Lost Lake

 

.....remembering a long lost summer. These are the first 2 works based on memories of Emma Lake. There will likely be more in this short series of memory pieces, and more based on Emma Lake.

 

Visit me here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/paintbox
www.harrystooshinoff.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuHuLWsq7LQVYbd616Wzz2Q

May, On Crocus Hill

Visit me here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/paintbox
www.harrystooshinoff.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuHuLWsq7LQVYbd616Wzz2Q
...

May, On Crocus Hill
...I would climb the stoney hills all afternoon, armed with the little hammer my brother made in metal-shop class, and pretend I was a geologist. Acrylic collage on heavy archival paper 11 x 14 inches, images size 9.75 x 9.75 inches.

I've made so many things over the years. I made some things similar to this even as an undergrad. Those early paintings still inform everything I do in that the work is based on shape, colour and edge interaction. Colour is more or less applied flatly, and interaction of colour is paramount. There's no such thing as detail...something is either essential, or you can do without it.

And of all the things I've tried, I don't think I really discarded anything. Although I've left many styles behind, parts of my process or method resurface later. And many things coexist. This happened yesterday,....and today I made a more representational view....
 

Pass By

Acrylic collage on heavy archival paper 11 x 15 inches, image size 9.5 x 10.75 inches.....on an early May morning....beautiful, fresh, and cold.

www.harrystooshinoff.com

Hidden

acrylic collage on heavy archival paper, 11 x 15 inches, signed lightly in pencil. I feel a need for these kinds of compositions, made in the midst of the landscape collage, and pure landscape paintings. The mind whirls in all kinds of ways......having little to do with a singular vision of things. Yet this is as much about what my day has been, as the other paintings are. These are about what was seen, and felt, about events that happen over time, in a day or longer. They are about conclusions reached, musing on the mystery of my own responses. Design has its dictates here too....but I feel there is much room for invention in this form. It is so important to feel unbound.....and yet the finished piece always seems to provide a sense of security too.
(Sold)

www.harrystooshinoff.com    

Chance

 

An abstract collage made with cut and torn acrylic painted papers. I'm putting all my videos documenting these processes on my utube channel  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVCyV_Xg-P4&feature=player_detailpage

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuHuLWsq7LQVYbd616Wzz2Q

www.harrystooshinoff.com   

Return

 

Return (reserved)

.....remembering studio sessions a long time ago.....cold January nights on the prairies. Acrylic collage on Stonehenge paper 10 x 13 inches, image size 8.5 x 10.25 inches. This is one of the rare ones in which there was no paint work added on top of the collage.

www.harrystooshinoff.com

January Afternoon

January Afternoon (sold), acrylic collage painting on Stonehenge paper, 10 x 13 inches. Works such as this reference place and time but do not wish to be bound too closely by specifics. There is no reference material other than memory of moving through a space....some aspects of that memory are visual, and some are otherwise.

www.harrystooshinoff.com  

Christmas Eve, Early Darkness

 

Acrylic collage on archival Whatman paper, 8 x 10, image size 6.5 x 8.5 inches. This is a little way into a series which aims at being a bit more automatic, although this is about image 5 or 6 into the series and the latter ones have more deliberation than the first ones.

Group Show, Metaphysics of Presence....with image links.

http://qartsalon.com/current-exhibitions.html

Q art salon now has a few preview images from this show. Think about artists who work both representationally and abstractly, and see no inherent conflict between the two.

3 collages made today.

 

3 small collages, on single ply matte board,  with acrylic painted papers, made today. Every few days, I need to switch the methodology a degree. Nothing is abandoned, but everything needs to be continually refreshed.

Echo

Play time means play time! The collages are often a chance to rethink initial guidelines. Any rule or rule of thumb may be broken. Some ideas may be harder than others to discard. Space will always be suggested, for example...not really interested in giving that up. The image may or may not resemble visual reality.

Acrylic collage on single ply matte board, 7.5 x 9.25 inches.

 I like to get a bit of alternation going in the style or process so I don't 'settle in' too much. I might do another collage tomorrow or maybe a painting.....I'll decide on the morning walk. The collages are more open ended, and therefore feel liberating, so I usually do more than just one....usually 2 or 3 in a row.

Elizabeth O'Reilly

 

For a long time now, I've been very impressed by the work of Elizabeth O'Reilly, both the small oils and the collages made with cut up watercolour sections. It is this old idea of seeing the world very figuratively, but also understanding and showing so eloquently, that everything is a wonderful abstract arrangement. And of course, there is also the idea that small paintings are just fine...in fact, they may be bigger, than big paintings.

 

Click here for Elizabeth O'Reilly's Web Page

Walking Home

Walking home as the light starts to fade. I liked how that pink white cloud was peaking out at its gentle, odd angle. Every so often I return to the advice "paint only what is in the initial idea as simply and forcefully as possible....no embellishment". You can see just what was in the 30 second diagram. I considered making the painting even smaller so there would be room for absolutely nothing but the original idea or motif.

On another point, greens can be notoriously difficult when we are talking about a tonal observational type of painting, which in part, this is. Intense greens can refuse to lie down and can seem to upset the chemistry of the colour relationships. Even with complementary mixing, some greens can be too energetic. For years I avoided mixing with black, in favour of a complementary mixing system. In this case I did mix with a warm black and was pleased with the results. I'll experiment with mixing greens in this way a bit more.

Little Grove at Dusk

One of the pieces made with no visual reference, and no initial intention to make the piece into anything but a relation of colour, shape and line.

August 3

Underlying all my representational work is an impulse to also not be entirely bound by what is seen. The historical roots go back to Matisse and there is also an influence from Abstract Expressionism and related work. Visual reality is very important, but there is also a subjective world, an undercurrent of moods, feelings, chatter... that is always buzzing in the background while the senses deal with anything in the world. I make various things that allow for more of a focus on the subjective and it always seems to be firmly anchored in strong design elements as well.

...made from my ever increasing collection of painted papers covered with my leftover paints. For every little landscape painting I make, perhaps four 8.5 x 11 sheets are covered with colour....