Based on the successful experience of the recent North Shore Art Crawl, and previous open houses, the artists at 195 Studios - Artists on Pemberton.  will be doing a series of open houses which will allow us to show our new work on a regular adn predictable schedule.

These will be held on the first Saturday of each month from 12 to 5 pm.  Most of us plan to paint and make art durign these sessions as well as  the number of visitors will not be as large as for the Art Crawl. 

Come by and see us. This would also be a good way to bring along some friends and family members that you feel may be interested in good, local and original art.

The second annual North Shore Art Crawl was held on April 21 and 22.  By all accounts it was even more successful that last year's inaugural.   My colleagues and I at 195 Studios - Artists on Pemberton were very happy with the steady stream of perhaps 200 visitors over the two days.

Making art is ultimately a solitary endeavour - and the many comments and observations from the visitors were a wonderful set of direct and indirect feedback. This made the Crawl very worthwhile even without the sale of two of my paintings. 

Many visitors had no idea that the 195 Studios existed and many were very pleasantly surprised to see the number and range of artists and work. 

A fun weekend.  Thanks again to all who came by, 

Something different for me was that in February I took a workshop at the North Shore Artists Guild on Potraiture conducted by North Shore Artist Dene Croft. (note that you do not need to be a member of this Guild to take their workshops)

It was a terrific workshop and all attendees got a lot out of Dene's "system" or structure which helped us all immensely. 

I began a portrait of my son during the workshop, which I have been tuning and will post it here shortly. 

My artist colleagues at the 195 Studios - Artists on Pemberton have organized a terrific set of life drawing sessions at the studio one evening  a week.

It has been years since I have done this sort of thing and I am thoroughly enjoying the experience.    Many artists do this to improve and maintain their drawing skills.

As most artists will tell you - hands and feet are the toughest to do when you only have a few minutes per pose.!!

I'll get some examples when I have progressed a bit further.

Over the past 6 years or so, i have not only been taking photographs of my own paintings, but have organized 1/2 day sessions where my fellow members at the North Shore Artists Guild bring their paintings in to a location where I can photograph these for them, if they do not have the photography and conputer skills or equipment to do this.

I may have done about 1000 photos this way.  After the photos are taken I, along with some other volunteers crop and edit the images and include these into a file of images that other members have submitted on their own,.  These digital images are then used for a jurying session.  . 

The images can also be used for an online version of a show, once the jury has made their selections. 

Because of the "mass production" nature of this process it is not feasible to take several shots or to edit images digitally as they are taken as for 200-300 photos in a session this ii just too much.  So over the years I have come up with and refined a number of measures that try to prevent problems in these photos. 

To help artists to be more self-sufficient in taking good photographs I have evolved a document that attempts to show artists how to improve their photographs. I recently did a major revision of the material, and added a new set of items about basic digital editing steps one can take to further improve the results, giving the reader a choice or preventitive and correction options to suit their indvidual situation

If you want a copy of this document you may download it HERE

Contact me (use the Email button in the menu of this website) if you have questions or suggestions on improving this document..

In the early summer, I learned of a building in North Vancouver (195 Pemberton) that would house a number of artist studios.  I had rented two studios before for a number of years, and had been on the lookout for one, so I jumped at the chance. 

I was away boating for most of the summer, so I have just properly moved in and begun painting there.  Without getting into the details, I am busy enough that I "book" my studio time on my calendar in advance and am now there two days a week. which is a step up from what I had done before.  That is a good thing!!

There are about a dozen artists in one wing of the building and they are a great collection of artists doing different things for different reasons, perhaps.  The feel of the place is very inclusive and friendly.  I like it.

The municipal zoning people have yet to decide whether a group of artist studios fits with the new zoning guidleines for the street, so this is holding up the opening up of the second wing to the good waiting list of artists interested.  We hope this all works out and is resolved soon.

As many artists will tell you, getting good studio space in a decent location at a reasonable price is very hard in most communities.  What has made a huge difference in this case is that the owner of the building has embraced the notion of an artist collective.  (He could probably sell the building for a lot of money)

The community at this site thus far is just terrific, and hopefully we can get the zoning approval so we can add more artists to the group.

On the heels of the workshop on painting with a knife, I took a workshop last week from Joan Skeet on Abstract Painting. 

For me this was a big departure from what I have done for a number of years, but it was intriguing.  Joan is an excellent artist and teacher and had a very good vocabulary to convey what she meant and what we needed to appreciate.

I liked a term she used, which was "considered"  -  meaning that despite what one may imagine or assume in abstract art that they see, she made the strong point that each element and stage in a painitng is  very "considered".   There is a focus on making a painting "work" well.  Whilte a pairting may be prompted by a memory or a scene or an experience,  the feelng of that prompt is what an abstract painter strives to convey. 

As such, since the abstract painting comes from within,  abstract works can be taxing or even exhausting to "pull out" of oneself. 

I just did three small studies in the workshop - it is just a beginning, but I have become intrigued and will do more.  Who knows where this may lead?.

This summer my wife Joan and I took a 10 week long trip on our boat "Tiger Lily" to Alaska and back.  It was a wonderful adventure and despiet the normal apprehensions of leaving on a 2500 nautical mile trip. it worked out wonderfully.  

As one would expect, we saw some tremendous scenery and all sorts of wildlife - bears, whales, birds and sea ottters, and we heard wolves and many birds we did not actually see. The glaciers and the fjords they are in are unique,But also, Alaska has a good number of towna of various sizes which we enjoyed exploring as well.  We saw some outstanding museums and totem pole parks.

So even with what I consider to be "ruthless" editing and purging of photos as we took them, we ended up with over 800 "keepers" plus some video.  Many of these shots were intended to be references for future paintings and so you may see this influence over the next few months. 

I am just working on one that gets its ideas from the following photo,

This spring I took a two day workshop from Ali Sepahi focusing on the use of paintings knives (aka Palette knives).  While two days is not a lot of time to learn the techiques involved, I really liked the experience.

The appeal of paintings done with a knife for many people is that they look like they were done with a few strokes of the knife and this directness and focus on the basics of a painting appeals to them.

From an aritst's point of view, working with a knife causes one to simplify paintings. The results are usually bolder and have more movement and impact if done well.  There can be more lively results if done well.

Like most things that look simple and quick, the reality may be different.  One has to plan one's strokes in a more considered and deliberate way.   There may be a tendency to slpa some paint on and see what happens but as in other techniques this needs to be done effectively and that is where the learning is.

I am just beginning using a knife and like it very much.  Things seem to go faster, and I have had  sope nice reactions from people on some of my studies and initial works.  That sort of thing is encouraging .  That one can just wipe clean a knife with one swipe of a cloth is much faster and cleaner than washing and caring for brushes is another difference and benefit.

All things are a tradeoff and I hope to improve my use of a knife to be able to do a wider range of work.  Here are some of my early pieces.

I will have more in the next while.

I learned this techique in a workshop conducted by Alan Wylie, who is a very accomplished artist and teacher and a Signature Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.

When I use this technique, I usually start with a white ground, on which I more carefully sketch out the painting.  Then, for those areas where I want to have an interesting texture (wood, trees, rocks, clothing, etc) I spread some acrylic gel with a palette knife only on those areas of texture.  Since shaded areas do not show texture like lighted areas, I need to be careful not to put gel on those areas. 

While the gel is wet (and it dries very quickly to an absolutely transparent finish) I stipple the gel with the flat bottom of a palette knife or I make texture for grass and other eleeents using other implements.   Depening on how much texture is needed in certain areas the stipple effect can be flattened a bit as needed.

The next step is to use acrylic paint to add colour to various areas of the painting.  By using a dry brush on the textured parts the ridges catch the colour(s) you put on to very effectively create the textures.  In order to show gradations of light, for example on a tree trunk, you can rub the painted area with a damp cloth  over a finger to remove some of the water soluble acrylic paint and thus make it lighter.   This allows subtle  or  bold gradations of shading and lighter areas,

As acrylic dries quickly, one can move fairly qucikly to the last stage, where I would use oils (my normal medium) to do the areas that wuld benefit from the "juicy" richness of oil - sky, water, skin, etc. and to add  more to the highlights and shadows as needed.

Here are some examples using the technique.  As you can see the work tends to more realistic (for me) because of the effects of the technique.  I have been very happy with the results of this technique.

Village Totems	San Juan Scene	Roadside Temple

One of the very useful techniques I often use is to prepare my canvas or board with black gesso, so I begin with a completely black ground for my painting. I  sometime use another colour for the ground but black provides some unique results.

I do a quick sketch for the painting on the black ground with a white pastel pencil to get the layout and positioning right.  I then apply some or most of the lightest areas in order to calibrate a range of tones, from darkest to lightest, that I will use in the painting. 

What I like about the effect of such a technique is that the dark ground unifies the painting, and that the contrast in the work emphacizes brighter colours and lighter tones.  Shadows are more pronounced. 

I have used this technique for a majority of my works.  Here are a few examples using this technique.