Finally finished!

Here are some views of the finally finished three panels for the hospital. Each one is 3 feet by 4 feet and the top photos shows most of it - couldn't quite get back properly to get it all fully in. I call it "An Artist's Richmond" - and - as you see- it is not  total reality - lots of omissions, exaggerations, and general fun. I wanted to make a set of paintings that would be fun to view and would take a person's mind off stressful thoughts. It has been a real challenge to research and paint - and very time-consuming since there are so many details with tiny brushes on such large canvases. Why the dots? They are there to make it magical and to make it clear that is not a realistic map. In the second picture above, there is the fishing pier and I thought it would be fun to have a cat fishing too. There are lots of artists painting all over - and you will see that they are all wearing green aprons such as the Men in Hats plein-aire group wear. A lot of suburbia has been left out - and where it was needed  for spacing, there are large bird portraits of the various species found in Richmond.The third picture above is of the slide at the new children's playground - with a Yellowhead blackbird looking in from the sharing farm next door and garlic ready for the festival. The last picture above has the West Dyke with Scotch Pond, a birdwatcher, Harold Steve's house and his belted cattle, a Redwing blackbird and his less brilliantly plumed mate, the eagle tree, the bush where the little owls were - and the snow geese- no room for the Snowy Owls who are over on Sea Island. - but the English Sparrows and a tiger swallowtail butterfly are nearby. - so this is some of it - and I'll probably post more photos in the next blog.

October Art News

Here is the rest of the pastel I used on October 2015 Art News. Any guesses what Helene was holding? I no longer remember- it may have been a little camera.  I used this image as I haven't yet photographed what I did in the workshop taken at the beginning of the month- which was painting the clothed figure. I like this pastel because it captures Helene's playful spirit as she poses in her aunt's hat from the 1940's.
I'm currently getting organized for GuessWho? which we will be holding on November 7th at the Pioneer Church, South Arm United at #3 and Steveston Highway -from 10 am to 3pm with viewing only for the first 15 minutes. All paintings  are 10x10 on thick canvases so they can be hung to make a nice grouping.  I  will have three paintings in this sale and they are all different - so I wonder if you will recognize my work???  All paintings sell for $100 each - some are by high-school students so you may be buying the next BIG NAME - and some are by current big names whose work sells into the thousands. You may be making a good investment- although I feel that if you really enjoy a painting, you have your return on your investment right there. The nicest things I've had said to me are when a person tells me how much they are enjoying something I painted and sold some time previously. It is a great chance to do your Christmas shopping out of the rush and end up with individual one-of-a-kind gifts.  Of course, you might just fall int love with your purchase and end up gifting yourself!

Creativ Magazine

I have a new issue of the magazine Creativ. You can find it at Chapters, select International News locations and McNally Robinson - which is not in Vancouver. The front and back covers, above, show the free-thinking approach. The front cover is even slightly molded- while the back has the back view of the panda! Inside there is some of the most beautiful photography you will see anywhere and lots of inspiring pieces about people who asked "what if ?" and came up with something definitely out of the ordinary. There is: a French photographer who reimagined superheroes in the style of old Flemish paintings, fashion forward pants that come with the stories behind the block prints, a  surprisingly beautiful hand-cut sculpture of a bacterium, an unusual story about a physicist who says "Science is the journey of human intention; it is the process of risking it all for the chance of expanding what it means to be human", eco-playgrounds, an amazing painting of Manhattan - and that's not all. Both inspiring and thought-provoking, this tribute to creativity is a good one for artists and all creative thinkers to ponder. Hopefully, we can all rise to new levels of creativity.

-from September Newsletter

     I just posted this painting on my September newsletter . It is called "Love for Three Oranges" but there wasn't room for the oranges in the newsletter space - so here they are. I first heard that music when I was at Art School and the title has stayed with me. I thought it would be a good warm painting for a fall newsletter. If anyone reading this doesn't get my newsletter (very short, a picture each time) just e-mail me at lorainewellman@shaw.ca and I will add you to my list.                               The main news on my newsletter is that the Grand Prix of Art Steveston is this Saturday. There will be around 100 painters painting all around Steveston and Britannia Heritage Shipyards. The tricky thing is, until we pull a slip of paper with the location, we have no idea just where we will be painting. Then we have three hours to complete a painting which will be turned in for judging. I hope I get an interesting location that is different from where I have been before.
    Plein aire painting started just before the time of the Impressionists. Before then, paint had to be ground and mixed as it was to be used - strictly an indoor job. Then paints became available ready to use in tubes. Of course, the artist still adds a  mixer-medium. For oils, it used to be turpentine and an oil- probably linseed. This is a bit smelly and probably a bit toxic but one whiff does remind me of Art School ! Now oil painters use a different non-toxic, non-smelly medium. Some oils are now even compatible with water. Acrylic paints, mixed with polymer plastic instead of oil, became available around 1940 and have proven their durability. The actual colours - or pigments- are the same in both oils and acrylics - and, for that matter, pastels and watercolours. Acrylics have the advantage of being  a material than can be cleaned up with water.  They maintain their  flexibility so paintings don't crack. They also dry fast - and the artist keeps brushes in water because of this. Drying fast has both advantages and disadvantages. Now, mediums have been developed to slow down the drying so it is not awkwardly fast in the outdoors. I will be using a retarder gel when I am painting in the Grand Prix. It slows down drying enough to give better control for softer edges where I want them. Another advantage to acrylics is that the finished painting needs no varnishing and can even be wiped off. I recommend them for kitchen paintings especially. Needless to say, artists have great discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of oils, acrylics, watercolours and pastels. My feeling is that artists usually find the medium that appeals to them the most and with which they are most comfortable. My personal choice is acrylics - a modern paint for a modern world.

Being part of a "scenius"

     In "Show Your Work", Austin Kleon says that one of the most destructive myths about creativity is that only the lone genius is going to be able to achieve good  creative work. He then states, "There's  a healthier way of thinking about creativity that the musician Brian Eno refers to as "scenius". Under this model, great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals- artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers- who make up an "ecology of talent". If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of "a whole scene of pople who were supporting each other, looking at each other's work, copying from each other, stealing ideas and contributing ideas." Scenius doesn't take away from the achievements of those great individuals; it just acknowledges that good work isn't created in a vacuum, and that creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds."
     With "Men in Hats", we have a scenius. During the summer, we are painting outdoors and then, in the winter, meet in a studio to  do more painting. Definitely, there is a scenius effect as we encourage each other. The above painting was done this past Wednesday at Hycroft where we have an exhibition. As part of our contract, we were invited to paint on the lawn so that members attending the BBQ could stroll around for a look during the social hour. We set up around 2 pm and left when the actual BBQ started at 6. The painting was my effort. You see the full scene in the photo below it with another of the group, David McHolm, painting and also showing other work. You will note that I eliminated the building across the street as I felt it didn't contribute anything to the painting. The challenge was getting the hydrangeas to look like hydrangeas and not random blobs! I feel that being part of this group has helped me on my "absorbing errand". In fact, in "An Absorbing Errand" by Janna Malamud Smith, that I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, she states "We need to work alone; we need to have privacy- sometimes a lot of it-.... but we also need to be stirred up, stimulated and challenged by others, especially others who share our interests and with whom we feel some modicum of mutual respect."
     UWC club members who viewed us painting commented that it was interesting to see everyone doing something different. This is part of the fun of the group - we each take a different view and a different approach when we are out painting. Sometimes what we do succeeds - and sometimes we kick ourselves for not choosing a different spot or different angle - and sometimes we are in total awe at what another painter produced - but it all adds up to keeping the creative juices flowing as we take our own paths - but with the support of others.

Housekeeping---

I picked this more "domestic"painting  to show here as I've been thinking about time allotment, the demands of housekeeping and so on. I was reading about Louise Bourgeois and thinking that she was definitely an artist to admire. She worked at her art her whole life, even when she went through a period of very little recognition and carried on working right up to the day she died - in her nineties. Her home in New York has been preserved as she left it. It is obvious that art was her priority. I'm sure she would never give a thought to how to keep a stainless steel sink shining  and she obviously was not concerned about de-cluttering. Maybe modern women artists try to do too much in too many directions and live up to others standards. We need to keep telling ourselves that Martha Stewart has a whole staff! Instead of making a charming centrepiece of recycled and re-coloured glass jars as per Martha, Louise make a high stack of gift boxes of cookies, topped it with a gift of liquor and let that just stand in her living room.  When her husband died, she got rid of the stove and just cooked on a two-burner hotplate. Presumably, that was to simplify things as well as free up more space when she wanted to work in the kitchen. Maybe we all should think about Louise and what she accomplished- her "Mother" giant spider statue has been replicated in several places around the globe, for one thing- and try to tip the balance in favour of art over housework.

An Absorbing Errand

---out again to Life Drawing the other night- I didn't do this one then but I thought I'd post it since I haven't photographed the latest one yet. I especially like the way I've captured the nose on this model ---and I liked the lighting. Lighting can be a bit difficult when there is one main light on the model - but you might not be sitting in the best position when there is a roomful of other artists. Still, there is the continual challenge of trying to do good work. I'm currently re-reading "An Absorbing Errand -How Artists and Craftsmen Make Their Way to Mastery" by Janna Malamud Smith. She makes a number of good points  about getting started, sticking with it and overcoming obstacles - so I may very well comment on a few points in further blogs. In explaining what an absorbing errand is,  she states " An absorbing errand is the agreement to undertake and sustain a compelling practice of your own, an effort at mastery that requires time and focus. It is an adventure with many perils. Yet, in return, you gain a window seat, forward motion, and a landscape made new."  I also love a quote from Lee Hammond "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. That's why they call it artWORK."   I guess what a lot of us hope is that some of our "work" will last and give pleasure after we are no longer here. William James said "The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it". - Certainly true in his case, but even if that level of achievement and recognition is not reached, the journey- the absorbing errand- can still be worth pursuing.