henschel-paintings-art-talk

The Merry Month!!!

2009-06-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

After years of teaching painting workshops away from home, usually at the request of an Art Group, I taught my first ever watercolour PLAYSHOP at our Henschel Gallery from May 19th to the 23rd and we had a ball! It was a group of seven ladies from all over the map who were determined to have a good time!!! Four days flew by without a hitch and we came away, due to the benefits of a small group, being good friends. Here is a picture of our gang in the workshoproom and another of lunch in our yard.
You may notice on our website that "Up and Coming" has nothing up and coming. The reason for this is not that we are doing nothing, but that we are in a process of change that is still in the planning stages. So bear with us; there will be "Up and Comings"!!!
There will be new reports and ARTALK on the joys of Plein Air painting this month. Throughout the summer I will be out there a lot!
It's so great to do ART again. May was mostly taken up with elderly family members and their Golden Years, which seem to consist mostly of hospitals and medicational side effects. One message rings loud and clear after being involved with old folks: enjoy them while you've got them but also enjoy TODAY!!!

You do what you have to do!

2009-05-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Once in awhile, you just have to follow the Maker's plans for you and put your own on hold. Our Florida trip was cancelled by my doctor, who discovered that I have what they call , "Atrial Fibrillation", a condition in which the electrical impulses that make your heart beat regularly get mixed up and cause the heart to flutter or"fibrillate". In my case my heart is sound but there is a danger of stroke because the blood can coagulate in the atrium. I am now on a blood thinner until I can get a regular heart beat going again, hopefully soon. I feel good but have to holf off on the distant travel until the ticker ticks properly again. My doctor has plans for this.

Plans: May 19 - 23 a watercolour workshop right here in our gallery! This is a definite GO.
May 24- 31 a painting sojourn to The southern end of the island.
June and July will find me in my favourite haunts on Northern Vancouver Island, a huge area that includes some of the most spectacular wilderness in the world.
August will find me close to home. Our gallery will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day from July15th to September 10th.
In Sept./Oct. we will be in Manitoba for the fall colours.
These are the best laid plans of mice and men

Spring has Sprung

2009-04-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

The robins are back, daffies are in bloom and the salmonberry blossoms are breaking out, much to the delight of the few courageous Hummingbirds that have flown into an exceptionally cool spring. The inspiration that gets me painting is also here and almost gone, that is the catkins on the alders are creating a colour that drives painters like me crazy. It is a reddish brown with purple undertones in the shade and yellowish overtones where the sun hits them. Because this a reddish grey that is the complement of green, when the alders are juxtaposed against evergreens their usually muted greys become brilliant.

This is a painting I did from a pencil sketch and a few colour notes near our home here in Nimpkish Heights. It is a view looking down the beach that leads to the mouth of the Nimpkish River, the longest river on Vancouver Island. The alder trees visible are on the opposite side of the river.

The sketch is 5 1/2 x 8 inches. In my studio, I painted a 18x24 inch acrylic on canvas. Both are shown here to illustrate how a sketch is used as a basis for further interpretation. I have spent 35 springtimes on North Island trying to capture the essence of it all. Haven't got it yet, but I'm learning!

MEXICO

2009-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

We are reluctant Snowbirds! We love the seasons of North Island and when many of our neighbours pack up their motor-homes and head for places like Yuma and Phoenix, we put another log on the fire, hunker down with a good book and listen to the rain – a time for R&R. This winter, however, we weakened to the call of the sun and the invitation of our daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Don Mancell, to join them at their house in The Baja, Mexico. On December 6th we drove to my Mom’s in Surrey and on the 12th flew to San Jose del Cabo where Kathy and Don took us on the two and a half hour drive north to their place in La Ventana.

La Ventana, a small Mexican fishing village, has become “Gringo-ized” by wind and kite surfers. Likely one of the best places in this hemisphere for this type of surfing because of the very dependable winds, it has grown in popularity to where many of the surfers have exchanged their spots in the campsite and built more permanent adobe style houses. The land here slopes away from the Sea of Cortez and nearly everyone has a view of both mountains and an ocean that is never more than a kilometer from anyone’s house. Kathy and Don’s place had an added “Casita”, a self contained unit separate from the main “Casa” (house), that we inhabited It had its own patio facing the mountains that were bathed in colours at sunrise and silhouetted at sunset. Among the fifty or so sketches I did were several views from the patio. The one shown here is a ten by fourteen inch watercolour that shows the incredible Cardon forest sloping all the way to the mountains. The Cardons are a cactus closely related to the Saguarros in the American Southwest. My favourite place to sketch was in the desert among these friendly giants. The holes in the old ones, drilled by various woodpeckers, were often inhabited by other birds. I soon discovered where our humming birds went during the winter. Any time there was a flowering plant, there they were!
Christmas was, strangely, not too different from here, except for the century plants used as Christmas trees. Christmas Eve was celebrated with a monstrous potluck dinner at the campsite on the beach and, later, a huge bonfire and Christmas carols. Church, the next morning, was all in Spanish but meaningful, nevertheless. We arrived home to banks of snow in Vancouver but, to our delight, sunshine and no snow in Nimpkish Heights! Home is where the heart is, don’t you know?

Milestones and Transitions

2008-11-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

Transition and painting are not favourable companions for me. I paint the most when: 1. I'm feeling well and energetic and 2. I have an established well worn routine. Both of these have been changed a bit this fall. I had eye surgery that took two months to normalize and during this time we changed our gallery operations from 7 days a week to "Open by Appointment' and stopped custom framing. This is a milestone, since we have operated this gallery for over twenty years. BUT we have not retired! The gallery was wonderful for meeting people from all over the world and both my wife and I love people, BUT it tied us down and often kept me from doing as much PAINTING as I would have liked to.

So, as Bob Dylan put it, "The Times They Are A-changing" and we want to expand our horizons and "roam a bit". I always paint wherever I go and this winter I hope to bring home a lot of scenes from Mexico and Florida. April will find us in the Canadian Shield to paint the breakup of ice on the lakes and rivers and, if the Good Lord is willing and the creeks don't rise, late May and June I'll look for springtime in the high Rockies. North Vancouver Island and home is the world's best place to be in the summer. I'll be back painting my favourite haunts here. So stick with me -I'll keep you posted!

Let me talk a bit about mediums. I'll be traveling by plane to Mexico and Florida and try for portability. My choice for air travel is usually watercolours but as long as you keep your images on paper you can use acrylics or pastel. On site painting with acrylics is somewhat restrictive since they dry so quickly, I've been trying out the Golden Company's new OPEN ACRYLICS that have a drying time up to ten times slower than regular ones. They still dry a lot faster than oils and are a good alternative for travel so you won't have to worry about bringing back wet panels. We tried them out at The Hills workshop and students generally liked them.

When I paint the Shield in Manitoba/Ontario and later The Rockies, we will travel by car and be free to use whatever medium is suitable - probably my nostalgic old oils! The big trick with travel, since I don't have a satellite connection is keeping up with this blog and my website at http://www.henschel.ca/ Meanwhile, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Frolige Weinachten and Joyeaux Noel! The Jolly Holly, by the way, is in front of our gallery door.

Workshop at The Hills Health Ranch

2008-10-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Back home from the B.C. Cariboo at 108 Mile House.

Here are a couple of pics from the Workshop there. Great group: folks from Prince George, Chase and Barriere as well as local 108-ers. The Cariboo (cowboy country) is full of friends and neighbours!

Head's Up!

2008-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Back in the swing of things again! It's wonderful to be able to look at the world in an upright position once again. The retinal surgeon gave me a thumbs up report a couple of days ago and made me realize how much I have to be thankful for, especially for all your best wishes and prayers!

Getting prepared for the upcoming workshop at The Hills Health Ranch from October 5th to 8th.

This will be my third Autumn Playshop there and just a whole lot of fun. The huge expanses of this incredible place open the creative pores in you body and the paintings just flow! This year the emphasis will be on Watercolours and Acrylics, either individually or combined and with that combo, you can pull off anything (well, maybe not your clothes!).

Acrylics are a medium that I've returned to lately and tried on a number of surfaces. It can be very watercolour-like on paper and on other surfaces if undercoated with Golden Absorbent Ground. When used on Masonite or Canvas, it can act like oil paint, either impressionistic impastos or very detailed photo-like images. In the painting shown here I've used it on canvas quite thinly but impressionistically. Now, with the addition of Absorbent Ground on regular canvas or the recently marketed Watercolour Canvas, you could do much the same thing on canvas with watercolours!

I know that some of my old students will be back for another run and am really looking forward to seeing them again. Hasta manana at the HillS!

An Aye for an Eye

2008-08-26T19:51:00.001-07:00

Eyesight is one of our great gifts. Do visual artists have any greater appreciation of this gift than others? I doubt it. Most people cherish their vision, becoming accutely aware of it when it begins to weaken with age and eyeglasses become part of their life. Doctors discovered a hole in my retina about five years ago, a condition I found I could live with until lately.
On September 11th a retinal surgeon will repair it in about an hour. No big deal, except for the entire following week it is imperative to keep your head down, eyes parallel to the ground, twenty out of twenty-four hours a day. The surgeon replaces the vitreous jelly in the eye with a gas bubble which then must rise to rest against the healing retinal hole. The entire healing process usually takes about eight weeks, but I will have one good eye as the other one heals.
I don't experience too many "firsts" in my life anymore, so this tends to put some variety back in my existence.
I'm trying to think of ways in which I will be able to amuse myself: 1. Looking down, I could become very rich by finding a lot of money. 2. Do a thousand small sketches. 3. Write a novel. 4. Play a dobro. 5. Clean up the garage on my hands and knees. 6. Examine anthills. 7. Search for four-leaf clovers ---- the list is endless, so I can see I will be having a ball!
I need to heal quickly, however, because on the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of October I will be teaching a Watercolour/Acrylic Workshop at The Hills Health Ranch at 108 Mile in The Cariboo.

Wish me luck!

August, 2008 - BIG CHANGES COMING UP!

2008-08-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

I have done some editing on our blog, so bear with me for this latest update. I am also learning a bit more about blogs, so if you would like to respond, I WILL try to answer you.
August has been our busiest month in the gallery since we opened it nearly twen ty years ago. At first we operated out of a small area that had once been our living /dining room. Twelve years ago we added a large addition to create about 2000 sq. ft. of gallery space and included custom framing as a service. We have had it open for regular hours most of the year and from May 1st to October 15th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 7 days a week. It has been a wonderful experience to meet so many art lovers but there comes a time when changes are in order to create a positive movement in your life. We need to free up some time away from the gallery.
October 15th will be the last day the gallery will be open for regular hours. Henceforth it will be open by appointment only and framing will be permanently discontinued. Our website, however will play a big part in displaying my work and we intend to enhance what is even now an outstanding site.
We intend to keep in touch with our gallery friends with a newsletter. If you would like to be included on our mailing list, please send us your e-mail address.
Who knows, I might even have the time to keep this blog up to date!

Happy 2008!

2008-01-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's New Year's Day , 4 degrees Celsius and raining on North Vancouver Island. My last blog was in September and since then I've taught two workshops in October, the first at Hills Helth Ranch at 108 Mile in the Cariboo and the next one at Moorecroft Camp in Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island. For three weeks in November my wife, Ann and I took our first trip to Hawaii on Maui. We both loved it! I took a small set of watercolours with me and I sketched on most days. The included pencil sketch is one of many I did on the beach just minutes from our suite in a private home. Look for some Hawaii paintings on our website this spring.

I have a 93 year old mom who lives a day's drive from here and has suffered ill health during 2007. We,ve spent a lot of time with her and had to forego time from art. Moms are one of a kind and it's payback time.

We are going to make some big changes in Henschel Fine Arts this year. Probably the biggest changes in ten years. Plans are in the making. We'll keep you posted!

Plein Air Painting

2007-09-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

September! My favourite time of year for some plein air painting. This is a term introduced by the French Impressionists who broke away from their studios to paint outdoors! Imagine - the nerve of those guys to break away from established rules of painting in your srtudio. The reason I love to paint outdoors this month is because of the light. During June, July and much of August, painting during the middle of the day(when it's warmest and comfortable to sit quietly for hours) gave you a sun directly overhead and very few shadows. Light and shade is what make landscapes come alive, so painting is limited to early morning and evening for interesting shadows. During September you get those beautiful long shadows all day long and the weather is still comfortable to sit out there. Usually it's not as rainy either, which is nice. October brings the autumn colours but you better take along some warm clothing! Al in all, we are in for some exciting outdoor painting during the next couple of months. Time to gather sketches and ideas for some winter studio painting. This was the usual routine of The Group of Seven: out to Algonquin Park or Great Lakes country to get some autumn material for their winter studio painting. A.Y. Jackson, one of the group, rarely painted in the summer as he quite disliked green! But we must give the hardy old boy his due because he often sat out in the snow drifts and painted during the winter. So, painters, let's take a lesson from The Group, grab your paints and get out there!

Hazy but not Lazy

2007-07-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hi, folks. Don't give up on my blogging just yet. I intend to get on this blog more frequently and my intentions are honourable! WE ARE BUSY with our gallery. The summer of 2006 showed a decrease in tourism of 40% on North Island, probably due to the sinking of the Queen of the North, the very popular cruise between here and Prince Rupert. This summer the visitors seem to be making up for it and showing up in unprecedented numbers. Today, a Sunday, was a good example - from 9 a.m. to after 6 p.m there was always somebody in the gallery! Often the parking lot was full of cars. It is wonderful visiting with everyone. The nicest people in the world walk through the door; everyone is in a good mood. They are on holidays and are interested in ART! They come from all over the globe but we are getting more visitors from B.C. than usual. I believe they have finally discovered the incredible beauty and tranquility of North Island.

Summertime

2007-06-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

Our gallery here in Nimpkish Heights becomes more busy as summer gets closer, with visitors from all over the world. It's only June and the Brits and the Germans seem to be here in full force. It is great fun visiting with them all. The nicest people in the world walk through our doors for when people are on holidays they are in a good mood and tuned in to having a good time.

As the weather warms, the great outdoors calls me to paint "en plein air" and I do a lot of pen and wash sketches that I often use to create larger paintings in the studio, but everyone, in order to stay healthy, must get some exercise, so we do most of our own gardening, keeping flower beds and an acre of lawn in some semblance of order. This time of year you can watch the grass grow and mowing is my main activity, while my wife, Ann, plants and tends to the flowers. We buy our hanging baskets each year from Carter's Hanging Baskets in Nanoose. This is their specialty and our baskets bloom from May to October! Here are some photos of what our yard looked like on June 18th.

Last week's "Odysseys"

2007-06-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

Time flies!!! May 22nd to the 25th was 4 day workshop at the Fairgrounds in Saanich. A WIN WIN workshop- fun for me and fun, by all reports, for the "students". The end of May found me itching to do my "en plein air" thing and paint in the great outdoors of North Island. Where to go? Since there are hundreds of great places here, I usually decide to go where I have not painted for some time, mostly to see if there have been any changes.

Wednesday found me down a logging road that led to Ledge Point, a beautiful spot across the bay from Port McNeill, where I did a 12 x 16 in. oil on Canvas. While I was out someone had come into the gallery at home looking for something of Coal Harbour and found nothing. I had not painted there for nearly three years, so guess where I went on Thursday!

Coal Harbour was delightful as usual and I took my watercolours, ending up sitting on the old ramp on which they used to pull up whales and cut them up, during the old whaling days. From here I did a pen and wash sketch of the Government Wharf and some of the town. When you are out painting, there is often a side show that happens quite unexpectedly. On my way back home I saw a mother bear with three cubs, probably last years, since they stay with them for up to two years. Here is a quick photo of them.

On Friday I took some prints to hang in the office at Telegraph Cove and had a good chin wag with some of the staff, most of whom I've known for years. While I was there I did a pen and wash sketch of the business end of the Old Cove with Stubbs Island Charters and the New Bones Museum, as well as the Gikumi tied to the dock.

On Saturday, I went out, with my watercolours, to Hidden Cove to our old friends, Dan and Sandra Kirby's resort. I have had this picture in the back of my mind for years and decided now was the time to paint a view from deep within the bay and include Dan's sailboat, which has been anchored there for years, as well as the lodge. I haven't finished the 15 x 22 in. watercolour yet but it will be a toss-up where the centre of interest will be, the boat or the lodge!

Those were my odysseys this week. The rain has moved in now, which is a good time to finish off the paintings I started.

Intro. to my Blog

2006-11-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

November 29, 2006

Welcome to my blog-world!!
I have been a full time artist on Northern Vancouver Island for over 27 years and love every minute of it. My regular website: http://www.henschel.ca was started nine years ago by a Graphic Artist, Eric Beal, who now lives in Courtenay, B.C. and still maintains the site. This blog, which can be accessed through the site, will be a more personal attempt at sharing my life as an artist as well as everyday happenings. As a landscape painter, I hope to share photos of my journeys into some of the places I paint, as well as some of the stories about inspiration and perspiration, passion and pain. Art is a never-ending journey and being an artist means you never"arrive" That is the essence of the joy but also the frustration. Come along for the ride!