frustration

Late last year I realized that I was suffering from artist's block ~ not a lack of ideas but an inability to (a) realize my ideas and (b) create some consistency. Since then I've had some successes in the (a) department but continue to be tripped up by (b).

Today was the third day in a row in which I painted for long hours and then rubbed it all off at day's end. So much for (a)! (I did, however, take some detail photos, plus a full-image one, before I went medieval on their asses.) I am beyond frustrated, to put it mildly. There was a time, not so long ago, when I was so confident in my imagery/ execution that I could draw or paint with no planning and few (self-perceived) failures. I am desperate to get back there again.

I have decided that I need to go back to basics in order to regain my confidence. I'm totally convinced now that paintings can smell your desperation as easily as a commitment-phobic guy in a bad rom-com. I need to face the canvas again only after I regain my art-alpha status. So I'm putting down the brushes and will spend time with my sketchbook, playing with ideas. And if I hit on something that I can see translated into paint I will not cave and take out my brushes. I will do MORE LIKE IT. Only when I feel really ready will I return to the easel. Have I convinced you? Will you convince me?

white dog studio gallery

I'm heading up to Whistler, resort town extraordinaire (a mecca for skiing and art!), on the weekend to drop off paintings at White Dog Studio Gallery. Please check out the brand-spanking-new website. Owner Penny Eder is an artist herself and her concept of having a gallery where she can create her own work -- and have the artists she represents work there, too, for two days a year -- is brilliant. I can hardly wait until my 'shift'!

Here's the info on the opening:

Please join us in celebrating the opening of the new WHITE DOG STUDIO GALLERY here in beautiful Whistler, BC, on Friday, March 23rd, from 3-9 p.m.

The White Dog Studio Gallery will celebrate with an afternoon and evening of studio painting, by featured artists Jennifer Zizman, Andrea Moore, and Rachel Reid.

There will be goodies from Whistler Cooks and Pure Bread, and refreshments for everyone.

1074 Millar Creek Road, Whistler, B.C.

I won't be able to return for the opening, but promise to take lots of photos this weekend and post a few. It's a spectacularly beautiful place that has earned its reputation as the best mountain resort in North America. (Take that, Aspen and Vail!)

adventures in scapes

I am continuing to experiment out here in Lack-o-directionville. What I find really weird is that I think I'm all over the map when I compare the looser/more expressive 'land' scape in my last post to the reductive symbolscape to the left and the tight, simplified cityscape below, but when I see them together there's a definite (though, for me, still inscrutable) point of cohesion that is more than the colour palette and medium. Maybe it's their sense of barrenness and emptiness. Should I be talking to a shrink instead of painting pictures?

Winterlude 12" x 12" oil on panel

I continue to be drawn in by the way our built and natural environments intersect, either in a destructive or pathological way (last post) or in a more harmonious way (this cityscape). This scene, by the way, is at the corner of Adanac Street and Clark Drive in Vancouver.


It's been interesting but I think I need to get out of my head and start producing marketable work again. It's that little issue of keeping body and soul together.

14" x 11" oil on wood panel

art and rage

18" x 36" oil on canvas

I don't really know what I'm doing other than 'following my brush', but thought I'd post it anyway. If it looks like a moonscape, it sort of is. It's a small section of northern Alberta's tar sands.

For months now I have been waging a quiet war in my head with the Tories and economists in general, and Stephen Harper, Canada's glorious leader, in particular. Harper's recent visit to China, a diplomatic attempt to woo them into supporting the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project, badly disguised as a human rights exercise, finally pushed me into the studio.

So what is it exactly? A painting of gloriously beautiful northern Alberta executed in the Great Canadian Landscape Tradition? Not exactly. I would love the opportunity to travel to the north with my camera and see it all for myself, and attempt to interpret it visually. But unless there's a Canada Council Grant in my future (and there isn't -- maybe I should apply?) I'll have to have a bake sale or something. Meanwhile, I have been obsessively googling images and have a massive art crush on Edward Burtynsky now. I also discovered the photos and renewable energy project of David Dodge, and he kindly allowed me to use one of his photos so I could vent my spleen in oil paint. :)

And now I need a title. But every time I come across a piece of bombastic rhetoric supporting tar sands development it sounds dead serious when used as the title of a painting. How can I be ironic ... and sound like it? Is it even possible? If you've read this far without falling asleep in your soup maybe you have some ideas?

Finally, watch this. When Lenz starts choking back the tears so will you.

some winter birds

These are birds I don't see every day so thought they were worth a post. Yes, seriously, I rarely see Starlings, so when a mob of them visits my garden I take notice (and hide the suet). But yawning Snowy Owls? I just got lucky there! The other owl is a Short-eared Owl. I saw no less than a half dozen different types of raptors that cold, dark morning on Boundary Bay.

playtime

Winter Wild 16" x 16" oil on wood panel

I had a hard time photographing this painting as it's pouring rain outside, but I did my best as I need to look at it analytically before it dries. I can't do that with the painting itself, just after finishing it, because I am still too close to the process. Digital photography is such a great tool because it means I can immediately place the image in a new context, allowing me to be more objective.

As you can see, I'm in experimental mode. Greg reminded me that "you need to just follow where your paintbrush leads you right now". He knows that I hit a bunch of brick walls last year (or maybe it was the same one over and over) and need to explore a lot of half-formed ideas before I commit to a new path. That new path just may end up being an old path. In any case, I'm not making any decisions until I've played a bit longer.

It helps that I'm taking another in an ongoing series of Facebook recesses. It means I can't get the feedback I like on my work but it sure allows me to focus better. And I'm taking some time to look at blogs again which I am really enjoying. It's like the difference between reading newspaper headlines and sinking into a novel: one feeds the immediate need for distraction; the other feeds something broader and deeper. Bloggers: keep doing what you're doing. It works.

winter wonderings

Winter Song 8" x 24" oil on wood panel

Since I posted yesterday I've been trying to figure out what direction I want to take this print business. (By the way, where are all you printmaking pedants? I was hoping someone would take me to task for saying 'print' rather than 'reproduction'. That's what social media is all about isn't it?) Since she's smarter and less impulsive than me, I asked Ellen for advice and she pretty much told me what I already knew/needed to hear again: focus on your real art raison d'etre. Schlepping prints in an oversaturated/undervalued market is a lot of effort without much reward unless you have an unusual style or angle, presented in an inexpensive and unique product.

So it's back to the drawing board ... where I belong. My compromise is here and here. If I can sell without having to exhaustively 'work it' (I'm tired of networking) then great. If I can't, that's fine, too. In any case, I'll just keep doing what's been working so far.

testing the water

Recently my local art supply institution, Opus, a pretty great organization who has cornered the British Columbia market, started offering high-quality digital prints on a variety of substrates. Last week I spent at least half an hour working with them in order to produce just five prints. Granted, I was test driving the system/product as I don't usually offer fine art prints and wanted to try a variety of images, sizes and papers, but already I was sold by the attention to detail. Today I picked up the results and was blown away by the quality.



I haven't yet decided how I want to proceed. Etsy shop? Big Cartel? A page on my website? All? None? I am committed to producing original art, but am also curious about the market for reproductions. Also, I wanted to try selling my photos, particularly my urban photos. I have offered two of them in my long-dormant-but-now-resucitated Etsy shop.


I may decide that I only want to offer photos, but in the meantime I have these three beautifully-reproduced art prints staring me in the face. What to do?

illustration friday: grounded

Grounded 5" x 3" mixed drawing media on black paper

fields and fences

I love it when creativities collide. Some time ago I was contacted by Toronto musician Andy Jackson, who was looking for cover art for his project Fields and Fences. About five years ago I did two small acrylic paintings called Fields and Fences. When Andy did a Google image search my artwork popped up, he liked it, and he contacted me to ask if he could use the paintings as the cover art for his as-yet-unreleased CD.

Fast forward to this Christmas season, and Andy's CD went to press. A couple of days ago I got my copy in the mail and was impressed with the whole package, both music and design. The funny thing was that I had one of his songs, Aprimitive, on my iPod. I guess I'd downloaded it a few months ago but forgot to make a note of the details and recently I tried -- unsuccessfully -- to figure out what it was. Mystery solved! So I made it a mini project to create a music video for Aprimitive with a slide show of my own photographs. The creative collaboration comes full circle! The above video is the result.

You can listen to the album, download it or order the CD at Andy's website.

Happy New Year!

peace on earth

I took this photo of a line of frost-edged trees from the shotgun seat early yesterday morning. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Solstice Greetings, Happy Hannukah, and have a wonderful Festivus.

studio update 2

This is the photography section of the studio update. I think of painting as my job and photography as my hobby, but there's plenty of overlap. At the end of the day, though, I approach them the same way: much more 'focused' on the imagery than the technical. I still haven't read my eight-year-old camera's user's manual.

Even so, I've been wiki-ed! The above photo, taken 10 months ago, is now here. And then a couple of months ago I entered a photo contest. I don't enter contests but the entry fee for this one went directly into the coffers of the BC SPCA's Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre. My photo of a Pileated Woodpecker on our deck got an Honourable Mention (scroll down to see the winning photos) in the Backyard Habitats section.

Lately I've been toying with the idea of offering archival prints of my favourite urban photos online, but I have no idea how successful photographers are at selling their work this way. Any thoughts on that?

studio update 1

I've just delivered a bunch of new work to various galleries, including shipping these small tree drawings up to Invermere, so am ready to focus on Christmas stuff. Good thing as all I've done so far is order a turkey and nag Greg to put the lights on the house. I predict two weeks of frantic shopping and prep. It's tradition!

Yesterday was shipping day. I had the pleasure of working with Robin and Margie at Art-Centric on another project this year so I packed up a handful of paintings and FedExed them to Dallas for their Christmas party next week. The project earlier this year was to create a couple of paintings from which they made and framed a hotel's-worth of prints for guestrooms in the Hilton in downtown Santa Fe.

Meanwhile, I'm awaiting my copy of the CD Fields and Fences by Canadian musician Andy Jackson. I gave him permission to use the images of these two paintings, entitled Fields and Fences, for the cover art. The actual paintings now live in Winnipeg with Chris.

Finally, I am again lucky to have been juried into the FCA's annual medal show for signature members. The work is pretty amazing this year, so if you're in downtown Vancouver before Christmas check it out on Granville Island. This one is my favourite.

small birds 2

A few more mini bird drawings for Arts off Main.

circle f

Excuse the art recess. Since I haven't posted in almost two weeks I'm using these photos, taken over the past few months, as an excuse. These are just a few of the pretty faces I've had the pleasure of working with at Circle F, and the top three are still looking for homes.