Well folks I'm still in Canada and painting. This is the second completed paintings since I've been here. It's just called 'Fig' Very original I know! Oil on paper. This paintings staying in Canada.Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Figs in Canada
Well folks I'm still in Canada and painting. This is the second completed paintings since I've been here. It's just called 'Fig' Very original I know! Oil on paper. This paintings staying in Canada.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Culture Crawl Vancouver Style
The East Side Culture Crawl in Vancouver, Canada makes Peterborough Artists Open Studios look in an embryonic stage. These Artists have taken over derelict industrial and warehouse buildings and turned them into multiple occupancy studio spaces.
Sunday is the last day of the 'Crawl' and Nancylee and I spent a long afternoon from 12.30 to 6pm just walking around four of these buildings. This absolutely exhausted us both and we were suffering from an acute dose of culture overload by the time we were driving back to Richmond.
The first building we visited was 901, Main Street a 7 story building housing 19 artists. These studios were large, light and airy, but, with no lift! It was in one of these spaces I saw the painting that made the most impression on me out of all we saw. It was red acrylic, very textured and layered and had a small area of gold leaf the just made the painting jump out at you. These studios were under threat from 'the developers' and the artists were trying to save the building to be retained as studio space.
From Main Street we headed for the William Clark Studios on Williams Street . Here there was 18 artists exhibiting. The spaces were not as good as some of the other buildings as many had no natural light.
On again to the Mergatroid Building where there were 34 artists displaying their art. These studios were safe from developers as the owners specifically wanted the space to be used by artists. On the Parker street side of the Mergoidtroid building was the glass blowing workshop and the display gallery of Jeff Burnette. We stopped for a while here watching Jeff and his helpers work the moulton glass into a colourful plate. The process is long hot and quite involved also not always successful as we witnesses.
Sunday is the last day of the 'Crawl' and Nancylee and I spent a long afternoon from 12.30 to 6pm just walking around four of these buildings. This absolutely exhausted us both and we were suffering from an acute dose of culture overload by the time we were driving back to Richmond.
The first building we visited was 901, Main Street a 7 story building housing 19 artists. These studios were large, light and airy, but, with no lift! It was in one of these spaces I saw the painting that made the most impression on me out of all we saw. It was red acrylic, very textured and layered and had a small area of gold leaf the just made the painting jump out at you. These studios were under threat from 'the developers' and the artists were trying to save the building to be retained as studio space.
From Main Street we headed for the William Clark Studios on Williams Street . Here there was 18 artists exhibiting. The spaces were not as good as some of the other buildings as many had no natural light.
On again to the Mergatroid Building where there were 34 artists displaying their art. These studios were safe from developers as the owners specifically wanted the space to be used by artists. On the Parker street side of the Mergoidtroid building was the glass blowing workshop and the display gallery of Jeff Burnette. We stopped for a while here watching Jeff and his helpers work the moulton glass into a colourful plate. The process is long hot and quite involved also not always successful as we witnesses.
After a brief tea stop at the Uprising Bakery to revive our flagging energy we headed for the last stint of the afternoon at the A.R.C. on Powell Street. This building was different, being really good well planned individual studio and living space for artists on 7 floors with a large coffee shop on the ground floor of the building. There were about 17 artists displaying in these Studio/apartments. On the ground floor in a large apartment a steel artist called Roy Mackey was displaying his 'Flaming Steel' steel art sculptures. I bought a small rectangle metal pot from him as a memento of the Crawl.
Below are some of the displayed work. All art disciplines were represented in the Crawl and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thoroughly exhausted and very cultured we hobbled back to the car and drove home,
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Autumn in Canada
It's quite a while since I posted any paintings. There are several unfinished ongoing ones of course and there are four in progress in the two months I have been in Canada. I've seen lots of art though in the Vancouver Culture Crawl and of course the wonderful Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition in the Vancouver Art Gallery
I've called this painting 'October' Its oil on canvas. Inspired by the wonderful Autumn colours here in Canada and the layers and colours of the Maple leaves on the ground.
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