Painting BIG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting BIG –  In June I was fortunate enough to assist fellow artist, Rose Cowles, with a large three story mural. The mural is intended to welcome the Olympic Basket Ball teams arriving at the Delta Hotel for the Tokyo Olympic qualifying tournament. Having never painted a mural before I got to see how things are set up for painting BIG. It was a welcome change from the solitude of studio life and fun / interesting to interact with people passing by as the mural progressed. Luckily the weather was clear and warm and our wall was in the shade. It was physical work climbing up and down the scaffolding and the next day I really felt like I had done a full body workout. A new fitness class is born – ‘mural-a-size’.  I would like to say a big thank you to Rose for including me in the project. Swing by the Delta and check it out.

Virtual Art Guide – I am happy to be included in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s TD Artists Guide for the annual Moss Street Paint-in that will be happening (virtually) in Victoria this month. Click here to view the guide.

 

Summer Fun

First of all, let me say that I hope you are all enjoying the arrival of the summer weather! There are always a tonne of things to be done around our home in Sooke but as you can see from the photos, late spring, early summer can be pretty idyllic.

New Series  I have been taking a deep dive into planning a new series of paintings. Using my experiences from the 100 day project I am going to allow myself an experimental phase and let the work develop organically. As always, I am going to use a dream as the launch point for the paintings and I have been doing some research on the themes. Writing to clarify my ideas has also been a big help. I will keep you posted as the series progresses.

Art Show The Xchanges annual members’ exhibition opens in the gallery Friday, June 25 at 7:00pm and runs weekends until Sunday, July 4, 2021. I will be showing my painting ‘Trawling for Birds’. Trawling for Birds was a piece that I started for a demo and finished during the first lock down last year. It’s a painting for me that will always remind me of the high levels of anxiety, uncertainty and sadness at the time. I got a sneak peak at a few of the pieces in the exhibition when I dropped my work off and I am really looking forward to seeing the show.

Opening Doors – Habitat for Humanity Online Auction

May was largely taken up with completing a door for the Habitat for Humanity Victoria’s online auction, ‘Open a Door’. The doors will be auctioned to raise money for their affordable home ownership program.

When I saw the call out I knew I wanted to participate and not only because it’s a great cause. I wanted to see if one of my 9″ x 12″ swimmers could work on a much larger format. It has been a challenge as I usually work on canvas but I am pretty happy with the result.

The swimmers represent to me the crossover between the conscious and the subconscious – land and water. I like the idea of swimmers being able to travel between two worlds. I feel like the door also plays into this idea of opening up access to something that is normally closed off. An entry way into something deeper within ourselves.

 

Who knows, maybe painting on doors will be the start of something?

The auction will run from May 28th to June 13th. 

Postcards to Save Ancient Trees at Fairy Creek

End Old Growth LoggingThis month saw the NDP backtrack on their promise to protect old growth from logging. The Box Car Six art collective coordinated a campaign to encourage John Horgan to do the right thing by sending him hand decorated postcards. Lets be clear, I am not against logging, provided it is done responsibly and sustainably. To log trees that are over 800 years old seems short sighted in the extreme. If Victoria had a building that was that old you bet it would be slapped with a heritage preservation order. Vancouver Island’s old growth is just as much a part of the Island’s heritage as its historic buildings. It’s time to stop looking at these trees as a resource and give them the protection they deserve to preserve them for future generations. If you agree contact John Horgan and let him know what needs to happen before we become the generation that saw more value in these trees dead than alive.

Top Tips for Completing the 100 Day Project

I did it! I finished the 100 day project. I am pretty pleased with myself for sticking with this and honestly 95% of the time I really enjoyed doing it. If you are thinking of taking part in the 100 day project I have made a list of my top tips for completing the journey.

TIME LIMIT – Set a time limit for the amount of time you want to spend on each piece, each day. I often went over my set time limit but it helped me not get too carried away because I always had half an eye on the clock. Set aside an amount of time that is realistic to work into your daily schedule. If your project needs long periods of time each day to work on it then it could quickly become too onerous to keep up

HABIT – Try and get in the habit of working at the same time of day. I always worked on my piece first thing in the morning before anything else could get in the way. It doesn’t matter what time you choose but it should be a time when you know you can work without distraction.

DON’T OVERTHINK – You don’t have to have 100 pieces planned out in your head before you start. I chose a theme and let each piece lead into the next. Just make a start and see where it takes you, let yourself play and have fun with it!

MATERIALS and SIZE – I chose to limit the materials I used and stuck to watercolour and ink on paper with some pencil and collage thrown in. I also stuck to the same sized piece of paper every day. Narrowing my options meant that I was not overwhelmed with possibilities and when I was without inspiration I had certain parameters to guide me without too much thought.

IDEAS – I started keeping a list of ideas to try out. I would often think of things I wanted to try and forget them through the day. Adding them to a list on my phone (I use Keep Notes) meant the idea didn’t get lost and it was a good back up to turn to on those days I was not feeling inspired.

TIDY and PREP – This is a dull one but I think that it really helped me keep going. When I finished each swimmer I made sure I cleaned my brushes, set up a fresh pot of water for the next day and that my desk was clear. This meant that each morning I could just get to work without out any fuss

SOCIAL – Share as much or as little on social media as you want to. Sharing on social media can create pressure for every piece you make to be polished and this could be stifling if you want to allow yourself to experiment. It’s your project, you decide what works for you. 

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this project, the daily repetition allowed me to experiment and really explore materials and ideas. I felt doors opening up along the way as I had breakthrough moments, so if you are thinking of trying it, my advice is go for it!. I am going to put together a group of the swimmers that I think turned out particularly well for sale. Subscribe to my newsletter if you would like to be notified when they are available. 

Studio Mates

In February I started a program through the Gathered Gallery called Studio Mates. It connects artists virtually to give and receive feedback on their work. In the critique sessions artists share their work and ask questions, which helps to keep the feedback specific and focused. I have been able to gain insight and perspectives from artists working different styles and  mediums and coming from different academic backgrounds. It’s a really positive group and I have received so many great suggestions from my Studio Mates it is going to be invaluable as I start to put together a new series of work.

I am still going strong with the 100 day project. Today was swimmer 54. I felt like I had a breakthrough on day 49 where the pieces started to feel like they are me. Actually I thought I had lots of breakthroughs along the way! ‘This is it’ moments when I thought I had it figured out but it was really just another step on the journey. Maybe there will be more to come. I am really pleased that I decided not to share them on social media because I haven’t got caught up with likes or trying to be consistent with the outcome too soon in the process. I thought I might be flagging by now but I am still really enjoying the possibilities.  Life is imitating art and I have been spending more time actually at the pool teaching myself to tumble turn. It’s so much fun, I feel like a kid again in the water.

Onwards to swimmer 55!

Rituals – The 100 Day Project

Happy New Year! I kicked off 2021 by committing to the 100 Day Project. The idea is to do something creative everyday for 100 consecutive days. I have chosen to work on paper with watercolour and collage using swimmers as my theme. Swimmers represent to me the crossover between land and water and the conscious and the subconscious. (Incidentally I taught myself to swim front crawl last year as the pool remains open and I am loving it).

Getting up early I complete a swimmer before I do anything else in the day. I light a candle and put on classical music and it has become such an enjoyable daily ritual. I am really allowing myself to experiment with each piece. These won’t be posted on social media as I don’t want any pressure to produce something insta-perfect. The project doesn’t officially start until Jan 31st but I started early and I am currently on day 19.  I have already seen a progression in the work – the progression is definitely not linear though. Some days they work out and some days they don’t. On the days when they don’t work out I try and remind myself that I allowed myself to experiment and that is just as valuable as having a lovely finished piece!

Covid Life – Virtual Opening Saturday December 12

Through the Covid lock down I was able to continue life drawing via zoom. I was skeptical at first – how would it work not seeing the model in person? It actually had some surprising advantages. Firstly some of the models used multiple cameras so there was a greater variety of angles to draw the model from that would not have been available in the in-person sessions. The unusual angles provided a real challenge. Secondly I was able to work with a greater variety of materials than I would be able to in the in person group sessions. In my studio I was able to experiment with watercolour, ink and collage and anything else to hand. I hope online life drawing is something that continues when the pandemic ends. Xchanges Gallery has put together an online show of some of the work from these sessions “Covid Life” together with the annual members show “A Moment in Time”. The virtual opening for both shows will take place on Saturday December 12 at 4pm and you can register here for the Zoom Link. 

 

A Determined Vision

I am delighted that my painting Coral Masters was chosen by the City of Victoria for inclusion in their kiosk animation project. You can see Coral Masters at the Centennial Square Parkade and checkout out the map on their website for details of all the locations of work by some super talented local artists. This project embodies Create Victoria’s vision “to thrive as a place for everyday artistic encounters.”

A state of semi-lockdown has returned to Vancouver Island. I was due to take part in the annual member’s show at Xchanges in December however it was cancelled to try and slow the spread of Covid-19. Understandable but dissapointing. Xchanges will be going ahead with an online exhibition of the drawing from the virtual life drawing sessions that took place during the first lock down and I will share a link to that when it is available.

Before lockdown commenced I got together with a small number of my Thrive Ladies to see the Emily Carr – Fresh Seeing exhibition at The Royal BC Museum. It was lovely to see my group in person and the show was really well put together and comprehensive. The main focus of the show was Emily’s Paintings completed during her time in France. I felt that I really got to see another side to her work. It was so interesting to see her influences and the development in her style. I was inspired by Emily’s determination to continue experimentation and growth in her work even in the face a of a conservative audience when she returned back to Victoria.

Another show that I was able to get to was Liam O’Sullivan’s, Nature Preserve at Xchanges Gallery. Liam experiments with “absurdism and humor to present a landscape of playfully fluctuating possibilities, that we may explore and celebrate these unsung parts of ourselves.” The show consisted of mostly monochromatic, large scale, oil painting and some video installation. Looking into the landscape paintings I was reminded of the feeling of seeing a forest at dusk when the mind imagines seeing faces and wild animals in the shapes of branches and rocks (if you are interested, I just discovered that there is a word for this phenomenon and it is ‘pareidolia’). I really enjoyed this show, the landscape element of the paintings felt familiar and yet simultaneously jarring and otherworldly.

I continue plugging away in my studio and getting together with my fellow artists via Zoom for now.

Eerie Sketchbook

What a year! Pandemic, lock down and a health scare. Through it all I have been working in the sketchbook I bound earlier in the year. I covered the book in road map of Ontario and the Lake Erie is prominent on the front, so I like to think of this as my eerie sketchbook. For this sketchbook I mainly drew from dream imagery for inspiration and many of the drawings are strange, watery and subterranean.  I had a lot of fun with this using watercolour, paint pens, collage and gouache. I enjoy so much having these to work on alongside my painting I am going to make a couple of new books today. My the detective ‘Hit and Sunk’ series continues to evolve and I will be updating the gallery this week with new images and progress shots can be seen on my Instagram account.