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How Art Began”, written and produced by the British sculptor Antony Gormley. Gormley goes deep into ancient caves to see the drawings on the wall. Some were created as much as 80 million years ago. His point is, in other words, there is always art. We need it. Art is intrinsic to being human. It’s our mark. We need it not just as a personal record of being here but as a connection to all that we cannot know. To what makes us bigger than what we can see and touch. Or speakin

Let’s Talk, no. 2; oil & collage on canvas; 36″ x 112″ For weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what I am doing, want to do, with my painting. If it is more talkative, as someone at the Secord Gallery exhibit in September astutely commented, to whom am I talking, about what, when does it communicate, or not, and to whom. Basically I am talking to myself and just hoping it says something to you. It’s not with words. Just with paint. If you love paint as much as I do, maybe it

Sometimes, Someone, Something, Somewhere, No 4. Curious about how my exhibit at the Secord was received, I asked Phil, the owner, about it. He said: “One fellow referred to the work as being more ‘talkative’. which at the very least made it clear that he was looking with an already experienced sense of your work.“ As well, a child, perhaps 5 years old, asked why there was a little orange rectangle in the bottom right area of Sometimes, Someone, Something, Somewhere, No 4. Phi

Peggy’s Cove Area Festival of the Arts. For one thing, I am grateful to have a good reason to clean up my studio! But mostly it is so helpful to show my work to people I know, have known, will know. It was a steady stream of visitors for three days. I learn a lot of these studio visits. Everyone’s point of view is valid and unique. The last two visitors, friends in the arts community, gave me lots of food for thought. They were commenting on my use of circles and circular mar

Romeo, my pup, likes to invent games for himself. This afternoon, after we had been playing fetch for a while, he took his ball and started dropping it between some branches of a bush. Then he would maneuver it out and drop it again, and again, and again. In the summer he would do the same thing: drop the ball between the slats of a chair on the dock, watch it fall, pick it up and drop it again, over and over and over. With never ending fascination. I could easily liken this

“Comparing Mythologies, no.8″; oil & collage on canvas; 8″ x 8” Imagination is the door to infinity. Open it up and anything can happen. Last week, when putting collage elements on the eleven canvases I am beginning, I felt daring and tried new arrangements, leaving spaces between the pieces, putting them in different configurations. Something I don’t usually do. Strange how such a simple change could feel so brave. My main hope is that it will shake up my usual visual method

Some days seem to have a surprise built in somehow. A friend recently mentioned how there are days when he wakes up in the morning but just wants to pull the covers up and stay there all day. Then after a cup of coffee, his energy shifts and he feels eager for whatever the day brings. It feels like a mystery, how the energy can shift so quickly. For me, getting up in the morning has always been easy. And coffee is not a good friend. If I feel slow, movement helps. But what do

Yesterday (or maybe the day before, all days running into each other recently) I heard an awesome interview on q (CBC radio arts program) by Tom Power with Sonny Rollins. First, I love jazz and love listening to jazz musicians talk about their music. Second, Sonny Rollins was brilliant. He is 87 now and cannot play his saxophone any more because of his health. But he is still a vibrant living spirit of the music he created. His confidence was a major impression that came acro

Last weekend, July 14, 15, 16 that is, I was part of the Peggy’s Cove Festival of the Arts. That meant I had Open Studio Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Long hours; lots of people passing through. The best part was my studio hadn’t been that clean since I moved in! It isn’t so clean anymore, but that’s fine. The visitors and the conversations and seeing my work in a more or less clean space was very inspiring. So my studio is getting messy again. And it feels good. It did take m

When I was in NYC recently, my grandson, who is an extremely accomplished musician and composer, was asked if he worked with a plan in mind. His answer was the same as my way of working: he/we just start and see what happens. There is usually a germ of an idea, something that is pressing to be expressed. One thing leads to another, with constant choices along the way. Possibly that approach runs in the family. Robert Rauschenberg, in his exhibit at MoMA. Among Friends, descri

Last week when I was walking in the woods with a neighbor and our dogs, I mentioned that I had been awake part of the night planning the exercise I was going to use in my painting class that morning. She wondered what it would be like to be “creative”. I, on the other hand, cannot imagine life otherwise, but just said it’s a twenty-four hour, non-stop way of being; it just is. Keeps me wondering how to approach all kinds of things. In this case, it’s the importance of composi

The last exhibit I had at the Orange Gallery, I called Coincidentally. The current one is Suppose We Do. These phrases are born from the way I work. Not planned, just accidents, possibilities, suggestions, choices. If I did know what I was going to do, how the painting would become, it would lose what makes it vital. There is no certainty, just the search. #Abstractart #Creativity #Art #OrangeGallery #Painting #Exhibition

One of my constant obsessions has been thinking about what makes something beautiful. People tell me my dog is beautiful. He’s just a puppy still, but he magnetizes other beings, all ages, sizes, species. He has a dignity in how he holds himself. That is, when he isn’t acting like a goofy nine-month old puppy. He has a basically lovely personality and that makes him beautiful. Or maybe it’s that he is well proportioned, has beautiful hair, sweet eyes, etc. I don’t really know

“Who Knew, no. 3″; 36″ x 36”; oil & collage on canvas You know that feeling when you say, “Yes, That’s It!“ This morning, as I was about to close up shop, even had some paints put away, the world of the paintings opened up to me and I stayed in my studio long after I planned to leave. That’s what makes it worthwhile, that time of ”Got It!“ But then, there is tomorrow and I might have a very different feeling about what I did today. But I doubt it. it was strong this morning.

Here I am trying to explain the unexplainable. Not easy but interesting to try. Abstract art is non-verbal communication, not about words. So how does one interpret an abstract painting much less paint one. Where does one start, anyway. One of my students in Baddeck said her painting instructor suggested she tell her story in her painting. Wanting to work with abstraction, she didn’t feel this helped her get started. She did find, in the workshop, that just making a “mess”, a

Came home Tuesday from a week in beautiful Baddeck, Cape Breton. I was teaching a four-day workshop on abstract painting. There were seventeen students, presenting a full spectrum of art experience and age. I brought along my teaching assistant — my four-month old puppy, Romeo. He was very helpful and, except for some occasional puppy outbursts, extremely good. Having had such a long career focusing mainly on abstraction (never wanted to paint anything else, although I could

There has been so much talk lately about minimalism, paring down, purging, simplifying. I too bought a book on decluttering, organizing. When first reading it, I felt enormous anxiety. Get rid of my precious memories: photos, books, clothes! No way. But then I did some purging, cleaned up my closet a bit. I must admit, I enjoy having a tidy closet and a tidy kitchen. I haven’t continued as I prefer to spend the time painting when I can. And otherwise I am with my puppy or rea

According to Proust, “Artists are people who strip habit away and return life to its deserved glory.” I’ll go along with that! Definitely I’m very familiar with the stripping habit away part. When a painting feel too “easy”, too “good”, I know I need to go further. Not let habitual means of solving painting issues take over, try something else. And if that doesn’t work, try something else yet again. The one thought dominating my mind this morning when working was how so much

You’ve heard of sound bites, right. Tidbits of sound. Well, I’m into painting bites. Tidbits of time to paint. It’s working though, doing some good work in the very tight time limitations I have now. Concentrated time; concentrating mind. When I go into my studio I may think I will work on one thing, but end up doing something entirely different. A different idea, color, energy pulls me. Having so little time and so much desire to paint, I just let it happen. It is very fasci

Lately, I’ve been struggling with blue. Again. I have several blue paintings on the go and each of them seems to have a different problem to solve. My main issue with blue is that it can be too pretty and I don’t want that. But then, if I make it dark and brooding, sometimes there is just nothing to see. So I suppose I could say it’s how to put the spices in the mix. Not just struggling with blue, but what will make it more than blue. I’ll take one more kick at it today. #Non