El Camino - Pages

"El Camino - Pages" 2011
Pastel 14x11.5 inches
Pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes

Happy New Year, everyone!

This is my post for the year 2011, and I must apologize for being  remiss about posting, but as we all know, life happens J

It's been quite an eventful year, for some more than others.  Through it all the one thing that has amazed me is the closeness of the artistic community, and how much of a family you all are, even though you're spread around the world.   The creativity you all share is reflected in the largesse of your hearts, and in the alacrity with which you spring to each others' sides in times of need.  I'm proud to be part of that family.

It's amazing how, even though only connected by email, newsletters, blogs, the ephemeral world of cyberspace, photons, electrons, bits and bytes, I feel as if I know you all personally.  This is most evident when I participate in webinars, as I have been over this year with various instructors.  The 'regulars', with their colorful aliases, are old friends, and the chat rooms take on a life of their own during the webinar sessions  J .

It always surprises me to find out that I'm speaking to someone in South Africa, Norway, China or the southern US.  And that, while it's early afternoon. here, there are those of you who are participating even though it's 2 a.m. and you've been up since sunrise!  That's passion for your art!

This past year I've been painting, drawing, pastelling, and Thinking - oh my how I've been thinking  J   Seems that at least 40% of the time my mind is on the next work of art - muddling around with subject, placement, design, color, style, and medium.  And that's when I'm at my day job ...

So I wish you all a happy new year - may it be better than the last, may you always be creating, and may your hearts be filled with light and color J

See you next year!

Terry

eBook

Folks -

As you may know I have authored 2 books (CARS! A Love Affair with Form and Colour, and Heat of the Night) in print, both available from BLURB.

Now CARS! is available as an eBook for the iPAD and iPOD ! The colours glow, you can take them anywhere, and they make wonderful gifts (they're affordable too, at $4.96 US).

Christmas is coming - why not take a look?

I will be making more eBooks - so stay tuned :-)

CARS ! by Terry Rempel-Mroz | Make Your Own Book

No (r)Egrets

No (r)Egrets,  2011
5x7 inches, wax pastel on watercolour paper

I'm sitting at my PC in an ice-cold house (15C, about 59F, because it's too soon to turn on the heat, yes, it is), getting ready to post this blog before I go pick up my son Caleb and grandson Jade to go to the Butterfly Show at Carleton University.  My fingers are numb!  Can't wait to get into the warm, humid building full of live, free flying butterflies and moths!

I'm really enjoying wax pastels. What? Are they new? No - they're actually the Caran D'Ache Artist Crayons, which are no longer recognized as colored pencil media by the major organizations like CPSA, and so are now called wax pastels.

Any way ....  the above piece has been created specifically for the Wildcard  event - to be donated (if accepted/juried in to the event) in support of the Le Nichoir Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centre in Hudson, Quebec. It's based on a photo from Florida when I visited a few years ago - the egret was standing on some rocks on the seashore, and totally ignored me as I snapped photos :-)

The wax pastels, being reminiscent of my childhood crayon experience, allow for greater interpretation of scenes - hence the fuchsia and turquoise rendering of this magnificent bird.  And it's great fun, feeling the waxed pigment melt and move under your hand - very liberating!

Back to the Wildcard event - a worthwhile cause.  I strongly recommend supporting it, or whatever serves in your neck of the woods to rehabilitate wildlife. 

Gotta go - need to warm up before I set off to pick up my boys and see some jewelled beauties at the Butterfly Show.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

TTFN

Terry

After Merrow-Smith - an Exercise in Oils

After Merrow-Smith Pont D'Avignon, 2011
5x7 oils
(click image to enlarge)

This is an exercise in the traditional sense - copying a master's image in order to learn the techniques and gain an understanding of the gaps that need to be addressed.  The master in this case is Julian Merrow-Smith, whose blog "Postcard from Provence" I follow. Below is the image which enchanted me enough to attempt to copy it.

 You can see why I wanted to paint it - it's a beautiful painting which glows with soft light, executed with minimal well placed strokes that give the impression of vast amounts of detail in a small size.

Looking at my painting, at first glance it's not bad.  The resemblance is quite strong, The colours are off in tone  - attributable to the fact that I painted alla prima, only took 2 hours to do it, and oils are not my primary medium.  (in other words, inexperience).
But it's close.

Close but no cigar, as the saying goes :_).  This is what the exercise is all about - what's wrong with it, where can I improve it?

What I did was to superimpose (in Photoshop) Julian's image over mine, to see where the issues were, with respect to the construction - the drawing phase.  Below is the result - my primary drawing was way off in terms of the buildings in the painting - as you can see by the yellow lines.



Interestingly enough, the horizon line, the bridge beginning, and the reflections are very close - but then I got sloppy.  This is where I start to learn: -

• use the right size brush for the feature you are painting (I tried to use the largest brushes I cold get away with, which didn't work out too well)
• measure measure measure! (seems I really like to center things, and again I rushed. I drew with charcoal, but didn't check against the original, just eyeballed it.  )
• don't over-correct (my trees on the right 'grew' as I tried to fix the colours. This happened under the bridge as well)

Finally, the colours.  I don't normally paint in oils - allergies etc.  In my other mediums (acrylics, pastels, charcoal and graphite) there is no wait time, and if I make a mistake, well it's easily corrected.

In oils, you have to be careful - very deliberate, and very delicate where it's warranted.  I'm so used to fiddling until it's right, that I tried to do that here - and as a result contaminated the colours. You'll notice that there's blue in everything.... 

Now I could let it dry and go back and correct, but my main reason for painting alla prima is that I want to paint en plein air.  I want to be able to take my pochade box and set up in a location and capture the essence of what's before me.

So I'm leaving this as is, to remind me of what I need to improve, before I step out there and try to capture reality the way Julian does.  I feel good about this exercise, and am looking forward to doing more in my journey to plein air :-)

Happy painting!

TTFN

Terry

It's a Grill !

It's a Grill ! 2011
7 x 10.5 inches
Neocolor artist crayons on watercolour paper

It's been a while since I last posted.  A lot has happened - new job, did more work on my studio (I now have a whole wall of reference library! ) and have been working on a number of projects.

I decided to revisit the Neocolor experience, and I'm glad I did. When you combine the brilliant colours from Caran D'Ache's line of artist crayons with the wonderful melting and blending features of the Icarus art board, you can't help but be pleased with the result. And working with Prismacolor pencils for refinements just made it so much more enjoyable.

The piece above shows my love affair with the colour and lines of antique cars, especially when they've been lovingly restored and put on display in summer car shows. Just  remembering the bright sunny hot day, and lots of shiny old cars, trucks, and motorcycles brings a smile to my face. 

The car shows are over for another year, and it's back to school for the kids.  It was a good summer for me, got a lot of painting done, had every Friday off to decompress in the studio, and now it's time to think about building up a body of work for next year. 

Time to get back to work :-)

TTFN
Terry

DRAKO

Drako 2011
20x24 inches, Acrylic on canvas

Drako - dragons - can you see them? How many can you find, floating on the red night sky?

I've long had a fascination with dragons. their mythology, their presence in almost every culture throughout history. In some cultures they are evil malevolent creatures which must be appeased with virgin sacrifice. In others they are bringers of good fortune, protectors of forests, noble beasts, heraldic symbols and astrological ideals (I'm a Leo in western astrology, and was born in the year of the dragon in eastern astrology). And in today's world they are also characters in role-playing games and pewter collectibles.

I choose to see them as bringers of good fortune, with characters of utmost courage and wisdom. 

As for looks - the uglier, the better!  Bring on the scales, the whiskers, the warts, the battle scars, the holes in their wings, the broken claws. 

My dragons can talk, play chess, hold forth on philosophical minutiae, and speak several languages with ease.  They're vain, easily bored, have a major case of ADD, and love to adorn themselves with bright shiny things. 

They're very crafty - you can't see them if you're looking for them. But once you find them you can't miss them.

Lovely creatures.

TTFN
Terry

A Dasch Of Redundor

A few weeks ago I contacted an artist to commission a portrait of myself.  I love this artist's work, and wanted her to paint me.  We emailed back and forth; I answered her questions, sent her some photos, agreed to a price, and then I waited.

Today she sent me a photo of the completed painting, as an early birthday present (my birthday is tomorrow), and I am SOO HAPPY :-)  

A Dasch of Redundor
by Brenda York

(click on image to enlarge)

It's PERFECT!

There is so much going on in the painting.  Brenda puts scribbles (writing) in the background, little snippets of my answers to her questions, the colours are so me, and she even put in my dog Dasch - a true gift, and a surprise.

The title is so apt - Dasch is my Red Tri Australian Shepherd, and I'm Redundor, the superhero who constantly states the obvious (my son named me one long car ride as we discussed what kind of modern superheroes we might be - that was a hilarious ride, the whole family got superhero monikers).

But the resemblance is amazing  - there are enough likenesses (she has my mouth, chin, and yes, my jowls down pat) that the abstracted parts are pure personality.  I held the photo up to my face and my son broke out in a huge grin - "yep, that's you, Mom".

The painting should be dry sometime next week,  and I expect to receive it sometime the week after, most likely.  I can't wait to see the original - it will be amazing, as the photo is wonderful.

Please check out Brenda's website - you'll love it.  Who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to commission her yourself.....

Brenda - THANK YOU  :-)