Dream City 1 - the one that started the series

Here is Dream City I    

This is the one that started the series. I had been doing a scene of Finn Slough with a winter sunset and started thinking "what if the telephone poles were minarets?" So then I started this painting, changed the sunset, changed the buildings, turned the telephone poles into minarets - and let my imagination go. I've never been to Istanbul so I was not hindered by reality. Then I started thinking about how much fun it is to imagine places and decided to do a little "travelling" with my brush. So many places  now seem to be homogenized modern cities, yet in imagination they can be more individual and romantic. In the "statement" I posted for the show, I quoted Edgar Degas who said "It is all well to copy what you see, but it is better to draw what you see in your mind...Then your memory and your imagination are freed from the tyranny imposed by nature."

Another Dream City

This one was fun to do with a golden California sky plus a touch of Van Gogh. ----and not a glimmer of fog. I'm told that tourists go out on day trips dressed for summer- then when the fog rolls in, the find themselves buying a sweatshirt yo try to keep warm!  Otherwise, I"d say this is one Dream City that pretty well lives up to its press.

Gateway Show

Well! Talk about a metal lapse! I was too busy with reminders of Richmond Artists Guild group shows and promoting the upcoming GuessWho? show to remember to add that I have a *solo* show at Gateway Theatre for the month of October in my October Newsletter.  The show is called "Dreams and Reality".  When I was painting a sunset scene of Finn Slough, a couple of years ago, I was thinking how magical it looked and then started wondering what would be the result if  telephone poles were minarets?  Eventually this became an imagined version of Istanbul - a place I have never been. This led to thinking about how those "far away places with strange sounding names", as the song put it, are so great in the imagination - before a person arrives to pollution, traffic jams and sore feet. And so, Dream Cities series started.  This one is an imagined Manhattan with the glamour and excitement of a big city.  Eventually, a number of others were completed and they are the "Dreams" part of the show. The "Reality" is life on the lower mainland which is a very nice place to live- and might well be a "Dream City" to visitors.  It has been fun putting this show together and it will be interesting to hear reactions of viewers.

Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Here is the full painting of "The Wheel". Richmond Artists Guild was asked to do an exhibit for the Gulf of Georgia Cannery - which is a national historic site. There are really interesting displays inside and there are tour guides to add to the information.  Several years ago I took visitors from New Zealand through the building and they totally loved it - had fun taking pictures of each other tossing the "salmon" into a bin, for one thing. Since then, even more displays have been added.  When the Grand Prix was on, those who run the Cannery were delighted to find so many paintings being done of the building and they decided it would be a good addition to the indoor Farmers' Market held through the winter. We hung the paintings Thursday and Friday so they were up for the first market Sunday, October 5th. They will remain to be viewed now until after the next market on October 19th. Everything is local scenery - especially the Cannery- or ship-related.  There is no admission charge on Market days - so a good time to tour and see everything- including 26 paintings from Guild members.  I have my little pleinaire painting of the Cannery and also this one of the wheel of the Balclutha.  Shh- it isn't local as the Balclutha is moored as part of San Francisco's outdoor Maritime Museum.

New shows-

This has been a busy week as I just exchanged paintings for Berenice's Braid with flower paintings now hanging there, then hung "Dreams and Reality" in Gateway Theatre and today two paintings in the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. The cannery paintings are part of a show by Richmond Artists Guild and I've just discovered I don't have photos of *either*. One is the small one that I did in the Grand Prix of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. The other is "The Wheel" which is the ship's wheel of Balclutha which is moored in San Francisco. I sold the companion piece a couple of years ago and I have no idea why I don't have a photo of "The Wheel". I will probably have a chance to photograph it yet. The first indoor Farmer's Market takes place this Sunday October 5th inside the Cannery - with free admission - so a good chance to see the Market, the exhibits and the art display.  The paintings will remain on display through the next Farmer's Market on October 19th. The above painting is "To Each His Own" and is a kayaker amidst larger vessels at Granville Island. It is one of the "reality" paintings from the Gateway show.   More about the show in a further posting....