Untangling Zen

I have been playing in a new book for a week or so... I have been quite fascinated by "zentangles" drawings where people make very complicated and organized doodles. My doodles are usually not  terribly uniform and organized . I thought this book might lead me into more intricate doodling since every page contains a prompt (or starting point) such as the one illustrated above. Each page also has a thoughtful quote that can be thought about while working on the page - sort of a jump-off point for meditating. The example I'm showing here has the hand outline - but whether a person fills it in with patterned doodling or heads in another direction is up to the individual. We are told" It's important to remember there is no proper way to complete each drawing; the prompts are merely guides facilitating your creativity and mind's quiet" The quote on this page is "All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.- Swami Vivekananda". Research tells us that looking at screens- computer or television- before we go to bed is not a good idea as then it is harder for the body to turn to sleep mode. I have found doodling a page (and there are 365- enough for a whole year)  quite relaxing and the quotes are gentle but thought-provoking. However, I must confess that my pages often are more like cartoons or sketches than zen designs. For example, I turned a cat outline into Isabella with her collar on, walking through tall grasses through which birds were peeking.This inspiring quote- "Self-deception often arises because you are afraid of your own intelligence and afraid you won't be able to deal properly with your life. You are unable to acknowledge your own innate wisdom. Instead, you see wisdom as some monumental thing outside of yourself. That attitude has to be overcome- Chogyam Trungpa" inspired me to make one curving line become a mountain for a pilgrim seeking a guru in a cave!  Nevertheless, it is interesting to work on and I find I have moved from just doing black and white with a soft-tip pen to using coloured ballpoint pens - but that is for now. I'm taking it one page at a time and enjoying thinking about the quotes while doodling or drawing and unwinding. It is a nice meditative thing to do.

Who's looking?

Here are the Burrowing Owls from this year's GuessWho?  Last year I did 22 Owls - this year only three. I wonder if I should do a different owl one next year- or should I go off on a different tangent? These owls were done with added texture  from heavy gel and also molding paste- and a bit of string gel in the grasses. Some gel can help with acrylics. I recall acrylics as holding the thickness and texture of brushstrokes more when they were newer on the market. Now they are more of the self-leveling type and gel is needed to get a feel of paint texture. I took a workshop from someone who is really into texture that is all applied at the beginning. Then he works in layers of transparent paint. It works for him but I like mixing colours and I also like to add gel either part way  through separately or with the paint as the layers are built up. I think I will choose to adapt some of the ideas from the workshop but also to use texture in my own way. I think this 10x10 benefited from the added texture. I've also added some texture to a painting I am working on that has pilings in the water. The texture is helping to separate the pilings from their reflections. You'll see the results later.

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....