Salmon Festival on horizon

     Rapidly approaching is July 1st, Canada Day and the Steveston Salmon Festival. I will be in it this year, sharing a booth with Margreth Fry. Quite a few other Richmond artists will be there so we hope that people do come inside to see the Art show. I don't think I'm taking this one of "Baskets" for sale but I thought it looked summery.
     Following on from the last blog - I forgot to give the actual name of the the political cartoonist who took his pseudonym from the Russian word- karandash- for pencil. Emmanuel Poire' was born in Moscow and became a Paris illustrator. The Swiss pencil company Caran d'Ache is named after him and the logo is a stylized version of his signature.
     Now that we are into better painting weather, Men in Hats are back outdoors painting. There is a different challenge in painting on the spot - apart from the weather which can be challenge enough.It can be difficult to focus on what seems to capture the mood of the location. Then the light changes, boats, cars and people move. Yet, for all the difficulties , there are a lot of benefits - learning to find the focus, trying to capture the mood, compensate for light changes- and get something fresh. There is certainly an intensity felt in the paintings that is just not there in a photograph. We often take a reference photo in case we want the small outdoor painting to also become a larger studio piece. It is only by looking at the painting that I get a real feel for what interested me. Too often the photo is "ho-hum". So then the new challenge starts - how to translate the "hey this was a neat place!" feeling into a larger piece done over a longer period of time. Nobody said it was easy - that's why it is called artWORK.

Caran d'Ache

     Here are a few recent life drawings- this first is two five-minute poses from our rotation pose, the next two are 20-minute poses and the last is 35 minutes. All are drawn with Caran d'Ache watersoluble wax crayons. The last book I filled at Life Drawing was black and white on grey paper so I figured it was time for a switch into colour. Draw dry, take a brush to wet the drawing and it all blends in but can still retain a bit of the linear look of drawing.
     As you know from previous blogs,  I've been looking into the history of pencils and drawing materials so I researched the Caran d'Ache line. This line has over 100 years of history as  the factory was set up in Geneva in 1915 using graphite found in the Swiss mountains. Around the same time, there was an illustrator in Paris who became very famous. He took the pen name (or should we say "pencil name"?) of Caran d'Ache from the Russian word for pencil. And, just to make this even more of an international mix-up, the Russia word comes from a Turkish root "kanco tash" which refers to black stone. Nine years after starting, the Swiss company took the name of the illustrator and used a stylized version of his signature as their logo. I'm assuming the illustrator was paid for this.
     Caran d'Ache makes a full line of pencils, pens and drawing materials. Their pens are renowned for  being especially beautiful. For the 100year anniversary, Caran d'Ache created a clever design of a ballpoint pen that looks like a pencil. Unfortunately, I don't have one but I do enjoy the Caran d'Ache
materials that I do have.

Full Mountain View

Here is the "full square" (10"x 10") of the mountain view painting that is one of two choices for my free draw for DoorsOpen. It is a reminder of why we are so fortunate to live in this west coast landscape. We have beautiful scenery from mountains to sea - and even the cities can be scenic. DoorsOpen is this weekend - June 4th and 5th from 10am to 4pm - lots of sites  throughout Richmond as well as my area- where there are three of us artists close together. I've been hanging paintings and setting up easels to get ready. I still have a few paintings to wire and I'll put out some sketchbooks for people to view. Come and have a cookie and browse!

The other painting...

     This is "Gary's Woods" which is the other painting going to Shanghai. It was inspired by my cousin's wooded property. Harder to see online in a smaller size, the painting itself has red leaves from autumn still poking through the snow and floating on the almost-frozen water - to bring a welcome touch of colour to this serene landscape.
     Back here in Richmond, I am getting ready for DoorsOpen - June 4th and 5th. I have a couple of smaller snow scenes but now, with this Shanghai show, the rest of my snow series have gone.
I'm beginning to think I will have to travel a bit farther afield to see any more snowy landscapes, It has been a few winters now since there was any "paintable" snow around here.
     Currently, of course, the garden is in full bloom with more subject matter than I can immediately handle. Sketchbook and photographs are coming to the rescue and reference material is being saved for winter studio painting. Plants seem to be blooming earlier but also finishing up earlier. The columbines have mostly gone to seed already. The pink peonies are over but the white ones are now out . I wonder why they didn't  bloom together?  I'm not sure that peonies appeal as individual subjects on their own - I think I'd like them in a  bouquet - but then I'd have to pick them and I hate picking peonies as they never last indoors.  Maybe later if any are available, I'll see if I can buy a bouquet  - right now I seem to be busy enough with already painted paintings, setting them up for DoorsOpen,

Shanghai and Sketching

     Here is "Winter Pond" that has gone of to be in an exhibit in Shanghai. This view was a few years ago - now I find myself wondering if - with climate change- it will ever happen again. As it was, it was one of those "miracle" days when, instead of snow being followed by grey skies and rain, we got snow and then a few crisp sunny days. Sturgeon Banks, just beyond the dyke, was a beautiful sight with sunshine on bulrushes making a great contrast to the shadows and highlights of the snow. It was a great day to be out. I can relive the day when I see the painting - or even a photo of the painting since it now seems the painting is destined to live elsewhere.
     The Travel section of the weekend Globe and Mail runs a series of first-person stories from the road. This week, features "The pencil is mightier than the flash" by David Gillett on the joys of sketching. He tells about sketching in Oxford and notes, "Even now, five years later, I can flip open to these pages and smell the clematis that wound around the solid columns, hear laughter and the crack of a croquet ball on the lawn behind us, see the radius of the Palladian arches, feel the warmth of the May morning sun as it fluttered through the dappled leaves of Oxford. One look at the sketch and it all comes back to life."  This is so true- it is nice to have photos but sketches somehow penetrate the memory much deeper so that all the senses bring their parts to the remembrance. Apparently some art museums- such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam  are now encouraging deeper looking by providing sketching materials so that visitors will pause and sketch to greater enjoyment than snapping a photo and quickly moving on. I've been out sketching columbines in the garden for a future painting. Somehow, drawing helps you see more.  I think I will have to get back to even more frequent sketching.
    

Bleeding Hearts

Here is the "full square" of the newsletter painting. It is 24 x 24 and was an interesting challenge. At one point I was crouched down in the middle of the garden trying to get the right angle on the hanging bleeding hearts. I wanted to do them in the early stages when not all the hearts are fully out. Another challenge was to do a painting that is red and green and not have it garish. In reality, the brighter green looks great but in a painting it becomes a bit too much of a hit in the eye- so I toned down the greens somewhat.  I wanted the complementary colours to be complimentary too! I also had to tone down the splashes of brighter light coming through the plant. The problem with painting garden plants is,  unless one is wealthy enough to have a full-time gardener, the garden still has to be cared for - not just "painted". There is weeding, staking, trimming and lots of other tasks. Still, with painting from one's own plants, there is no doubt but that it is an original in every way. So far, the title is just "Bleeding Hearts"  but I might think about something else. Usually, I tend to be pretty straight-forward with titles. I think going Latin and calling it "Dicentra spectabilis"would be a bit pretentious- although I like the "spectabilis" part because I did think it was spectacular.

"Lanterns" in Taiwan

I just got the catalog today as Annie Tsai is back in town from Taiwan. The catalog is from the 2016 Group Exhibition of Artists from North America. The exhibition took place in the National Taiwan Arts Education Centre. Now it is touring to other locations   in Taiwan for three months. My painting "Lanterns" was one of two of mine shown in this exhibition and I just found out it has sold ! The farthest back lantern is a camping lantern, then there is the miner's lantern that I have painted a few times before and since - and then the "lanterns" plant. It is interesting to think that a painting with  my Dad's old lantern has now found a new home far away.This painting is 20 x 16 - on canvas and painted with acrylic.

And this is one I painted at the beginning of this year. It is 20 x 10.