...Lorna's Art Notes

SAW PRESENTS

2009-11-29T11:50:00.000-05:00

Another show coming up..... December First Friday
Opening

SAW PRESENTS at the LHCA

2009-11-26T08:12:00.004-05:00

Here we are resting (?) after a few hours of decorating at The Lawrence House Centre of the Arts earlier this week. For our efforts we were treated to an excellent lunch. We strung garland and decorated trees, while the LHCA crew strung festive lights. Our Ingrid stopped by to get the action on film. Thanks Ingrid! The local press came by later for interview and video. We are bringing unwrapped gifts for Children and Youth services for under the tree. All is now ready for the opening on First Friday!

Come join us!

SAW is on facebook!

2009-11-26T07:53:00.004-05:00

Just a beginning, but we are there. Click on the Title above.

My Art at the Lake paintings

2009-11-16T22:32:00.006-05:00

Paintings on cards, boxes, and matted as 4 x 4 miniatures.

The 'yellow' painting was done on a 16 x 16 square canvas.

ART AT THE LAKE

2009-11-16T21:46:00.010-05:00

Our major Sarnia Artists Workshop event took place over this past weekend. Lots

and lots of preparation preceded the event of course and there were my own items to paint as well. We partnered with Harmony for Youth and held a silent auction on their behalf. Their choir was present at the opening and sang for those gathered there. The auction went well and the most popular item was a Lake Huron beach rock

that was painted as a rabbit.

We gathered at the Riding Club at 8 a.m. on Friday, waited for the movers to bring our shelves

and other items, waited for the men to get the lights up, and got all the parts and pieces together, the decorations up, and were ready for the 12 noon intake crowd and later, for the 4 p.m. open-

Over 100 people passed through this first day/evening.

On Saturday, the crowds increased and items were moving out, sold. Lots of pottery, always popular. Some paintings. Lots of cards. Jewellery too. In the afternoon my dtr-in-law

and friend played keyboard and violin while people shopped. In the evening, music by guitar. Sales continued.

The show and sale was shut down at

4 p.m. on Sunday. Packing up began, lights down, shelves and supports packed in boxes, lights out.

Monday morning the movers returned for our

things. Now the evaluating and suggestions and mulling things over begins.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES IN PAINT

2009-11-06T00:14:00.006-05:00

The Memories Challenge painting was due at our painting group this morning. I went into the art room just before bed time last night and found an old canvas and started applying paint. It seemed to be working so I continued until the steam engine and the tunnel were done. Then caught some zzzs. In the morning I found the painting was too dark. Applied gesso and added paint and isolation coat, and went off to our group.

This challenge turned out to be a really great idea. Each of us had a memory, a part of our childhood, painted on paper or canvas, and we shared the story the painting represented. No one seemed concerned about the paintings themselves as we were caught up in the tale they told. A great idea! Thanks Jack.

Here is mine: A steam engine coming through the tunnel. My friend and I would be sitting up the hill, excitedly awaiting the rush of excitement when the train broke through and the steam engulfed us. It was great to revisit that site this summer and revisit the feelings too.

Non Objective Continues

2009-11-01T21:48:00.005-05:00

Last week I prepared for a demo and instruction in non-objective painting. I re-read all my notes from the June course and watched the available videos on you-tube and then went to the paint and paper and tried my hand at this myself. Not too happy with the results of the first one but the second held promise. By morning it was too dark for my liking but it would serve from the design point of view.

We covered the floor and tables with plastic and drop sheets and began with a demo and showing of those paintings that had worked during the June course. The paint/water ratio proved a problem and some experienced a faded design after the water had evaporated. Still we persevered and enjoyed the experience.

This did get me painting again and I tried once more to bring one particular canvas to an acceptable point of completion. Over and over again I applied paint and the result was 'pretty' but not what I was trying to achieve. I wanted bold and dynamic. Does it matter that I was not feeling either bold or dynamic. I was willing to keep trying. Did it work? The circles intrigue me.

Another painting was looking just 'pretty' too, so I tried bold washes of magenta over an underpainting of yellow/orange/red, and then overlaid with swatches of colbalt blue on a full sheet of watercolour paper.

I do like this one and think it is done.

PHOTO THRU GLASS

2009-10-27T09:58:00.003-04:00

The photo here was such a surprise, a pleasant surprise! The kids were working on their pumpkins with Grandpa and I was recording the event with my camera... getting rather repetitive re the view so decided to walk out on the deck and take a photo through the window.

See the result!

A friend and professional photographer saw the photo on facebook where I later posted it and quickly identified - photo taken through a window, centrifugal view.

Not my discovery, just catching up, and I love the photo.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

More Lila + NonObjective Painting

2009-10-26T13:59:00.002-04:00

Click the title for this you tube special brought to you by Genious Alive, April 27 2009.

A Five Day workshop with artyist Lila Irving Lewis....paintings beautiful, BOLD.

Time: 2.32 min. Lila's and student works. Music is bold too.

Enjoy!

AUTUMN SLIPS AWAY

2009-10-23T14:11:00.006-04:00

Weekly painting group, plus monthly meeting of Sarnia Artist Workshop, prep for its AGM and there are a myriad of 'little' things to do and follow up with, mostly concerning our Annual ART AT THE LAKE Show and Sale which quickly approaches.

There is a challenge painting due for the weekly painting group, 6+1 however it has now been extended to the first Thursday of November. Likely I will fall back on this older oil painting that I began a number of years ago. It is not finished and perhaps never will be, but being the home of my maternal grandparents, it evokes many years of memories.

I had hoped to paint a train trestle, a steam locomotive, plus my friend and I sitting excitedly awaiting the train to break through the 'tunnel' and its steam to engulf us. However, Turner's atmospheric painting of a train crowds my mind

and I think his painting has captured my long ago feelings and sensations. I cannot do better. Or, is the challenge just too representational, too objective for me just now.

My time is also called upon to do some preparation and planning as I have agreed to give a mini demo and instruction re non-objective painting to this group next week.

I am hoping to enter a painting in the LHCA Floyd Gibson Colours Show in November as well as submit something into the SAW show Art at the Lake. SAW also has a show at the LHCA in December and another painting is required. Perhaps I should stop typing and go paint.

Just one last note. It has been possible to catch a few of the Art and Ideas presentations at Gallery Lambton. A few weeks ago, Tony Urquart showed his slides of grave sights in Paris and the paintings that resulted from his photography. Last night, the lecture was given by Peter White and referenced his book: Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity and Contemporary Art, an anthology by Peter White co-edited with John O'Brien (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007), now in its second printing. I bought the book and have lots more to digest.

Q comes tonight and there may be some use of the Paint Room and an art video.

SKETCHING

2009-10-02T12:53:00.001-04:00

All kind of things ART are happening not the least of which is the announcement that we will have a Class 'A' Art Gallery in this town in a few years. More on this later.

Just getting settled back into life here has been distracting, though I did try to reclaim some of what I had learned when away this summer. One canvas is getting full attention, so much so that it is now on its 6th revised design along with equal or more coatings of paint. Maybe I should have stopped earlier but now the painting is still not satisfying me and I will need to apply more thought and more paint.

Now I want to sketch, to jump out of the "Oh-no-you-can't-see-my-drawings" phase and 'draw' the town, maybe even set a sketch-crawl in motion. The first sketch, to the left, was done Saturday at a public studio tour.

The others were part of a sketch stretch that I'd made some years ago. The man with earphones was on TV doing the Canada A.M. show while the other gentleman, who appears to be staring off into space, was waiting for his plane at the Atlanta Airport.
This little 'dollhouse' scene is of the Hotel pool from our room on the 22nd floor in downtown Atlanta. Definitely a stretch!

NON-OBJECTIVE + SILHOUETTE

2009-09-16T14:10:00.001-04:00

Surfing and watching videos this morning:

* Lila on YouTube:
Click Link on Blog Title, above

Another Lila video may be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhhMQW9C9HE

* Here our friend, John Climenhage, on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hod4GL4FADs

* And Donna Zagotta's Silhouette Challenge....

http://donnazagotta.com/blog/

INDIA INK & NON-OBJECTIVE

2009-09-12T10:16:00.001-04:00

The room where I paint is dismantled,

but not before trying one or two more non-objective paintings. These were prepared yesterday and did some drying overnight.

The enlarged one shows how the drying affected the India Ink that was applied over the acrylic. This photo does not show the canvas completely dry and more lines developed in the bulky black area. The same crackle effect appears in the other paintings as well.

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Yesterday I attended the Rideau Lakes Artists' Association monthly meeting and became a member. It will not likely be possible to attend the meetings or any of the activities until next spring but I do hope to keep up with the events of this group throughout the winter months.

What an interesting group. Pretty laid back and seem to be interested in each other, the personal sales members make, the shows, and learning new things. They meet ten times a year and usually have a program following the business portion of their meeting. This time, they had an accomplished artists named Steve, who brought in his canvasses of watercolour paintings, painted on 140 lb watercolour paper that had been stretched onto a frame and when the painting was completed, it was sealed. No glass. There is lots of interest by the members in attending Christmas Dinner together, participating in shows and paint-ins, etc. I would like to be living close enough to participate all year.

One of my classmates from the Lila class last June attended yesterday as well. Kathy had a framed painting of one of her non-objective works which had won the members choice award at their recent show in August. It is beautiful - orange, brown/black and turquoise. She and her painting will likely appear in the newsletter and I will provide a link when it does.

One last row in my dorey, Dora, and a walk down the lanes, dinner with our daughter and grandsons, load up the car, and leave in the morning.

Our summer is done!

PACKING UP

2009-09-09T08:08:00.000-04:00

We are once again alone in this bay. Gorgeous days. The lake is mirror-like all day, not just early in the morning. Occasionally a boat passes by, drawing a line on the lake's canvas.

While packing up my little 8 x 10 practice canvases, I found this painting hidden in amongst the others. Drawn randomly with a brush and blurred with arcs made by a larger brush while the paint was still pliable. Today it has appeal.

This next one was done in oil - an exercise exploring colour.

Now, these and others are packed away for the journey home.

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PHOTOS OF SUMMER

2009-09-08T08:47:00.000-04:00

SEPTEMBER SEASON

2009-09-02T14:28:00.000-04:00

D & L left at noon yesterday and packed in their car were several artsy items, some of which are mine. My Acrylics and Watercolours were boxed up and packed into D's car. Lianne and I had made a quick trip to Westport in the late afternoon the day before, where I purchased a print of "Winter Morning", Baie St Paul, by Artist Clarence Gagnon. I liked it on the wall here, but it was purchased for home.

Old Friends arrived next door. Sunny and Warm to continue throughout the holiday weekend. Boating. Swimming. Wine.

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NEUROESTHETICS

2009-08-28T08:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I visited the Art News Blog, which is actually a compilation of art news from various parts of the world. The following blog definitely caught my interest:

Art on the Mind: Neuroesthetics and the artist as brain scientist.

[click on the blog title to access the story and interesting links]

Cezanne left large patches of his paintings unfinished..."to see is to conceive and that occurs somewhere in the brain"

"Well he [Cezanne] was a neurologist in the sense that he was actually using his brain to conduct experiments. I mean Cezanne was an experimenter really, if you look at his paintings of the Montaigne Sainte-Victoire, you'd find it starts very naturalistically and ends up in a highly abstract form. He was experimenting...experimenting really with his brain; how to get to the elements of form."

Read the whole interview and visit the website and links.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------These are not the works of a brain scientest, just me playing with colour.

MORE MANDALA

2009-08-21T12:34:00.000-04:00

Shown here are two books from my library.

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Coloring Mandalas was introduced in my previous blog and the Artist's Muse, by Betsy Dillard Stroud, is being introduced now as it has a brief section on Mandalas and presents the 'Challenge' to paint your own.
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Your mandala can be painted in the medium of your choice. The first step is to trace a circle onto the support and then begin filling it in. Use lines, shapes, symbols, stamps, collage, colour, brushstrokes or any technique you prefer. Planned design or random is okay too. It is suggested you center yourself before beginning and repeat a mantra with meaning for you, as you work.
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A sample mandala shown in the book used hobo symbols of the early 19th century, eg., the symbol of a fish, given the meaning "you can get food here". In addition, the artist used tribal figures, the circle placed in the center of the paper, and a cross shape that flowed out of the mandala to the edges of the paper fading somewhat into the red underpainting/background.
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Google 'Hobo Symbols' or follow the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/symbols/hobo.html

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This mandala was 'coloured'

with a black pen using
line.

COLOUR & MANDALA

2009-08-21T09:26:00.000-04:00

Colour: its meaning, its emotion - determined by one's culture and/or personal experience and association.

When I was a young child, I used to think of blue and red as in opposition to one another, ie, the red side vs the blue side. Maybe I had been in the blue group for a competition of some kind. At any rate, and for the most part, I really did not like red very much at all then. Now red is a favourite, specifically the blue-reds.

Last week, I had a restless night, and awakened a number of times with a charley horse or with toe cramps. The exploration of colour being my current obsession, I wondered how I would express that night's experience in an abstract painting. --- RED! Three acrylic reds: [Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red Light, and Quinacridone Red] The almost squared off divisions represent the waking and sleeping times.

Yesterday, I read about the meaning of 'red' in the book 'Coloring Mandalas' and have abstracted this portion here: "... an energizing, stimulating color, relates to the physical body ... "

As a doodler, I was attracted to the Coloring Mandalas book, [author Susanne F. Fincher], which contains "48 sacred circle designs for people of all ages". NB All Ages! This book was brought to the cottage for rainy times, and yesterday there was just such an evening. I had a package of 5 permanent markers for this purpose and used the green, orange red, turquoise blue and purple. The yellow one had dried out.

Green: "... nature,balance, harmony... symbolic of freshness, health, peace, prosperity."

Blue: "... suggesting infinite space, the heavens and eternity... a calming and relaxing color..."

Purple: "... signifies patience, trust, faith...."

In this book, there is a blank circle with a dot in the center meant for the creating of one's own mandala. The starting point is the dot in the center. An excellent idea.

A MORNING'S WORK

2009-08-15T12:04:00.000-04:00

I begain early in the morning checking email and visiting some favourite sites, and I doodled as I waited for downloads. Boxes with shapes. As I looked at the shapes they seemed to reflect something - a thought or emotion. Then colour came into play, was there a colour to match the thought or emotion?

The artist in the book I've been reading, transformed an empty building which had bright light coming through the windows and silverish columns dividing the space plus a warmish glow on the floors. Her painting began with a red underpainting. She added green and yellow and more red.

Maybe I am beginning to comprehend. I would apply the colour blue to my home town, the colour red to the city in which I now reside and green to our summer here at the cottage. Orange goes to my favourite city, steely blue to another. Each of these colours represents a mood and characteristic of these places. Hmmm!

From the computer and doodles to the paint table and the 8" x 10" practice canvasses. The three doodles were very similar but two seemed to represent a different message for me. One was about historical research, history gathering, and the other was about 'hanging on'. The third, had nothing specific. For the historic one, I chose a yellow underpainting, with shapes of blue, black and red. The 'hanging on' one, perhaps in response to recent sad news, was dominantly black, with additional shapes of gray [steel], pearl and white. A thin line of orange adds tension.
The doodle without a message took the longest to complete. Maybe it should be called 'days of our lives'. A fourth canvas was gessoed and an irregular pattern scrawled into the wet gesso. It has revealed a hanging basket of flowers.

Each practice session brings more questions and more awareness of options and value of planning, though sometimes the painting does indeed paint itself.

NON OBJECTIVE AGAIN

2009-08-13T13:56:00.000-04:00

NON-OBJECTIVE 8x10" canvas board

These two were already used as non-objective painting practice canvasses and covered in acrylic in a non pleasing design. Nothing is left of the originals now.
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The one below was worked in pure primary colour applied to a white canvas. The colours were drawn out from their original placement and mixed on the canvas. Some tertiary colours were also added.

Not sure whether or not the dark line [blue/red] should be removed.

Today, Thursday is a 6+1 Art Group painting morning and the Circle of Friends painting afternoon. Easy enough to fill up one's day with painting, here and there.

COLOUR 2

2009-08-13T08:45:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I was able to access a highspeed internet computer and spent over an hour catching up with Myrna's blog [click on Title above]. She has been experimenting with colour using the book "Creative Color" by Faber Birren, 1961.

I have been referencing "Color Creative Painting", a book borrowed from the Rideau Lakes Public Library at Delta and unfortunately soon due to be returned. It covers colour in nature, still life, landscape, the human figure and in abstract art. The titles in the abstract section are most appealing:
1 Chromatic Expressiveness: Abstraction Based on Inner Space: Atmospheric, Spatial Colors
[Project: paintings based on the color sensations suggested by an empty indoor space.]
2 Fields of Color: Chromatic Organization in Fractals - Flat, Superficial, Juxtaposed Colors...
[Project: Use of the fractal as inspiration.]

I am unable to look at the photo of empty indoor space and locate any colour sensation other than seeing areas of light and dark. Is this something every artist can do or is it learned or perhaps an ability found only in a few. I have a friend who sees people's names associated with colour. Perhaps this could be tested on her.

Later in the day, I began working on a previous start, posted a few days ago. The main shapes were painted in iridescent bronze [Stevenson]. I applied black india ink in lines and created a few medium sized black shapes. The india ink was applied with the dropper, making lines and filling in the shapes, and more ink was applied to one area than another within the shape thus giving some variation in the black areas. To brighten the turquoise areas, I added some cobalt turquoise watercolour over the acrylic.

Initially, I felt that the lines dominated the painting, so over painted parts of the lines with the bronze, added some bronze lines and applied more bronze to some of the shapes. It is done.

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COLOUR

2009-08-12T08:38:00.000-04:00

This work is the red start posted in the previous blog. Having read a bit about Robert Delauney [1885-1941] and his work* earlier in the day, I have added white and the obvious blue using pastels. The pastel was applied in lines, repeated strokes close together and also by using the broad side of the pastel stick. The first blending was done with the pliable packing sheet that protected the pastels in their box. Successive blendings were done with a cloth. I applied water with a brush to shape or remove some areas of the pastel applications.

* Robert Delauney - "... his real interest was color...His painting was based on light as a principle of energy or vital force, without capturing it within shapes. In his abstract images the active subject is pure color, with absolutely no reference to reality."

[COLOR, Creative Painting Series]

RETURN TO NON-OBJECTIVE

2009-08-07T08:41:00.000-04:00

The family has gone home or as in one case, travelled on to another cottage and friends. The lake is quiet and the trees are still. I hear the sounds of the pump as I type and wonder if we have a valve to replace again this year. The two dogs are returning for another weekend at the cottage. The bay is deserted once again. Time to paint.

In a few hours of free time, I tried again to make non-objective works of art in the manner of Lila. There may be a bit of that in the three that resulted from my paint pouring and manipulating, but there are definite traces of my 'old way' in the three I will post. I continue to study each creation, wondering whether, like the 'starts' prepared in the Carole Barnes workshop, they are awaiting something more. Is there a 'real' painting hidden in these applications needing coaxing out? Are the shapes not 'shapey' enough, not big enough, not distinctive enough? Perhaps only 'decoration' need be applied.

One thing is certain, there is enhancement in the photography and in the viewing on the internet. A glow, and in some instances, a new lighter shape, appears. The original is dark.

I have no tripod for photographing.

VACATION MODE

2009-07-25T12:27:00.000-04:00

We have sun again.

Last night we were at the Delta Fair, lots of mud, and lots of characters to sketch, but, alas, no pencil or sketchbook! No camera either. Gesture drawing is another area for me to expand, to shake the shyness, and put down my scribbles for future reference, or simply for the drawing itself. Is there a sketch group meeting in Sarnia? Could I start one? It doesn't look likely that I will get to the painter's group here, since their days and my availability are not in sync. Maybe August.

Our Summer Family Time begins this Sunday with the arrival of our son Steve and his family. If any art happens, it likely will be with the grandkids or perhaps, a sketch or two of them as they fish, swim, play. Duane arrives also and by week's end Mark and family will be here as well. The art room here has been dismantled, the table folded up and paint & shelf moved to our room.

Painting will be outdoors only. Without sun, no painting!

I have begun another small oil painting, as shown in its present state at the side of this paragraph. The first photo above is a photograph of the side area of our cottage property where the firepit sits. The second photo is a very small drawing [half a postcard in size] which I drew from memory, with watercolour crayons and blended with water, a few weeks ago.

The oil painting is being developed from this watercolour sketch.

The camera and the sketchbook are standing by, ready for the vacationing change of pace.