Regrouping

 I have been hanging the panels in different arrangements every few days. The four panels here seem to make a good group since I added a light cream-tinted glaze over each one. The pouring medium dries to a high gloss, so I used matte varnish over the last pours. The stone-like affect is beginning to grow on me! My mentor has advised me to be open to what happens in the studio, especially if it is not what I am expecting nor what I intended. I have decided to leave these panels as they are. The white cut-outs are integrated more with the grounds and most of the edges are somewhat blurred with the glaze pooling along the edges of the cut paper.

My blog took a back seat lately as I worked on my first thesis outline. It has been interesting to go back and look at all the research I have already done through the MFA program. My essays have helped me to identify the main issues in my work. I'm sure I will be revising the outline several times before I am finished with it, but at least I have something to begin with.

Hybrid Panel - Crocus 10" x 8" x 1½" Paper and acrylic on board.

Hybrid Panel - Spruce Twigs 12" x 10" x 1½" Paper, graphite and acrylic on board.

Hybrid Panel - Fiddleheads 10" x 8" x 1½" Paper and acrylic on board.

Hybrid Panel - Roots 8" x 10" x 1½" Paper and acrylic on board.

 The next panel began with a detailed pencil drawing which I intended to cut out from the start. I am working on a second panel (below) with a thin wood cut-out of the plant's silhouette. I have trimmed off the three stems that protrude from the left side of the piece as I find them distracting. I hesitate to do to much to it! The plan is to see what the two versions will look like together.

Hybrid Panel - Butternut Leaves 10" x 12" x 1½"  Paper, graphite and acrylic on board
I enjoyed the drawing, but is it compelling enough?

Birch Panel - Butternut Forms 10" x 12" x 1½" Birch plywood and board 
More interesting than the graphite traditional drawing

I find it difficult to evaluate my work right after I finish it as I am usually most enthusiastic about whatever it is I have just made. The graphite panel, Butternut Leaves, above has not reproduced well. Perhaps this is what it really looks like and I will agree with my photo of it by tomorrow! It seems to lack the vitality of the other panels. Tomorrow I will be sanding the edges very carefully of the Butternut Forms. The wood grain adds to the piece. I may just seal the wood with a clear coat and leave it alone after that.

The butternut tree is an endangered species in New Brunswick. Apparently it is illegal to cut one down or prune it without permission from the province. A very industrious squirrel has been planting the nuts from our neighbour's tree in our yard and we have several small butternut saplings growing in odd corners of the garden. I actually pulled a few up before realizing what they were. The same squirrel has given us an oak tree and several purple-leaved maples. I found a cache of chestnuts the other day, but none of them had sprouted yet!

Three earlier panels form a group.

After arranging the four "frosted" panels together, these three make a good group.

New Panels and Drawings

Hybrid Panel 4 - Ivy,  Acrylic and Paper on Panel 10" x 12" x 1.5"

Hybrid Panel 5 - Crocus, Acrylic and Paper on Panel 10" x 12" x 1.5"

Hybrid Panel 6 - Spruce Twigs, Acrylic and Paper on Panel 10" x 12" x 1.5"

Drawing 12 - Crocus, Graphite on Paper 10" x 8"

Drawing 13 - Fiddleheads 1, Graphite on Paper 10" x 8"

Drawing 14 - Maple Flowers 2,
Graphite on Paper 10" x 8"

I have begun hanging the panels on the wall in my studio. It is helpful to see them together, as I plan to complete between nine and twelve that will hang together as one artwork. The Ivy panel needed more work on it. Drawing and cutting two white ivy leaf shapes helped as well as a new pour of semi-transparent paint. I like the halo effect around the edges of the charcoal leaf. The white leaves and the light pour create new figure-ground relationships.

The crocuses were drawn while sitting on the grass in my front yard. The graphite allows for smooth transitions and sharp details. I decided to make a white silhouette from the drawing instead of cutting up the drawing. The crocus panel was interesting as soon as I cut off the upper left corner, while following contours suggested by the crocus plants. 

In the fiddlehead drawing, I chose to include strands of dead fern leaves left from the previous season. I have been working on a panel using a white silhouette of this drawing. My cutting skills with an Exacto knife are improving daily!

Bringing a branch from one of our maple trees into our living room where it has been in a vase allowed me to observe it carefully without the wind moving each stamen and petal in front of me. I enjoyed observing and drawing directly, and I was also able to photograph the twigs successfully. Taking a photo is kind of like insurance that I will be able to finish what I have begun. It was a learning experience as it was the first time I had used the macro lens on the camera correctly. If only I would read the camera manual, I would learn all kinds of special settings I could be using!

I revisited the spruce twigs this week after a discussion with my mentor. I poured a couple of times to lighten certain areas of the panel and I am more satisfied with the result. The panel needs to be coated with matt varnish. It's too shiny and glossy at the moment!

"An Imagined Garden" at the CBC Georges Goguen Gallery

At the opening of "An Imagined Garden"

Friends and well-wishers.

Works from my second and third semester on display.

The lighting is a challenge to my photographic abilities!

The past week has been incredibly busy. On Saturday, Georges Goguen and I hung my show at the CBC Georges Goguen Gallery. The work will be on exhibit until the end of March, with the opening March 7. I have ten pieces on display, which fill the gallery; seven from my second semester and three created since the January 2013 Residency at AIB. An additional painting is on display in the director's office.

I gave an art talk about this work last week at the Café des Artistes at the local Press Club en français. There was quite a turn-out and many interesting questions! Most people are amazed at how much my work has changed over the past year and there has been much enthusiasm for it. I prepared a DVD of twenty images of second and third semester work as well as a shorter DVD of photos I have taken during the AIB residencies. There is no Master of Fine Arts program (or any equivalent) in our province, so there has been strong interest in the AIB program.

Storm Nemo in Boston and Mentor Meeting

A sculpture by Sarah Braman in front of
Lindsey at the "Paint Things" show, de Cordova Gallery

Last weekend was memorable for several reasons. I arrived in Boston on Friday, just as a big storm was beginning. Lindsey picked me up at the airport and we were able to visit the Phillips Academy Addison Gallery on our way to her house before the storm set in. We saw "Frame by Frame: Photographic Series and Portfolios from the Collection," featuring Aaron Siskind's Harlem Document, Robert Frank's The Americans, Bruce Davidson's Brooklyn Gang and William Christenberry's  Alabama Pictures. 

I recognized Brooklyn before reading any wall texts, even though I haven't been there for years. Robert Frank's work struck a chord as well as Bill Owens'  Suburbia. The sixties and seventies came alive in the humorous quotations accompanying the photos. I enjoyed the teased hairdos, leisure suits and mini-skirts as well as the general suburban kitch. William Eggleston's  14 Pictures were also on display.

We perused the "Eye on the Collection" of well-known American paintings in the collection and "Stone, Wood, Metal, Mesh: Prints and Printmaking." Apparently the Addison has a very large print collection, of which 150 were on display. There was a large portrait by Thomas Eakins of a mathematician which was very interesting because of its frame! The portrait was beautifully executed in a traditional, academic style, but the frame looked very modernist. The frame was a wide, flat golden band around the portrait with mathematical symbols inscribed boldly in scriffito and black paint. I responded to a painting by Winslow Homer which defies reproduction. A huge stormy, grey wave breaks by the shore where a small figure watches on the beach. It sounds like a typical Homer composition, but the drama and simplification of the forms was fantastic. I was excited to see a hand-made book by Helen Frankenthaler. It's too bad we could only see one page in the display case!

Once we arrived at Lindsey and Matt's home, we settled in for the duration of the blizzard "Nemo." It was quite a storm, dumping 20 - 25" of snow on us with high winds and drifting snow, but it was not as dramatic for me as for Bostonians. We have similar snowstorms where I live in Canada, sometimes one after the other.

On Sunday, after we were able to drive again, Lindsey and I went to the de Cordova Museum to see the "Painted Things" show. We both enjoyed this museum very much. 'Painted Things" shows works which combine paint and sculpture in new ways. Several people had recommended that I look at Katie Bell's work, so I was glad to have an opportunity to see eight pieces, ranging in size from wall-sized to 9" x 12." I like the way Steve Locke's pieces glow from underneath with florescent paint - not so easy to do as I have discovered! We attended an artist talk with Andrew Witkin and Amanda Katz of the Boston Globe. Andrew discussed his installation for "Platform 11." His work prompts the viewer to question why the objects are arranged the way they are. Several collections of objects worked together in the whole installation. Amanda talked about the "Ideas" section of the Boston Globe and the two of them compared notes about where ideas come from and how we act on them. I recognized Amanda's name from reading several of her articles on the web, which I cam across while researching my essays for AIB.

Monday things were almost back to normal in Boston and I was able to meet with Jill Slosburg-Ackerman, my mentor for my third semester. Jill and I had a wide-ranging discussion which was very helpful. I have been experimenting and exploring widely with my theme of nature in the back yard, so it has been difficult for me to see where to focus to create a cohesive body of work this semester. I originally wanted to work with Jill because of my interest in wood, but it has become so expensive for me to work with and ship, that I have decided to concentrate on other media for the time being. We both share an inspiration in nature for our work, as well as a love of drawing.

I was so glad that I had brought my sketchbook to show Jill, as I have several ideas recorded in it which could become major projects. I had thought of presenting two-dimensional work in a scroll format before and Jill encouraged me to pursue this idea. She also was very positive about my close-up thumbnail sketches of vegetation, tree bark and junk from a junkyard arranged in archive-like grids. I will be working in small formats, so that I can pack my work into a carry-on bag. It can be presented as scrolls, or on wood panels later on. Some sketches could become large works as well. I have a couple of ideas I developed combining disparate photos which could be interesting. So far, the drawing has more depth and subtlety than the acrylic paintings. It is great to work with a medium which seems to be an extension of my hand. I always seem to be fighting the acrylic, to make it do something which doesn't come easily to it.

Next time I visit Boston, I am looking forward to seeing Jill's exhibition "In Rome, The Pine Grove" at the Worcester Art Museum. The storm delayed her scheduled artist talk for at least a few weeks. I 'm not sure I will be able to attend her re-scheduled talk on March 3.