JUST PAINT

"Just Paint" - once, these words implied to me the pulling out of brushes and canvas and painting - daily, with abandon, with purpose, exploring, creating, learning, producing - and now, these are no longer words of action, but of description. In non-objective works, there is 'just paint" on the canvas. There is no image, not ever.

Lila told us of her experience in a class she took some years ago. All of the students were required to paint an 8' x 16' raw canvas. In a few days when their canvas was completed, the instructor appeared and asked "Where is the painting?" as she looked at each canvas. She would examine the raw canvas and find the painting - as small as 4" x 4" in size. Cropping is okay, Lila said. Some painters crop sections of failed paintings and make them into cards. A different concept I think.

I laid a small mat on various sections of some of the practice sheets made during our Non-objective course at the college and then took photos. These two, were my favourites.

Though I have dabbled on small canvasses, there has been no serious painting this week. I miss it. The sun is not shining and rain is predicted for most of this week but if it holds off long enough I hope to get outside and paint madly, filling another sheet of paper with 'just paint'.


The members of Art Group 6+1 have been given a challenge, two as a matter of fact.
-The first is to be a painting of something from our childhood. My first thoughts were of the train bursting through the underpass, steam blowing all around us as we sat on the ledge above waiting for this exciting thrill. I feel that excitement as I write. Could I abstract that?
-The second is to do a self portrait to be displayed on the website. A doodle? A photo can be submitted to have it cartooned. That alone would be fun.




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ARTIST GROUPS WEBSITES

Websites listed by the members who attended Lila's Non-Objective worshop. Not everyone could remember the URL of their art group website so I have been going to Google to locate it and then hung around at the site reading newsletters, events, and sales and looking for and at my classmate's work. Add to that delay, the fact that I am using dial up service. Excuses made.



Here they are:

Manotick Art Association: http://www.manotickart.ca/

Brockville Artists' Studio: http://www.brockvilleartists.com/

South Grenville Guild of Fine Art: http://www.sggofa.com/

Organization of Kinston Women Artists: http://www.okwa.ca/

Brush and Palette Club, London: http://www.brushandpalette.com/

Lambeth Art Association (Blog): www.brushandpalette@blogspot.com

Rideau Lakes Artists' Association: http://www.rideaulakesartists.com/

Kanata Civic Art Gallery: http://www.kanatagallery.ca/

Sarnia Artists Workshop: http://www.saw.sarnia.com/

6+1 Art Group (Sarnia): http://sarnia.com/groups/6plus1artgroup/


In the mail today, I received a card from Studio 1219 http://www.studio1219.com/
advertising the event Renaissance ART Roam: Through the Decades. ....Come travel through the time tunnel with us as we go back to the 1930s.... Enjoy food, music and beverages from each decade as you view and purchase juried art from scores of artists at showcased venues in downtown Port Huron. Time trolleys will provide transportation to each decade..... Visit the web site noted above for artist bios, etc.
That event was last weekend. I wonder how it was.

The second course I signed up for is a go. Painting: Revelations from the Renaissance
Inspired by the exhibition at the NG in Ottawa.....illuminates the greatest lessons of Renaissance painting..... great opportunity to learn to paint in oils in environment-considerate and body-friendly applications..... learn about layers of colour, glazing, underpainting, preparation of surface and transfer of drawings.....inspired by Micelangelo and Renaissance thought and humanism.....Model one day. Bus trip to Ottawa to view exhibition at National Gallery.

It is also okay to use acrylics but I think I will try oils as well.
Once again, there will be early morning drives and full days learning and painting - in just over a week.

We attended the graduation from 8th grade of our first grandson, Gage, yesterday evening. A pretty big deal for all the kids. Gage and a friend shared the Mathematics Award for grade 9, the two of them having taken this course at the local highschool in the fall semester. Just a little bit proud!

NON-OBJECTIVE Aftermath

This morning I sorted through the painted papers I brought home from the past week's course and discovered one that with some cropping seems to meet the criteria. There are three paintings temporarily on the cottage walls. I do not want to forget all that was learned and their presence keeps me aware.

During the week, I painted on some cheap small canvases hoping to understand and apply what we were learning. The results were not exciting, in fact everything seemed to have the same value and the shapes were uninteresting.

Later, I painted over a few of the more promising ones and came up with the four best posted here. The computer makes them lighter and brighter than they are in reality and I consider them a study for future works on larger canvas.

At the college, there were not enough large tables for all of us. Down the middle of the room there were two rows of 3x4 ft tables and it was on one of these that I worked this week. We soon learned to move our tables away from each other and to turn our work to the vertical position. This gave a lot more room for our paints, brushes, etc and made it a bit easier. Here at the cottage, I had set up a card table for my work space and besides being wobbly it simply was not big enough. On the last day I went to Staples and got a 3x4 sturdy table which can be folded and stored out of the way when the room must serve as a bedroom for guests. My neatness disappeared and the paints line the window ledge. My plastic covered board sits in the vertical position but there would be space to place it in the horizontal as well. All set to go, except for covering everything including the floor, in plastic!

JUST PAINT!

NON-OBJECTIVE Day 5

Last Day of the Course.

I am writing the account of the last day of this course on Saturday morning, leisurely, and want to capture some of this week's early morning driving experiences first. I passed by several children waiting for their schoolbus to arrive. Usually there was a parent or an adult with them or at least nearby. On McAvoy Road, one young boy offered me "live long and prosper" using the Spock salute, with a grin all over his face. I wonder if he recently saw Star Trek at the theatre. Another morning, I was delayed by a grass-beside-the-road-cutting machine also on McAvoy. There was a hill and a curve that prevented my passing, but when the way was clear I was kindly waved on. The next day, on the same road, on the edge of the road, a 3-4 year old strolled beside his Grandpa [?] who was pulling a little red wagon. Gotta love that scene.

I began my journey to Brockville around 8:10 and met the schoolbus at the top of the hill on Lower Oak Leaf Road. This time I was ahead of its schedule and did not have to wait for the bus to do its turn around onto Black Church Road. There was a bit of traffic on Charleston Lake Road, 5 or 6 vehicles, I think, and near Wiltse Pond some of the large turtle nests had been abandoned. I only saw a few turtles and none on the road this time. A fender bender occurred at Tincap intersection minutes before I arrived and everyone seemed okay if not perturbed by the dents and delay.

Surprise! My painting lay overnight on its board at my table and was stuck fast in several places. While others painted, I floated water underneath the painting and prodded with palette knives until minus a few patches of paper, my work was free. Tape and paint touch ups brought it to critique-entering condition. We were supposed to have a plastic covering on our boards and I did, but the covering and the board were in my car. I was using a college board without plastic. Had I removed the painting yesterday to the plastic sheets laid down in the hallway, well, there would have been no problem.


So this final day, somewhat more relaxed, I poured blue liquid acrylic paint onto my paper and spread it out in a 10" brush-large -cobalt-arc. Cerulean Blue Chromium and anthraquinone blue and Turquoise Pthalo are some of the colours that followed. Drops of water dripped and shaken off the brush, a few strokes to remove the hard edges, and it was done and also critique-entering condition. Too much water. The darks were lost in the bottom of the painting. The painting was saved by a crop as shown.

This photo is lighter than the painting, and darks not as dark.

The hallway outside our room was filled with specatacular paintings, all laying on stretched out sheets of plastic from one end to the other, probably 400+ feet. We had visitors who came to have a look. Wonder what they were thinking. All I know is that if ever anyone says 'a child could paint this' I would have to agree that maybe a child could, but an adult could not, not without a great deal of knowledge and skill and hard work. What a wonder-full week!

By noon we were done painting. After lunch, the critique would begin. Each of us brought three paintings to the critique, two that worked and one that did not. Note that a few people did not have one that did not work! We tried to guess which ones Lila would choose and sometimes we were right, other times a bit surprised. Paintings were examined, noted whether or not they worked, what might be done to make them work, where to crop to find the painting or when simply to move on to another blank sheet of paper or canvas. Were the shapes too similar in size? in value? Did they run off the page? Was the dark dark enough? Was there variety?

Each of us was invited to say something when our paintings were on the easels for critiquing. A room full of praise for Lila's teaching and the whole week's activity. Maybe I learned the most from the critiques, certainly there is no doubt that this was a valuable component of the week's workshop. The critique today, ran from 1pm to 4pm.

Maybe Lila will be in this area again next year and there will be room for me to participate again. Maybe she will be closer to home throughout the winter months. I will be looking.

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NON-OBJECTIVE Day 4

Rain today. Off to the college for another day of painting.
Two of the paintings that we did yesterday were critiqued at the beginning of the session. This was such a great learning experience, re-emphasizing details we had learned earlier in the week and introducing new ones too. There were a lot of interesting and good paintings presented. Lila looked at each painting presented and commented according to the rules of design and value just as she had all week. There were fewer occasions for her to speak about value contrasts but again I have written notes.


For some of the paintings, Lila suggested that the paper could be cropped to make the painting work. Whenever this concept was introduced nearly everyone in the class raised and stretched their arm with the hand held so as to block their vision of the part of the painting that Lila suggested be cropped out. I was amazed. At home this happens only by one or two people and not very often at that.


The gentleman beside me had two very good paintings on display and the one closest to mine was exceptional. Well, mine was dreadful enough, a blob of white surrounded by darks and ...well, Lila said 'silly' in reference to it. That was the first one and not by way of defence, it had already failed once and I had attempted to 'fix' it. It was dead and I should have left it. However, she really really liked the 2nd one I'd put on the easel. It worked, she said. Wow! I had expected to hear that it was too busy. There is one correction needed. At the bottom left there is a spot of whitish colour that should be changed to the orange surrounding it. It is still hard to tell what is good and what is not for some of us, but it is certain that we need to continue to study design and values beyond the experience of this week.


After the critique, we painted on full sheets of paper without using brushes. Cardboard, large spatulas, rollers, etc were put to use moving the paint around. After lunch we continued to paint on full sheets of paper, using tools and brushes to complete our paintings. At 3:30, we stopped for a slide show of Lila's paintings. Quite spectacular for the most part. I left halfway through, and headed for home.

There are 22 people in this class. Two come from Cornwall, one from Spencerville, another from Elgin, another from Westport, a few from Alylmer, QC. and another from Athens. Today I met two who have come from London.



Notes from Today:

Do not allow large shape to take you out of the painting

Avoid dense areas

Avoid decoration

Simplify. Make shapes big and simple.

Putting in white is deadly

Splashing white onto darks of a painting is not the way to make light areas. Add white to transparent colours and apply near end of painting

Light does not mean white

If white was used, could be glazed over with appropriate colour

Use large tools till the end of painting, then can use smaller ones

Swimming noodles can be cut up to various shapes and used as rollers

NON-OBJECTIVE Day 3

Up early and ready to roar into Brockville and 'just paint'. Lila's demos look so easy, but somehow it just doesn't translate to my paper quite the same.

This is a photo of yesterday's exercise. Dark not dark enough.

Our first task today, was to paint full sheets using colour. This task continued into the afternoon only for the next group of sheets, we were to lay down a medium value colour on the entire sheet then add our design, darks and lights.




The Currys man arrived. There were no 12" brushes but we were able to purchase 8" and 10" ones. There was not enough paper to complete the order either so looks like I'll be using bristol board and/or the backs of previously painted sheets of paper for the final days of the course. Got some new liquid acrylic paints as well and chocked up the $$ cost for this course.

This photo of yesterday's exercise, dark has been computer enhanced.

I liked painting with the 10" brush and still had trouble with values in my mid-tones. Could it be the paint was too thin, or too thick, or not enough water on the paper or overworked or overmixed? Feeling somewhat value-less.



Notes from today:
Start from edge and move into paper
Large sheet needs larger shape
If using narrow brush, quickly follow alongside first stroke with a second stroke of the brush
Lines, textures, decoration not shapes in themselves, but are in a shape
Do not go over stroke many times
Darks dry darker
Outline makes for a flat and graphic look
Non-objective has no focal point, no perspective, just pieces of paint on paper
Design matters
Touch edge with stroke once or twice, not all
Paint Wet in Wet
When in doubt, ie if your brush hovers, or you have indecision re additions, don't
White paint needs to be a heavy mix
Paint additions to medium wash should be of pourable consistency but thicker so will not mix on the paper
Tube acrylics, mix with water 10-1
Liquid acrylics, mix with water 6-1
To make impact, use thicker paint or opaque colours
Barely touch dripped/added paint to move
Lumpy paint is okay
Lay paper towel on wet area to sop up paint, press and lift. Do not dab.
Push paint toward the edge of paper

NONOBJECTIVE - Day Two

Another sunny day and travelling was easy. The morning began with us continuing to do our 36 rectangles of colour. Small brushes did not bring the desired results so I tried a 3 inch flat and a large round. Maybe the results met the criteria. Certainly the dark was dominant but the rectangles not too interesting to me.

A demo. Lila mixed some black paint, dipped her large brush into the paint and made some dark marks on her paper, she added white, and pulled the paint down the page. She used different brushes for each value. Dripped paint. Brushed. Brushed again. Momentarily, she was done. Six to eight minutes per design is all it should take she said. 8 x 1/4 sheets, 4 x 1/2 sheets, and 2 large sheets were to be designed by us before 3 p.m.

Surely that could be done. Yes, by a few.

At lunch I ran out to Cdn Tire for some larger, softer brushes but that didn't really seem to be my problem after all.


Notes from the 3pm critique.
Colour should start from the side of the page and move in, no shape should start in the middle.
Some paintings can be cropped to make the design work. Nothing wrong with that.
Best not to have white paper on outer edge of paper
BOLD design is the goal
White shapes of paper should be dramatic too
Touch the edge of the paper
Textured areas may read as one shape
Darks must be really DARK
Best not to place squares, rectangles or triangles in the corners
Variation in values

It is amazing how exhausting this work is. By 2pm today I was ready to pack up my things and go home. I am not making a breakthrough yet. Feeling rather frustrated actually. A few did breakthrough and in fact, Lila said that one of the works done by Sarah was a prize winning painting. I can see the difference, just can't do it yet. No pictures today. Left at 4pm even though the critique was continuing. I could not.

Tomorrow will be more of the same only this time with colour. Our ordered brushes arrive in the morning we hope.

Picked up pizza and joined L & S on the deck for supper. Afterward, we went out for a boatride, slowly along the bays of the lake to the other end and then back toward D's property and one fast run to the other end again. Ooops! Something was wrong. The motor was roaring. The boat would not plane. There was water in the boat. Hot water! We went to a nearby dock and borrowed a paddle. The three of us began paddling home. Fortunately, someone took pity on us and came out with their little boat and offered to tow us back to the cottage.

Note to Marg: This was why the phone was busy....calls re fixing, taking boat out of water tomorrow, etc. Meanwhile, I will return to the college to try once again to 'get it' and 'paint it'.

NON OBJECTIVE - Day One

It takes about 35 minutes to get to the college from here and though I arrived early there were about a dozen people already there. A total of twenty two are in the class. Lila was serious about big brushes! So serious, it seemed we would all be going home but it was pointed out that we had the required brushes according to the info we had received. Currys was called in the early afternoon and lots and lots of brushes as well as lots and lots of paper will be delivered tomorrow for use on Wednesday.

One clever soul, purchased two four inch brushes, taped them together with aluminum tape and they will work just fine. Much cheaper avenue but I have decided to get the brushes anyway.

We had a brief, very brief, demo. So many brushes and so many bowls of mixed paint. The paint poured on the paper or canvas is manipulated with a 12 inch brush. More paint added. Lila puts her paint into the bowl/pot, then adds water. She does not mix. This way she can pick up pure colour by tipping the bowl or dilute the paint by picking up some of the water. She simply adds water to the bowl. Some suggested keeping the paint fresh by adding a bit of vinegar and another suggested bleach. Lila uses neither.

We were told the course was erroneously referred to as Abstract painting course. No, it is not. Nothing is abstracted. There is no object, no subject, no image ever. It is pieces of shape and colour.

Today there were three exercises and a critique of everyone's work in the group. Excellent learning opportunity.

1. A full sheet, filled with 36 rectangles. Add 5-7 shapes to each rectangle making some more important than others. Once in a while, touch an edge. Not line, but shape. Not parallel. Try not to build from images in memory. Shapes should be BOLD.

2. A full sheet of 36 rectangles. Value Exercise filling in the shapes using three tones. Darks dominate. We were pretty good with this one. Generally, Lila finds workshop attendents do this exercise best.

3. Repeat the full sheet of 36 rectangles using colour and shape. [Many of us lost values in this exercise. Like a different artist did the third exercise.] To carry values over to the colour exercise, should start with dark first. Value is everything.

Tomorrow we will have two hours to practise this exercise further.

We had our shapes critiqued. All of us put our finished papers for the first two exercises on easels or held the books, to have our shapes and values checked. Gruelling.
This wasn't finished until after 4:30.

It was a quiet ride back out to the cottage, beautiful skies.

NEW ROOM, OLD BOOK

We have been quite busy since arrival here and some of that busyness has been clearing out a number of things accumulated over the past ten years or so and setting up another 'art room' for use evenings or rainy days. No wild painting going on in this small space.

An old book, The Girl's Own Annual surfaced. It is a collection of The Girl's Own Paper for 1897 and has some interesting articles. The pages are filled with renderings in pen and ink, some very detailed, others instructive or decorative.

ARTicle:
_ My Daily Round: An essay competion for all girls who work with their hands.

First prize winner worked as a Locomotive-tracer which consisted of tracing through transparent cloth, drawings of draughtsmen or architects. Sometimes lines needed to be redrawn by the tracer. Afterwards colour was applied using a mixture of Indigo or Prussian Blue and Crimson Lake to represent the steel; Indian Yellow with a little Crimson Lake for the brass; Crimson Lake and a little Indian Yellow for copper; Neutral Tint for cast iron; Prussian Blue or Indigo for wrought iron; Burnt Sienna and a little Indian Ink for wood; Burnt Sienna, a little Indian Ink and Indigo for fire brick. There is much preparation of the cloth before the drawings and colouring begin as it is greasy. It is placed on a board and stretched using tacks, then rubbed with a chalky cloth before adding the colour or inks. [pp 75-77]

_Photo of a Varnissage.

_Perfection is No Trifle: "You call these things trifles" said Michael Angelo to a friend who derided his attention to small details; "remember that trifles make up perfection and that is no trifle." Perhaps the great artist remembered the hint given him by his first patron, Lorenzo d'Medici, who, when the young sculptor exhibited the head of an aged fawn, reminded him that in real life the teeth would be failing at that age, while the lad had carved them entire as in youth. The artist broke away some of the teeth, and it is said that this promptitude in accepting a suggestion put him in favour with Lorenzo, and laid the foundation of his subsequent fortune.
[Page 23]

ART NEWSPAPER, MURALS, SKETCH CLUB

It is time to re-introduce the URL for the free newspaper that is published, paper copy and on line, every month - theHUMM [an artist, entertainment and ideas newspaper in small towns and communities of the Ottawa Valley]
Current and past issues available at: http://www.thehumm.com/

Once again, the murals of Athens: Lots of information at this site:
http://www2.ucdsb.on.ca/athens/murals/INTRO.HTM


The first murals were painted in 1986. Many have become faded or the paint has started to peel. The "Turkey Fair" mural no longer exists, the owners of the building having painted over the faded/peeling mural.


Interesting to note that Athens had its own artist: Crawford Chelson Slack. The painting called "The Gathering" shows an inset portrait of 'Crawf". I was unable to find out anything about this artist on the internet other than that he is recorded in a book of Canadian Painters.

Above is Crawford Slack's house on Elgin St. To the right, the inset is his portrait.

Noted in the Canadian Geographic that this is the 100th year of The Victoria Sketch Club, Western Canada's oldest art collective. The club held an annual exhibiton of the members sketches and paintings. In the early 1930s, influenced by Emily Carr, a small number of members asked for a "modern room" as part of the exhibit. It was not met with appreciation and was not a part of the exhibition again for a few years. Emily Carr is quoted as describing old school members as "that millstone round the neck of art". Today, the members exhibit a wide variety of workds using several techniques. The article includes a copy of Emily Carr's painting, "Windswept Trees".
To view a copy: http://www.bcheritage.ca/emilycarrhomework/gallery/m964110m.htm

NATURE'S ABSTRACT PHOTOS

Here are some samples of nature's abstracts which have been cropped and coloured with Picasa.

Over winter twigs and leaves stained the concrete. New growth and spring debris give texture and design.

NATURE'S ABSTRACTS

Getting closer to the Abstract Painting course at St Lawrence College, both physically and mentally. Everything I read, randomly or by choice, is about abstract.

We went to the cottage mid-morning, the sky blue, sun brightly shining on the lake, but what interested me was the pattern left on the patio stones - nature's abstracts. Each stone had some debris of sand, twigs, leaves, etc and also stained markings from leaves that had wintered there over the winter.

I took several photos of these natural abstracts and made adjustments, increasing colour and orientation of each when editing the photos in picasa. Some samples will be posted later as it is going to take a few more days to get moved into the cottage and to get the internet up and running. The new 'art room' will hopefully get set up tomorrow.

Piet Mondrian: "Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture."

[click on blog title to see Mondrian's Grey Tree]

NEW LOCATION

On my first few days here I did not start work immediately but, as planned, I took it easy for a few days - flicked through books, studied Japanese art a little. (Gustav Klimt)

*click on blog title to see more works by Klimt

CHAOS

"We must still have chaos within us to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Pensive"

Lorna Schmidt

Acrylic 16 x29

MUSIC & ART

Art and Music, metaphyical approach.

I received an email from Ted this morning about an "awesome" event that will be happening at

Brockville on Thursday evening.

“Sonic Meditation”

An amazing musical and art experience, second to none.

David Hickey and his partner Eden Martin have been touring Canada the past seven years performing “Sonic Meditation” with Quartz Crystal Bowls, Paiste Gongs, Vibraphone and other percussive instruments. Eden paints while David creates the meditative music to capture the sound in color.

David's website at http://www.crystaljourney.ca/david.html

Eden's website: http://www.edenartjourney.ca/

Here you will find a few works from touring with Crystal Journey. These paintings were completed during the music performances and are directly influenced by the music - the water colours are used on clear acetate which allows the vibration of the music to move the paint around if ever so slightly.

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PACKING UP

This is the last day in the art room.

All my favourite and necessary art things are packed up, waiting by the door, ready for tomorrow's departure for our summer at the cottage.

ART ROOM

The Art Room was the center of attention this day as I sorted out and packed up some of my paints and supplies. I envision warm quiet days on the deck or dock or floating on the lake in Dora, the dorey, and reading all the books that have found their way to my preferred pile. Among the supplies, there are a number of the items on the materials lists for the two courses I will be taking.

While here at home, everything is at hand in my "art room" and though the room is an occasional bedroom or a movie/video game room, most of the time it is the room where I paint, usually standing at the easel with brushes and paint spread across the table.



There is no door on the closet which facilitates quick access to supplies stored there, but sometimes when it feels too busy and distracting, I draw the curtain across the opening.

.I thought the closet had been put to good use.

.Then I came across an article from the Globe and Mail about the program 'Divine Design', featuring how a walk-in dressing closet was re-designed to become an artist's studio.

. You can have a look at photos of this re-design and read the description of the various elements, artistic and material, that went into the finished work-of-art art room, by clicking on the blog title.

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