Diane McCarten

    "PRESENT PASSAGE" BY Diane McCarten

"The present is continuously passing away & yet it is always here".

This painting of Diane's is part of a group show in Houston, Texas. 10+ is a Houston based artists' group that has been gathering monthly for over 12 years "to share our lives, objectively review our art work & support each other on our artistic journeys. This past year we agreed to read Tolle's book, A New Earth, and to use it as a point of departure for creating individual visual responses to a portion of the book that especially resonated with each one of us. This show, "Present", is the result of our introspection and reaction. Each diverse creation, using color, line & design, holds its own conclusions & truths. Displayed here together, the works acknowledge our collective instinct to connect with one other consciously & respectfully".

Donna Baspaly

Title: Abundant Blessings

Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas

Dimensions: 23" x 47"

2008

Collage playing cards

Collaging on top of over-size playing cards (3 1/2 X 5). Parts of 6 cards are shown here. These were purchased at the dollar store.

My friend Diane McCarten and I spent all day Tuesday at Donna Baspaly's house in Qualicum. Donna showed us tons of different projects and techniques which will take weeks and months to do. We only had time for this one project which we worked on all day long. These are only a few of mine showing different states of development, I still have lots more to do on them. The idea is to work on the same background - Donna calls this DNA, holding onto a little bit - even a speck somewhere in the collage.

"life is a verb"

 

          "life is a verb" by Patti Digh

 

Review

"Life is a Verb is brilliantly-crafted, raw, gorgeously-designed, and daringly different from 'self-help' books. It relates, through stories that sparkle and astonish and soar, how to move, to be on your way, to realize who you really are through your actions. Through exercises that you participate in, as if in conversation with the author, you will learn, as she promises in the prologue, 'deeper things—how to know what to care about, how to treat others around you (and yourself), what to question, how to love, what to stand up for, and why you should tell stories and listen to the stories of others.' There is no more important learning.

         So read it. Inhabit it. Breathe in every word, because every word of this book is essential. Let it animate you. Annotate it to make it your own. And then let it let you change yourself, and become who you were intended to be. Begin now. You have no time to lose."
--- Dave Pollard, author of The Natural Entrepreneur, and the weblog How to Save the World

ANATOMY OF GREYS

 December 11 -22, 2008 in the Slide Room Gallery at the

Vancouver Island School of Art Curatorial Intern: Sarah Harper

Through sculpture, painting, drawing, collage and installation with found objects, six diverse artists broaden their relationship to the work and with each other. Accepting the challenge to create from a purely chromatic grey palette, each of the artists expects to transform her artistic experience by exploring personal colour preferences and "mixing it up".

Participants: Ira Hoffecker, Joanne Hewko, Jan Henry, Deborah Delaney, , Kristine Paton

Kristine Paton.

Opening reception, Thursday, December 11@ 7:30 pm

Confident Color

"Confident Color", an artist's guide to harmony, contrast and unity by Nita Leland. A great book on color. 

Yellena

Yellena

An artist/graphic designer living on Central Oregon Coast. Obsessed with markers, pens, inks, paper, patterns, good design, wallpaper, cacti, vintage fabric, empty journals and anything little.

For more info please visit http://www.yellana.com

VIRGINIA COBB

"Acrylic Abstract Painting: The Evolving Image": is the latest DVD to be released by Creative Catalyst Productions.

In this DVD Cobb demonstrates her process as she creates three abstract paintings, selecting options that highlight different design elements. The video includes 105 minutes of instruction and demonstration and a 37 minute interview.

Cobb states that she gets her inspiration from the painting itself. In the midst of her process she pays attention to what is going on - she looks at the marks of colour, the various pieces or shapes and these determine what he next step will be.

I like this DVD - Viginia is clear and concise in her descriptions and it is an easy process to follow. It inspired me to get out a squeegee and brayer and get going on my own "process painting." I got my squeegee at Rona (their brand) for under $4.oo. Lots of fun.

Check out Virginia Cobb's website - I am sure you will be inspired.

Newspaper collage

DETAIL

Create your own unique collage papers.

These are unique embellished sheets that are fun to create and have on hand for creating exciting backgrounds, rich environments and main elements in your collage work; tear these papers into small bits and pieces & adhere to paper or canvas support.

Newspaper collage is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. It is "freeing" to paint on good old cheap newspaper, putting aside hang-ups that arise when working on good paper. Something magical happens in the studio and to your mindset once you start this playful process.

1. On a sheet of newspaper loosely apply a mix of watered down white gesso (or acrylic paint) over most of the surface. Apply this mix thin enough to still see the text showing through here and there on the sheet.
2. For variety apply full strenth gesso/paint in a few areas; scratch or write through the heavier mix with a tool or pencil for texture.
3. Once the surface is dry - write poetry, phrases, words...with a black Sharpie permanent marker here and there over the entire surface.
4. Paint areas of colour varying it from a thin transparent glaze to a more opaque and thick mix. Scratch texture and patterns into some of the areas of the thicker wet paint.
5. Once the surface is dry - stamp patterns and texture all over the sheet with small, medium and large shapes.
6. Continue to stamp, draw and apply transparent and translucent glazes over the entire sheet.

Remember that the sheet will be torn into smaller pieces - so each area needs to bave enought texture and interest.

"Spanish Wall" in "Bloomin' Art 2007"

Spanish Wall will be included in the upcoming Bloomin' Art 2007 exhibit.

DEMONSTRATION AT BLOOMIN' ART 2007

As part of the week long workshops and demonstratons during Bloomin' Art I will be giving a demonstration on Wednesday August 22 at 2:00 pm in the Harmac room at the Port Theatre. My demo is titled "Building the Spanish Wall" - I will demonstrate how I created the collage materials and mixed media techniques that I used in building this painting.

$5.00 at the door. All proceeds to Haven Society.

BLOOMIN' ART 2007

            Carmen Mongeau

Location: Port Theatre 125 Front Street, Nanaimo, BC.

EXHIBITION - AUGUST 17-25

"Bloomin' Art 2007 is a stunning exhibition and sale of contemporary paintings accompanied by interpretations by floral designers.

This exhibition is a fundraiser for Haven Society, this one of a kind event features large paintings and miniatures of twenty prestigious abstract artists from across Vancouver Island, BC. Canada. All proceeds will go to Haven Society.

Hours: Open daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, Sunday 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Admission $5.00 at the door.

GALA OPENING - THURSDAY AUGUST 16, 7:00 pm

Bruce Williams from A-Channel will host the Gala opening. Guests will be able to have an advanced look at the exhibition, meet the artists and floral designers, and enjoy great food created by local restaurants. There will be entertainment by Baritone, Timothy Richard and pianist, Jeanne Campbell.

Silent Auction on opening night - You will be able to bid on exclusive items on opening night.

Tickets are available for $30.00. Please contact Joyce Hedges at 758-3354.

WORKSHOP AND DEMONSTRATION SCHEDULE

The organizers of Bloomin' Art are pleased to present some very special demonstrations and workshops designed to complement the exhibition. Admission is $5.00 and payable at the door. Click on this link to see the complete List.

Sooke Fine Arts Show 2007

  Sooke Fine Arts Show 2007

SEAPARC Leisure Complex

2168 Phillips Road, Sooke BC., Canada

DATES: August 4th - 11th  - 10:00am - 9 pm every day  - August 12th (Sunday)

10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Appropriation

Robert Genn's June 15th. letter about appropriation has sparked a lot of interetsing viewpoints. Click appropriation to go to "The Painter's Keys" page with his letter and all of the responses. Be sure to scroll down the entire page to the bottom to read all of the comments. You will see the following response from me there as well.

Memories Lost

(left) collage by Jill Ehlert (right) original image fromWikipedia

I used Photoshop to enhance the contrast of the head and printed it onto transparency film with my Epson printer. The Phrenology image appeared in Wikipedia and stated: This image is in the public domain. Its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or less. I used that transparency to transfer the black ink onto my painting. I took the picture of the trees with my digital camera and again transferred the image/ink with the same technique as the head. I pondered for a time about the ethics of using this appropriated image of the head. I have the ability to draw, but the idea of using this image was more appealing to my artistic process. I feel that this is what the spirit of collage is about - found materials and images that can have a rebirth. I would like to think that the original artist would be delighted to think that the image lives on in a painting in the year 2007.

Windex and Magic Eraser to the rescue

When working with acrylic paints the one product that will remove a layer from your painting or clothing is rubbing alcohol.

Recently I got gesso on my black jeans. I didn't notice this until it was dry - the next day I put them on the counter and puddled rubbing alcohol on top of that area and let it soak in. I used a small crochet hook and kept running that back and forth until all of the gesso was rubbed and scraped away. Success! After washing them I can hardly tell where the white gesso had been.

If I have applied a glaze to a painting and it has dried and I am sorry with the result I can remove most of that layer by spraying that area with rubbing alcohol and scrubbing it off with a paper towel. As well, a really neat burnishing look can come from this technique - while rubbing off an area - with valleys, grooves, textured areas... the colour is pushed into those crevices but taken off the higher points. This gives an aged look to the area and can be appealing. Sometimes this works great and other times areas can look muddied.

When I was working on "Field Notes to myself" and was almost finished I applied a glaze on a group of lighter areas in order to unify the painting Once that was dry I was disappointed with the result - it looked too dark and murky. I had run out of rubbing alcohol and it was late at night so I decided to try Windex, a 3M green scrubby and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. This worked great. I had used a lot of acrylic medium to adhere all of the collage elements so this gave all those areas flexibility and they could stand up to the scrubbing. I have continued to use Windex this way and it really works great.