I've met people who love my work, but there is no way they could possibly afford an original. Given that my main subject matter over the last couple years has been musicians, and that musicians tend to often be as broke as artists, prints would give the subjects of my paintings an opportunity to actually own one. And the whole "print on demand" thing has made things infinitely easier. No longer do you have to do a run of 100 to make it economical... it's all done digitally so you can print one if that's all you need. Seems like there is no real reason not to do it.  So started my foray into the art print reproduction market....

I have a day job. For the past 20 years I have worked in the graphics field, doing various tasks including scanning, image retouching, colour correction, illustration, layout and design. I've worked on art catalogues, I've worked on magazines. At the moment I work in packaging (which is a totally different animal). So I have some experience with reproduction. I know how an image gets from camera to final, and the steps it goes through. And I'm pretty good at it.

First things first... I had to find a printer. I figured I'd start small. A postcard. Easy. Only...

Things have changed in the 12 years since I left the litho world and went off to deal with recycled board and rubber plates. Holy crap, have they ever. Everything is done online now. Everything. They don't even want to talk to you. Can I pick it up? No. You have to pay for shipping. Seriously? You're down the street.... it's less than a five minute drive. No, you cannot pick it up. Well... ok then. I guess we'll ship it. The specs for uploading your files were very precise. File type, size, resolution, icc profile... how does the artist who has not had the benefit of my experience ever get this right?

I got my postcards and they looked great. I've even had a second image printed, along with business cards with an image on them. The upside of everything being done online is that the price has come down considerably, and I have to admit, having them shipped to my door is pretty damn convenient.

Samples on paper and canvas

So, I've recently begun step two... a full-sized, signed, limited edition print of an original work. I had to find another printer, because I want acid free paper and archival inks. Seems I've gone from the guys who didn't want to talk to me for any reason, ever (email only) to a guy who doesn't return (and I suspect doesn't even read) his email. Sigh. Still, he did samples for me and they look awesome, so I suppose I shall use the phone.

I got proofs on a 23 mil archival paper, and canvas. As an artist I've purchased a lot of paper in my time. I have a load of it in my studio. I don't know what 23 mil is??? All my paper is weighed in lbs/100 sheets. Or grams. I don't have mils listed on anything. Well, just so you know, it is a lovely, very white, very heavy and very stiff paper. I would have to ship that flat, no way can I roll it. Oh my, that could get expensive....

I'm still trying to figure this out. Email was sent (and not replied to) on Thursday, so I guess on Monday I'm going to call and try to get this sorted. I have 3 prints to send off to my Global Vernissage commenters, so I hope they can be patient just a little while longer.