Art

Collage

Sailing and painting can be compatible!

We left for a week on our sailboat and I enjoyed painting on our cabin table while it rained alllllll day!

The rainbow and the evening skies were inspiring enough...

Setting up my new computer

Finally, I made the move and bought a new computer which is 100% dedicated to art stuff: tutorials, paintings that inspire me, other artists's works, techniques, and of course it will have my music library. Very exciting...I am just setting it up and tomorrow, I will set in up in the studio!

J'ai finalement fait l'acquisition d'un nouvel ordinateur qui sera dédié à 100% à l'art visuel: vidéos sur les techniques, oeuvres d'art d'autres artistes que j'admire, textes qui m'inspirent..et une librairie de pièces musicales bien que j'aime souvent travailler dans le silence...

I met Donna Brown at the workshop of Karen Rosasco last summer. Donna has been painting for several years now and has her studio in Kingston. She will be showing her work at the Wellington Street Art Gallery in Toronto from May 16 to June 2. Bravo Donna!
(This is one of her art work entitled Protection; to see all the art work exhibited, go to the website of the Gallery as listed below.)
http://www.wellingtonstreetartgallery.ca/exhibitions.html

Toronto IS grunge...Here are 2 "real" examples of grunge, encountered on the streets of Toronto...on posts and doors. I cannot say that I find that "pleasing" but it is an amazing experience to be able to recreate this type of "mood" with texture and colours.

When I came back in the studio, I was full of those images and started working on the rehabilitation of one of my failed designs. "Grunge city" emerged...

 Other collages done in the context of Act Natural workshop by Julie Prichard.

We went for a walk today and enjoyed the spring colours! I olve the yellow green of the willows, the translucent blue skies of April..if it could get warmer!!! As long as the weather is rainy and cold, I paint spring!

Another collage with a large stencil used to shape the background and scrapbooking paper and coloured silk paper. It is spring and I feel the need to see buds flowering! The weather here is awful but at least, I have control over what "grows" on my paper!

Alchemy of photo transfer!!!

I am still working on collages and photo transfer. The acrylic washes worked out great, using Payne's grey, transparent red oxyde, Van Dyke brown and Titan buff. These photo transfers are trickier to do because the instructor is asking us NOT to let the tranfer dry before removing the paper.  In the past, I managed to use Inkjet printed material and glossy liquid gel with fair success. For this type of transfer, however, it is not working as well...but one has to keep experimenting!

Another collage including a failed photo transfer! I decided that no piece of art should be thrown away: it can be transformed and recycled!!!

Working on several pieces

The day is not long enough!!! I am taking part in this Grundge Art workshop and must do the exercises...such as this second Grundgy collage! It is very relaxing and fun to do!!

Andddddddddd I am working on 2 other pieces ..are they finished? not sure yet!

Grundge Art Workshop

I registered in an online art workshop by Julie Pritchard "Act Natural"...how to make grundge art. I began with Lesson #1, of course and this was much fun! It consisted in doing a collage in neutral colours which could serve as a background for future paintings.

Here are the pieces of papers (receipts, book pages, envelopes) that I used. I did not have a great choice of vintage papers but I decided to go ahead anyway!! It's just an exercise...now, I know what kind of materials to collect!!!

The second step is to peel, very lightly, pieces of the papers.

Sanding the collage and applying some neutral colour helped to unify the look! It was early in the morning, I was just having my first coffee sooooooooooooo I gave a little to my collage!!!





I dipped a rag in Raw Umber and made scratches and added drops of acrylic ink...sprayed water, to get to the final result down below.

This exercise is to train one to make interesting and grundge looking backgrounds for future paintings!!!

This is the last version with acrylic glazing liquid to unify colours.

It is kind of addictive...I will do many more! A fun way to experiment with materials and to relax...

Petites toiles et installation

I began just recently to paint with acrylics and these are my first miniatures : I love the vibrancy of colours given by acrylic inks!

A LA CHAGALL  6x6 acrylic on canvas

BUNTER WALD 5x7 Acrylic on canvas board

SPIRALE 5x7 Acrylic on canvas board

VIEILLES VOILES 5x7 Acrylic on canvas  board

WATER CHAOS 6x6 Acrylic on canvas


A painting was given to us by our friend and artist Annemiek Lintzen http://www.lintzen.com/ and I added 3 miniatures to create a colourful installation on our living room wall.

Installation de molas

Since our first cruising trip south on our sail boat La Buena Vida, we have been hearing about the Kunas Indians and their Molas. Every cruiser has been delighted by these colourful fabric works of art made by Kuna women.  In November 2011, we finally had the opportunity to sail in Kuna Yala on board our friends Pam and Bill sailboat "Songbird". The weather was terrible with rain and wind for the 7 days we spent in the Kunas territory. However, one afternoon, the rain stopped and with the first rays of sun, came Kuna women on board their dugged out kanu to show us their molas.  We had just arrived in Kuna Yala and felt a bit overwhelmed when one of them hopped on board and spread out an amazing number of molas, all beautiful. We bought some, of course. And we are so happy that we did...because the rain never stopped after that and we never saw another Kuna adventuring in the bay. It rained so much that week that traffic through the Panama Canal was stopped, road destroyed, and people died in land slides. We left Kuna Yala, sad not to have had more encounters with the Kunas and to have missed seeing more of their villages...but at least, we had some molas!

Back home, we were faced with the challenge to display those works of art. We learned that the number of fabric layers partly determined the value of the mola. It was also important not to cut them and try to fit them in a frame...and last, their vibrant colours had to be fully exposed.

My recent experimentation with acrylics and interest in mixed-media led me to build these montages! The frames are made of birch plywood. The molas are sewn onto painted foambord, which is then glue on plywood.

Depuis le temps que nous entendions parler des indiens Kunas et de leurs molas! Tous les plaisanciers qui s'aventuraient au-delà du Venezuela et longeaient les cotes de la Colombie et du Panama nous racontaient leurs rencontres avec ces Indiens et brandissaient fierement les innombrables molas achetées au Kuna Yala (nom donné au pays de Kunas). A l'automne de 2011, nous avions enfin la chance d'aller dans ce territoire sur le voilier de nos amis Pam et Bill qui y étaient depuis quelques mois. Ils connaissaient bien le territoire et nous promettaient une belle aventure. Malheureusement, ce fut la semaine la plus pluvieuse depuis 30 ans (on ferma le Canal de Panama et il y eu plusieurs vicitmes d'inondations et d'éboulements) et nous n'avons eu qu'une seule chance de faire l'acquisition de ces trésors. En effet, lors du premier jour de notre arrivée au Kuna Yala, il y eu une accalmie et le premier  canot Kunas se pointa!  Un groupe de 3 femmes et 2 enfants s'emmena et l'une d'elle monta à bord pour nous montrer les trésors!!! Notre connaissance des molas était nulle à ce moment mais nous nous sommes laissés charmer et guidés par nos amis, nous avons fait l'acquisition de quelques belles pièces!Je présente ici les montages que j'ai faits, prenant soin de bien montrer les couleurs et les épaisseurs de tissus de chaque mola.