Today isn’t any other day…

Today isn’t any other day…

by | Artful Living, Contemporary Art

“It is the addition of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the romantic character of art.”
~ Walter Pater

It’s been a while since I’ve painted some smaller works, so I decided to do a series with flowers as my inspiration, as I am wildly passionate about them and have been itching to give it a go all summer.

I prepped four panels and then painted on a base colour to start off the backgrounds. I was just following what the brush seemed to want to do – not thinking.

But, when I wanted to get the flowers started my muse seemed to abandon me. I couldn’t feel it. I drew a blank in body, palette knife, and mind.

I studied the panels… and I studied the panels. Nothing. It wasn’t happening.

So, I had to regroup and feel into it.

I looked at the patterns in the base and let them guide the process. What happened next was extraordinary.

Following the path of ease, flow and excitement my palette knife took over and led the way.

 

“Today isn’t any other day, you know.”
~ Lewis Carroll

It wasn’t just that the piece painted itself… it energized me! Well, actually three pieces back to back – energized me!

I had mouth surgery last week and have been in recuperation mode mostly. Bursts of energy but short lived. Mostly, I’ve felt lazy and tired.

But these energizing pieces brought me back to life – it felt incredibly healing actually and lifted my sagging spirits!

If I had to say why, I’d say it was because I gave over to playfulness and ease.

“Artists of all stripe tend to equate difficulty with virtue and ease with slumming. We do not lean into our ease and enjoy the ride of our gift… If we do not practice the joy of using our talents where they fall easily, we rob ourselves of self-expression.”

~ Julie Cameron

I can wholeheartedly say, YES to this!

There are times when I paint tuning into the emotion and energy boiling deep inside. It’s a cathartic release.

And, there are times to paint from playfulness, and to just say, “Hi, Art!”

Kiernan

Book Review: Bobbie Burgers, Arriving at a Landscape

Book Review: Bobbie Burgers, Arriving at a Landscape

by | Artful Living

Last week I met the fabulous internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Bobbie Burgers at the Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto. You can read about it here. I’ve been really moved and inspired by her story and her art that is filled with great presence, energy and emotion.

Like the entire show – sold out, copies of her book went fast and I’m so glad that I didn’t hesitate in purchasing a copy – actually I think I got the second last one.

I’ve spent some time with it over the past week and I think I’ll be spending many more hours yet. Not only is it a visual delight, but her excerpts of captured moments during their six-month stay in France are as equally captivating.

Like food for the soul – well, for the romantic soul anyway! Breathe and smile. Breathe and smile in the heart.

She enchants us with her experiences, with photos of her family in the fields and on excursions, with her love and passion for her successful life’s work that was as inevitable as the sun rises and sets every day.

“Painting en plein air is scanning and letting your eyes condense. Condensing all the senses: the smells, the dry winds, the sunshine, the warmth, the rustling of grasses, all of these terribly romantic scenes. Condensing the tastes of the land, the language with its juicy puckered lips, the smell of salt and the ocean, all this funnelling down to my fingers and reappearing as a gesture and a colour.” ~Bobbi Burgers

There’s no question of Van Gogh’s influence on Burger’s landscapes. Stunning, raw, alive gorgeousness!

 

“We are suddenly in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, being whipped around the ring road, breathing a sigh of relief that we are here at last before our cheeses, or our children, melt. French villages are disarmingly charming, largely due to their ring roads – all the goodness neatly tied inside like a pastry box, all the sweetness safe and to be savoured slowly later. No time for the cobblestone streets today, it’s home to our new home.”

“After a few attempts at cramming the entire vista – the incredible depth, rows and patterns of olive trees, cypress trees and blue hills receding, endless dots dots dots – into one canvas, what I really find interesting today are the weeds. All creamy colours and dark slashes, often with old vines of chartreuse and purpose mixed in. I think these forgotten fields, where nature orchestrates the perfect colour combinations and infinite textures, will be my real muse.”

 

The flowers are my saviours this week. A break from the fields, a bit of respite from the yellow. I’ll take blue and white for a day… maybe a little pink and red. Matches our stripes quite nicely!

I could go on and on… sharing bits and bites of this escape to wonderland, but I best stop here.

If you’re in the market for a coffee table art book to carry you off on a magic carpet ride to France, where Van Gogh once breathed his colours to life, look no further.

For $60 you won’t be disappointed.

Interested, head over to Bau-Xi Gallery to order your copy.

Best,

Kiernan

Bobbie Burgers at the Bau-Xi Gallery

Bobbie Burgers at the Bau-Xi Gallery

by | Artful Living

On one of the hottest days of our summer so far, humid… humid…humid… I set off on the bus to head downtown Toronto to the Bau-Xi Gallery where the fabulous and internationally acclaimed Vancouver based contemporary artist, Bobbie Burgers was having an exhibition.

It was to be my artist date this week – time to fill up on soul infusing love and beauty. Well, by the time I got to the subway, I was already getting supremely hot and sticky, and I have to say this is not one of my favourite feelings. Then, for some reason, I had it in my head that the gallery was right near one of the subway stops, so I intended to endure the heat with a smile.

Well, not only was my impression off the mark, I also had the wrong street number in my head. I kept walking and walking. Sweat breaking out and dripping down my back. Wind blowing my hair and wilting it from the humidity.

I kept walking and walking until the visual I had of where I thought the gallery was became a ‘what in the world was I thinking?’ realization. Haha. When I finally arrived at Bau-Xi the epiphany came, ‘Oh yeah, this is where it is!’

The gallery was packed and I just wanted to find a cool place to collect myself. Oh well, onward I went pitching that smile in my heart, because after all I was about to experience a feast for my eyes and soul and meet an artist I admire.

The exhibition did not disappoint. Nor did the artist herself – Bobbie is a lovely lovely spirit and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to meet her.

From what I heard the exhibition sold out in the first 15 minutes, but, I suspect the paintings were probably spoken for before the show officially opened.

I took my time with each painting. Thoroughly breathing in each stroke of colour and the glorious flowers that inspired her.

My favourite piece in the exhibition was hands down the one titled ‘Lightly Touching Down’ – at 84 x 66 in. it captured a joy in me.

I purchased Bobbi’s artwork book, which I began to read this morning. I had to stop because it’s so gorgeous – in art and words, that I want to savour it. I will definitely write a separate blog post for her book.

In the meantime, here’s a snippit from her time living in France that made me sigh with appreciation:

As I paint, I muse that my painting is like the printout from a heart monitor in a hospital. Yes, I am still here, my heart is still beating. The tiny jig and jags are always going forward but jagging up and down in a fury of lines, then calm. They appear right before my eyes – skips and pulses, highlights and lowlights. They roll out and keep moving forward, as if my hand could interpret my heart and its years of looking out across fields, feeling all the sunshine and cold winds and human effort that has gone into them.

~ Bobbie Burgers

It’s no wonder her paintings and books sell nearly as fast as they are available.]

Raw and messy has its own beauty

Raw and messy has its own beauty

by | Artful Living, Contemporary Art

In many of my abstract pieces I begin by connecting with the panel of wood through my heart. I get quiet and I feel it. I get a sense of what may be the dominant colours it ultimately wants to be and that gives me a starting point. It guides me as to the potential colours to use in the initial layers to get me where it wants to go.

So, in this manner as I begin adding paint, I’m actually thinking and feeling a few steps ahead, because I love the feeling and look of a painting that has depth, weight and thickness – it’s very symbolic of the inner workings of our personality, our emotions, and our soul.

Many of my pieces are also created from a place of surrendering – me and my thoughts stepping aside to allow for something to come through me and speak to the world. I simply love to create. It’s a necessity for me.

None of this was the case in painting Window Cracking Open.

That day, I just needed to paint. I needed to express. I needed to release. I needed the colours, paint and panel to experience how I was feeling. I needed not to do anything but simply approach it and swiftly release what was in my heart and body at that moment.

It was a hugely cathartic release and I felt hugely satisfied.

For me, this piece wasn’t about creating something extraordinary or beautiful, or being an instrument for something to work through me to benefit the world in some way.

It was simply a raw, emotional, and physical outlet.

Whatever its form, purpose or expression, art is transformative. Its effects far reaching into the hearts, minds, and souls of humankind. It opens us. Ah, but that is a topic for another post.

 

Artwork Statement

Sometimes windows need to crack. And, they need to open just that little bit for messy to come in and break the brittle crusted barriers around the heart. What would happen if we let it? Maybe the body would experience miracles. Maybe our lovers would look into our watery eyes, with watery eyes of their own while whispering the secrets of their own heart… letting you know you’re not alone… that you are loved… that you are important in their world. Maybe then the world will feel a little bit safer, and brighter, and hopeful. Maybe then our dreams will be nourished by the inner fortitude that’s growing in the allowing of our deepest self seeping in through the crack.

Window Cracking Open—represents a true merging of understanding, healing, and love for self and others. When we have the courage to feel, to be still and feel, a light shines revealing perfection in the imperfection of ourselves and our lives. Messy is not very pretty, but it’s often necessary to let us go down the road we seek—because the truth sets us free. If we’re lucky, one day maybe we’ll find where we’re coming from and where we’re going to.

The Shaman’s Journey

The Shaman’s Journey

by | Artful Living, Contemporary Art

Shaman’s are powerful medicine doctors trained in the ancient ways of healing and spiritual teachings. They are found in indigenous cultures throughout the world. As wise elders of their tribal communities, these highly respected men and women are intimately familiar with the hidden realms of nature in all her forms. They guide us into the wisdom of the ‘dream body’ where we can seek answers to life’s most important questions. Your inner shaman calls you back to your true essence, your home in nature—where your soul speaks directly to you, delivering messages through your body, your dreams, your secret desires, and whisperings of signs and synchronicities. Your muses are enlivened and beckon you to venture into the mysteries of creative visualization and dream journaling to access important information.

The Shaman’s Journey—reveals a pathway into your deep centre which encompasses both light and dark aspects of life—for both are equally important to learn from in the process of becoming healthy and whole. When fully exposed to the white and shimmering gold light, the deep black centers and veins are revealed and they are able to fall to the earth to transform into beautiful blossoms inviting harmony to your life.

“For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.
From within, I couldn’t decide what to do.
Unable to see, I heard my name being called.
Then I walked outside.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the door sill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”

~ Rumi

The Shaman’s Journey

Acrylic Abstraction on Gallery Wood Panel, 11″ x 14″

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Copyright 2016, Kiernan Antares, All Rights Reserved