Creativity

There is much to be said about creativity and the liberal arts these days. On the one hand, we are told that it is the liberal arts that boosts creativity - and ultimately productivity (if you want to think in only dollars and cents). On the other hand, high school students are told to go into STEM  courses (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) if they want to end up with a job as well as a university degree. Well, we have had Einstein telling us that imagination is important and many successful businessmen stating that it was the liberal arts that broadened their thinking and led to their success. Two things have crossed my path lately that add to what is  definitely my own bias in favour of liberal arts. Creativ.com is producing a magazine that is the most beautiful magazine I've seen. It features stunning photography, stimulating ideas and impressive art work. In the two issues I've seen, I was especially impressed with the cut paper work of Maude White, wonderful cartoon building-size murals by Millo in Turin, and paintings by Asa Kucherevskaya (Ukraine), Leonid Afremov (Mexico), and Jeremy Mann of California, USA. While Creativ does have a website, there is something special about holding this glossy magazine in your hands. Alas, the low Canadian dollar makes the magazine a bit pricey this side of the 49th. I've also been reading "A Teacher's Tale" by Joe Gilliland who had more than 50 years teaching at the college level- a career he basically stumbled upon by taking university classes (aided by the GI bill)  with no clear goal in mind. His love of reading and thinking about the ideas presented in books is given in much thought-provoking detail in the 600 pages of this memoir. He argues that Science isn't enough. "Science requires the imagination that questions the absolutist's certitudes and math is the tool with which the certitudes are tested." His round-about route to his life's work is inspiring. He states "Success in life is not determined by the wealth one accumulates in his or her search for a calling, for a life's work. Success relies on satisfaction in the pursuit of happiness and education is one of the keys to that feeling of success and that earned happiness." If you are a reader, you will really enjoy this book - and probably end up with an arm's length list of more books to read!  "Cherchez le Chat" - the above painting was planned as a creative approach to a presentation of my red lilies. They are impressively tall plants and I wanted to convey the "jungle in Richmond" feeling about them. This led to thinking about Henri Rousseau who created jungle paintings by going no further than a conservatory. Obviously, my painting needed an animal - and what better than a prowling black cat? The cat is better seen in real life than in a photograph, but I'm sure you can figure out where he is. Although Digby doesn't have a proper tail, the painted cat does.

DoorsOpen 2015

I just sent out my newsletter with this one- "Not Just Daisies" on it as I will be showing this on Saturday for DoorsOpen. It is a fun, bright floral based on flowers seen at a Community Garden here in Richmond. I'm busy organizing paintings - while discovering some escaped me and are not wired - so pause has to take place so they can be attended to. It is fun, of a sort, to pull out a lot of paintings and set them up so you see them in a new way. All this work requires a pause in actual painting production and today's rain has cancelled the pleinaire expedition, causing a pause in that too. Still, a slight pause can be a good thing as reflection certainly has a place in painting. It is working for me because I am about to embark on a new project, not ready for announcement yet. Ideas are in the brewing stages -writing down ideas, doing some very rough sketches, collecting references and so on. I'll start on some more sketches after DoorsOpen to work out compositions and then move forward on something that will be a bit different. Stay tuned for updates!

From the last workshop

A few weeks ago I took a very worthwhile one-day workshop from Ingrid Christensen on painting the clothed figure. After a demo by Ingrid we had just over 10 minutes to do a 10x8 monochromatically. The idea was to work with raw umber, blocking in the directionals and then getting the silhouette. Then using raw umber and ultramarine blue, to note in the darkest areas, followed with some white for highlights. This was my result.

Then with another 10x8, we had just over half an hour to try one adding colour - and this time we should select just part of the figure. We started with raw umber, the silhouette and darks but did not add the white. Then we mixed colours and added them to create skin tones and shadows and complete what we could in the time available

Then we had about two and  half hours to work slightly larger and use the same method on a full figure study. I found working this quickly made the paintings more expressive and the limited palette did produce some good skin tones. I intend to work more in this approach.
I took these quick studies to a recent talk I did for some Seniors...partly to show some current work and also to show that art is something a person continues to work on- always looking to get better. Workshops can be useful -not because you want to duplicate the work, but because you want to try new methods and work out what adaptation of them works for you.

Back to the outdoors..

     "Bunkhouse Shadows" was the first painting I did in last years season of outdoor painting.  I was looking  out at some moored boats but the angle didn't especially appeal. The recommendation for outdoor painting is to look in all directions - so, when I looked behind me, I liked the look of the shadows cast on the bunkhouse at Britannia Shipyards.  We have started up our pleinaire sessions again this year.  I was out in Ladner last week but the painting is not totally finished. We didn't want to get stuck in the tunnel line-up, so left in good time - but also, the harbour boat I wanted to have in the painting was buzzing up and down the river so I'll have to finish it from a photo I took - ah, the challenges of outdoor painting ... and then there was the fish-boat that pulled up to the dock, exactly where I was painting. It was loading up for a trip to Alaska so there was an impressive amount of groceries going on board and I had to move in order to see anything else. Well, if I don't get to the painting in the near future, I can just print off the photo and have it for our indoor winter sessions.
     I was reading Alyson Stanfield's posting this week. She is the author of "I'd Rather be in the Studio"and also conducts workshops on art marketing. This time she was commenting on people who wonder if we should be doing things like painting when the world is in such a mess. She said "Making art makes you whole and allows you to contribute to the world from a healthier position". It certainly does feel great to be out with a pleasant group where everyone is doing his/her own thing. Even having an uncompleted painting- like mine this week- feels pretty good. I was enjoying the wonderful hodge-podge of a building across the river with its assortment of colours and materials, the shadows under the pilings, reflections in the water  and the fresh greens of new growth. It definitely needs the  boat to complete the composition was it was a good beginning to this year's outdoor sessions.

Ready for upcoming show-

     I've got this one, called "Sandpiper Time, Britannia" for the show Richmond Artists Guild will be having May 6 to 10 in the performance hall at the Art Centre. I will also be showing the one - on a previous blog- of the fish-boat with the net being wound onto it as well as the one used on my last newsletter - so a local water scene theme for me this time around. The poppies will be going down to Rocanini for May through June 29.
      Tomorrow, the paintings will come down from the Gulf of Georgia Cannery as the last indoor Farmers market is held. We will, no doubt, be back again at a future date.
     Exhibition space is always a problem for artists, especially when there is not a real community gallery. We used to have biannual shows in Richmond Art Gallery as well as a preview showing for Artists Among Us - which was a precursor to DoorsOpen. Now the Gallery is only interested in so-called "contemporary" art- which is an interesting definition in itself. However, impressionistic and realistic art still lives and is produced and enjoyed by many.
     Ian Roberts in his book "Creative Authenticity" has comments to make about so-called "contemporary art". This is one book I keep returning to even 'though it is not an instruction book. It is a book that makes you think about the path you are taking with your work. Ian states that a work of art has to communicate something. "It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw- "Just because no one understands you, doesn't mean you're an artist" Much contemporary art is very self-absorbed. It may have been fascinating for the artist to create, but it doesn't have the necessary hook to engage the viewer. We're left outside a private loop, perplexed."
      I'm hoping this one leaves no-one perplexed - but then it is not "Contemporary". This painting was the view from the Seine Net loft at Britannia Shipyards near the end of September. I wanted to capture the mood of the place and the feeling of history with all the pilings left from buildings or wharves of the past. I used thick gel to build up the texture of the pilings so they stand out from their reflections in the river. There is something almost magical about the light on the boats and all the reflections. Sandpipers, on their annual visit sit, carefully spaced, along a floating log while one perches on a piling.

Show opening this Saturday

Come on out this Saturday to the opening of the first show at Ink&Easel Gallery, 12431 No. 2 Road, Richmond - Saturday April 18 from 7 to 9 pm.  I'll be there and so will the other artists in the show. Since the space is also used for classes, there will be paintings on show on Saturday that will be taken down afterwards. We are hoping for a good turn-out.

painting shown in full...

I just sent out my newsletter with a detail of this painting on it. ---detail because of the shape of the available space. So - here is the whole thing. It is a fairly small painting- 18" x12". I put the net stencils on the painting because the boat was "Ready for the Run", which was starting the next day, and would be using a net to catch fish. It was a way to get a little creative  and have fun with the subject. I just had this painting down at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in a display with other members of Richmond Artists Guild. Our last display, for a bit, is this month - winding up on the 26th and the last  indoor Farmers Market- but May and June we are back in Rocanini Coffee Shop with flowers and gardens as the theme. Putting down the measurements of this painting made me think about the fact that paintings and frames are still measured in inches here. I wonder if that is because of our closeness to the USA?  For those of my generation, it is easier to think in inches anyway - but it must be confusing to young people. Also, when I sold fabric designs to US magazines, all the measurements were in inches, not metric - so I must confess I have never really adapted and I have to think twice when measurements are metric. When measuring for one's own purposes, it doesn't matter what scale one uses anyway. Sometimes, for an artist, it is just comparing measurements on a pencil held at arms-length- as in "from this angle, how long is the leg compared to the torso?".