If you’re like me and are still working on gift ideas for some lucky people on your Christmas list,  here are some shows I’m happy to be part of this season, all featuring affordable, gift-sized artwork!  Your one-of-a-kind treasure will be enjoyed for years and years, and bonus, you will be supporting local artists!

COLLECTIBLES

Ottawa Art Rental and Sales Gallery, Arts Court -2 Daly Avenue

Nov 15 to  Jan 14

GREAT BIG SMALLS

Cube Gallery, 1285 Wellington West

Nov 29 to Dec 31

PARADIGM: THE DEAN’S GALLERY

Simard Hall, 165 Waller Street

Dec 2 to tbd

GALLERY 115, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Holiday Art Sale, 100 Laurier E, University of Ottawa

One day only – Tuesday Dec 6, 8am -10pm

Still showing at THE TABLE

1230 Wellington West.  Until Dec. 3

The Fashion Press no. 3

The Fashion Press is a Canadian website and magazine about fashion, art, music, and style.  As an independent media source  featuring “real talents and real people,” the magazine is refreshing and interesting.  Get inspired and explore the minds of (mostly local) artists, writers, and other talents.  Visit the Fashion Press website to purchase a hardcopy or view a free digital version of the most recent beautifully designed issue, in which I’m featured!  (Follow “purchase print issues”  to get the print and digital versions).

Happy Reading!

Until December 3rd, recent paintings will brighten the walls of the amazing veggie eatery, The Table Restaurant on Wellington Street West.  The food is fantastic so drop by for some brunch or dessert and soak in the art!

Held in September 2011 at the University of Ottawa.

“Through a process of recording scenes of local streets and housing, then re-recording imagery through manipulation with paint, the experience of being in the place is transformed from one of detachment and cursory observation to one with a degree of emotional investment and mystery.  Allowing the tendencies of the paint to become part of the subject, spaces become ambiguous and a play between illusion and surface is presented.  Incorporating references to consumption, the discarded is returned to places of use, highlighting the link between waste and current modes of habitation.”

Installation views:

Here is a recent painting in acrylic.  In the top image, the right-most third of the painting is missing, but the image becomes too small if the whole thing is shown.  And that isn’t good because in this work, the mark-making and the details are important. 

I did number of experimental canvases before this painting, and I found my painting methods changed using acrylic.  Among other things, I used layering a lot more, which was interesting.  There is a common hatching mark throughout this painting, in the trees, the garbage, and on the ground, that I think unifies the disparate parts of the scene.

Why does a painter choose one medium (or combination of media) over another?  The answer depends on a whole  bunch of factors, but most importantly, if it allows you to say what you want to say, and gives you a satisfying dialogue or challenge to work though.

Lately, I’ve put aside my solvent, rags, and oil, and picked up the plastic (acrylic).  I’ve created a simple chart to illustrate the pros and cons of each:

Ha ha just kidding.  Seriously though, here is a select list of my findings so far:

Oil beats Acrylic hands down because:
- Oil doesn’t darken when it dries like acrylic.
- You can mix and thin oil on the canvas because it stays wet longer.
- It stays wet longer!!! – juicy and fresh and lovely.
- It seems you can mix more colours without the result turning “muddy.”
- You can wipe away areas if you don’t like them.
- Oil has a lovely gritty feel – acrylic is a bit wimpy comparatively.

Acrylic kicks oil to the curb because:
- No need for gloves to avoid absorbing pigments.
- No solvents = no headaches, and no open studio windows in the winter.
- You can lay down a thin wash, and paint over it 15 minutes later.
- No household hazardous waste depot every few months.
- No can of rags to *maybe* spontaneously combust in your studio.

Soon, I will post some new acrylic works!

I like to shake it up and experiment.  I don’t have a preferred, ideal size of canvas or a favourite combination of colours, but I feel that if one day I do, I probably won’t be content to settle.  If anything, the journey is the fun stuff.  Happy accidents, challenges, unknowns, ongoing dialogues between me and the paint, there is something wonderful about knowing we’re in it for the long haul.

With this in mind, you can understand why my current show at Orange Gallery seems a bit eclectic.  While there is a degree of consistency in the application of paint and some other telltale signs, the subject matter diverges into a few different camps: street scenes to construction sites to walking figures.

One thread tying the works together is an exploration of the ways one is both connected to and alienated from a place.  The street scenes seem lonely past the beauty of the urban fixtures, and the figures often are walking away from the viewer.  Another thread is the way that experimentation and accidents become part of the subject.  I invite you to come out to the show, running from June 15th to July 3rd, to check it out for yourself!

Simon Hughes - "Northern Landscape" (Image from Winnipeg Art Gallery Annual Report.)

This piece by Simon Hughes, recently shown at the It is What it is exhibition here in Ottawa, was by far my favourite piece in the show.  One of the few non-sculptural, non-photographic, and non- installation works there,  it held my attention for – I’m not sure how long – but a long time.

Why is it so cool?  First of all, stickers – the Inuit figures hauling whale meat, the devil figures in each of the windows of the Habitat-like buildings(!), are shiny little stickers.  The mixed media (watercolour, pencil, ink, etc.) work so well together, especially since watercolour is sometimes thought of as “low art,” and stickers are, well, made for kids.  The jaggedy ice floes are precisely and impossibly geometric, and the oblique perspective adds to the work’s awesome naive quality.

The work is in three framed pieces (but is shown above  unframed), which enhances its symmetry and further formalizes its precise lines. 

Addendum July 20: On Simon Hughes’ website, this work actually consists of five panels, so the image above from the WAG report is only the right-most three panels, with the third chopped off at the end.  There is no image of the work available on the National Gallery of Canada website.

More on Simon Hughes at the Winnipeg Art Gallery website.

Simon Hughes - "Northern Landscape" - Detail

Why do I paint?
Who am I painting for (if anyone)?
Is my practice sustainable?
Will I ever get sick of painting?

These questions have been bothering me lately.  The first I sort of know the answer to – I paint because I love it:  The feel of the brush sliding or scumbling or grinding, the picture developing out of a worry and some reference material, the feeling that somehow, I’ve just dredged some part of myself and maybe know myself better.

Also my impatience – usually no friend – is beginning to be something that helps: Scrub that white space, sweep the wash over there, now fix that splash, get that shadow in quick quick!

But the other questions bug me.  Is my work  just a commodity or a “consumable?” How is it different from some plastic bit of mass-produced stuff on the store shelf? Some poor designer had to sweat the gates and cores for the mould.  How are we different?

Then there’s the solvent and pigment waste and the rags that end up in hazardous waste treatment.  The canvas and wood come from renewable resources, but at a cost to the environment to produce and ship.  How can my practice be less harmful?

As for the last question, that answer is a bit easier: Just keep painting and see what happens.

This past week was chock full of panel discussions and artist talks.  Too bad I could only go to two of them:  Four Ottawa Painters panel discussion at CUAG, and Nell Tenahaaf at the OAG on Friday.

The painters discussion touched on the blending of representation and abstraction in painting, and the question of why painting is still relevant today, given the glut of readily accessible digital imagery.  The main argument is that the tactile nature of paint is like no other media, that mark-making with paint reflects the artist’s gestures in a way that digital media can’t.  Some insight into the challenges in making Ottawa a home base to run a successful painting practice would have been welcomed (it was in the event description) but practical matters aside, it was a good discussion.

The role of the viewer is central in the work of Nell Tenhaaf, whose digital media installations demand actions from the viewer, and in some works, track viewer responses.  The artist showed some of the resulting plots and graphs, and the most interesting thing to me was how these become a sort of a continuation of the artwork.  There is an almost scientific method approach, testing hypotheses and documenting experiments, and then creating new versions with improvements.

Ms. Tenhaaf’s installation at the OAG, Push/Pull, is a structure in the centre of a darkened room, which holds LED arrays, sensors, sound emitters, and a video output that respond in some way to the movement of the viewer.  Months ago when I first encountered the piece, I took the title and the label instructions literally, and actually tried to “push” the unit very gently!  Even though the artist was present, she did not correct me (!)

Overall a great week.  Looking forward to upcoming talks and shows.  Subscribe to artlist on Artengine to hear about them.