Intentions for 2011 at Green Willow Studio

Our Green Willow tree,  Cordelia, has finally dropped her leaves. A Cherry tree stands to the right and produces tasty cherries that drip down your chin in the summertime.  Mostly the birds get the bounty as the limbs are too high for us to reach. Our studio is the red building. The other two 'public sides' are painted periwinkle blue. We heat it with a wood stove and a small space heater.

2010 was the 'birthing' year for our Green Willow Studio. We started with an uninsulated garage and transformed it into a warm, walled and electrified studio! It took us some time to get everything arranged so that a silversmith and a painter could work in the same space. Together, yet apart.

 Most of the time it works. We listen to music or to podcasts. We break for tea or coffee and either talk about our work or we go for a walk around the garden to get a different perspective.

It is a thrill for us both to have the luxury of such a well lit room (there are windows on all four walls!) and to be surrounded by garden and a wild field where pheasants live.

 As part of the Bear River working artists studio tour it was essential for us to have our studio ready for the beginning of the tourist season in May. We set up a display area in the studio where people can buy our work.  We have met some wonderful people that way and have sold some pieces.

Tulips. Acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler.  SOLD

My painting sales this year at the Flight of Fancy, at Paint the Town and in the studio were motivating and rewarding.  A series of one-on-one art coaching and tutoring in painting has helped me to share my painting techniques and to practice teaching. Attending the Bear River Artists and Farmers Market nudged me to develop affordable art as well as gave people a chance to see my work.

Larry received jewellery commissions and is showing sculptural pieces at Art and Jules Gallery in Halifax.

"Growth Spurt" hammered copper vessel by Larry Knox, 2010.

Now 2011 lies before us like a blank canvas or like a shiny sheet of copper waiting to be formed.

The possibilities are infinite; the ideas are many and there are decisions to be made about content, about intention, about the best way to express one's creativity.

Blooming summer flowers were a constant inspiration.

 I will spend more time posting to this blog and sharing step-by-step, the creative discoveries and techniques that I am using in my work and that Larry is using in his work. Up until now my blogging focus has been on our day to day lives in our adopted village of Bear River. After three years there are over 100,000 hits on that Blog and it has even brought visitors to Bear River. It's time for me to shift some of the energy spent in promoting Bear River into sharing our artistic life and promoting our work to the world!

 We are opening an online store to give readers the chance to take home an original work of art from me or from Larry that was created by hand in Nova Scotia. Stay tuned for that announcement within the next few days!

Commissioned copper and silver bracelet by Larry Knox.

Copper pieces.

Larry and I are excited about these developments and we look forward to sharing our creative journey with you in this coming year.  Thanks for your virtual visit!

Happy New Year and may you experience many creative moments in 2011 and may some of them be inspired by our creative journey.

Painting outside in the summer.

A Lesson From Emily Carr (1871-1945)

I'm in Vancouver for a visit with my daughter and today I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the Emily Carr paintings. She willed 157 of her paintings to the Art Gallery in 1945 but most of them are in storage or on loan. However about 20 of them were on display today and coupled with contemporary artists who are depicting similar themes such as the First Nation village life, the forest and the symbology that comes from West Coast First Nations cultures.

Emily Carr
Young Pines and Sky, circa 1935
oil on paper
Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Emily Carr Trust

 I think that no one has captured the power, feeling and mood of the magnificent ancient British Columbia forest that was still evident when Emily Carr started painting it almost 100 years ago. Yet even Emily became discouraged about her work and almost stopped painting during the 1920's. Instead, she earned her living renting out rooms, and making and selling the most god-awful looking pottery souvenirs.

 I knew that she'd made pots, but hadn't seen them until visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery today. Emily appropriated 'indian motifs' in her pots and ashtrays without really understanding the context.

The exhibition juxtaposes quilts made by BC author / artist Douglas Coupland who has stitched 'souvenir' First Nation motifs into his creations. Coupland has also imagined a dialogue between him and Emily about their work and it plays in the room where the pots and the quilts are displayed. I thought it was a clever way to talk about the appropriation of culture!

I wish I could show you photos of the exhibit, but photos are not allowed; the Vancouver Art Gallery does not have paper brochures about their exhibits; the website is also very sparse in terms of description and imagery of their exhibits.

Emily Carr, Loggers' Culls, 1935
oil on canvas
69.0 cm x 112.2 cm
Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.  Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery

 I've been thinking all day about this wonderful artist who set aside her brushes to create 'saleable' ashtrays and dishes. Thankfully Lawren Harris (yes, the Group of Seven Lawren Harris) invited Emily to a show in 1927 that sent her back to her oil paints.

Emily Carr, Strangled by Growth, 1931
oil on canvas
64.0 cm x 48.6 cm
Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery

I'm thinking that Emily's period of self doubt is a very good lesson for all of us.  Rather than abandoning the art that seems 'non-commercial' and trying to make saleable items, like Emily's ashtrays, we need to follow our passions and stay on course. We must dismiss those doubts and follow our creative hearts even when (sorry for this) we can't see the forest for the trees.

Inspiration in a Wistful Look : monoprinting

Monoprint by Flora Doehler, 2010.

Ideas for art work are all around us. I was at a friend's house the other day and spotted this in her garbage:

Through the Eye of a Needle: stories from an Indian desert.

I fished it out and thought about what it was that drew me to the image. The photo itself looked timeless. It could have been 100 years old. The colours reminded me of the plants in my garden and the growth and passing of people. The posterization of the woman stripped away her personal details and left an impression of the person. And the expression on her face was so earnest, so sad. There is a photo of her in full colour at the end of this 2 minute video promotion for the book and DVD right here and she is definitely living in the here and now.

The photo reminded me of old family photos I have of my ancestors. I've long wanted to create a group portrait using photos of all of us at similar ages and that's a project I'd like to take on this winter.
I wondered how I could translate a photo into a mono print. I looked for photos with good contrast and found one of myself taken when I was six.

Using Adobe Photoshop Elements, I posterized the photo which turned it into this:

Elements is a less expensive version of Photoshop. I also think that it's easier to use.

Next, I printed the photo out on paper and placed it over a piece of foam. Then outlined the black edges of the portrait while pressing hard with a ball-point pen. This made an indented line in the piece of foam. I removed the paper and went over the indented line once more with my pen.
The foam parts will print out and I cut away all the parts that I wanted to remain white. I left a 1/16th of an edge of foam beside the pen line which will stay white. Then I glued the results on a piece of wood and added some precut letters and stars.

Attach the letters backwards because the resulting print will be a mirror image of the printing block.

I inked the foam and printed.

 

I'm pumped now to work on an ancestral portrait series thanks to that wistful discarded image that inspired me. Inspiration is everywhere.

With the next image I'll be more mindful and remember to flip my photo before I trace it so that it comes out the 'right' way.