Update...Victoria has passed away

With heavy heart, the family let us know that Victoria passed away late last night.

Tomorrow May Never Come...

A colleague of mine, Victoria George, is in critical condition today. Last Wednesday, on the day Victoria was to fly home from her Cancun vacation with her husband and 5 year old son, she suffered a severe asthma attack, went into cardiac arrest and is now on life support in a Cancun hospital. The full story is on the CTV website.

It certainly makes you think about what you want to do with your life. I think it is natural to assume that you have lots of time to pursue your dream. It takes something like this to make you realize that you need to live life to the fullest now…take the risks now…there may not be a tomorrow.

Town Hall Meeting

Went to the Artists Network town hall meeting today and am totally PUMPED! There are so many resources that are part of the association that I didn’t know about and what a great resource for new artists. I met a few people who were very open to sharing information with me – established artists who have succeeded in making a living from their paintings – very inspiring.

The first person I met was Dan Ryan. Small world – we both grew up in Sarnia, he knew the sister of my best friend, we live a few blocks apart and our kids are in the same acting classes. Dan was an illustrator for many years and had his own marketing firm before deciding to paint full time. His work in really beautiful and he has been successful in making that transition to full time artist. He spends at least 5 hours a day painting; certainly a goal for me to aspire to. Check out his website.


Also had great conversations with Gary Smith – he is on the board of the Artist’s Network and is also a teacher in addition to being an artist. I posted one of his painting here that I really love – The Real Jerk. A great restaurant that I have not been to in years. His website has more samples of his work. He explained the difference between RAW and AN - the Artist's Network is the association that runs the Riverdale Art Walk - this was not that clear to me previously. I am looking forward to being more involved in the Artist's Network




Christopher Hayes has very interesting work – contemporary mixed media. I am not sure you get the full impression on the web – I am looking forward to seeing his work in real life. He had some great advice. Basically if you are a deadline driven person (which I am) you need to sign up for multiple shows since that will force you to paint on a regular basis. He directed me to Akimbo where tons of shows are listed, with open submissions. At his recommendation, I am going to apply to the Queen West Art Crawl and see what happens. He also said “you can’t sell your paintings if they are in your house”. In other words, you need to get your paintings on the walls of galleries.

All great things to aspire to!

The Beginning…

I dedicate this blog post to the woman who inspired me and made me believe that I had an untapped talent in abstract art. About a year ago, I was invited by a friend, Sabine Steinbrecher, to a painting class hosted by her mother. I had been to Karola Steinbrecher’s studio before and purchased a painting that I love – a huge acrylic of a California Poppy (at left). When the opportunity came up to do a class, I thought it sounded like fun and eagerly signed up. Yvette, Cynthia and I purchased our art supplies – acrylics and brushes and headed to her studio. Her studio is located north of Toronto and is surrounded by beautiful and inspiring gardens.

FROM HER WEBSITE
Karola Steinbrecher was born in Germany and now resides north of Toronto. She has been painting for over forty years and is primarily self-taught. She has exhibited in both group and solo shows, won awards for her work, and is a member of artist leagues both in Florida and Ontario.

Karola has a penchant for warm colours and can be detail oriented or abstract in her selection of subjects often presenting a familiar subject with unusual backgrounds. Her use of red hues are most obvious in her present work and she has recently moved to more abstract subject matter. Her pieces are lively and expressive, delivered in very intense colors, on simplified rich backgrounds. The work is very modern and contemporary and illustrates her versatility, particularly in her works of nature.

Karola has shown frequently in galleries, shows and exhibitions in North America and her art has been purchased to private and corporate collections in Canada, the U.S.A and Europe.

When we got there, I was disappointed to learn we were going to be doing abstract art – it had honestly never held any appeal and I so loved her flower paintings. Jumping into the moment, I worked hard to be open minded and found…THAT I LOVED IT! It was more intimidating and challenging than I thought it would be but provided an opportunity to be very free with form and line – it looked like it would be easy but as actually quite a challenge to get the balance and colours to the point that they worked.

Today I am headed down to the Town Hall Meeting of the Artist’s Network – I am not sure what to expect – I hope the meeting provides a bit of guidance as to how to prepare for the show. I am painting tomorrow and really looking forward to it.

The Proper Colour...

April 15....

I thought I should post the painting in its proper form....I am not sure why the colours shifted so much. Here is "MoonRise".

In re-working, I think I will add a stronger colour and maybe some additional texture. It might be interesting to do a mirror set with complementary colours.

How do you know when it is finished?

It has been awhile since I posted – I was hoping to do some painting last weekend but with Easter and all…it just didn’t happen.

While I was driving to my American Marketing Association meeting last night, I caught an interesting interview on CBC Radio about an abstract artist. He was talking about how abstract art is easy to start and a challenge to finish. Because there is often no obvious finishing point, the closer an artist gets to completion, the tighter the work gets. Especially in abstract art, I thought about how true that is. I guess a painting becomes more precious the longer you work on it. I have certainly noticed that and I sometimes have a hard time determining if a painting is finished or overdone. This is especially true in my case in doing abstract art – a new form for me. I was very pleased with one piece as I was painting it and was afraid to ‘ruin’ it. When I went t back to it later, it was not as good as I remembered; it just wasn’t finished.

I took a new fresh look at the pieces that I submitted to the RAW and I think I have to go back and re-work a few of them. I find it interesting that, when putting all the pieces together, everyone chooses the same few as favourites. I think that they are just that much more complex or interesting…they are finished. It will be interesting to see if, when I continue to work on the others, people’s perceptions of them change. I am planning to work thought that phase so that I can push my work a bit. Worst comes to worst and I overdo the painting. I can always paint over it and use the underpainting to add texture!

Posted is a painting that needs to be finished. I will work on it this weekend and post the revised to see if I have iporoived it or not... CRAZY - this painting is actually blue but it posted as reds and organge - I think I like this better!

This weekend, Cynthia, Yvette and I are getting together to paint – the weather is supposed to be beautiful so it will be great to paint outdoors. I am feeling very inspired and hope that I can create some good pieces.

April 6, 2009

RE the RAW (Riverdale Art Walk), I signed the contract and they cashed the cheque for the entry fee so there is no turning back! I need to do a bit of research to see what sizes I should do – currently they are all 20” x 20”. I like that size but it would be interesting to do some really long thin paintings and maybe add some additional elements. I was hoping to do some painting this weekend but the weather was cold and crappy so I could not paint outdoors.

I have been giving a lot of thought of what I need to do to increase the range of my small portfolio. I really enjoy doing these abstract paintings but I feel that I need to ensure that they do not become formulaic.

I was running yesterday – a great way to clear out the thoughts of the day – and I realized that I already had a theme and that I needed to develop it. All the paintings are named for nature – which makes sense since I always feel an affinity for nature. As I was running, I started to notice natural curves of the landscape. Next time I paint, I will try and mirror these cures and shapes – hopefully this weekend!

Accepted!!

April 2, 2009

Incredibly, I got accepted to show at the Riverdale Art Walk! For the first 15 seconds, I was really excited – and then I was really intimidated! I called Seester Helen and she was really excited for me so that was great. I think the rest of my family (except my daughter) was surprised. My husband does not love these abstract paintings so I expect he will be happy if I sell them!

The Riverdale Art Walk is a juried show. They posted one piece of art from each artist in the preliminary gallery. There are some incredible works that will be shown and I hope that I can represent myself well. The painting at the left is the one that they chose – it is actually one of my favourites as well and hangs in my office. Miranda and I had fun naming them - this one is "River #4".

Now, the scary stuff starts…I need to figure out how many pieces I need to create, how to present them, how and how much to charge. Luckily, the Artist Network is hosting sessions to help us all learn how to promote our work better.

My First Entry...

April 1, 2009

In 2009, I made a resolution that I was determined to keep. I have a degree in Fine Arts but had done no real painting in years, except at the cottage with a glass of wine in one hand. In the back of my mind, I always thought it would be great to dedicate more time to painting and to have a show again. This year, I said to myself, I will at least put a good solid effort into having at least one show!

Over the past year, I have been helping my sister Helen Utsal (http://helenutsal.com), an incredibly talented artist, increase her profile. We have been working on her website, artist’s statement and applications to get her the exposure she deserves. Thinking as an artist again stirred the creative juices to try to develop my own painting more seriously.

Serendipitously, I receive an email meant for another – it was a request for applications for local artists in Toronto for the Riverdale Art Walk. It looked like the stars were aligning so I screwed up my courage and decided to try - painting just enough works to fulfill the portfolio requirements. It was amazing how easy it was to provide input into Helen’s Artist Statement and how difficult it was to write my own! Still wet, I documented my creations and walked my submission down to the Hang Man Gallery.

I have no idea where this will go – maybe the Riverdale Art Walk was short on submissions, maybe I have more talent that I give myself credit for but I thought it would be interesting to document my journey.

Here’s hoping that April 1, 2009 will not end up being a big fat April Fools Joke!