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.

Painting in the Park

When I was a young teenager, I had summer painting lessons in Stanley Park with Peter Aspell. I went downtown on the interurban tram. Since it kept very regular time, it was possible for my friend to get on the same tram at 57th, further along the line. We could have paid (I think a nickel) to transfer to a bus that would have taken us to the entrance to the park, but we usually walked so we could spend that "saved" money on "love comics". We did some oil painting on paper that we treated with gelatine and painted "plein  air" with Peter, who was a well-known painter.  Part of my early art experiences.  All this was before the more organized "Painting in the Park" classes organized by community centres. 
Yesterday, the Men in Hats met at Minoru Chapel for our Tuesday painting session. Several worked in oils or acrylics but I decided to keep it simple and just practice my drawing with a pen and ink drawing. I then added watercolour pencils to it and dampened the paper with pens that hold water in the cartridges. So, it was just a practice session with no outstanding results but a nice time out with friends that resulted in this piece. I need it for a reference for a project I am working on so it will prove useful. So, a different medium and a non-instructional session - but there I am  more than a few years along - still "painting in the park".

July and "summer doldrums"

     Here is the painting from the Finn Slough show - just because I hadn't posted it before. I have been out with "Men in Hats" but mostly just working in pen and ink and watercolour pencils. Last week, we were out in Burnaby and I went to have a look at the Burnaby Village Museum and the old carousel. The carousel is 103 years old and is now under cover, inside. When it was first there, it was outside ... a bit better for photography, perhaps. I did take a few photos and I may work them into something during the winter but there was no way to set up and paint on site.... so nothing new to show. The carousel used to be out at the PNE  so it is the one I rode on back in my youth. Interestingly, they have given in a new hardwood floor. The wood came from the old B.C. Women's prison gymnasium. An odd combination. Does the wood hold memories? I also wonder what tales the horses of the merry-go-round could tell.
    We went to look at one of the old buildings which was a log cabin where a family of three had lived. There was a loft where maybe the child slept - although the heat would have been from the stove in the downstairs. A galvanized tub hung on the wall for the Saturday night bath. We were talking about that at lunch-time and decided that it was traditional here for the mother to go first but, apparently in other cultures, she may be the last!  When I was in art school, one exam painting was of a model in a bathtub. We were raised up above the model area so we could all look down. It was like something from an Impressionist painting- green-tinted tub, bouquet of lilacs, Persian-style carpet. There was actual water in the tub....not sure what that did to the model's skin after a few hours! The young fellows in the class were quick to volunteer to top up the water with hotter water every now and then. It would be fun to have an old tub now for Life Drawing on occasion - but I think we'd just let the model sit in it dry. Then again, our storage is very limited so we have very few props- and no way to be raised up on risers. Ah, life was fun then.