Glue - Paper - Scissors and Culture Crawl

Every year in November, I just love to take the ferry to Vancouver and visit Eastside artists in their studios. The Culture Crawl Nov. 15 to 18 is always a feast for the eyes and the heart, always an inspired and inspiring week end; it's just as pleasurable to discover new artists' work as it is to follow the career of some favorite painters like M. A. Tateishi, Erin Ishi and Carla Tak.  There is the traditional reunion with friends and family at Mrs Gomez on Union Street in Strathcona, my old neighborhood, and brunch on Sunday at a new cool joint. I can also count on good cardio exercises in climbing up and down the many staircases of the old factories and warehouses where visual artists work and show their art. I will try to take pictures and tell you a little bit about it in my next post!

The collage workshop has been postponed to next week end, Sunday Nov. 23rd and is going to be lots of fun, very relaxed, free spirited and light hearted.  We will play with glue, paper, and scissors to create many intriguing and seductive little pieces of art mixing images and words.  I have set up a table in the studio to make a few collage pieces on wooden blocks to show at the workshop, it was easy to get carried with all the material laid out in front of me, I made 20 in the end,  there will be some for sale at the coming Artwalk on Nov 30 - Dec 1.  They are small in sizes, from 3"x 3" to about 6"x 12", some are kind of cute and I just want to keep them.

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 Enjoy the week end, I might meet some of you at the Crawl or at Mrs Gomez's, who knows?

Workshops - Pear Cake - Smiling Faces

Last Sunday, I launched the Creative Series with an all day workshop exploring Oil and Cold Wax.  The day started with a latte, a piece of pear cake and an introduction to the program of the day. Then off to mix colours with beeswax and walnut oil for our first layer of impasto. Soon, everyone was involved in their own painting process, exploring with stencils, grid printing, rubbing, mark making and scratching.  All fun things to do!  And just look at some of the stunning images that were created.

There are two more workshops coming up, one before Artwalk and the other, the week end after.

I have a little show out of my studio window as the last fig leaves are somersaulting all the way to the ground on the soundtrack of Alegria from le Cirque du soleil . www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOIdB-GPa24
 Enjoy sweet moments and happiness in your creative pursuit.

Indochine Coming Workshops

The Sidney Fine Art Show was a delight, lots of interesting work and lots of people.  I spent the week end in Victoria for the occasion, had lovely visit with family, shopped for a neat new pair of boots to replace my good old Blundstones, and made a quick stop at Opus to buy cold wax.
back in the studio, my new paintings have a certain flavour reminding me of  Vietnam.  It is like an interlude, a detour because I have tons more images in my head that relate to the series The Edge and I would like to paint them next.  It doesn't really matter in what order the paintings come, and it is fun just to marvel at the creative process and notice what is happening.  This new work has both figurative images and abstract ones, and has the scent of South East Asia to me.  It is reminiscent of a trip to Vietnam three years ago. I think I'll call this series Indochine. Like the movie in which Catherine Deneuve plays a French heiress at the head of a rubber plantation in the colonial Saigon of the 1930's.  Indochine is also the world of Marguerite Duras. There was always an attraction for me to visit that part of the world and I loved it from the moment I stepped out of the plane, now years later, paintings are bringing that trip back to life in a different light.  I am intrigued to watch what is going to come out of the studio in the next while.

Details from Rice Field

Rice Field 36" x 60" oil and cold wax

This week will see me in the studio getting the space ready for the first workshop next Sunday. People will learn to use oil paint and cold wax and work in layers to slowly build up the surface.With the use of different techniques like stenciling, rubbing, and printing, they will make various textures on the canvas and create their unique piece of rich abstract art.  I am looking forward to teach this workshop again, the results are always stunning.

 

The music in the studio is from Paolo Conte 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2uj4pUD7YwI

Conversation about art

On Monday October 7th, Kait Burgan from Go Island! stopped by the studio to chat about abstract art, intuition, creative process and everywhere else this conversation has taken us.

Last week end, an artist friend opened up her studio doors for me.  Glass artist Catherine Williams on Gabriola Island does fusion glass and mozaic in the most colourful compositions. Her space was richly filled with fall flowers mirroring the reds and blues of the glass.

 

Rice Field, the painting I was working on in the video with Kait is at a stand still for the moment, there's not a gram of cold wax to be found in the studio, not a drop left! It is almost a blessing to be kept away from this painting for a while because the coming workshops require some planning and marketing right now.  This said, I will make a detour by Opus this week end while I am in Victoria for the Sidney Fine Art Show, and purchase a huge can of Gamblin cold wax!

Rice Field in progress   30' x 60' oil and cold wax

The sun has been shining for days out here, lovely time of the year for long walks in the woods and in the parks, by the ocean, by the river, salmon running, mushrooms mushrooming. I hope you are enjoying this beautiful autumn and you are able to go for long walks with family and friends.

Artists's Studios - Work in progress - Creativity Workshops

I like to visit artists' studios, spaces where creative activities happen are so inspiring.  It's always a pleasure to discover older pieces and witness the works in progress lying around. I particularly like to observe the general bric-a-brac of treasures piling up in corners.  Some studios have little altars to their muses, others have collections of colourful pieces of glass.  My friend Carole Reid has a collection of tug boats tags that she has found on her walks along the beaches, she has made little stilt houses with them previously,  this time she might turn this collection into 2 coffee tables.  What a beautiful idea! Tug boats are part of Carole's heritage, three generations of men in her family have spent their lives on them.

Carole's studio has bright light and is quite orderly, plus there is a large storage space to house her paintings and canvasses.  I also found 4 life size torsos tucked away, waiting  to be part of a future installation?  Lets hope so, Carole has a gift to create evocative installations, a very unique way to tell a story.

The dynamic duo Titia Jetten and Robert Plante opened up their studio to the public last week end.  Big beautiful portraits, sweet bugs lounging on sheets of music, photographs and their famous illustrated cards. Big double studios filled with creative projects, colourful and inventive.  I was fascinated by a series of bold shapes printed in red and black on the pages of a book.  Next time I visit them I'll take pictures of these little gems to show you.

In my studio, two pieces are labouring away.  I am reworking Meanwhile in the Valley, simplifying it mostly, harmonizing the top part and bringing light into the cave.  Not quite done yet though, paintings have their own timing!

The other one is a 36" x 60" painting called Rice Field.  The pink at the bottom is too strong, I am thinking of muting it in shades of ocher yellow and orange.

I will be offering creativity workshops in November and early December.  Here's a draft of the postcard in the making.

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More next time on the development of the workshops, in the meanwhile have a fulfilling week!

Delicious Series

rain downpour sunshine rain downpour of ripe figs on the ground ground covered with squished ripe figs slippery wet ground sunshine delicious series open studio art food visitors friends music scratch board art fun yum fall rain fog welcome autumn.

                                                   visitors' doodle art on scratch board

I just got a letter from the Sidney Fine Art Show and my triptych Attachment has been accepted in the show.  Yippie! This is happening the week end of October 19th and 20th. I might see you there! Enjoy the first week of the new season, stay dry!

Purple Figs - Blue Paintings

It's Friday, the last three paintings are done. First time in a while that I painted a board vertically, it came as a challenge in some ways, usually I position the board horizontally, by default. I welcome your comments on these new ones, one square and 2 verticals.  Here they are:

Blue Veil

Meanwhile in the Valley

Memories of Vietnam

Last crop of purple figs on the table, sandwich boards in the making, studio getting freshly clean and ready for the Delicious Series.  Tomorrow I'll be cooking and getting excited! Enjoy the week end! Hope to see you Sunday!