Please Pardon The Interruption

It has been over two hundred days since my last blog post. Two hundred and six days to be exact. Please pardon the interruption.

Spring, summer and fall have all come and gone. This morning, when I walked Lexie (my yellow Labrador retriever), there was a light dusting of snow on the ground.

Lexington (a.k.a. "Lexie") in Centretown  Oct. 28, 2020

With winter approaching, I wanted to share some of the inspiration that has been carrying me through these crazy times we are living in.

New Methods of Mark Making and Creating

I have stumbled upon a number of "new artists" (new to ME) who have inspired me to experiment with my own work. Through them, I have grown excited about new ways of working, such as:

1. Richard Thorn:  Inspired by Richard, I've abandoned my ink and wash sketches and I am loving graphite sketching with watercolour added later. I especially enjoy how Richard sketches on site, then returns to the studio where he adds watercolour relying on memory to complete the painting (and not photographs). Enjoy the embedded video below to see Richard's process. (See my "Beekeeper" below")
   
2. Alex Snellgrove: What I love about Alex' urban sketches is how she starts with prepared backgrounds -  ink, gouache or acrylic paint in a range of tones, (with some areas of white left untouched) - and, using POSCA markers, she completes her sketch on top of the prepared ground. I've been experimenting with this and I love the lack of colour control. (See my "Abandoned" sketch below)
3. Virginia Cobb: Virginia's book "Discovering the Inner Eye, Experiments in Water Media" is highly prized and impossible to find. Virginia encourages abstraction as a way of discovering your personal vision/voice and encourages experimentation with both how you design the painting surface and how you enrich the painting surface. (See excerpts from her book below)
4. John Seed's "Disrupted Realism": John's "Paintings For A Distracted World" really struck a chord with me in 2020. The more I read about the art and artists that John had gathered together and curated into his art shows and his book, the more I felt a calling to move my own art in that direction. This risky, exciting and challenging way of painting is full of possibilities for me. (See the video below)
5. Tor-Arne Moen: Tor-Arne works in oil paint with egg tempera. He is a painter, printmaker and author. It was his subject matter that caught my interest. Using old black and white and other family photographs, he paints on LARGE canvasses with such skill and ease. I could seriously watch Tor-Arne paint all day. (See the video below)
   

"Beekeeper"; graphite and watercolour

"Abandoned"; Ink and POSCA markers on acrylic prepared background

Virginia Cobb; excerpt "Discovering the Inner Eye, Experiments in Water Media"

New Challenges For Challenging Times

In 2020, I participated in the 100 Day Project and I challenged myself to draw/create something in my small sketchbook every day (in 15 minutes or less) using a different style/medium/subject than I did the day before. 

This challenge, I believed, would give me reason to experiment and play in my sketchbook as well as creating a permanent record of how I spent my "COVID days" in isolation.

It was a great challenge and I surprised myself by making it to the very end (I have never successfully completed ALL of the 31 days in Inktober).

 

Days 82 & 83 of the "100 Day Project"

I learned that I like to experiment and play with different mediums and different subject matters and that I'm ready and eager to rethink, redefine, and re-imagine the art I want to make in the future.

My sketchbooks have always been my place to record the various events in my world... large and small...

"Wet'suwet'en Strong"; ink and wash

... and I intend to continue with my regular sketching practice (figurative, landscape and urban sketching)....

"Cooper Street Snow Day"; ink and wash

... but I also intend to build a parallel practice where I step outside my familiar mediums and familiar representation styles and create art that is unlike anything I have ever created before.