First Open Studio Show and Sale December 1-2, 2012

Our pink house in the country was turned into an art gallery last weekend for my first Open Studio Show and Sale.

All kinds of people came and were kind enough to engage in detailed discussions with me about the paintings.  I learned a lot about my inspirations and processes from their questions! It was fun, informative and exciting!  

View #7 Nightwood I 
8x8 Acrylic on canvas (sold)

When someone falls in love with a painting and NEEDS to live with it it is a huge thrill for me.  I know from my own experience of building my own small art collection that I must feel that I cannot live without the piece of art that calls to me, that it is going to nurture me, inspire me and be an ever changing companion.  Because that is another thing original art does - it changes with us, it grows with us, it responds to shifts in light and weather and to our moods.





During the open studio visitors really slowed down and took their time looking at everything.  They could even pick up paintings and carry them into different light situations to see it in different ways (yes, please touch the art!) 

It is fascinating to me why someone responds to certain paintings more than others and to have a chance to discuss this in depth is a gift to both of us.  The visitor has a chance to learn more about the piece directly from the artist and a chance to visit the space an artist has created to work in.  The artist meets visitors directly and can also receive new insights into their own work.  It's cool!

In my open studio I showed, for the first time, a series of gouaches, mostly on Italian Fabriano Tiziano paper that I have been painting in Montréal in a luminous 20th floor condo overlooking Parc Lafontaine, downtown and the St Laurence river.  This is a project that I called "Continuo" after the idea of shifting multi-tracks of colour, reminiscent of the way I compose music and soundtracks in the recording studio.  Even while being created in the Montréal studio these paintings are still extremely influenced by my life with the woods and skies and waters of the countryside.

I paint on black and white papers and each background creates a different feeling of anticipation.  I wait for a colour to call, whites and blues especially pop right out of the black paper, so does one of my favorite highlight colours, Bengal Rose.  You can see an example of the vibrancy of Bengal Rose in the gouache at the bottom of my blog (Red Blues)

Gouache is more opaque than water colour, though also water based.  It is more densely pigmented and suits my love of colour that one can sink into with one's eyes, be dissolved into...

Untitled 22x29.5 gouache on St-Armand paper

This one above is inspired by bark on ancient trees, river flow, sedimentary rock layers.  It is on handmade St-Armand paper, papermakers established in the Pointe-St-Charles area of Montreal in 1979. This paper resembles felt, or blotter paper and the paint sits on it like layers of fabric. (www.st-armand.com) 

I thank everyone who visited and shared their thoughts and impressions with me...and to those of you moved enough by certain pieces to take them away to hang in your homes and workspaces, adding a piece of my vision of the world to yours....