It's about love

Art is about relationships even if it appears to be about nature.

Coastal Trip by Paterson Ewen (1925-2002)  acrylic and metallic paint on gouged plywood  1974

I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario last week.  

Paterson Ewen is one of my favourite artists.

Coastal Trip by Paterson Ewen  1974  (each part is about 60 inches)

I respond with my whole body to the rugged materials and strong marks in his unique paintings.

The scale of his work holds us.  

coastal trip detail by Paterson Ewen  acrylic on plywood cut with first with a router 1974

Monotones (Seascape) by Silke Otto-Knapp watercolour on canvas 2016

I took my 7 year old grand daughter with me.  

We only lasted about an hour.

Monotones (seascape) detail by Silke Otto Knapp  

It's hard work, 

looking and thinking

 and climbing all the curvy stairs.

When we got home we made collaborative drawings with ball point pens in my journal.    

highway 17 return home

Our visit with our son and his family was beautiful and I am so very grateful. 

 

Life is simple

 Life is simple: smell nice, look pretty

 I can't hear myself think

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber from Winnipeg Manitoba
Flower Series 2018  acrylic on wood
represented by Gallerie Division from Montreal at Art Toronto

 My roots are in hell

 When you're easy to love, you're easy to tear apart

 You must leave your mother, but I never can

Gareth Edwards from Cornwall England
Flower Paintings Oil on Paper
represented by Jill George Gallery from London England
at the Art Toronto fair last weekend Oct 26 - 29 in Toronto
I attended with  my sister, it was her birthday.

the small handwritten text at bottom of each painting
is usually the name of the colour and the date

left : lemon  hand 2018
right:  pale moon  hand 2018

hot house orange 2018

Life is simple my friends.  When you are easy to love, you are easy to tear apart. xo

life's a beach

Living near the water and sky keeps me in awe of the power and beauty of nature.  Watching the weather seems to put me into a reverie and I find myself pondering life and how fast time goes by.  Manitoulin's famous wildflowers are another source of wonder, and I am learning so much about them as I try to find original ways to paint them. However, my very favourite topic for paintings is my own children.  They are growing up so fast and I love to paint them near the water.  Like all parents I am concerned for their future in a world that is not always so safe or beautiful.

Judith Martin 2002

This winter I have been having more difficulty than usual with blogging.  Three reasons:

1.  I have been making a lot of new work - all in the rough design stage and my mind and heart have been with these new pieces.  Matisse famously said "cut off your tongue" when in the act of making art.,  Perhaps that's why I am at a loss for what to say here.

2.  Every day I've been I doing a little gentle art of swedish death cleaning.  As I go through my stuffed drawers and shelves and toss or give away something every single day, I am finding my past life and am flooded with memories. This explains why some posts are aboout my early work and the importance of motherhood within that work. (For example, the image and statementat the top of this post are from an exhibition I had 15 years ago in the local museum.)

3. I've been working on my left leg.  A yoga class, a swimming class, my phsyio-daily exercises. These things take me away from my work and blog. 

Thank you for continuing to read what I do put up here.  I appreciate your support.

what makes a drawing?

 

 

 

 

 

The drawings were made in Nova Scotia
charcoal and acrylic paint over two pages of sketchbook
The photos were taken here on Manitoulin
my first day back

room art

Hibiscus, Acrylic and latex paint on wall, (7 feet high) Sun, Acrylic and latex paint on ceiling, 8 feet diameter

We're noticing our daughters' paintings as we get their rooms ready for Christmas visits.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Untitled, (awelye) 1994 acrylic, Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Huge side track from my essay as I recall how much I love contemporary acrylic painting from Australia. The most acclaimed artist is Emily Kame Kngwarreye.(1915-1996)

Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s fabulous abstract paintings have been cited as probably the most striking ever made during the twentieth century. She lived close to nature and did no acrylics until she was in her late 70's. Centuries of philosophical theory, art galleries full of modern art: she knew nothing of them. However, during less than ten years at the end of her life, she made pared down, raw, large colour field paintings filled with organic and repetitive hand made marks that absolutely carry the viewer away. They stop our breath.

Utopia panel, 1996 acrylic, Emily Kame Kngwarreye


I've poked her work into my 8000 word disseration. Paintings like these make me question all this book learning.

Painted today

I am trying to just allow things to happen.

instantaneous

What I'd like to do this summer is paint every Monday. 9 to 5.
My teaching has stopped, I have a little more time.
But it was really difficult to start. It took me more than an hour of procrastination. I thought - why is this so hard? Just DO it. Treat your painting like you do your stitching - start and see what comes next.

So, I fell back on these marks.

I do feel invigorated. Fresher.

grand mother hand work

We live quite far away from these babes, and it is a real pleasure to spend time with them both. The 8 month old lets me feed him, and so does the nearly 4 year old, in a different way.

grounds and mediums

fluid acrylic over molding and crackle paste on canvas paper

If you want to learn something, try teaching it.

I've been using the following as texts for the creative water media class. They have helped me a lot in regard to acrylics. Rheni Tauchid's The New Acrylics and Mary Todd Beam's Celebrate Your Creative Self and The Creative Edge.

Painting Class

"I paint to be loved" Andre Breton

Creative Painting

Marc Chagall

Double Portrait with a Glass of Wine" 1917, oil on canvas. The artist was 30 years old when he painted this. His paintings are usually dream scapes or childhood narratives, every day worlds full of the wonderful and miraculous. Chagall is famous for his use of colour and his central theme of LOVE.


Naata Nungurrayi

Untitled 2002, acrylic on canvas. The artist was 70 years old when she painted this. Born 1932, she has led a traditional nomadic bush life and now paints instinctively, using line, colour, and form in an immediate and breath taking way.

I'm prepping to teach painting tomorrow and am trying not to fall back on my own familiar ways. It's so difficult to push myself over into the unknown.

Bound

a limitation
a binding
rule bound
neatly bound
out of bounds
north bound
forward to the unknown, backward to memory
bound with a rope
secure

What are the boundaries of quilt making?
How do quilts bind me as an artist?

The tradition binds me - the old patterns, the layers
The stigma binds me - it's a domestic art
The labour binds me - each piece takes a year to make

Full House

It was Ned's birthday yesterday and I baked a maple cake. We had a small crowd around the table which was really nice. April and 3 friends drove over from Montreal (they also brought their dog) and Sandy and Sue, our University era friends came from the other direction, Thunder Bay. Oona phoned and she and nearly three year old Everett are arriving tomorrow. They'll be here for nearly two weeks.

Light of the Moon (above) will be on exhibit at the LaCloche art show in a few weeks. The pamphlet and poster are out and they both look wonderful. I'll post more about that soon.

The Stars Above My Head

I stepped from plank to plank
a slow and cautious way
The stars above my head I felt
about my feet the sea

I knew not but the next
would be my final inch -
This gave me that precarious gait
some call experience.

Emily Dickenson

This poem about working intuitively is copied large on my studio wall.

light of the moon

Unable to settle after our week away, I finally took myself off to the studio for some art therapy. I think this piece is finally finished except for a bit of hand stitch. Thanks for your suggestion, Deb.

Fast Art

This month at the studio I began four new mixed media pieces. I did not spend a lot of time on them - about two or three days each. Layers of magazine images, art postcards and cloth on canvas were covered over with further layers of acrylic medium and pigments. Sometimes I drew (carved)a dot pattern into the result with a graphite pencil while the paint was still wet. I think I'll stop for a while and let myself absorb the imagery. I plan to add more layers and will most likely begin with some handstitch. The vertical arrangment of peach colour squares is a series of small paper and fabric collages on wool blanket. They also wait to be obsessively stitched into.








Frida Kahlo layered.

new work

I am interested in the intensity of Egon Schiele's figures and faces and am inspired by his use of empty backgrounds, a flat painting style and unusual colour.

Four and Friends

I've re-worked four of the mixed media pieces I'm taking over to Bruce Mines tomorrow. For example, Moondance (pictured) used to look like this.
Probably the best thing about being in the Four and Friends exhibition is getting to know the other artists and talking them about our mutual passion. The Four Friends are: Doug Bradford (not met him) Linda Finn (my good friend) Doug Hook and John Keast (I've not met either of those guys either. )
The "friends" who are coming for the weekend are: Miranda Bouchard, Ken Hagerman, Ralph Ingleton, Susan Strachan Johnson, Linda King, Gordon McKenzie, Moi, Sheri McKay Gladu, Jane Meyer, Hugh Morrow, Suzanne Motluk, Debbie Stone and Zoe Wood-Salomon. I know Ralph, Susan, Linda K, Godon Mc, and Zoe. The others will be new friends for me.

Dolce

I was pleased to be invited by Linda Finn a year ago to be part of the Four and Friends exhibit in Bruce Mines Ontario this coming July, but now it seems like another deadline to meet. Last night I found several faces I've painted of interesting young women not shown before. This one (Dolce) is painted with acrylic paint on watercolour canvas.
Dolce, a word often used in classical music, means 'sweet' in Italian.