Back to Life Drawing

I'm looking forward to Life Drawing tonight - after not having any regular sessions over Christmas. This one was a long pose (last year!)  with Yui -in pastel -on - as is obvious here- mauve coloured Mi-Tientes paper. I thought it might be interesting to work on a cool  toned paper.  Yui is quite lovely with a long neck, long torso and an interesting flair with the clothes she wears. Every model has their own "presence" as well as appearance. There is also an interesting range of body language- some are strong and athletic, others very feminine in their movements. Then we have the male models with their variety too. When we are doing the short, warm-up drawings - one and two minutes- I often think that what I have drawn is not much. Then when I am sorting out papers - some just for recycling- I am sometimes surprised to see how much was captured in the quick gesture drawing. I also see a lot of good work around the room too.  Well, back at it tonight!

Different Opinions

The blog has nothing to do with the above painting- it is there because it is one that I did at the October figure painting workshop. It was mostly done in about three hours from a model - and then re-visited part of the final day when we went back to look at our work and decided what needed adjustment. The background is entirely from the imagination as there were actually other painters standing at their easels. I used it to emphasize where the main source of light was and to work in harmony with the colours of the model and her clothing.
     What has been interesting me lately has been the attention paid to Lawren Harris because of the exhibition of his works, arranged by actor and collector Steve Martin, in Los Angeles. Also, the record-breaking sale price of one of his paintings attracted much press.  I was interested to see Russell Smith writing in the Globe and Mail that he personally does not like Harris' work at all. "I find his stylized, glowing, bulbous glacier-scapes to look a lot like children's-book illustration. Very good children's-book illustration, sure- pair them up with a nice story about a dog and a seal and you'd get yourself a Caldecott Medal." I thought that was quite funny.  Nobody wrote in demanding Smith's head - which was interesting in itself as so many of us grew up with the silk screen prints of Group of Seven works in school hallways. Apparently this silk-screen proliferation of Canadian landscape was part of the government drumming up Canadian patriotism for World War II.  I also grew up seeing originals in the Vancouver Art Gallery when I attended Saturday Morning Art Classes there.  On a personal level, I like some of Harris' earlier works best - street scenes mainly.  The mountains tend to be a little bleak for my choice- maybe a little too stylized. Again, however, it is personal choice and the Group of Seven will probably always have a special appeal for most Canadians. We each should feel free to assess how we really feel and respond to the paintings - which isn't easy when the legends are so much a part of our experience in Canada.
     I'm reading - in bits because there is so much to it- "Portraits- John Berger on Artists", edited by Tom Overton. John Berger is one of the world's most celebrated art writers and the book is composed of many of his reviews and other writings.  He wrote a review of a show of Henry Moore's sculptures in which he said, among other things " a life-size "King and Queen", with crowns like jug handles to their heads, bodies that are scooped out, winded, and smacked flat like kippers..." Then he recalls in a piece written later,  "Moore's  work was uneven. He produced, in my opinion, his weakest sculptures during the period when his work was most in demand and most critically unquestioned. I remember that towards the end of the fifties, when I had the temerity to write critically about his latest work, I very nearly lost my job on the "New Statesman". I was considered a national traitor!"                            -and so we see that it is not easy to take a fresh look at venerated art. The other side to that, of course, is that when certain art gets the spotlight, collectors want it for the signature- and, often, how much it cost. Art and the art market are two different things.                                

Happy Holidays

This is a very short blog but I just wanted to show the entire painting of which just a slice was shown on my December newsletter - so here it is- the house off Commercial Drive done on a plein-aire day. If anyone is nt on my newsletter list and wants to be, e-mail me at lorainewellman@shaw.ca . It is just a short e-mail with a picture every month and usually a notice of upcoming art events.- cheers!

Plein-aire after the fact....

The top painting was as done "on the spot" in Hycroft gardens. The bottom is the same painting after setting it aside and coming back to it in the studio. I darkened the darks and made the colour richer, made the light behind the arbour even lighter and enriched the colours of the hydrangeas. I think it all results in a more appealing painting.  With acrylics, even after much experience and awareness, it is  sometimes a bit of a challenge to get the lights light enough as acrylic does darken on drying. I also think it makes a difference when the painting is viewed indoors, out of the bright natural light- it seems easier then to judge the tonal values. I've been going over - and I hope, improving, a few other paintings done this summer. One or two I was ready to trash until I sat down with them again. Second thoughts are sometimes good ones!

Trying something new

On the theory that not much is going to happen to any of them, I like to try different things on our Friday "Long Pose" days. We are a smaller group than Wednesday evenings - so there is more room. For this pose with Amanda, I first drew her in charcoal on watercolour paper. Then I did a wash of red acrylic paint and used a dryer to get it dry. This is where more space helped as I moved from where I was drawing to a table to use a blow dryer. Then I painted over everything with acrylic ground for pastels - using a foam brush, not a good painting brush as it is fairly gritty. Then back to the blow dryer. Then I worked with regular pastels but I found it easier to keep it loose. This was partly because of the way I had started fairly quickly to draw in the pose and the wash of paint gave it all a rougher look. Even the way the "ground"accepted the pastels was a bit different. I quite like the results but I have no major plans for it. As a pastel, it would have to be framed and glassed and it is a full sheet of watercolour paper  so that would be fairly expensive. I will probably show it at next year's DoorsOpen - but I think it is just going into the cupboard in the meantime. Wednesday night's long pose will just be on pastel paper as I won't be able to have the room for this - but I definitely intend to try this somewhat "mixed media" approach again. I haven't tried this before and haven't seen it done in actuality - but I did see this method on a website so I got the acrylic ground for pastels - which I hadn't know existed- and gave it a go.

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!