Anonymous Art Show

This year I'm participating in the North Vancouver Arts Council and CityScape's 5th annual "Anonymous Art Show".

It's a group exhibition and fundraising event that allows anyone to enter. All art must be 2 dimensional on 8x8x1.5 inch canvas with artist information on the back only so all pieces can be sold anonymously. All pieces that are submitted and are within the exhibition guidelines will be shown.

Each painting will be sold for $100 with 50% going back to the artist and the other 50% staying with the Arts Council (to go towards community programs, projects and events).

The exhibition will be at North Vancouver's CityScape Community Art Space. It will open on Thursday, November 26th at 7:00pm and continue until Saturday, December 19th, giving the community an opportunity to purchase original art in time for Christmas :)

Now I've got to go so I can paint at least ONE before the deadline which is tomorrow!!

Sketchbook Project (Art House Coop)

I've been busy lately :)

I'm still in the midst of finishing Tree #6 but I've also been creating at least a "sketch" per day for the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Library Project. I love what they are doing and I love that I'm part of a collective of people from around the globe. I love looking through the submission photos and seeing what everyone is doing.

How it works:
Anyone can sign up to participate. For a small fee ($17 I think?) you get a moleskin sketchbook and a randomly chosen theme (1 of 30 previously created by Art House). Mine is "And suddenly...". Then you simply fill up your sketchbook how ever you want and send it back in by the deadline (I think it's in March 2010).

The Co-op take all the sketchbooks on a mini tour for shows in multiple U.S. locations before settling back into their permanent location in Brooklyn, NY. There will be a library created for them where visitors can "sign out" the books (all the sketchbooks come to you with a bar code and library card) while visiting.

Pretty cool.

Trees, Trees and More Trees

Tonight I'm working on another tree for my Tree Series. This one will be similar to the original "Tree" but with a greater contrast between shapes, colors and textures and no shapes, minimal color and smooth texture.

I'm still going to use oil paint for the spaces around the tree since I can usually get a very smooth finish with oils. Oils also blend much easier than acrylics and I want a very smooth, soft and blended appearance for the outside areas.

I'll also still use acrylics for the inside of the tree. Acrylics allow me to use multiple colors quickly and freely without them mixing together (even if they come in contact with one another). I want the inside to consist of multiple shapes, lines, colors and textures. I want the colors to be in their purest form so they are strong and vibrant. I'm trying to create a sort of multiplicity or movement - free flowing, raw and expressive. And in contrast, I want the areas around the tree to be very still, beautiful, calm and almost bland.

The shape of the tree itself is also important to me. I draw and re-draw for hours (no idea why it takes hours - I just keep drawing and drawing and drawing until I think it looks "right"). I use white chalk on the canvas so I can easily wipe it off and draw again. I like interesting and slightly odd or awkward curves and lines.

The challenge will be painting inside of the tree freely and expressively without going beyond the boundaries of the tree itself.

Why do I all of the sudden feel like I'm philosophizing and writing in metaphors??? Who knew I could get so deep about a tree painting...

Anyway, I finished creating the shape of the tree last weekend and now I get to figure out how to best go about unleashing the shapes, colors and textures!

I'll keep ya posted :)

Welcome!

Hello - And welcome to my blog!

I"ll be posting over the next few days, so please come back and check it out soon!