Monday, December 1, 2008

The Grey/Gray Project — Notes to Self

Anatomy of Greys Begins

Deb joined me in the studio to begin our "grey project". Had a good start but we both agree that documenting the process will be painful, since neither of us has ever consciously thought about the process that much.



“You will at some point try to paint and then see yourself, and what you can do is so far away from what you want to do that you cringe and want to quit.”

A nanogram more of any pigment and it creates a completely different grey. Purely out of necessity, my painting has been pulled together with multiple dry brushed, cigarette-paper-thin layers of mixed greys. This could be what Rubens meant by thirty-eight layers is not enough; I must be on at least my 35th layer of barely there paint. AND, the best thing…these subtle nuances of paint are all affected by changes in light temperature — one petal takes precedent under cool light and then concedes the fore to a different petal under warm light. Give me gray, grey, and more chromatic gray. No matter how you spell it, I am captivated by the whole range of beautiful greys.

“An artist has no hurry to get away from the work lest it go wrong. She faces it out and wins out.”

Two peony paintings are complete. Any more will have to wait; I really want to finish “Oil & Water” for this exhibit. Okay, just because I’m not a series painter doesn’t mean I’m not a serious painter.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Keeping Constant Contact

I have been learning a new e-tool called "Constant Contact" used to create and send email newsletters to everyone on my mailing list. It's V cool! I can upload photos and insert links to favourite sites, post advance notice for shows, let you know about pending workshops and more. It's also very easy to "unsubscribe" with a click of the mouse at any time.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Monitoring Paintings...aaaauuuuggghhh!!

The other day at a friend's house, I decide to show her my new web site; slightly fresher look and newer images, only to discover that the images are not quite representational of the actual paintings: colours & contrast are off slightly. As you can imagine, even a little shift in hue and/or chroma makes a HUGE difference to a work of art. I use Adobe Photoshop to adjust images taken with my digital camera — brightness & contrast, hue & saturation — and I can usually get them spot on to the actual paintings. But I have an old monitor, not a flat LCD or plasma or whatever they are called (apparently these are now highly sought by graphic designers because the new ones are crap). Computers are not my thing and I am waaaayyyyyyy behind with technology; but then who can keep up, not that I even want to. I don't even have a cell phone...OMG! Anyway, the whole point of this is to let you know that the paintings are much warmer (less cyan/magenta) than they actually look on screen. Take "Leap of Faith" for instance; the colour on the new pale monitors has a cool green-blue cast but should be warmer with more soft pinks and yellows and, in reality, "Cape Scott" is a softer, more greyed french ultra blue. So... from now on when visiting my site you must all wear your rose coloured glasses.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Painting Nature & the Sublime



The piece shown above is an 8" x 8" study for a much larger painting to be titled "Oil & Water" which I hope will be ready for the VISA show in December.

Past Poliptychs and Chromatic Greys for Christmas

I have wanted to take a colour theory course for years. Rereading old journals and noticing a recurring entry, "I want to take a colour theory class", I decided after ten years that it was time. Friends suggested Xane St. Phillips' Understanding Colour at Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) so I signed on. And then I signed on for Understanding Colour II and then I signed on for Painting Nature & the Sublime, all taught by Xane who is brilliant and whose enthusiasm matches my own. I met a great group of people and together we mounted an exhibit titled "Poliptychs, a grouped show". I have since met another great group and am working on a series of paintings for an exhibit at the Slide Room Gallery this December in Victoria. The theme is chromatic greys and the curator is Sarah Harper (who is also brilliant).

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Finally updating my website & adding this blog

I am in the process of making changes to my web site; editing my bio/cv, replacing a few images, etc. It's not easy keeping a web site up to date especially when you can't (don't want to) DIY. I let the gang at Star Global (see Friends & Favourites) take care of all that, but their hands are tied until I actually send them something to update. Soooooo... if you visit often, please be patient. One thing that should remain up to date is this blog. I can post at my leisure and upload paintings as they are completed in case they don't make it to my PAINTINGS page right away. Works in progress could even find their way here... do be kind with any comments though, as you will not have the benefit of my vision for the final painting.