Take an Art Retreat

Last fall I was invited to attend an art retreat. Living on Vancouver Island, surrounded by beauty, we often forget about the wonder that is in our own back yard. I jumped on the idea!

Being the organizing junky that I am, before going on the retreat, I made a list of intentions.
1) Have FUN
2) meet new artists
3) don't expect end results
4) Have FUN ...

I painted and sketched and wandered around nature. As a self-directed retreat, all we had to do was  show up for meals. Sitting in the sunny meadows being one with nature, and taking a trip to the mountain tops was absolutely glorious.

I became very aware of shapes and negative space. Something clicked in my brain, as I sketched like crazy, keeping the designs simple and loose.

In the evenings, I put some of my design ideas to canvas, keeping in mind simple design and negative spaces.

 

By Sunday morning, I had met all my objections and ready to return home.

Spending time with like-minded folks was inspiring. Some of the best conversations I had with the other artists was often over morning coffee.

I want to remind myself to take min-retreats, whether it's just a nice walk by the beach, or an afternoon in the garden. It's good for the creative soul.

Have you been on a retreat lately?


Till Next Time ...

From the Prairies, to the West Coast and Beyond...

Susan

And This is How It's Done

 I'd like to show you a few steps on the process that I use when painting.

The first thing, and I find this very difficult, is picking a subject. Because I work from photographs, I can (without exaggerating) waste hours going through thousands of images. Plus I can can totally change my mind from the evening to the morning.

Once I have the subject, then I look at the image and pre-paint it in my mind. As one of my instructors, Brian Buckrell always said. "Pick a battle you can win."

O.K. let's go for it...
This is my subject image: a beautiful rocky walkway among the mountain tops.

 

The first think I like to do is to make some marks on the canvas with a liquitex paint marker.

This gives me a sense of direction and provides some guidelines.

Next I paint a warm undercoat, mixing the acrylic paint with gloss medium. 

Time to start blocking in some colour. I like to do what I consider the easy parts.

Many thin layers of glazes, mixing paint and gloss medium are applied to the canvas. At this point, you are just putting in the time as you build up the layers.

I sometimes call this the "What was I thinking?" stage. The inner chatter starts: I'll never make this work, maybe I should paint over it. A few curse words might enter this stage of the process.

O.K. so you can give into the voices, or if you are stubborn, like me, you try to work through it.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but as long are you have learned something...then what the heck.

If you do make it through to the other side, you will see the results and be happy that you persevered.
And you will inevitably announce that "This is the best painting ever."

To see more of my paintings, please visit my online gallery.


Till Next Time ...

From the Prairies, to the West Coast and Beyond...

Susan

Helpful Framing Tip

After a Suzanne Northcott workshop in November called 'Working BIG', I finished this painting. It is called "Alpine Tapestry", acrylic 36 x 36".

I signed and photographed it. The next thing was to wire the back. That's when I asked my husband Jeff for help.

Having spent a couple of days apprenticing and framing with Don Cameron of the Englishman River Gallery, Jeff knew exactly what to do.

As Jeff explains, on a large piece like this it is best to put three hooks in the back forming a triangle. The hook and wire at the bottom is important as it takes the weight off the bottom stretcher, evenly distributing the weight and prevents the bottom stretcher from sagging.

Hmmm. ... good to know.

Till Next Time ...

From the Prairies, to the West Coast and Beyond...

Susan