On Competition, classes and coinciding events
February has flown by, March is already knocking on the door and things have been busy here in a snowy Montreal. The move is going smoothly so far and even though it’s been distracting me from my painting I’ve still managed to be somewhat productive. I’ve mostly been working on my Montreal Boroughs project, three pieces are now completely finished, one piece is ready for it’s final layer of paint and I have three other pieces in several stages of development. I’ve even managed to squeeze in another direct transfer experiment although I haven’t been able to finish it yet.
This past Monday was the final class of the Acrylic gel transfer course that I was teaching at Viva Vida art gallery. We had a great group that produced some amazing pieces. I never thought I would have this much fun teaching a class, I am looking forward to the next one, which will start in early April. If you would like to join us you can contact Viva Vida Art Gallery at 514 694 1110.
This morning I received a lovely email from the people at New Master Artist telling me that I am one of the winners of their New Master 2011 Expert Top 10. I am very honoured and would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people that voted for me as well as the New Master Artist website for this amazing opportunity. The great thing about this competition was that there were no entry fees which is very unusual for an artist competition. The New Master Artist website is a unique independent online space where artists and qualified art experts from around the world form a community where they can openly share information and discover each others work.
Over the weekend I’ll be traveling to New York City for the opening of ‘Women in Art’ a group show to celebrate International Women’s Day to be held at the Ward-Nasse Gallery. Women of different nationalities will be displaying works in painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography, from March 1st to March 31st, 2012. The Ward-Nasse Gallery is a nonprofit artist-administrated space for visual, spoken and performing arts, located in the heart of Soho. The shows opening reception will be held on March 3rd from 7-10 pm. “Women’s in Art 2012” will be open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm and Sundays from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm at 178 Prince Street NY-NY.
This weekend will also see the opening of ‘Art and Architecture’, a group show that features art about architecture, and art by architects, Presentations and artist-talks to be announced during the exhibition. This show will be held at Fleurbain which is conveniently located close to McGill and Place des Arts metros, with plenty of street and paid parking nearby. See their website and blog for information on workshops, herbalism, art, and all things verdant about life in the city. The vernissage will be held on March 3rd from 7-10 pm. “Art and Architecture” will be open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays from 3-6 pm or by appointment at 460 St Catherine Street West, Unit 917, Montreal, QC.
Happy Valentines Day to all my trusty readers!
My Valentines day is being spent doing some necessary shopping for our move, looking at truck rental prices, doing the administration and hopefully start work on my prep for next weeks class. Tonight we’ll have a ‘very romantic’ quick bite to eat at the mall while shopping for a new internet/tv provider and then we’ll drive to the new house to drop off some boxes and clean some floors :D It’s all very romantic ;-))
As I predicted the move is being a big distraction when it comes to painting. I did manage to squeeze in a new composition last week but I didn’t really get to paint. I do have one painting that’s ready for it’s final layer of paint so I’m going to plan at least one day in the studio this week so I can finish that one.
The class I teaching at Viva Vida Art Gallery is going really well. Next week we’re going to start transferring our gel pieces to our panels so that is going to be an exciting class. It does require some preparation from my side since I’ll need to bring along several gel skins as examples as well as doing some paper removal on the spot. So I’ll need to find some time to do that as well. The good thing is that I use actual pieces as demonstration material so it’s work I need to do anyway, it just requires some thought as to which pieces I need to bring and which stage they need to be in. I’m really enjoying teaching this class though, it’s a great group and it is a good way to analyze your own process and find room for improvement.
We’ve actually decided to do a second series of classes in the spring. I’m also going to do a demonstration on applying resin. If you would like some more information about the course or the demonstration you can contact Viva Vida Art Gallery at 514 694 1110.
Turns out I’ll be moving soon. Now don’t panic, I’m not leaving Montreal, we’re just moving to another house, different borough, same island :). In December our landlords notified us that they were ending our lease which meant we had to look for a new place. Instead of panicking about the huge amount of stuff we need to move we decided to look at this as an opportunity to find someplace awesome to live, which we did.
Things went a lot faster then we had initially planned for, but when the perfect place comes along you don’t say no :). The house we found is new and has a big unfinished basement for me to work in. The unfinished part is a huge bonus because it means I don’t have to worry about getting paint on the floors or walls. Yes, I do that sometimes, I’m a messy artist :). Our new landlord is even going to install an awesome laundry tub sink in the basement so I have a place to wash my brushes :), I am going to be so spoiled!
The moving part is going to be a challenge. I have a large metal cabinet for drawings and a very heavy drawing table that are no fun to move and we have a huge amount of stuff in general. The good thing is that we have plenty of time, we have about 6 weeks to move all our stuff which means we can take it easy.
Yeah, March is going to be an interesting month, a lot of things were already on the agenda (see my previous Blog post) and now with the move I’ll have to make sure I do some early preparations. It’s a good thing I’ve been extra productive the past couple of weeks because painting while moving usually doesn’t really work.
