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Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Sketchbook Sanctuary

On June 11th, 2021, when I began writing this blog post, Ontario began Step 1 of the Roadmap To Reopen . 

Today, July 13, Ontario is currently in Step 2 (moving to Step 3 this Friday) and I am fully vaccinated as are most members of my family.

Daily Sketch: Mandy Patinkin and Dog: "I love her, but the soup is mine"




Despite all of this great news, I have no idea what to expect or how things will unfold locally, nationally, globally in the coming months and I've been thinking a lot about what all of this will mean for me and my art practice going forward.

In stress-filled times, my sketchbook is my sanctuary and, over the past few (sixteen) months, I have been creating daily sketches .

These daily sketches are generally NOT for public showing (in the same way an author doesn't share his/her daily diary entries) but I thought I would share a few that demonstrate the various subjects that have captured my attention recently...

Current events like Greyhound Canada closing its services in Canada ... or ....

Daily Sketch: End Of The Road: Greyhound Canada

 ... I play in my sketchbook with subject matter that makes me smile like bodega cats (using dollar store markers on a dollar store sketchbook). These sketches really resonated on twitter with over 1300 likes! .. or ...

Daily Sketch from the @BodegaCats Twitter Feed

Daily Sketch from the @BodegaCats Twitter Feed
 

.... I record things that I have seen on my daily walks or bike rides like the 100-year-old weeping willow tree next to the Rideau Canal that a small child had climbed to have her photo taken ...

 

Golden Weeping Willow Tree No. 150 (NCC Remarkable Trees )

The Toronto Outdoor Art Fair

COVID has really impacted artist exhibitions, galleries and summer outdoor art fairs.

This month, the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF) celebrated its 60th anniversary and I have really enjoyed looking at over 440 visual artists and their 4365 artworks and I made notes on the artists who really caught my eye .... and there were LOTS!

The art that I was drawn to at TOAF60 was mainly non-representational, mixed-media, collage and print making and the subjects that I enjoyed were figurative, urban, nostalgic, and nature. I was also surprised by the number of Ottawa artists who were showcased and who were unfamiliar to me :

Art exhibitions, museums and outdoor art fairs have been obliged to develop new ways of engaging their audiences during COVID and it has been great to see so much content move online. The TOAF is one great example. 

Having said that, nothing can compare to see seeing art in person and I am so glad that we are moving to a time when this will be possible once again!

Artists Who Inspire 

I keep a little art notebook where I write down all kinds of things ... art quotes I like; artists who caught my attention or did something I admire; and art tips and techniques I found online ... here are just a few worth sharing.

Ottawa artist Tomas Pajdhauser (a.k.a. Captain Tom)

Tomas recently just published a limited number of books featuring his Palestine sketches (and I was lucky enough to purchase one of them). It took him one month in Palestine to create the sketches and two years to publish the book "Palestine Sketchbook" and prints (in large part due to COVID restrictions/supply issues) and I can't wait to get my hands on my copy.

 


Alice Neel: 

I rented a movie ($3.00 Cdn) about artist Alice Neel (1900-1984) from YouTube as part of my weekly artist date practice. It was originally released in 2007 and the running time was 1:22:39. Like so many other women artists, Alice wanted her artwork to be recognized and eventually it was. At her first Retrospective in 1974 at the Whitney museum, Alice was 74 years old.


Australian artist ⁦Stuart McMillen
 
Artist @stuart_mcmillen made me aware of the incredible legacy of UBC prof Tannis MacBeth (1942-2021) who led a pioneering study on the effects of TV in the 1970s. Stuart bases his non-fiction comics on events that inspire him and you can read Part 1 of "The Town Without Television" online.
 


Some Art/Artist Quotes I Loved

  • Artist Jessica Abel says, "Action leads to learning. Learning does not lead to action."
  • "Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty .... anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old." Franz Kafka
  • You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment" Annie Dillard
  • "Medicine is my bread and art is my butter" Jeffrey M. Levine, doctor and urban sketcher/artist
  • "I am at war with the obvious" William Eggleston
  • "The drawings are more playful" Karl Wirsum said, "and the paintings are more like washing dishes."
  • "Seeing abstract value patterns, not just the literal subject, is one of the first and most difficult things for a growing artist to learn." Jane R. Hofstetter
  • "Attention without feeling ... is only a report." Mary Oliver
  • Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do." Edgar Degas

Some Tips, Techniques and Exploring  

I really enjoyed an online workshop in May offered by A.R.T In Action that was a Collage Workshop with Kristina Corre 

Description:

Learn to see, cut, and bring together found images and elements to create poetic collages with Kristina Corre. In this one-hour workshop we’ll explore concepts of design composition, learn how to choose which elements belong together, and piece together collages that tell stories.  

I am a big fan of Kristina Corre's minimalist poetic style and I managed to achieve the collage below following her "story in three parts" process. 

I have been adding collage to my sketches in the past few months and  I hope to work on some acrylic paintings this summer that also incorporate collage ....

"Collage is a natural for the acrylic medium... gels, matte medium as an adhesive, standard-body acrylics, fluid acrylics, acrylic gouache or watercolor, metallics and interference colors – anything can happen and usually does."

(Stephen Quiller)


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