November Dusk, Horsefarm (Sold)

 Standing near the intersection just as the light fades. Acrylic on birch panel laminated with archival paper, 7.75 x 12 inches. The panels are cut, sanded, gessoed, and in this case the paper is then laminated on top, for a very soft, receptive surface. Panels made in this way take a good deal of time and effort to prepare, but I really like the intimacy of this surface. The paint mostly rides on top of a gessoed panel, but paper partly absorbs the paint.....especially paper that has not been covered with gesso.

Here's how I laminate archival paper to panel:   First I trace the the plate onto the paper, then I trim it with a razor and metal ruler edge. Then I apply a strong layer of glue to the paper (Yes paste in this case), then I apply the paper to board, then roll with a brayer...or in this case I used a rolling pin because I couldn`t find a brayer. Rolling with a brayer will make sure the glue is even under the paper. After this step is done I put the board under many heavy art books to apply even pressure.

It also helps to roll with a brayer on the edges of the board, to make sure that the paper is completely glued to the board (you don`t want the paper unsticking in places). You may have to retouch in one or two places after the pressure stage with books is done, in case the paper is unsticking in a corner or edge....just a little touch of glue and keep pressing to make sure nothing at all is lifting.

This is also how I prepare panels for encaustic painting....

If you use a bulkier glue like Lepages, or other white glues, apply the glue as evenly as possible so that you don't have unsightly bumps after it has all dried. Plenty of rolling with the brayer and lots of hand pressure, right after you put the paper on, will help with this. Let the excess glue squeeze over the edges, and pick it up with your finger to tidy.

Paintings I produce every day, are immediately listed to my Etsy site and my website.


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Last Blush, November 1

Acrylic collage painting on archival paper. I tend NOT to do much with fall colours....things can get overblown....the 'bones' of the lands interest me more....but every so often a reference to autumn colour creeps in. Here I may be nostalgic that the foliage is now almost all gone from the trees....a few more days of warm weather this week, and then we might be in to winter.

Very often, in the initial planning stages, a picture gets decided based on the relationship of 2-3 colours, in this case, the grey sky, yellow foreground, and the orange center. I did almost nothing to the grey sky after the piece was collaged in.

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Night Rain

Acrylic collage painting on Somerset paper 7.5 x 11 inches. I'm using a bit of a new technique for me here.....in the sky some of the grey is painted on, over the collaged paper, and then partly wiped off with a wet rag. That helps one grey transition into the other more easily. It also lends more sureness to the fairly intuitive mark making that goes into each passage, since something can be wiped off completely in one second if it doesn't seem right. The wet rag and pail of water are always right beside me when doing collages, so I can always wash my hands and wipe clean the gluing surface....

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September 20, 7:00 p.m. (Sold)

 ......sweet summer end...a beautiful, cool evening. Acrylic and pencil on unprimed Whatman paper, 10.25 x 13.75 inches, image size 8.75 x 12 inches.

There are all sorts of planning and decision making in painting, but I always welcome the things that happen without direct planning, as the result of process, that seem right and 'wished on'. In this case, that bit of brighter blue at top center of the sky activated that area in a way that added extra life.......

 

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Self with Glasses

Every so often I do a self portrait while looking in the mirror. As with the landscapes, these works are as much about process as they are about the subject. This one came easily....there is usually much more overpainting than in this case.

 

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Process.....White Flock

 



 I neutralize the palette colour by brushing over it at the end of a work session...there are some advantages for us acrylic painters...things dry quickly! You can see the tooth on the nice Whatman paper which I am really liking at the moment. The colours on my palette will vary to some degree with each painting. I also mix paint on a variety of plastic caps. The scratching through has become pretty important in some pictures, mostly because it offers a easily obtainable scale difference. There is big and small, and we see them both. It also offers the excitement of line and mark...

Acrylic and pencil on umprimed Whatman paper 10 x 13.75 inches, image size 8.5 x 12 inches. The soil stays moist on an overcast day, good for picking worms....the gull flock settles in at the plowed part of the field.....

Any scratching through has to be done while the paint is wet,...with acrylic that needs to be within the few minutes after the paint is applied. But pencil will also do some interesting line and mark things, if the paint is too dry for a scratchthrough....

the under colour will also vary, although I use pink a lot. It can be any variety of warm...but it usually IS warm, because the majority of colours in the finished work will be cool, so the warm wash offers an immediate tension and contrast.

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Process....

 ...one of the methods I use....this piece completely from memory of a place I visit every day. I have a number of methods that are used over time....no one method is used for very long. There is a portion of road that seems very mysterious and always alters my mood. 2 little diagrams to start, then under wash, and at the end, how I use up the left over paint to make collage papers. I am starting to get a great collection of these papers....so many that I can't even get to most of them. The colours, created without intention, are always fascinating. I love my painted papers, perhaps  because they are so loose, and made with such ease.....

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Shelter Valley Heatwave

Acrylic and pencil on unprimed Whatman paper, 10 x 13.75 inches, image size 8 x 11.5 inches. This was done en plein air, but beyond that, location is an important factor in the work, which leads me to think that it might be interesting to seek out a few temporary work areas.....perhaps a few weeks in each spot...

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Shelter Valley Folk Festival....Today's Crop...

 

Still melting in the heat but I was happy to complete 2 pictures, from invention and memory.....thinking of a cool evening in the darker one. It was an excellent festival!

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Shelter Valley Folk Festival.....Day 2....

 ....made a painting of the tents across from me during a slow period....perhaps 1:00 pm....I worked standing.....I lifted the curtain walls of the tent off the ground a bit, to create some draft, but it was still crazy hot....

 

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Shelter Valley Folk Festival....day 1...

 

....that's a lot of art per square inch! ....
Shelter Valley Folk Festival.....hot enough to peel paint off a Sherman tank, but I got water and iced tea...back for more tomorrow and Sunday.

 

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See me at Shelter Valley Folk Festival!

I will be showing many pieces, about 10 framed pieces, 4 shown here, done up in the shadow box method I favour,.....and perhaps about 150+ pieces in plastic sleeves as shown here. Come and check out my tent!  Plenty of good food, music, and art this weekend September 4 - 6 just outside Grafton, Ontario.

I will be painting in my tent, as people spend the weekend at the festival, and would welcome doing a few portraits, if anyone wants to sit for about an hour and a bit...

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August Ends.....

There are small things that catch my attention.....there are not really names for these things, but they remain important regardless, and they become the basis of the pictures. Tonight it was the look and feel of the dusk, just as the temperature started to drop. I liked the sound of the distant tractor and baler, the sound of cars and their tires on the asphalt, I can hear the crickets and the frogs in the wetlands and fields around me...I can hear gentle house sounds, things winding down at the end of the day...the horses make gentle noises. But this might be for tomorrow....

In the 2 paintings here, the sensation was of the evening sunlight on the fresh green of cedars at the trout ponds....so I looked into the foliage in different places on my walk that evening. I make only one painting a day, so these are from 2 separate days...there may be more coming, I can never tell, nor do I wish to plan the work in advance.

On the making of pictures, it pays to risk everything. If you already have a picture like the one you made, best to follow your hunches, if you have any, and chances are good that you do....because you are after that fresh, excited feeling in yourself, and you won't get it if you repeat, in essence, a picture you already have. You've made that picture, so you can move on, and each new work calls for a new, but small push forward. This just means that in the process  of making each new work, there will come a moment, and likely more than one, where you have to say, well I'll try this even if it upsets the apple cart, and it likely will. But gradually the picture you are working on will find its balance as well, and then you can stop.  It could mean that you have to take out a portion of the picture and try again....now the other thing doesn't belong, and you have to try something else, but the thing is not dead, so you and it move along in some way, change after change, seeking a new, pleasing balance that you haven't quite seen before, but that you welcome.  But you have to listen to your hunches to do this. And this is what makes it all an adventure, and exciting.

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Evening Cover, August 26

I was gifted some Canson paper and tried it out....it's not bad. It doesn't absorb paint at all, so encourages use of thicker paint. 9 x 12 inches. I love art papers of all types...always have.... and hope to explore even more types.

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Dusk, Home Line, August 16 (Sold)

 ....by the time I make it back here, home is only 10 minutes away, and the day's light is almost used up. Acrylic and pencil on Arches paper, 10 x 13.5 inches.

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Dusk, North Sky, August 15



Acrylic and pencil on Whatman paper 10 x 13.75 inches, with the little on-site diagram used to make the work.....in the last bits of daylight the quality of air changes so quickly, the light changes noticeably almost minute-to-minute. Where I was standing on the highway, I could feel the coolness as the dew dropped. The horses were all in paddocks close to the house, keeping them safe for the night.

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Stooshinoffs Featured in Country Living Magazine

My images in Country Living magazine!


On newsstands now.

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Dusk on Chickabiddy Line (Sold)

Summer moves so quickly.....there is always a change of mood in early August that seems partly a response to the change in land, air, and light. The crops are mature, or getting there, it darkens earlier, the smells are a bit different. Acrylic collage painting on archival paper 7.5 x 11 inches, signed lightly in pencil.

It is strange to consider the history behind how I make things now. Sometimes when people ask how this is done, I see almost exactly how I got to this point, and am only mystified it took so long to do such a simple thing. In a small praire town I looked at a lot of skies, enjoyed rambling over any bit of wild land I could find, went searching for it in many places, played hooky in middle school to go sit in the snow by the river, carve sticks and stare at the landscape just to feel the wonder of things. And I remember trying to figure out how to put things together in a picture....always interested in that from perhaps aged 12 forward. I had Mr. Egenschweiller (sp) order every book on art through interlibrary loans I could find (bless your kind, sweet heart). I remember standing in the stationary store down by railway street, smelling that wonderful odour of oiled wood floors and the green granular cleaner they used to sprinkle on and then sweep up. In that store I remember looking at the 'how to paint' books and would marvel at the skill (seems déclassé now, but any instruction helps). And I was eager, and excited, wanted to learn....I'd draw horrible pencil drawings of trees and landscapes. Years of art school takes you through many styles and influences, your tastes change, many things are sampled before you seem to settle, all kinds of techniques are tried. These pieces now are a distillation of many things absorbed through the years....art history from French realism, Corot, Barbizon, to the impressionists, fauves, post impressionists, expressionists, and all manner of isms, including various forms of abstraction and non-representation in the 20th century. In all this, there is belief in the hand....your hand can do much...let it make things! Let it find out how to make things....I still have that naïve belief in picture magic of the 12 year old boy standing in that stationary school by railway street.

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