Crimson

Crimson

12" x 16" oil on gallery canvas

Available for purchase from my website

Its been a long weekend in Canada, and has been horrible weather-wise.  Unseasonably cold and wet which makes everyone cranky and housebound.  However, the benefit of that is lots of studio time which I put in and was productive.

I'm working my way through old canvases, obliterating previous work and reclaiming it for new images.  I'm also working with a palette knife and lots and lots of paint.  There is something quite satisfying in applying oil paint like butter to a surface.  

Mixing colours in advance is key to me so that I don't lose the flow, or have to go back half way through to try to recreate the same colour.   A variety of palette knives is essential to enable me to create angles and small details.

The drawback is that the process, for me, becomes messy.  I always seem to end up with paint all over me.   The drying time is also an issue, with pieces taking a month at times to dry enough to be able to ship them.  And yes, paint consumption is higher, but I'm never one for hoarding tubes of paint to just look at them or eke them out.  They're there to be used as tools towards the final image.

Of course the technique makes me work more from instinct and apply paint freely instead of trying to lock down detail.  And the speeds up the process a lot with a large canvas being completed in 3 or 4 days as opposed to 3 or 4 weeks.

You may recall a smaller painting in a higher key, similar to this done a few months ago in acrylic, now available from Spurrell Gallery.  I enjoy revisiting an image and changing size, colour and medium to see what happens.  

Artbomb

 No, don't run for cover, its safe, just an explosion of colour that you'll love!

I'm thrilled to announce a new venture with Artbomb.  What is Artbomb  ?

Artbomb is a carefully curated, subscriber-based daily online auction featuring artwork by Canadian art stars. Launched in December, 2011, Artbombdaily.com is a brand new, successful way for artists to market and sell their work to thousands of potential buyers.

Artbomb is a service that delivers one email featuring one to three artworks into subscribers’ inboxes every morning - seven days a week. Bidding opens with a starting bid at 6 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m. at which point the highest bid wins the piece. All works are delivered ready to hang.

Artbomb is coast to coast across Canada with outstanding curators in each region working hard to find the stars of the local scene. Through their experienced eyes, Artbomb highlights an incredible array of exciting new pieces everyday: paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, drawing and mixed media.

It's Artbomb’s goal to make it easy to access incredible, fresh, relevant Canadian art. .

On Monday, May 20, 2013, one of my paintings, Dragon Gate, will be available for bidding on Artbomb.  May 20th is a holiday in Canada, all the more reason to celebrate Victoria Day!  As an artist herself, I'm sure Queen Victoria would approve.

Dragon Gate is a 15" x 30" custom framed multimedia piece using layers of tissue, gesso, gold leaf and oil paint, giving lots of depth and a true "watery" feel that I hope you'll enjoy.

There is an old Chinese legend of the Dragon Gate in which koi fish swim upstream in the Yellow River, through waterfalls and other obstacles to reach the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain was a point called "Dragon Gate". The legend says that when any koi succeeded in climbing the falls and reaching Dragon Gate, it would be transformed into a dragon, one of the most auspicious creatures in Chinese culture. Based on that legend the Koi became a symbol of worldly aspiration and advancement.

I don't recommend anything that I don't believe in and I do believe that Artbomb delivers in quality and reliability.  With curators across Canada choosing new art daily, you can't go wrong.  I encourage you to test it out by signing up for their daily email  and get the benefit of new available artwork direct to your inbox daily.  If you don't enjoy that burst of colour, light and creation daily, you can easily unsubscribe. (but I think its a bit addictive to see fresh art daily...)

Make a note to watch out for Artbomb on Monday, May 20th and perhaps this unique piece could be on your wall soon!  Artbomb is also on Facebook  and Twitter  if you'd prefer to find them there.

I'd love to hear what you think about Dragon Gate and the Artbomb concept for making art available.

PS: If you've missed the auction and would like a print of this painting or a note card,I've made that option available online. Simply choose your size and support and order direct.

May Fish print giveaway

Glazing over

 Untitled

12" x 24" oil

There is a challenge to painting a fish in water and painting a fish that actually looks as if its underwater.

Fish can look as if they are sitting on the surface of water instead of being submerged under the surface.  This is due to observational skills of the light and value of colours and understanding how water changes form and colour as it deepens.

 

Colour is subdued as water deepens, similar to the effects of twilight softening lines and reducing colour values.  The water and the light reflecting on fish changes and the water must be seen as part of the fish instead of depicting the fish in clear definition as it would be out of the water.


This painting of a koi is at about the mid stage.  I have the form and value of the fish in place and am adding glazing layers of oils to create depth to the piece and ensure the fish has the illusion of being under the water's surface.

One way I'll do this is to build the shading of the fish with my glaze for the water.  This builds depth without adding strong colour.  The other way I add depth is to have some small particles of pollen or fish food on the water surface.  I've added some of this already as a spatter technique and will continue to glaze over and add more spatters in different colours,  Glazing them makes them appear as if they are suspended in the water's depth with the final touch of brightness at the surface as a final step.   Edges are kept soft and some lost to indicate movement, such as in the tail of the fish.

My glaze is a mix of linseed oil and turps with transparent paint.  I can add it with a brush and rub out with a soft cloth as required to obtain the effect I need.   Surfaces must be dry between glazes or risk ruining a piece very quickly.  The build up of colour adds a richness to a painting that solid painting can never achieve and works especially well in aquatic paintings.

A brush with the law

Many years ago I had a unique job that dealt with some unique people, many of them with criminal records, social and economic hardship and the school of hard knocks.  It was part of my job to get them headed back on the right path again.  Not always successfully for a variety of reasons.

Because of my work with the criminal justice system and dealing with people's lives I became interesting in pursuing that line of work as a parole officer.  I was accepted into the system, assigned a active parole officer to shadow and then given the curriculum.  Part of which was a long stint of duty at Dartmoor Prison.  Dartmoor is a beautiful part of England and the moor is open, barren  and mysterious.  The prison when seen rising out of the mists is quite the scene.  However  Dartmoor was quite a way from where I lived in Somerset and with two small children and living on my own with no one else to look after them, it would have been impossible to do the necessary training. 

There is part of me that is always interested in what makes a criminal a criminal.  What set of circumstances, what family background, what mental health issues or just bad choices leads them down that path?  And part of me always feels sorry for those who resort to that way of life.

Today, when looking at the local news, there was a story about a woman who'd escaped custody yesterday.  It was her birthday.  Maybe she wanted a chance to enjoy it, but she was soon rounded up and back inside again.   I looked at her image and wondered how she got to where she is now.  What was her story?  This is what prompted the sketch and my reminiscing about my past life.

It reminds me of Karin Jurick's series of 100 Faces done from individuals arrested for various crimes.  I don't think I'll pursue it that far, but a face does say so much, doesn't it?

Henpecked

 
Of course most people know the phrase "henpecked" meaning persistent nagging usually, but in the true context of the word in the animal world, its a bit more than that.

As readers of the blog know, there are usually chickens in the barn, mostly laying hens these days, keeping me supplied with fresh eggs daily.  Well, there is a pecking order in a flock of birds and sometimes that gets out of order and they turn on one another.  It starts as a little peck or a feather pull then can rapidly progress to constant pecking of the victim til the bird loses feathers, often most of them on top of their head and neck.  Chickens are very aggressive at times and will gang up on and kill another bird that shows signs of distress or bleeding.  I presume its a throwback to the "survival of the fittest" principle, but never nice to witness.

Once noticed, the pecked hens are removed from the flock and left to explore the barn with BD and Buddy, the ducks, til the feathers grow back and they can be reintroduced to the flock.

The sketch at the top of this post is of one of the of henpecked hens who have the run of the barn and garden now, along with BD and Buddy.  The feathers are starting to grow back again but they look pretty scruffy around the head and neck still.  Of course moulting around this time of year doesn't help either.  Here they are enjoying spring, ready for an adventure into the meadow to hunt for bugs.

Work, art and work

 Victoria Beach  Pastel 4" x 6"  

available on auction at Daily Paintworks

Has a week really passed by since I wrote?  I was full of good intentions, but life got away from me.

The studio move proved to be more time consuming than anticipated, but it should be finished by the end of this weekend and I am in there more or less and just starting to set up a new painting.  I am determined to put paint to canvas this weekend.  Provided I can find my palette...  That's the problem with moving, things change places, even if intentions are good.

Here are a couple of views of the new studio as it currently is laid out.  A table will go down the middle of the room and a few things shifted around. Its just far to neat and tidy right now! Not a sign of creative juices flowing anywhere.  That will all change soon.

 

The new space is about double the previous studio and in fact I get two studios eventually.  My old studio needs some plumbing work, so once that is done I can set that up too and have a production and a teaching studio.  Or that's my plan.  Like all renovations, its a huge investment of time, money and energy and one thing leads to another, which leads to another and so on.


Because I haven't had much painting or even sketching time this week, I was getting antsy so did this little drawing/painting in pastel of Victoria Beach, PEI.  The view across the cove with canola flowering bright yellow was irresistable.  Its available on auction this week through Daily Paintworks.  I am putting my small paintings on DPW and so far am having positive results with it.  Like every art sale site there are positive and negative aspects, but overall I'm getting more exposure and enjoy seeing the new art every day.

Speaking of art sales, there's a new Canadian site called Artbomb that's worth watching.  If you subscribe, you receive one email daily with the work of one to three Canadian artists available to bid on.  Bidding is from 6am - 11pm (Eastern time) for one day only.  If your bid is successful, the art is shipped direct to you within two weeks. Only Canadian artists are featured and its good to see the talent from artists across this country being showcased.

I have a couple of other projects in the pipeline and will say more about them in the next couple of weeks.  What with supplying galleries, selling paintings, marketing and admin, as well as my full time job, I really need cloning to get it all done!