I’m really enjoying the possibilities of rococco and baroque interiors again. The over-the-top opulence of these spaces allows me to not feel too precious about their forms, so I can play freely with mark-making and a combination of drawing/painting that is so directly connected to the way I draw.
Actually this is French Empire style–from Napoleon’s country home just outside of Paris.
I’m working on a few interim pieces before I take a summer break–two weeks in LA and San Francisco, to visit friends and look around. I always love to go the the museums and galleries and see what’s going on. Looking at great art really refuels my inspiration.
Last week I did a demo for my painter friends Sylvia and Arlene. They wanted to see how I start a painting.
I start with the general (the big shapes) and try to get the colour-world and values more or less established within the first couple of hours. I love this first step, from nothing to… hopefully something.
On subsequent sessions I move slowly toward the particular, (the details.) But I hold back a while and sneak up on them. Getting too detailed too soon tends to lock in the image and give me nowhere to move to. So I like to leave lots of options available at first.
Adam Macarenko creates artificial worlds that resemble our own. He constructs miniature dioramas by hand, and then photographs the set; these constructed realities tell stories. His images recall Romantic painting, but contain a contemporary edge because of the not-quite believable representation. Skillfully as these beautiful copies are executed, you sense that something is not quite right about the image, which makes you want to look longer.
Macarenko’s recent work will be on show at Bau-Xi Photo, Toronto, June 8-22, 2013.
Learn more about his photographs, films, and award winning music videos on his website.
Lewis DeSoto is the author of the novels A Blade of Grass, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and The Restoration Artist, which was just published by HarperCollins. Lewis Desoto “gave up” painting to become a writer, but still paints for himself.
Read more in this article.
Victoria painter Todd Lambeth was seriously injured in a cycling accident recently, and found himself housebound with limited movement as he convalesced. Cats at rest are the subject matter of the paintings that came out of that period. The artists says, “These are not paintings of urban hustle; rather they are oases of meditative calm and reflection. The banal subject of the ubiquitous family cat is transformed into images that celebrate the humility and comfort of our private lives.”
Watch an excellent video interview of Lambeth talking about his project, by filmmaker Michael Cox.
Lambeth’s exhibition “Oh! You Pretty Things” is on view at Deluge Gallery in Victoria to June 15, 2013
Hello! Thanks for dropping by. If you would like to see Val’s most recent work, please visit:
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO A PRIVATE VIEWING AT MY STUDIO, PRIOR TO MY SOLO EXHIBITION IN TORONTO NEXT MONTH.
April 18, 2013, 6-9 pm
#322b and #326-1000 Parker Street,
Vancouver
(entrance on east side of the building)
Refusing to be categorized in terms of subject matter or painting style, with this new body of work Vancouver painter Val Nelson allowed images to rise to the surface and demand to be painted. Travel photos from Berlin and New York, images found on the internet, and art history texts are sources for her paintings. Acknowledging numerous influences including Menzel, Manet, and Picabia, she paints still life, portraiture, painstakingly repainted collage and over-painting of found objects, linking them in a fluid overall narrative much like the collision of images in film montage.
Telephone: 778-865-2650
Peter Archer, British painter
A catalogue of wonderful new work is available at Art Space, London.
A catalogue of wonderful new work is available at Art Space, London.
