Things to consider when buying Art for your home
Look for artwork that will make a positive contribution to your well-being.  Why buy artwork that only does the work of wallpaper? Is art all about colour and form? No, those are the tools used to convey a thought or a feeling.  If your emotions are not moved by the art then you are just buying really expensive wallpaper.

The FIRST things to look for when deciding on new art work are:

Does the piece linger in your mind long after you have seen it?
Does the work invoke an emotional and passionate connection for you?
Does the piece offer an opportunity for discovery either about the subject, process or your own personal journey?
Does this piece offer a complexity which will intrigue you beyond a few weeks or potentially for years to come?

Questions 1 & 2 are easier to answer if you take your time to look around.  It is often an instant response to a piece.  The second two points take a bit more time or help to discover.  Here are some other things I ask myself before purchasing or trading:
Who is the artist and how does a particular piece fit within their process and development?
Was the work created with quality materials?
How should my artwork be framed and protected?
Best placement of art; will I be able to find it a suitable spot in my house?
 
Question 1 is important because knowing about the artist can give you some great insight into the work.  By viewing other works by the artist you will gain a greater understanding of the piece you are considering.  It can add to that complexity I was referring to earlier.
 
Question 2 has become more important over the years with contemporary work.  All sorts of surfaces and mediums are being used.  It is really exciting to see new boundaries being pushed and the materials used are something to consider when purchasing.  Sometimes archival is necessary, sometimes it isn't.  This all depends on what your priorities are for your artwork.

Questions 3 is something that can hold up many a buyer and an artist.  Framing can be expensive and there are so many alternatives.  I try to go for the least amount of frame I can get away with while still offering the most amount of protection for the piece. Once in a while an artist might go for something flashy, but in that case, the frame becomes part of the artwork.  Over the last year I have been using Sheppard Fine Art Services in Kensington for my framing.  Carol and Terra do a great job protecting the pieces.

If you are considering purchasing some artwork you should consider attending a really fun and informative seminar Denise of Panakagos Designs and myself are teaming up to provide.  Denise is one of the top designers in the city and has years of experience and happy clients in her portfolio.  She has a wealth of knowledge to share on where and how you hang your artwork can change a house.  I will be going into more details on the above notes and suggestions.  Watch for more details on the seminar - date to be announced shortly. 


Feeling Stressed and Stretched to Your Limits?

Road rage one minute and later you feel like crying when someone says, "Can you do me a favor?" Cursing people for not getting back to your emails in the same hour as you wrote to them? Feel like you need a really long vacation from the daily grind?

Sure a vacation would help, but you need to learn how to destress and live happily on a day-to-day basis.  This is not advice. I am just sharing how I see things on this subject.

Some people think they need to plan better. They are just not organized like other 'successful' people.  Really, is one more gadget in your life going to improve things? That reminds me of the food processor I bought to make my life so easy in the kitchen. It has been used twice. Now I spend time thinking about how to get rid of it :-)

You don't need to learn how to stay on track, you need to GET OFF THE TRACK! Clear the decks for some spontaneous time in your daily or at least, weekly life.  Pure unplanned, non-results oriented, no expectations - SPONTANEOUS TIME. People go through great lengths to have spontaneous time. Like the couple who took a kayak down the Amazon river to see what would happen.  Yes, it took a plan to get there but they had no idea how each day was going to  unfold.

Spontaneity doesn't take an Amazon River trip - but it does require an element of the 'unknown'.  I will talk more about this in the upcoming B&B ezines. (marketing guru told me not to call them 'newsletters').

Point Zero Painting is one of my places where spontaneous expression happens.  Don't be fooled by the dark images, I have a lot of fun.

SIGN-UP FOR THE POINT ZERO PAINTING WORKSHOP!





1. Lay out all the paintings to wear resin.
2. Place paper underneath each peice.
3. Make sure there is no debris on the paintings and the paintings are dry.
4. Make sure you have enough resin to completely cover each painting with a good thick layer.
5. Have a heat gun near by for the bubbles.
6. Wear gloves and have some paint stir sticks around.

 This is me in my messy studio.  Applying resin is a lot of work. To complete 3 paintings it takes me about 2.5 hours to layout the resin, spread it evenly and make sure all the bubbles are blown out.

The resin brings the paint back out of the wood and provides great protection to all the mixed media in the artwork.

1. Shaganappi Hill in Spring

2. Scottsman Hill and the Stampede Grounds

These two paintings are created on 20" x 36" birch canvases.

Each drawing was done on site, the ink and painting was completed in my studio.

The sketch takes me a one to three hours on site.

A complicated scene can flow quickly and a simple scene can sometimes require more adjustments, but I don't really know until I start drawing.

Next step is done in the studio with a caligraphy pen and ink. I go over the pencil marks making minor adjustments as I go along.

After the ink is dry I start with the first layer of acrylic inks.

This paint is applied in a spontaneous fashion using water to disperse the colours.

I layout colour as to tone and composition rather than to paint the particular images.

This is what the first layer of paint looks like on my other painting: Scottsman Hill and Stampede Grounds.

I decided to make the stampede grounds lively and colourful to represent the many different events that happen on this site. It is unfortunate that the rest of the time it is a grey ashphalt frontier.

This is how it looks after a few more layers of paint.

Each layer getting more and more detailed.

The acrylic inks are transparent and how each layer affects the next application is an important consideration for my work.

This layer includes some collage of the buildings that are being torn down and a few of the residents.

Here are some photos of the homes being torn down and a resident who agreed to have his photo taken for my project. In fact I took a few photos of residents and they were quiet happy that someone was paying attention to their lovely little patch of land in Calgary.

The Scottsman hill painting required me to take a picture of someone wearing a Calgary Flames jersey. 

I went to the Saddledome and decided to search around the area - some jersey clad people were bound to show up. Here is the wife of the equipment manager! She is a good sport.

Here are some close-ups of the Scottsman Hill and Stampede Grounds painting.