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Open Water & Deanna Beaujot

Deanna Beaujot’s,“Spring Graduates”, pictured here was awarded the Royal Talens Rembrant Award at the New England Watercolor Society’s 2018 Juried North American Open Show. The brilliance of her powerfully saturated colour first captured my attention in 2016 when we attended an art development class in Calgary. I am very pleased to congratulate Deanna on her acceptance this year as an elected member of Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. Not surprisingly, Deanna Beaujot also gained accredited last year as an Associate Signature Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. Visit her website at https://deannabeaujot.com/

Normally held in Toronto, this year’s CSPWC “Open Water” exhibition will be held in Alberta at Leighton Centre, near Calgary. The Opening Reception is next Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. The exhibition continues until October 27, 2019. For the Leighton Centre address or any additional information go to: https://leightoncentre.org

En plein air 2019

At Dinosaur Park this June with Sagebrush Arts Society, I just had time for a few watercolour sketches. Curiously shaped hoodoos and colour in the sandstone, ironstone and mudstone layers of the badlands are visually compelling. During August I paint with an ad hoc group of artists from all over the province. Although the week-long plein air retreat was established decades ago by members of the Alberta Society of Artists, it is open to anyone so please feel free to contact me if you are interested. The region chosen this year was southwest of Calgary in the Turner Valley area. Our time was largely frustrated by rainy weather. The image here is an oil I completed by the side of a road near Millarville. A storm was moving in from the Rockies. I am heading into the Castle wilderness area soon for a few more days of painting outdoors and late September should see me painting outdoors again somewhere in downtown Lethbridge to celebrate Alberta Culture Days.

Pacific Rim National Park

An alternate title for this blog post might be “painting on the rainy west coast”. This atmospheric oil study looking toward Meares Island from Tofino was one of two I painted recently on Vancouver Island. Compelling for me was the subdued colour and haunting softness of edges found in the morning’s light rain and heavy cloud. I wanted to capture this sensibility quickly, before the light changed. This quick plein air was completed in under an hour using just a palette knife. Initially I wanted to include some of the foreground harbour boats but ultimately decided to leave the detail for a studio work-up. Having lived on Vancouver Island, I knew that rainy weather was likely to be an issue. Fortunately I did capture many evocative photographs from Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and surrounding regions such as along the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet. So, although I painted very little, I consider the trip a success because I have lots of new, inspiring material for studio work – some likely destined for the Federation of Canadian Artists gallery in Vancouver.

Shadows From the Fire

Using new materials in her upcoming exhibition, Shadows From the Fire, Diana Zasadny explores the aftermath of the 2017 fire at Waterton National Park. Images are created through cyanotypes and large scale wire sculpture.

Among my favourite Lethbridge artists, Diana Zasadny has what promises to be an exciting new exhibition opening soon in the concourse gallery at Casa. Her control of colour was inspiring when I first saw her abstract paintings of our prairie landscape a decade ago. Those paintings are, in my opinion, both evocative and masterfully executed contemporary impressions of landscape.

I asked Diana about her upcoming show, Shadows From the Fire, a response in the aftermath of the devastating Kenow forest fire that ravaged Waterton National Park in 2017. In her use of new materials, Shadows from the Fire promises to be an innovative exhibition and Casa’s concourse gallery, with its vaulted, airy, space is perhaps a perfect venue for it.

In Diana Zasadny’s correspondence with me about the show, she noted that she was exploring new materials and methods specifically for Shadows From the Fire—among them, “the idea of wire sculpture as an alternate means of making a [large format] line drawing.” A trio of whitetail deer became her first wire sculpture. She also noted that, “Over 2018, I sketched and photographed the explosive super bloom of wildflowers at Waterton, making several trips to document the scene. In August, I took the opportunity to try another new method for me, cyanotype printing.”

Pictured here is a cyanotype detail. If you are like me—and need to run a google search to explain what a cyanotype is, Diana Zasadny’s new exhibition promises to be interesting. Follow this link to check out Diana’s own website https://www.dianazasadny.net

Shadows From the Fire – New Work by Diana Zasadny
Casa Lethbridge Concourse Gallery
April 27 – June 8, 2019
Opening reception April 27, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Hello World

Hello World is what artists say every time they create new work. Hello world, encapsulates that intimate relationship between artist and viewer. I create to communicate. My landscape paintings and fabric work communicate my connection with and reverence for, our natural world. One of my exhibitions of abstract paintings explored the power of simple visual imagery to communicate the experience of music. This is a recent abstract painting created from my experience of listening to a recording of work by the baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni. This is his Oboe Concerto — the Allegro movement. Although several centuries separate us the life and vitality of his music should be evident in my work.