ASA 2012 New Members Exhibition

Paintings by Randall Talbot in the ASA’s 2012 New Members Show: (L-R) Storm Approaches, Dark Treeline, Spirals

2013 March 8 – the Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) New Members Show Opening

It started about a year earlier when I submitted images of my recent paintings to the ASA in application for full member status. In April 2012 I received word that I had been juried-in as a full member.

One of the things the ASA does to welcome new members is to give them an opportunity to participate in an exclusive New Member’s show. This year it was at the  Artpoint Gallery and Studio Society in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

 I had brought my three paintings for the show, from my home in Edmonton to Calgary a few weeks before the show, when I had drove to Calgary for a meeting. I came back down to Calgary for the Opening but this time chose to travel by bus.

I walked from downtown to the Artpoint Gallery for the opening – a pleasant 25 minute stroll in the late afternoon sun of a springlike day. I arrived at the gallery a bit before six for the Opening which ran from 5 to 9. The gallery was pretty quiet at that time, but the crowds built as the evening progressed and the room was pretty full by 7 when the artists each spoke a bit about their work (or in the case of Shona Rae, did a fascinating story-telling performance).

The Artpoint Gallery for the Opening of the ASA’s 2012 New Members Show

ASA Opening at the Artpoint

I was one of 8 new ASA members showing in this exhibition. The others were:

Blanca Botera-Fuentes

Deborah Catton

Sherry Chanin

Mary Deeprose

Tatianna O’Donnell

Shona Rae

Dawn Thrasher

When my turn came to speak, I spoke briefly about my background – a lifelong Albertan with a longtime interest in the visual arts including painting, photography and sculpting. I then said a few words about each of my three paintings in the show (all were painted in 2012 but representing different approaches):

Storm Approaches

Storm Approaches,

acrylic on hardboard

61 by 91 cm (24×36 inches)

This work is an example of by approach of working plein air. This work was developed in the studio based on a small sketch that I had done on-site. The particular location of this was near the central Alberta community of Markerville but it depicts a fairly generic and common prairie/parkland scene on a summer afternoon, when the dark clouds roll in from the west.

Dark Treeline

Dark Treeline

acrylic on canvas

61 by 91 cm (24×36 inches)

This painting is an example of an increasingly common technique in my work, of using my own abstracted photographs as the inspiration and reference for abstracted landscapes. I use a technique of multiple second exposures while I move the camera to create the abstraction/simplification  of the scene.

Spirals

Spirals

oil on canvas

46 by 46 cm (18x 18 inches)

This non-representational (abstract) work was one of a small series of exploration I began in October of 2012. The key feature of this series is the technique of drawing into the wet oil paint, using a variety of tools, to leave marks and reveal the underpainting.

All in all, it was a great evening – a chance for me to meet some artists and art lovers I had not known and see some interesting work. It was an opening to a good exhibition that I am proud to be part of.

The show runs until March 30th (2013) in Calgary.

The Exterior of the Artpoint Gallery at the end of the Evening

A Winter’s Night in Olds – Black and White Visions

Here is part 2 of my photos from a cold (and a bit foggy) January evening walk around the town of Olds, Alberta. Part 1 featured color photos (subdues as they were); this set is all black and white:

Fire Hydrant in the Night

A Glow From Within

Highway Junction

DQ and ESSO

Coming and Going in the Night

 

 

 

 

 

A Winter’s Night In Olds

I found myself spending a few days (and nights) in the small central Alberta town of Olds. One cold evening, there was a fog hanging about – not enough to obscure things near by, but enough to lend an eerie feeling to the sky. I took my camera out (with my fast 1.4 lens and a 1600 ISO setting) and walked about capturing images – handheld! This set are of some of the color  (admittedly rather subdued) images that I came up with.

White House Amongst Frosted Trees

Olds Petro Can

Snow Pile by the Crossing

Red Fire Hydrant

Best Western (January Night)

Watch for a future post featuring some black and white images from that night.

My Year Behind the Lens

In the first part of my look back at 2012, I focused on my painting activities. Those that follow this blog will know that my art comprised of painting and photography. In this post I look at the highlights of my photographic work in 2012.

17 of my 32  blog posts in 2012 were about photography and most featured 5 or 6 images (with just a few words of description). The common themes for my photos (and blog posts) in 2012 were black and white, landscapes and abstracts (frequently using long exposure with camera-motion) – and often a combination of these themes.

Three Roofs on Beddis Road

My most popular post of 2012, Island Images- Black and White, featured some black and white landscape photos that I took while on Salt Spring Island in September for a painting workshop. My second most-liked blog post of the year  was Spirit of Spring Landscapes  which featured some of my abstract landscape photos. Incidentally, 10 of my blog posts in 2012 were about abstract photography.

Before the Greening

The highlight of my photographic year was having one of my photos, Carr’s Forest, accepted into the Visual Arts Alberta Open Photo/Open Digital 2012 Exhibition. As a result, my photo was one of fifty that were part of the exhibition that showed in both Calgary and Edmonton, in the fall. I was also proud that this piece won an honorable mention.

Carr’s Forest

In the fall I released two new calendars of my photographs  Flowers, Seed and Berries and Edmonton, Photos by Randall Talbot .

Image from the “Flowers, Seeds and Berries” calendar

image from the “Edmonton” calendar

My Year in the Paint

As I write this it is early on New Year’s Eve day – a time to look back on 2012 to review accomplishments and lessons learned. In this first part I will focus on painting side of my art.

2012 was a year of major change of life direction for me. It was the year I “retired” from my 9-5 (realistically more like 8-6+) job to devote myself full time to my art. I achieved some of my goals for the year but others are still works in progress. The first order of business before I would get into serious art making was to get the business side of this endeavor in place.

After years of treating my art business as a sole proprietorship I decided it was time to formalize it. I set up an incorporated business and went the route of incorporating federally (to  make it easy to put some big future dreams in place). Along with the basic federal incorporation, there was the paperwork of registering the business name, registering the business provincially, getting GST registration, setting up a bank account and setting up an accounting system. No one said the art business would be all about creating art.

On March 1st I set up the  LinkedIn group: The Business of Being a Canadian Artist as a forum for Canadian artist to network and share information about the uniquely Canadian aspects of being in the art business (things such as Canadian taxes, regulations, grants etc.)

Bend in the North Saskatchewan River (Twitter Art Exhibit )

By spring I started back into painting and one of my activities at the time was creating a postcard painting to contribute to the 2nd Twitter Art Exhibit in Moss, Norway [see post].

I joined the SWCA (Society of Western Canadian Artists)  and in April was juried up to Active Status with this group. Later in the year I accepted the role of Program chair with SWCA for 2013.

In March I was accepted as a full member of the ASA (Alberta Society  of Artists). I subsequently made the trip down to Calgary in early May to attend the ASA’s Annual General Meeting and banquet where new members were introduced.

As spring arrived I got excited about getting back to plein air painting and worked on putting together gear that would enable me to head out painting on my mountain bike [see this blog post for more of the story]. Alas I did not end op doing that much in 2012 but there’s always next year.

Self-portrait with Trumpet

At this time of year I was studying the work of Gerhard Richter and tried my hand at a self-portrait in (one of) his style(s).

Harcourt Fundraiser donations

May was also the time of the Harcourt House fundraising silent auction. I donated a couple of small paintings to this event.

Pedway (in Harcourt House show)

In June, I participated  the Harcourt House members show with two of my paintings.

Overwhelmed (in SWCA Group show)

Also in June I  had a couple of my paintings in the SWCA group show at the Misericordia Hospital.

I was back at the Misericordia Hospital in July with a solo show  featuring 42 of my paintings (including abstracts and landscapes spanning my entire career). This exhibition ran from July 8 to August 18th. [see video of show]

In mid-July I participated in my first Whyte Avenue Art Walk. in my home city, Edmonton. [click here to see my Facebook photos from this event]. There was a fair bit of planning (and learning) involved with the logistics of participating in an outdoor fair. The event itself was interesting as I met all kinds of people who attended the event. I didn’t find the event that productive for sales or exposure but I do want to go back and do it again next year.

Storm Approaches (Studio work from Red Deer plein air)

The first week of August I was at Red Deer College for the Series 2012 “Color in the Landscape” course with Dave More. This was my second year in a row taking this course and it was just as enjoyable and valuable as it was the first time. I always enjoy taking a week-long course in the long-running summer arts Series put on by the college.

2012-08-01 (first of abstract series begun in Aug 2012)

In August I began a new series of larger (90 by 120 cm, 3′x4′) abstracts in acrylics, inspired by the work of American abstract Expressionist Clyfford Still.

In September it was back to plein air landscape painting, when I attended the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) painting workshop on Salt Spring Island (British Columbia, Canada). A series of blog posts describing that week begins here.

The latter part of 2012 were not particularly productive for painting but I did release a new calendar of my abstract paintings and in December I created the Abstract Expressionism community on Google+

The year ended with a small work (a mixed media – basically an ink drawing) for the 3rd Twitter Art Exhibit, to be held in Los Angeles in early 2013:

“Snowy Slope” for Twitter Art Exhibit 3

Watch for a subsequent post reviewing my photographic art activities in 2012.

Abstracts in the Winter Landscape

Two months into winter and my photographer’s eye is starting to  adjust to the winter landscape. With the general absence of color I find that I need to see differently to find interesting photo subject matter. Here are a few recent (December 2012) photos:

Between Water and Ice

Bridge Rail I

 

Rusty Blue Drum

 

Bridge Rail II

 

Nature’s Magic

 

 

 

test

 

Island Images – Black and White

While on Salt Spring Island on Canada’s west coast for a plein air painting workshop, I took some time to engage my photographic interests. In previous posts I have shared some of the colorful abstract photos. In this post I concentrate on black and white photos. This set of photos were taken on September 11, 2012 -  a “free” day that I had before the painting workshop began. I spent this day, walking about with my camera – specifically I retraced by steps through a favorite part of the island that I had come to know from a visit in November 2007.

With my hiking boots and a backpack full of camera gear I headed down Beddis Road for  my destinations at Beddis Beach and Cusheon Creek [map].

Three Roofs on Beddis Road

The hike down Beddis Road was almost 10K and with very frequent stops for photos, progress was slow – but I had the whole day, so was in no hurry. I was frequently changing lens and camera settings – sometimes capturing a very specific object or scene and at other times more interested in capturing an abstract feeling. Some of these images were captured with he intention of the photo being the final product and others were captured to use a references for future paintings.

Wires over Beddis Road

Beddis Road-side Vegetation

It took the better part of two hours until I arrived at Beddis Beach but what a welcome sight. The beach was quiet, the tide low and the water cool but acceptable enough to wade in (up to my ankles).

The sand, shells and small stones of Beddis Beach, Salt Spring Island

From Beddis Beach it was a few hundred meters (south and west) further, to the trail entrance dropping down into the lush, green and quiet Cusheon Creek valley.

Trees of Cusheon Creek

Tangled Forest Undergrowth

Workshop’s End – Day 5

Ganges Harbour on a Sunny Morning

The fifth and final day of the 2012 Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) plein air workshop on Salt Spring Island was on Sunday September 16th. The format of the day was different but that was okay. Instead of heading of as one of four groups to a different location on the island and being instructed by one of the experts, this day we hung around Ganges and painted.

Painting from the Dockside Gazebo

Well it wasn’t quite that simple. We started of with a group critique, an opportunity to get back with the instructor whom we started with on Day 1. The group was able to take a look at what they had accomplished over the week and to get some useful feedback.

After that it was time to get down to painting. With some one hundred workshop attendees there were lots of plein air painters to be seen around Ganges and particularly along the waterfront.

For my first painting of the day I chose a water scene and worked quickly to capture the impression on it. I found the instruction of Stephen Quiller (who our group had studied with the previous day) to be most on my mind. As a result, I was experimenting with thin acrylic washes to start with, building up values and rich colors. The final strokes were to apply thicker, more opaque acrylic.

My painting of the Ganges Harbor

After this water scene, I wanted to paint a forest scene, so I packed up my gear and walked  to Mouat Park on the edge of Ganges. Although  very dry at this time of year, this are was still lush and green, dark and refreshing.

Mouat Park, Salt Spring Island

My Idyllic setting in Mouat Park

 

 

I finished one plein air sketch there in the park and did a couple of thumbnails sketches for another one.

I also wanted to consider another water or town scene so I hiked back through Ganges looking for an inspiring scene. For some reason I didn’t find anything that caught my fancy so in the end I  was back near Art Spring.

Setting for my final painting

I set up my pochade box on a big stone table and proceeded to work from my thumbnail sketch. I was in a bit of a hurry as I worked here. At 3 o’clcok we were to begin set up for the “Wet Paint show and sale” at Art Spring. The widely publicized even ran from 4 until 6 giving those so inclined and opportunity to sell works which they had completed during the week.  I chose not to  put any of my works up for sale but I did set some pieces to show along with some of my business cards.

The Wet Paint Sale”

Another unique aspect to this final workshop day was an opportunity for a one-on-one critique with the legendary Robert Genn. I did not take advantage of this but many people did and if there is a next time, I will.

The final event of the week was an evening banquet at the Harbor House Hotel. This was a very nice event with just a little bit of formal talking, lots of opportunity to chat with fellow workshop participants and an exceptional meal.

The week went by very quickly but it was good and I will certainly consider doing it again. Next year’s equivalent event will be held in September at Whistler, BC.

[see my workshop overview blog post]

More Abstract Views of the Salt Spring Landscape

Here is another [see first set] small sampling of abstract photos I took in September (2012), on Salt Spring Island while there for a painting workshop. Not that you are likely to see any recognizable landmarks in these images but this bunch were taken around Ganges and particularly in Mouat Park [see map].

I used a slow shutter speed (as low as 2 seconds) and deliberately moved the camera during the exposure – in a horizontal or vertical plane or just random shaking to create soft, blended edges.

Abstract Landscape 452-554

Abstract Landscape 452-593

 

Abstract Landscape 452-573

Abstract Landscape 452-570

Abstract Landscape 452-602

 

FCA Salt Spring Workshop – Day 4

Stephen Quiller Demonstrating for the Class (and any chickens that cared to watch)

On the fourth day of the 2012 Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) workshop on Salt Spring Island, our group was with Stephen Quiller [see my introductory post about this workshop]. Our location was at a private farm, on the coast, a couple of kilometers south of Ganges [see map]. This was another location that offered some subject matter to suit everyone’s tastes – there was the farm, with trees, chickens, road and fences and nearby, ocean-side fields and beaches.

Quiller & his Color Wheel

Stephen Quiller is a water-media artist, not making a big distinction between water color , acrylic and gouache media. He is very comfortable with and knowledgeable about all. Quiller is  noted for his work with color and has a number of products and books relating to his Quiller color wheel. In fact, having studied his books, was how his name popped out for me, amongst the four workshop instructors. One of the key lessons from Quiller related to his efforts in identifying color complement pairs amongst the many hues of colors available today. By mixing these pairs one is able to obtain some very nice clear greys, or neutral tones. Interestingly as he was unable to find a perfect complement to cadmium yellow light, he had his own created – Quiller Violet.

As in the days that we spent with the other workshop instructors, the format was to have a demo/talk first thing in the morning and then the participants would disperse over the area to work on their own and then we would gather again just after lunch for another demo. On this day we also got together for a group critique at the end of the day.

The demonstration started off with  a description of Quiller’s color theory and then he got into working on a piece – an abstracted depiction of the landscape in front of him (using acrylics). Quiller\s approach was to start with thin, transparent washes and work his way to applications of opaque paint. Before starting the actual painting Quiller asked that any questions be saved until the end so as not to disrupt his process. I expected him to be in the “zone” and therefore completely silent during his painting process but while he was clearly in the zone, there was one side of him that was still giving a very useful running commentary of what he was doing and thinking.

A Fence Line – one option to paint

A Beach Scene – another option

A scene similar to the one I chose to paint

Having so many possibilities for paintings around this location, it was difficult to choose. I hiked down the shaded path from the farm area to a large grassy spit which featured a greeny bay at low  tide on one side and the open water and a rocky beach on the other. On the land was a large grassy field bordered by some trees sporting dramatic autumn colors.

The field/tree scene won out for me so I set up my pochade box in the shade looking out over this scene and got to work. I was experimenting with my process again on this day – still trying to find the best way to use acrylics for this plein air work. I learned on the previous days that my paints were just drying out too quickly on the palette – even when I used the Sta-Wet palette with a bet sponge underneath.

My plein air palette

This day I tried pre-mixing my tube colors with heavy gloss gel to slow the drying time and also to give me a thicker paint, which I prefer for the impasto style. I stored these premixed colors in little plastic cups with lids, which were great for ensuring that the left over paint could be saved for my next session. I still used the Sta-Wet palette as my surface for mixing (and saving) other colors.

It was a good day with Stephen Quiller. the information on his color theories was good but largely review. there were a couple of things that he said that while not new or revolutionary, really stuck with me during that day and I’m still thinking about them.

1. “See the stroke – put it down” is what he said. These are simple words, a simple concept but oh so important so as not to muck about in one’s painting and thereby destroy the freshness and expressiveness of the image.
2. “Always finish your paintings”. There is a tendency to give up on hopeless cases, canvases that you just know can’t be saved. Quiller said that the last 15% of a painting can be very hard – but very beneficial. Keep working on the problems and you will learn something and probably something that will help prevent you from making the same mistake again!

The road out of the farm at the end of the day

Go back to my Workshop Day 3 (with Carla O’Conner) blog post.

Go to my blog post about Day 5