Painting of the Week: FOREST SPIRIT

Forest spirit
@2017 Suzanne Bélair
Acrylic and Ink on canvas
12 X 12 in

 

The rabbit jumps
Unnoticed
Behind the trees
It runs
Hidden from me
Disappearing in the hole
Creature of the earth
Down his tunnel he goes
Reaching his burrow
By another opening
He knows he can escape
If someone sees him
But quick he is
Running and jumping at dusk
When no one is watching

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I like this quotation

“Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.” — Sol LeWitt, printmaker, photographer, painter, draftsman, conceptual art, minimalist art

via “Artists … leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.” — Art of Quotation

Last week at the Studio and Paintings of the week

Probably because the sun and heat have stayed away from us during the month of May, I spent last week continuing my series of forests in warm yellow and orange tones, finishing two paintings started in early April.

Soleil de mai / May sun
©2017 Suzanne Bélair
Acrylique et encre sur toile, 30 X 30 po

 

Congrégation/ Congregation
©2017 Suzanne Bélair
Acrylique sur toile 30 X 30 po

 

As many already know, I like to work on five to ten canvases at a time for several reasons. It could be that sometimes I start a canvas and inspiration deserts me or I don’t like the direction it’s taking, or, especially if I’m working with oils, I need to let the painting dry before moving ahead.

 
I put it aside and let my right brain work quietly on it while I am doing something else, undertake a new painting or work on another. It sometimes takes months before I go back to it, there are things you can’t rush and you have to feel the painting.

 

This week I also had the visit of my good friends Tony and Sandy who came for cocktails and see my space.

 

I also found out I was accepted in the Art Symposium Estiv’Art that will take place in Magog in August 2017. To find out more about this : Estiv’Art

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Last week at the Studio

My studio is in a building where there is construction and there are two more phases to be completed before it gets quiet in the way that I appreciate.

But no matter, I put my music on and paint ignoring what is going on outside my door. The light that comes in is wonderful and a big reason why I chose this place. For the last four days, there has been a construction strike which means all was quiet around the building site.

 

This past week I concentrated on my two San Giminiano urban landscapes:

Colors and some details are slowly going in.

Travail en cours / Work in progress
©2017 Suzanne Bélair
Oil on canvas 30 X 40

 

Notice how I started to offset the warm tones with more blues and I positioned the trees and some of the greenery. Later, I will add greenery on the other side of the canvas too on some of the terraces and balconies.

The trees are a mix of Ultramarine blue and Cadmium Yellow pale. I don’t buy greens anymore. I always mix a blue and a yellow from my painting’s palette to create the greens.

 

I started painting some of the window’s shutters with a mix of Cerulean blue and Naples yellow.

Limiting the colors will keep harmony in the painting. Notice how the lower corner has been dulled to take the eye away from this area even if it is in the foreground. The deep orange that was painted underneath as a background color keeps the building warm.

 

Travail en cours / Work in progress
©2017 Suzanne Bélair
Oil on canvas 30 X 40

 

For this one, my challenge as I was building the background city, is to keep the colors soft and subdued but still delimit the houses so we can make out the intricacies of the constructions. Most of that area was done with a 10-0 paint brush and I’m mainly working on building architecture at this point.

It becomes a sort of meditation when you are working small details like this and it teaches you patience. At this point , it is long tedious work, like putting a puzzle together.

 

To see the beginning of there paintings and learn about this fascinating town, refer to my previous blogs:
Work in Progress
And Work in Progress (bis)

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Work in Progress (bis)

A second painting started inspired by San Gimiano, Italy- view from one of the towers. It is still untitled – to be followed

Travail en cours / Work in progress
©2017 Suzanne Bélair
Oil on canvas 30 X 40

Like the previous one, this painting is based on pictures I took from the towers surrounding San Giminiano in Italy when we visited a few years ago.

Here are a few more facts about this beautiful town. Its historic center was registered with UNESCO in 1990 on the  World heritage list. Its full name San Giminiano delle belle Torri’ is 56 km south of Florence and used to serve as an important relay point for travellers to and from Rome on the Via Francigena. Some of the towers stood more than 50 meters high.

In San Giminiano, you can find several masterpieces of Italian art, dating back to the 14^th and 15^th centuries.

The town became independent in 1199 and grew around two squares. The towers were built between the 11^th and 13^th Century. The Piazza Duomo, one of the main squares dates back to the 13^th Century. It has an intricate layout and this is where most of the public and private monuments can be found. The Piazza della Cisterna is triangular and has a central well.

It is a beautiful town, still very lively and interesting to visit. Like another one I painted a few years ago, I decided to add colors to the grey buildings to create a dynamic art piece.
 

To view the previous finished painting from 2013 “San Giminiano, revisited” go to my post: Five-Day Art Challenge on Facebook – Day 2

 

To see my other work in progress and learn more about this fascinating town, go to previous post: Work in Progress

 

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Art Workshops – How to benefit from them

I recently attended an art workshop in Montreal. I don’t attend a lot of workshops anymore, preferring to explore solo in my studio and perfecting my own techniques but every now and then, I try one.

In the case of that particular workshop, we explored image transfers, collage, multiple mediums to give special effects and mix with acrylic paints, stencilling with spray paint and resin application. It was a good blend of mixed media techniques.

I had already tried some of the techniques before, some were new to me and the atmosphere and the group were a lot of fun, the instructor knowledgeable. I am not particularly happy with my piece, especially for the fact that it would be difficult to modify anything at this point after the application of resin which I wanted to try.

My Art workshop experiment

But that’s OK because the point of attending an art workshop is to learn something new, be it a new medium, subject matter or technique. You have to go into a workshop with an open mind and should not be expecting to come out with a finished piece ready to hang on your wall. That is not the point of a workshop.

Often, workshop attendees are afraid of making mistakes, are feeling watched by the others and want to perform. They want to come out with an artwork worth keeping (after all, they paid for it) but this is not what workshops are for! Workshops are meant to take you out of your comfort zone, to let you experiment with the curiosity of a child, without expectations. It is the perfect place to watch what happens with whatever new thing you are trying. It is also the perfect place to learn from the other attendees’ experimentations and to share your discoveries.

The goal is to listen to the instructor, take notes and experiment just for the joy of it. Relax and enjoy the moment without expectations and you’ll really benefit from the workshop. Always walk in with an open mind.

Later on, if you enjoy the results, you can implement what you have learned into your own work or continue pushing what you’ve learned to the next level.  A workshop is a starting point, not an end. It opens up a new door in your artistic mind.

 

 

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Work in Progress

Travail en cours / Work in progress
©2017 Suzanne Bélair
Oil on canvas 30 X 40

Inspired by San Gimiano, Italy- view from one of the towers, started this new painting, still untitled – to be followed

After all these years of painting, I finally got myself a T-square. I must say this is the first time I ever used this instrument and it is the best thing ever to draw and paint a complex urban scenes like this one, full of buildings and eaves trough.

This painting is based on pictures I took from the towers surrounding San Giminiano in Italy when we visited a few years ago.

San Giminiano is a small medieval town in the province of Sienna,Tuscany. The town is walled and known as “the Town of Fine Towers”. The town is famous for its medieval architecture and the preservation of 13 tower houses that date back to the fourteenth century. These numbered 72 originally and were built by rich families to show their wealth and economic power.

It is a beautiful town, still very lively and interesting to visit. Like a previous one I painted a few years ago, I decided to ass colors to the grey buildings to create a dynamic art piece.

 

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