Art for Heritage at St. George's Cathedral

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Here are 2 small landscapes framed and ready for the show at St. George's "Art for Heritage" on Friday and Saturday.  Each is 5 X 7".  Framing was a challenge.   I convinced The Framer to mount the boards on the frames rather than behind as is typical.  The paintings are tiny and putting them behind would cover half an inch, too much.  So The Framer glued wooden dowels to the back of each board and surface mounted them.  They sit in a little bevel that fits them perfectly.  They look wonderful!  Thank you Sweetie.


The show is on Friday October 2, 6:30 -9:00
and Saturday October 3rd, 10:00 -3pm.  Over 60 artists are participating with funds raised being directed to building restoration.

Strange and Beautiful

"Tay River Gallery is accepting submissions from Ontario and Quebec artists for an upcoming juried show,"Strange and Beautiful". Deadline for submissions is Sept 10th. Quality artwork in your choice of media, of an illustrative, painterly or abstract nature with the emphasis on the Strange "the unusual,different, eccentric, unfamiliar, peculiar, fantastic, bizarre, mystifying, perplexing" art that can at the same time be viewed as Beautiful " having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind". The focus is on compositions where either content (subject matter) or perspective taken (interpretation) is particularly unique, imaginative and arresting."

I read this Call to Artists a few weeks ago and thought my art is often strange, unusual, different and eccentric, peculiar etc and hopefully beautiful from time to time as well.   So I put together a submission, some of my really unique and unusual pieces, thinking this show was meant for me!  After checking the phone for messages and the computer for emails, just about hourly, I finally got the news.  I"M IN!!!!  I am truly bizarre and unique!  Or at least some of my work is....  I submitted 10 pieces, 5 were chosen: "Improv 3" which I completed recently, 3 of my bas relief pieces and "How the light Gets In" (detail above).  Wooohooo!
The Tay River Gallery is in lovely Perth Ontario; the show opens Oct 6 and runs to Nov 21.

Slave to the photograph

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Superman!
No, just the start of another abstract painting.  After no new work in the studio for a week I am finally back at my easel.  But a lot of "work" is done before the paint comes out, even with what seems to be an intuitve abstract like the one on the left.  I have been culling old photos, tossing lots and cutting up others that I reassemble and manipulate with Irfanview (an easier type of Phototshop, and free!).  In this kind of work my computer is my sketch book and I create lots of possibilities before I am even close to something worth painting.  Then of course when the paint comes out the photo sketches are manipulated even more or abandoned altogether.  Don't be a slave to the photograph!  Otherwise you may just as well print that and say you're done.  Can't remember where I first heard the slave phrase, but it is a good one.  Never be a slave to your computer either.  That's me talking to myself.

Perfection

Perfection refers to the weather!  My studio has a door directly to the back yard and lately I have taken to sitting outside to muse about paintings in progress.  I have some hooks on the fence providing me with a plein air gallery and of course there is lots of comfortable seating as well.  The September weather has been made to order:  not too cool, not too hot, no rain, not humid, no bugs - perfect!

Here are two versions of an abstract I've been working on.  Early version on the left, a later revision on the right.  Improved or not?  I'm not sure....

         "Improv 3"  acrylic on canvas   22" X 28"