Blog

It has been a busy couple of months!   Since my last communication I've done a studio tour,  installed a portrait exhibition in Collingwood, a show on Great Lakes Shipping in Barrie, participated in an exhibition on Streetcars in Toronto, facilitated workshops on a regular basis and created a few paintings too. 

 

The painting workshops are one of my favourite parts of my life as an artist.  In it I meet new and eager learners that are there to absorb as much information as possible.  Not just how to paint, but everything else that pertains to the life of an artist.   Not just the colour of the subject matter or the light of the day, but the mundane stuff such as washing brushes, or what materials to buy, where to buy them and what they cost.   Every aspect of painting is thoroughly investigated and I am delighted to share my knowledge.

 

The workshops outside my studios are often three hours long,  usually long enough to finish a small painting.   I host an all-day workshop at my studio that starts at 10 am and continues until 4 pm.  It is an intrepid painter that is still painting by 4 pm.  By 3:30 most students are fiddling with their work and fading fast.    Painting is an exhausting process.  It requires all your intense attention and calls on every bit of painting knowledge a person has.  Add to that the intense emotional part to the mix, no wonder everyone is tired by the end of the day.  Yet they leave the studio with a feeling of accomplishment.  

 

 "Paintings are never finished, merely abandoned,"  said Paul Valéry 1933, a French poet and essayist.  Monsieur Valéry was right.