More thoughts on the "unheralded"

     I like to read the essays in the weekday Globe and Mail. Today's was called "A brush with Mr.Williams" and was about a painting that caught the author's eye in a second-hand store. Although it was signed, no information could be found about the artist until some fifteen years later, presumably with the expansion of content on the internet, a detailed obituary was located. The artist, Norman Davies Williams had trained in England and emigrated to Brandon in 1948. the obituary writer noted . "He worked for the joy of working while his wife, Doone, brought home the pay cheque- an arrangement precisely as they both wanted it." Apparently he never entered competitions or exhibited. The art director of the local gallery wrote to the essayist, "Unfortunately, it is the sad life of an artist that talent doesn't always mean a living wage or long lasting fame.   I always remind people that an artwork is valuable if it speaks to you in some way, regardless of its fame or value."
     There are a lot of good artists around today that are not widely recognized but whose works would bring pleasure if they hung in a home.  Maybe some will become the subjects of future "Unheralded Artists" books - or have someone scrambling to find more about the artist of a work they have just found. But we would love to see more action for living artists. We were talking the other day about the need to have people realize that paintings make great gifts and that many can be found with just a little looking. People don't even have to wait for exhibits or  open studios- checking on a site like Richmond Artists Guild produces a lot of names to follow up. Most artists are only too happy to give a private viewing and the collector can find the painting that truly does speak to him or her.
     The painting  above, "The Old Conservatory" is a painting I did awhile back. Some people totally loved it, others, not. I liked the mood and the fact that you don't notice the old lady quietly reading the paper and enjoying the peace of the freshly watered conservatory. Richmond Hospital is doing some redecorating and was interested in some paintings . On a hunch, I included this one in an assortment. The Director of the Foundation really liked this one and said, "This  painting is so serene and beautiful. We would love to find a home for it in the hospital and create a calming environment for patients and their loved ones." I delivered it today so it is one more painting out into the world.

New Show at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Today was freezing cold in the Gulf of Georgia Cannery but we got the new show of works by Richmond Artist Guild members up and it looks good. I took "Summer Day, Steveston" as one of my pieces. I think the blue is a little more subtle than it appears here. I loved doing the  reflections on this painting. The reason the Cannery is never warm is because it really *was* a cannery and it had to be cool for the fish. It is built right out over the water - which you can see through gaps in the floor. The exhibits are really interesting and the painting exhibit adds to this by filling an otherwise empty area. We are featuring maritime and local scenery. This time there are a couple of swans in paintings - as swans now live in the Steveston area. It would be great if we sold some works but it is nice just to have a chance to get the work out to be seen by the public.

Are we going backwards?

     I'm currently reading a book from "The Unheralded Artists of B.C." series on "The Life and Art of  Ina D.D. Uhthoff" - which is one of the reasons I was thinking about Emily Carr again as Ina was a contemporary of Emily Carr. In fact, it is fairly certain that Ina was the artist supporting two young children and an invalid husband mentioned in Emily's Journal. We also know that Ina took some painting classes from Mark Tobey at Emily's studio.
    Ina ran an art school and was also a main force in the establishment of the Art Gallery of Victoria.
In 1953, Ina agreed to write exhibition reviews for the Victoria Daily Times in order to promote the Gallery and its programs. There was a wide  variety of exhibits - 20th Century American paintings including Winslow Homer, Japanese Wood Block Prints, Northwest Coast Indian carvings, eastern Canadian painters (David Milne and Tom Thomson), and Latin American Paintings including Diego Rivera - were some. Interestingly however, there was strong support for B.C. artists- including Emily Carr, Bruno and Molly Lamb Bobak, Herbert Siebner and Myfanwy Pavelic.  "By featuring local artists, the Gallery built rapport with the community. One exhibition that limited the subject matter to Victoria's Inner Harbour drew 80 paintings from a variety of artists."..."Ina always gave attention to student art from the Gallery and the school; with the newly formed Studio Artists of B.C., she was truthful yet encouraging when she wrote, 'Some of the work is not up to exhibition standard, but it is a movement in the right direction, and we wish them success in their venture.' "  I wish that local art galleries still had this interest in supporting local artists and concern about rapport with the community. I wonder how many artists would have managed to establish careers - and that includes Emily Carr- if opportunities to enter shows and exhibits had not existed?  Even the fact that these shows were all reviewed would have added to the name-recognition of the artists. We seem to be going backwards with public galleries increasingly limited to a narrow group of artists who are working in what is currently "in". There is no recognition of a range of styles and approaches. One prime example is that Robert Bateman has never made it into a public gallery as his work has been deemed "commercial". If exhibits in the 1950's could show everything from realism through impressionism to abstraction, why are exhibits limited now? As in the past. some of the currently highly praised artists may fall into disregard in the future. A lot of the artists  currently snubbed by public galleries may well become popular.  Reading "The Unheralded Artists of B.C." is certainly food for thought.
    The painting is an early evening view of Steveston Landing with reflections in the Fraser.

      

Happy New Year

     Here is Digby in formal attire to lend a touch of class to the greetings. He actually was very good about wearing this collar but is now back in his regular "BirdsBeSafe" collar. This would hardly do for squeezing through a fence anyway!
     I'll be drawing at Adrienne's  tomorrow and doing studio painting with the Men in Hats on Tuesday, Life Drawing Wednesday night - so back in the full swing of things. I'm waiting to do my newsletter until I know for sure that we, Richmond Artists Guild, have our display up in the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. It should be going up on the 8th and then will be there through the Farmer's Market on the 18th when there is free admission to the Cannery. Then it is planned to change the display for February. This may then become an ongoing - albeit changing- display. It is another opportunity to let people see some of the good work that is being  done by local artists.
     Tuesday I want some opinions on the almost finished painting of a fish-boat loading on the seine net. I've finished and just varnished one of the Britannia Shipyards waterfront so I will photograph it. Then I'm starting one of Bob as a fisherman as a painting. I used him on last month's newsletter in the  pastel on paper version that I did in Life Drawing. The start is now on canvas and I'll work on it Tuesday. Maybe I will finally finish the set of matreshkas I started *months* ago!

End of the Year-

As promised, last blog, here is the Poppy Path.  I used this on my Christmas card as it is cheerful. Interestingly, a friend in England commented that is was especially suitable as this is the 100th Anniversary of WWI. England had a tremendous poppy commemoration of WWI and the lives lost with artificial poppies "planted" all around the Tower of London. I would have loved to have seen it in person but the Google shots were terrific and a good substitute. My father fought in WWI and fortunately was invalided out before a couple of other horrific battles - or else I wouldn't be here. These poppies are not on a battlefield but are part of Richmond's beautification project- wildflowers planted along the bike path down Railway Avenue. Three of us went out pleinaire painting and I also took some photographs. I've since sold the one painted on the spot but the experience helped when doing this studio painting - which is three feet by four feet and took much longer than a three-hour pleinaire session!  It will be interesting to see if the poppies come up as well next year or if they get crowded out by other plants.

sort of seasonal greetings-

Here is the rest of the image that got cropped for my December Newsletter. Not such a seasonal picture - although it is a recent one. I was going to put the Poppy Path on the newsletter and then realized that I had already used that one for the September Newsletter!  I'll have to check and see if I used it on a blog - if not, I'll use it next blog. It is the one I used as the main picture on my Christmas card as the poppies are cheerful. Bob is a model - we got him dressed up as a fisherman for this long pose night at Life Drawing. He allowed photographs so I may use both this and my photographs as reference and do an acrylic of Bob - just for fun. He has a really interesting character face and the lighting showed his features well. I like to use pastels for the studio poses as I am not a super-fast painter and I feel I get more done with the pastels. ( This is about two and a half hours work. ) Plus, thin sheets of paper take up less storage room- but I still have the fun and experience of working from a live model. I would love to be a portrait painter. I spray the pastels with fixative before storing them.

Thinking about Emily Carr

I've been thinking about Emily Carr lately- for a number of reasons. There are a couple of new books out about Emily - one is for children ages 5 and up called "When Emily Carr met Woo"  by Monica Kulling with illustrations by Dean Griffins. I haven't seen the actual book but the picture in the advertising folder looks like fun. The choice of a monkey for a pet was an unusual one - but then she had a rat pet too- and she certainly was a person who marched to her own drum.  Another new book is "Emily Carr in England " by Kathryn Bridge who "takes a fresh look at the years that Emily Carr spent in England from 1899 to 1904,learning to become an artist" There are humorous illustrations and verses  as well as sketches by Emily herself and photographs. I'll be looking to see this as some of the time spent in England was far from humorous since she had a breakdown and ended up in a sanatorium. I read a novel based on Emily Carr's life - the love for art was captured but the book lost me when a sort-of love interest was added. There was no way that a person of her upbringing and outlook would have been visiting a bit of a vagabond on a boat in Coal Harbour!  I have her own books - Hundreds and Thousands- the Journals of an Artist and Growing Pains: An Autobiogaphy and I've been re-reading them. I had forgotten the bit where  a young Delisle Parker, newly returned from Paris, visited her studio. Later in his life, he was an art critic for a Vancouver newspaper and also taught at Saturday morning classes at the Vancouver Art Gallery. One year, he was my teacher and I remember him as a very dapper man who did not want to get chalk from children's art work on his clothes. We would gather around him as he would point, with his polished shoe, at art work spread on the floor. By that time, paintings by Emily Carr were on the Art Gallery walls.  Her own books really show her dedication to her art. It is really interesting to see the renewed interest in her and the attention  gained by the exhibition of her work at Dulwich Gallery in London.