Well these are the latest works.  The poplar painting is titled "A Forest of Trees" and is composed of two 20x40 canvases covered in goldleaf.  Artists refer to this as a diptick,  I call it two paintings, but what do I know.  I have learned that doing a diptick composition is quite a bit more difficult than a single in that you have to have each stand up as a separate composition and a good composition together.  Hopefully I have achieved that and the painting invites you to take an imaginary walk into this sunlit forest.

 

 

The painting of the bracket fungi on a downed birch log is a pallet knife and brushwork painting.   I like trying to use the knife to create texture and rough blend the colours together.  This gives a more natural look to mixed colour atleast in my mind it does.  I was trying to contrast the bark of an old dying tree to the bark found on the young birch in the midground.  I titled the painting "Renewal"

 

Well that's it for this blog and I'll probably only have one more before we head out for a winter holiday.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

December 8, 2012

I have been remiss in my postings.  Part of it has to do with the Wintergreen sale, which went fairly well, and me just being both busy and lazy after it.  The holiday season seems to get out of hand some times, it's a good thing my wonderful wife keeps me on track.  Art wise I have been back at the painting and trying some new varigated metal leaf along with some pallet knife work .  The pallet work has brought me a small commission piece so I must be doing something right.  I'm not sure folks know how to react to the paintings on gold, copper and now varigated leaf.  Some look sort of puzzled when they see the light changing the whole view of the painting.  At any rate here are some more examples of what I have been up to.

It's that time of year again.  Wintergreen sale is on at conexus centre of the arts, Fri 1 till 9 pm, Sat 10 till 6 and Sun 10 till 5.  I load in this afternoon and do some set up , finish up tomorrow in am.  This is the first time that I'm selling both paintings and sculpture so hope there are lots of people and that they are anxious to get their Christmas shopping done.  Van is loaded and as soon as lunch is in me I'm off.  Lots of new folks represented in the show this year so the social aspect for the artists will be a little different.  Guess some of us old folks are finally getting out of the show/sales business and moving on.

Paintings

So what happens when you can't carve stone, which may be my near future.  You move on to another art form which  may or may not include the third dimension.  During the time I was recovering from last falls illness I started to paint with acrylics.  I used oils as a kid but thought that I could apply some of the same skills and tecniques .  Well I forgot every thing I ever thought I knew and have had to relearn .  On top of that I am not sure what style of painting I want to do, so once again I;m playing with styles and ideas including using copper and gold leaf backgrounds.  Some how it doesn;t resonate like stone but !!! 

Bears of another colour

Bears  are interesting characters no matter what their stance or action.  The first and last pics are of a carving called THE SULTAN OF SWAT.  A grizzly has just flipped a salmon up on the rocks.  the first two white bears are pics of MARCHING TO PRETORIA.  Standing with apaw resting on his back and the other forward it looks like marching.  The lower two pics of whitebears are of BROKEN.  a Polar bear standing on ice that is breaking and he has his head up but in a quizzical twist.

Well here we are packed and ready to run back to Saskatoon, sort of.  Ready for Artists on Tour show in TCU Place this weekend.  If you are in the area drop by and view some fantastic art work, mine too.  Entry is free, you can"t beat that.  Reflections of Nature is next  and then Wintergreen in Regina.

Threesome

Rainforest 

Mr. Cool

Welcome to October and the beginning of another season of art shows and sales.  My first show is called Artists on Tour (you can google it) a collective of thirty SK, AB, and BC artists held at TCU Place in Saskatoon Oct. 12 - 14.  I know many of the artists but there are a number that are new to me.  Should prove to be an interesting experience.  I'll have a number of  new pieces to show and have just finished documenting them so some pics to view.

  Reflections of Nature follows on Oct.26 - 28.  This is at Prairieland in Saskatoon and is a show /competition which deserves a lot more attention.  This the biggest wildlife art show in western Canada and there are competition catagories for all sorts of art and open to all ages and experience.  My grand daughter  Sarah plans to enter some of her wonderful photos this year.  I am a judge of sculpture at this year's show, a job I share with two other recognised sculptors from SK.  I also have a booth to show and sell my sculpture and paintings.  Yes, paintings.  I've been doing a little on the side and have been juried by the Saskatchewan Craft Council.

Then Nov. rolls in and Wintergreen pops up on the 16 - 18.  Hope to see all the folks around Regina at that show at the Centre of the Arts.  I hope to have a variety of paintings for sale along with carvings and will post some pics on the next visit to my blog.

Collaborative Weekend

So this is what a collaboration might look like.
Top foto is a table full of items that were created from the efforts
of twelve artist/artisans and their scraps,rejects,junk and new materials.

I will use foto of the Tiki as an example since I happened to be the main constructor of this and I'll use first names of other contributors.  Paul brought the Russian Olive wood recently cut from someone's yard (not his).  I claimed the log and decided to carve a Tiki like figure.  Dale provided a helmet shaped bowl of maple and the ash nose ring piece.Ted had this wonderful porcelain raven and kindly cut a steel peg to join the bird, helmet hat and sculpted log together.  Sharon painted the nose ring so that it stood out more.  And who knows who supplied the various equipment.  I even learned abit about glass, jewellery, felting and actually turned a small maple vase on the lathe.  sorry it is sideways!

Good company, good food ( potlucks are always the best of everything), lots of work and lots of laughs;  what more could you want from a weekend?

   

Weekend of play

This weekend (fri evening, sat and sun) about twelve saskatchewan artists are getting together for an art collaboration.  In other words we are all bringing a pile of junk and tools to see if we can jointly create some neat (wierd) pieces of artwork.  We are also hoping to learn something from the other participants as we have folks who normally work in paper, wood, jewellery, glass, metal and stone.  It should prove to be interesting, informative and productive.  If you are in Regina and area feel free to drop in to the Balkwill Center (it's also the Regina Art Gallery so you can take that in as well) and see what we're up to.  If you happen to just drive by and see someone putting horns on a sawhorse or christmas lights on a canoe paddle don't call for the straightjacket boys.  We are not really crazy just a little nuts, nice nuts who would be more than happy to show you what we have come up with.  Have a great weekend folks I know I am going to.

Sculpting

CHAPLINESQUE is one of a series of representations of famous mimes that I am studying.  These mimes have changed the course of humour in our world through live performance, film, and television.  Each sculpture of this series, has caused me to study the expressive characterizations that allowed these mimes to share their wordless stories.

Marcel Marceau was the first of the famous mimes that challenged me and through him, inspired me to explore others that I remember from the soundless pictures and who were important to my understanding of this style of humour.  This series is my tribute to the excellence of these mimes.