Apparently, once again, sleep deprivation leads to interesting things. The moose, which was a sketch, and then a sketch on canvas, and then some colours here and there, came full circle at 4 am. There are still some more details and finishing touches, but it appears that this is the direction I am going in for a while yet.
Moose
Apparently, when most people are sleeping, I am up at 3 am. And like anyone else, I did what any other good little artist would do when sleep is evasive…I finished off another painting. Still playing around with different aboriginal influences, this one has a lot more details. Maybe lack of sleep. Maybe whole new direction. Still needs some finishing touch ups due to caffeine induced shaky hand lol. Will see what the moose ends up looking like after I get a nap or two in.
They are done. At least for now. A bit of this style, a bit of another, they seem to compliment the directions I have been taking as of late.
Ghost Spirit-Oil on canvas
Spirit Wind-oil on Canvas
Turtle-Oil on canvas
Once again, with the new year, comes new things. However, in order to make room for new things, new styles, new fun, i need to downsize some of the pieces currently taking up residence in my limited studio space.
All works not currently associated with a gallery are on sale up to 40% off. If there is a piece that you have been eyeing up, send me a message with the title, and I will send you details regarding prices. Please note that prices do not include shipping. Pieces can be shipped on the stretcher bars, or I have successfully shipped different pieces around the world by taking them off the stretcher frame, rolling and sending. That would mean, however, that you would have to get them re-stretched, or framed accordingly. Please also check for import fees depending on your country.
I blame it on the moose. No, really, I do. People sometimes have a hard time following where my art is going, where is the “natural progression” that shows “growth”. I suppose I can understand that if you are used to looking at an artist who paints series after series in the same style, you could consider them “developing” their “art” as opposed to someone like my who skips and hops back and forth from series, to style, then back again. The problem is, that is just the way my brain works creatively. I suppose I could, if someone pinned me down and forced me to, paint the same things over and over and over again, thereby definitively creating a box me in, write it up in a sentence statement “style”, but why, other than to facilitate those who feel the need to define me, would I want to if that isn’t who I am or how I work?
Anyhow, back to the moose…and I blame this latest diversion on it. I liked the moose even though it’s not complete, so I thought of playing with elements of that style, combined with my style just to see what direction it would take me. These are by no means done yet. With the holidays upon us, crazy kids, baking and all the rest, I will need time to finish them, but it will give you an indication of the latest direction my work is taking.
Soul Walker
For those of you who either know me, or who have been following the artistic journey I have been on, you know that I am always into trying new things, whether as a professional artist, or as an educator. In the classroom, to facilitate all the students’ needs, I sometimes modify or play around with projects…I mean, isn’t that what art is all about?
One of my students enjoyed building a massive spider for the haunted house. So much so, that when I thought about a possible next project “Hey____, how would you like to build a moose?” slipped out of my mouth. A Moose?!? Reindeer given the time of year maybe. This was promptly followed up by the thought, “What WAS I thinking?!” Within 10 minutes, said student had taken a garbage bag, stuffed it with newspaper, wrapped tape around it, and had produced a very life-sized replica of a moose head. What to do, what to do…You can’t exactly make a life-sized free form paper mache moose, so I needed a substructure. Luckily enough, I am fortunate to have some great colleagues who help me out when I engage on these wanderings of madness. He built a sawhorse out of wood to give me a stable structure. Hence, when you see the pic, you can see we were somewhat limited by the shape of it when doing the legs (they are slightly splayed lol).
Bunches and bunches of recycled newspaper were used with masking tape to create the sculptural form. Then layers and layers of paper mache were added. A coat of gesso and voila, we were ready to paint. There were some discussion as to whether or not to make it a Christmas moose given the season, or a natural moose as one would see in the wild. After some thought, I remembered the famous Toronto moose where each one was turned into a work of art. I thought about possible art to work into the piece and decided on a mixture of Haida, Woodland School and Australian Aboriginal styles. It isn’t done yet as there is a lot of detail work I would like to add, but you get the idea…who knows where we will go next!
Inspiration is a wonderful thing sometimes (when it comes and I am not brain blocked and frustrated). The sources, however illusive at times, are endless.
A high school friend of mine who ended up in the Yukon sometimes posts phenomenal photos. Last time, she posted some which lead to my northern lights duo.
This time, I happened to catch a glimpse of a photo taken by a friend of hers which hit me like a gut shot. There was something about the natural lines that kicked me in the pants and inspired me to try something just a tad different in subject matter. There are some things, some moments in nature I don’t touch with a brush; they are just too perfect to capture on canvas and you just want to savour them, respect them for the awe dropping gift they are.
Knowing that I could never reproduce the actual scene, I did what I normally do, I used it as a jump off point, let my own mind wander the way it does and took it to somewhere entirely different. The sketching process itself produced an outline similar to the original image, but as always, once the paint hit the canvas, the piece took on a life of its own. I have to thank Mike Thomas, Yukon photographer extraordinaire for taking the original shot as it has pushed me in a direction I wasn’t planning on going, and possibly a new series is born. You can check out some of Mike’s work on his WordPress blog as the images are truly breathtaking.
http://mikethomasphotography.wordpress.com/author/mikethomasphotography/
aweninspirationsarw 