Time Flies…

Well, I’m not sure where July went…except that I must have spent most of it on the go…I flew out West and back again and put almost 3,000 km on my van on top of that! I am hoping for a quieter August!

Somewhere in July I did spend a wonderful week at The Haliburton School of the Arts…at the new campus…what a beautiful spot and excellent facility…so many amazing courses available! Now, having been there for the first time, it is going to be hard to choose what to take next time! LT and I want to make this a yearly event. We are going to be torn though...we both want to take another course with John, but there is also a class on printmaking - impasto waterbase - that looks really cool...there are so many really cool classes there that it gets to be overwhelming when you start really looking!

I love the doors into the school…bright, bright red, with things incorporated into them – both inside and out…inside there was a pot with oversized paintbrushes in it and a lovely thick branch…carved into the wood over the doors (can’t really see it in the photo) it says “Within these walls the walls within disappear.” What a wonderful quote to walk under each morning…and how fitting for a place of creative learning.














This is the new campus...













We never did manage a full walk about the Sculpture Forest...but here are a few that we passed daily...the Inukshuk that welcomed us each day...


















The Horse and Rider that were very cool...

























My favorite was this totem made of carved stone...it is called "Dreaming Stones" by Kevin Lockau...


















It is too bad that we didn't do the Sculpture Forest walk...we didn't realize how exhausting the class we took was going to be...not only being mentally tired from the actual learning and pushing ourselves...but also the lugging of all of our stuff out to the various locations was tiring! Next year we will have to make a point of doing the walk even if we are tired!

I absolutely loved the class we took…"Introduction to Oil Painting - Plein Air". John Anderson is a great teacher…we were a class of 12, with varying degrees of experience and coming from many different artistic backgrounds...John managed beautifully to pull us all through the week, each of us learning and growing individually…he balanced group and individual teaching with a skill that could only come out of a love of both the medium and being able to, and loving to, teach.

For me, personally, it was a week of intense, but good, frustration…I had my own private little lesson on perspective – I have never had any formal art training – a nasty elementary art teacher scared me as far away from art in middle and high school as I could go! We all had a few lessons on colour mixing which I was thrilled about! We geared up and hiked off to some beautiful spots to paint and I actually painted! All of my pieces are very amateurish, but from the first painting of the week to the one I did on the last day’s location…definite improvement and growth can be seen. What more can a person ask for?

We spent day 1 in the studio...learning about direct, indirect and oblique light, doing some colour mixing and a painting from a photo...here we are on day 2 setting up at our first 'plein air' location...these buildings are on the campus...so the lugging of equipment and supplies wasn't far...part of the learning curve included learning how to make it out to a location in 1 trip...with everything you needed, but not any more!












And here is part of the scene we were painting from...












Day 3 found us out on our second venture - on the side of a road outside of the town of Haliburton...I have already forgotten the name of the town it was near and it isn't on the map...should have written it down...


























Here is the scene we were painting...














Here are LT and my canvases as we were working away...














Day 4 found us in town, right off the main street of Haliburton, set up along a river...this was a lovely spot...I enjoyed being able to be in the shade - after baking in the sun the day before!

Here we are all picking our spots and getting set up...














Here is the scene...














And here is my canvas in progress...it is really, really hard to create a sense of depth!














Day 5 found us back out towards that small town I can't remember the name of...on a side road, off a side road...then hike on down the trail and you come to this beautiful spot...the falls have a name too...but I have also forgot that! At this location, I wanted to focus on trying to paint rocks...the little scene that I chose looked like something I might find out on Georgian Bay...sort of...the rocks, anyway...

There were many different places for people to set up on this, our last, venture out...














This is the scene that I chose...


















And here is a progress shot of my canvas...















Here is the scene that John chose...















And here is a picture that I took of John out on his point...LT is going to print it up and deliver it to him...as well as being an artist and a teacher, he also manages the Curry's art supplies store in Barrie, Ontario...


















On the Thursday after classes, there was a 'walk about'...we could all go visit the other classes, talk to people about the class and see what they were doing...here is LT and my corner of the studio...














And a bunch of our canvases...














It is amazing how close you can get to what was, only 5 days before, a group of strangers...I didn't get a good group shot on my camera...but many were taken and I hope to get 1 as a memento of our week...there were goodbyes and hugs all round as we packed up to leave...exhausted, but exhilarated! Here is LT packing up her pizza boxes with wet canvases...


















When I said earlier what more could I ask for?...well, there was more! LT and I stayed for the week with a friend of mine that I used to work with back when I was a picture framer…Barb…she and her husband let us join them at their cottage in Minden…it was beautiful and so great to see Barb again…I hadn’t seen her since I moved to Ottawa from Orillia…almost 7 years ago! So each day after LT and I got home from class, we shared dinner making duties and many bottles of wine…catching up on old times…Barb was looking after 2 of her grandbabies – aged 2 and 4…so the cottage was hopping with activity! It was a totally wonderful week all round.

A whole lot of things on the go…

I am flying out to Vancouver tomorrow for a few days to help out my brother with some things…my sister and I are going out together…it is going to be an interesting trip and, I hope, a productive one…

I will be back from out west for a day or 2 and then I am heading off to Haliburton to take a week long art course with a girlfriend - LT – the one who came and led the painting party back in February. We are going to the Haliburton School of the Arts and are going to take one of the summer courses - Oil Painting – Introduction to Plein Air. I am so excited and so terrified all at the same time! Of course, my nasty, negative voice is telling me that I am going to make a fool of myself…that I am insane to take a class where I will be expected to actually paint something that looks like what I am looking at…I have never done that…don’t sketch, though I would love to…what my nice, supportive voice is trying to tell me, over all this negative din, is that I’ll do fine…I am not taking this class thinking that I will somehow instantly turn into a realist painter…I don’t even what to…but I am hoping to learn a bit about mixing colours and maybe adding some depth to my abstract paintings…if I can come away having learnt anything, it will all be worth it…and I am sure that at least that much will happen…and if I can come away with some additional skills - great…and if I can come away with some fledgling, early stage abstract landscapes…then I’ll be ecstatic! Just to be surrounded by creative people for a week is going to be a joy. Add to this that LT and I are staying with another girlfriend of mine that I used to picture frame with and haven’t seen since I left Orillia. We are going to be staying with her at her cottage for the week…it is going to be an all round fantastic week…old friends and creativity!

I have been flitting about in my studio this past week or so…have started many paintings…am just about to finish 1…I am still having so much fun playing with the various gels and modeling compounds…they are such fun but take so long to dry! So I keep starting more and more canvases…but this is all good because I also just found out about a week ago that I got juried into a show this fall instead of juried out!!! It is a 1 day festival on September 19th. It is the Old Ottawa South Music and Art Festival. I just had a look at the web site and my name is up there and one of my paintings…wow…how exciting! Looking at everyone’s pieces, it looks like it is going to be a good show…there are painters, potters, glass artists, sculptors and jewellery makers…this is going to be fun!

So…it is a very good thing that I have lots of paintings on the go! I am also looking forward to a burst of inspiration and creative activity to result from the art course. As well, just before the Festival, I will have had almost 2 weeks at the Island – my sister’s cottage – where I go each summer to re-group, relax and feed my soul.

Summers used to seem so long…when I was young, we would get out of school for summer holidays and everyone would go off to do whatever they did in the summer and in the fall when we all came back to school, it seemed that so much had changed…we had changed…so much had happened. Now, the summer seems to sneak up on me and it is half over before I even realize it and once I take a look and get everything ‘booked’ and sorted out…it’s gone! The only time I get a slight titch of the old summer feelings is after I have been at the Island for about a week and have wound down and slipped into ‘cottage mode’…then I get a fleeting sense of those long summer days…but as soon as it comes, it is gone again. So sweet when I can sense it though!

I have some shots of a big painting (24”x36”) that I have been working on…not sure if it is finished...

I started out with a base coat of phthalo green and then slathered on some modeling gel for an overall background texture


















Missed some progress stages in here…but I divided the canvas into 3 sections, added more gel to make each section’s texture different, divided the left section into 3 again and started painting…













Details…































Finished painting the lolly-pop flowers and then decided that I didn’t like the middle section…it was too empty…













So I painted 3 small canvases…2 of them have elements that directly link to the big canvas and the middle one has elements that link it to the 2 small canvases…I am pretty sure that I like the addition of the 3 small canvases…but haven’t stuck them on yet…am going to live with it for a bit first…













Details…



































I think I originally started this canvas back in February…did the base coat then…then it sat for a few months until I got inspired by the modeling gel…I guess that was only a little over a month ago…it feels like I have been working with it for a long time…I am almost sorry that I am feeling finished with it…

Oh...I also had lunch with a friend on Friday...she runs the ArtSpace wall at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa...there is a group show for the months of July and August...we were going to hang the show after lunch but she had to head out of town, so she will be hanging it tomorrow...I left her 5 small paintings to put up...I'll have to get in to take a picture...

Not using a brush or a palette knife…

The June challenge in the Abstract and Contemporary Art forum at WetCanvas is (was) to “…create a painting without using a brush or palette knife.” I had decided way back at the beginning of June to try this…I have no idea where the month has disappeared to…but here it is the last day of June!!!

I thought that this challenge was something that I would be fully open to and well equipped for...I have no qualms about using my fingers or any instrument that will get the paint on the canvas the way I want to slather, smoosh, or dab it on…except I always like to do a base coat or 2 of a colour first...I’m not too anal about a lot of things…but I do have a thing about starting a painting on a nicely coloured, smooth canvas…even if I am going to go and put all kinds of texture on it! So it was more of a challenge than I first thought...having to start my painting without the usual smooth base…it is very easy to just reach for a brush without thinking about it!

I applied the first base coat with a credit card-type piece of plastic…hard to get smooth…but I am going to accept uneven into my life - for this painting anyway…














Once the first coat was dry, I put on a second, darker blue base coat, again with the credit card-type thing…it came out looking a lot like denim and I quite liked it and so decided to leave a fair amount of the background showing in the overall piece…


















After the base coats were dry, I applied the modeling gel…again using the credit card-type things, and then using the laptop hard drive metal holder for the honey comb-like texture, the old metal number 3, my plastic triangle painting support and a pen cap for the other textures…then I had to wait for a few days for that to dry!













Here is where I am at now…maybe finished…not sure yet…I used q-tips and my fingers to apply the paints and inks over the modeling gel. I dribbled inks on some bits of cheese cloth that I had set on some waxed paper and let them dry, and then I splattered more inks on them using an old tooth brush. After I stuck the hardened cheese cloth pieces onto the canvas with the modeling gel, I dabbed on some acrylic paints using q-tips.


















This has been a fun challenge and it is funny, but in a way it has made me less fussy about using some of my brushes...I have these beautiful, pristine brushes that I usually use for everything, but I also have these old, abused ones that I never used…now I find myself using these old beat up ones more…on other pieces I am working on…for smushing the paint into the textured parts…for this piece I couldn’t use the brushes, but for these other pieces…boy is it so easy to use my old ones…

Wreck This Journal…

So, as well as joining another WetCanvas project…I also joined another online book group…same person leading as the last one…new book…

The book being done this time is called “Wreck This Journal” by Keri Smith. I am late starting in…it is week 3 already, but that doesn’t really matter…especially for this book project.

When my book arrived last week and I had my first look through it (it takes just a few minutes to go through...just looking...not 'doing'!) my initial response to it was ”WOW...I must be a prude! I can’t do many of the things this book is instructing me to do.” - I hadn't expected that from myself!

You see, this isn’t your average book…it is an exercise in deconstruction…the subtitle of the book is “To Create is to Destroy”. The idea is to make you go against your better judgement, to ignore and quiet your inner critic…to get your messy, dirty, and destructive “who cares about the final product” child to come out and play. It is an exercise in letting go...

When I first read about this online book project on Jamie’s site: The Next Chapter, I thought – hey, I can do that…it should be easy…I am usually pretty good about not ‘playing by the rules’...when it comes to painting and creating, anyway…because I don’t know a lot of the rules…so ignorance is bliss, I figure…but this book wants me to do things I wouldn’t think of doing to a book…rip pages out…put food on it…yuk! How can I do that??? I am ok with writing on the pages…I have always done that with my books, break the spine…I can’t read a book without breaking the spine…fold over corners, sure…but take it in the shower? Rub dirt into it…rip and tear and in other ways destroy it? Here I run into trouble…I guess I do always want a final product…I hate sticky…how can I rip and tear it?

So, after some thought, I have decided to go through and do the things that I have no trouble with…and then I will start doing the harder and harder (for me) things…we’ll just have to see how it goes! The idea is to loosen up on your ingrained taboos...so I will try...

Some of the people in the group are getting right into it…smashing their book to the point that it rips in half, putting peanut butter on it and tossing it to their dogs…spitting and smearing food in it…at this point I can’t see myself doing that…any of that…but I will try…

Each week Jamie puts up a post on her site: The Next Chapter: Wreck This Journal, and then the group members can post a link to their weekly "Wreck This Journal" post...it is fun to see what some people are doing...amazing!

Update...

Here are the 3 8"x8" little textural canvases all together...finished...so far, I think, anyway...they seem to be sitting fine! I haven't felt the need to fuss at them...

Progress pictures...

Not much to say...just wanted to get some progress shots up...

I think this one is finished...I may have to wait until all 3 of the little ones (8"x8") like this are finished...not that they are meant to be a series, but they are all similar in a way...so far I am calling this group of textural paintings 'Daydreaming'...because that is what I am doing when I do them...doodling, playing and letting my mind wander and daydream...


















This is the 3rd one of the small textural ones...3 progress shots...















































This is the big canvas that I am working on using the modeling gel to create texture first and then painting on top of the texture...this is the 24"x36" canvas...I am having great fun trying out all the different bits and pieces that I have squirreled away with creating texture in mind...

Playing…and dogs…

An important part of my creative process – and I believe that this applies to most people who are exploring their creativity…is that I have to let go and play sometimes. I have to try new things, new tools, new materials, new products…and there is always that allowing myself to let go and not worrying about ‘creating bad art’...or 'wasting materials'! Just letting myself get lost in the process, in the feel of the paint...not even thinking that 'I don't know how' to use or do something...getting lost in my thoughts, my feelings...daydreaming...

This is also an important part of the therapy that art is for me...the getting lost, the letting go...that is the healthy part of this whole process, the healing part...if I can 'get lost' for an hour or more in my studio...that is better than any nap I can take or book I can escape into...it is like taking my brain to the spa...I come back to reality feeling refreshed and rested...

There are so many different acrylic products available…from types of paints and inks, to things you can add to your paints, to all the various gels and textural mediums. Add to this the endless methods of applying it all...I am always adding to my collection of 'tools'...from the bent metal tongue depressor-sized and shaped tool that my brother-in-law, Tonio, made for me, and various other things he gave me from his workshop to squish the paint on, to the different lids from broken things, to credit cards, to the laptop hard drive metal frame that made the honey-comb-like shape in the gel...the list goes on...

A lot of my paintings have great gobs of paint on them…the more I can pile on and the more wild the array of colours the better! A while back I had bought a little tub of Tri-Art Semi Gloss Modeling Gel…I had originally thought maybe I could mix it with my paints to make them even more capable of bulking up…but I haven’t tried that yet…I was afraid of thinning out the colour. Also…this stuff isn’t cheap and I would need so much of it…

So the tub sat…until this past week when I decided to try something totally new for me…and I am having a riot! It is a test for my non-existent patience for waiting for paint to dry though…it takes 2-3 days for the gel layer to dry before I can attack it with paints and inks…but this only serves to make me start more and more pieces…trying to keep busy while waiting for pieces to dry…so I guess it is a good thing!

I think I am happiest when I have a few different things on the go and can just bop from one thing to another…working on my latest little card project (the alphabet one), I have prepared a huge (for me…the biggest yet at 28”x36”) canvas to start doing my Georgian Bay series and a whole lot of smaller canvases that I am playing with the textural medium on (including 1 big one - 24”x36”).

The gel goes on white…this is the second canvas I have started…


















It dries clear…this is the first of the canvases I am playing around with...


















And a detail...














Once dry, I started adding colour…this was where I got to last night…and was happy, but after looking at it for a while, decided it wasn’t finished…it needed something more up at the top and some metallic inks…


















I think it is finished…will let it dry and see…mostly I used my fingers to put on the acrylic paints and inks…great messy fun! (I think I have paint on my keyboard and my camera now!!!)…


















And a detail...














Yesterday we had well over 300 lbs worth of dog in the house! We had our 2, Shea and Teddy who weigh in at about 85 lbs and 55 lbs respectively, then, while Oma had dinner with one of her daughters, we babysat her Kenya (95 lbs) and Remi (probably 100 lbs)…Oma is babysitting Remi for a few days…plus we had my younger’s wee puppy, Kaiah who probably doesn’t weigh 5 lbs…that is a lot of dog! It was hilarious…the biggest, Remi, and the smallest, Kaiah, hit it off and played and played…Kaiah ran her little heart out – Remi only had to take a couple steps here and there to keep up and they barked and barked in joy…one huge, deep bark and one wee bark…

Kaiah is not as big as Remi’s head! Here are the 2 of them at the barricade that we made upstairs so they wouldn’t fall down the stair case…


















This picture is so Remi…he is a real gentle soul, ragamuffin 2 year old gallumpous…