The influence of calligraphic mark making in my painting

I’ve been a member of the Fairbank Calligraphy Society since the 1980s. I dipped my first pen in a bottle of ink in Fred Salmon’s home studio where he taught me the art and discipline of lettering the italic alphabet. Many teachers and years of practice later, I’ve come to realize and appreciate how making letters and calligraphic gestural writing is held in my muscle memory and influences my painting practice to this day.

Recently, the FCS invited me to make a presentation to their members about the influence of calligraphic mark making in my painting.

Here’s a LINK to the video. Passcode: =%zv8e4Q Skip ahead to the 6:00 minute mark.

LANDWARD EXHIBITION - Speaking about the work

In this video, I talk about this collection of new work for the recent LANDWARD exhibition at Errant Art Space in Victoria, B.C. November, 2021. The sixteen paintings were made in 2021 during the Covid pandemic at times in lockdown and at other times during artist residencies. I worked in my home studio in Victoria, on Savary Island near Lund, BC and on Galiano Island. This collection of work is about the influence of landscape on my life and on my work and my interest in expressing something beyond the literal and towards the intangible.

EXHIBITION @ ERRANT ART SPACE NOVEMBER, 2021

EXHIBITION @ ERRANT ART SPACE NOVEMBER, 2021

Sooke Fine Arts Presentation Online

Presentation link below.

This past August, I submitted a number of works to the Sooke Fine Arts Show and Sale and was pleased that ‘Go the Distance’ was accepted and sold at the show. I was invited to make a presentation over Zoom about what my work is about and a bit about my process.

It was fun to put together a few slides of past and recent works and I found it was a good exercise to articulate what my work is about, remembering that the audience listening may have never heard of me, or know nothing about me, and or nothing about making abstract expressionist art. It’s safe to say my process is changing and evolving overtime as I am evolving. I like to experiment, take risks, try new things and then sit back and see how it feels. Some successes, some epic failures which are really just milestones and evidence of trying and moving forward. My job is to keep going because it’s the only way forward and through.

Thank you to those who logged on for the presentation. I really appreciated your interest and questions. Working alone in a studio one can feel removed from the world (perfect during a panademic) and the connection with people is so rewarding.

Here’s a link to the page on the Sooke Fine Arts Society website where the artists talks are listed. My presentation is at the very bottom of the page.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions or comments.

How lovely to see my painting as the backdrop for the Sooke Fine Arts Show online. Thank you Sooke Fine Arts Society.

Summer 2021 Exhibition News

Three of my paintings have been accepted into art exhibitions this summer, 2021.

The first is ‘Sentinels’ selected for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Summer Small Works Show and Sale, in person and online, June - August 2021.

The second is ‘I think we can get there from here’ also in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Summer Small Works Show and Sale.

The third is ‘Go the Distance’ selected for the Sooke Fine Arts Show online July 23- August 2,2021.

Making Art in a Pandemic and what it takes to push through. An Interview.

Last year I did an online course called Find Your Joy with Louise Fletcher. Every week, over several months, we tuned in from our studios around the world while Louise spoke to us from her studio in Yorkshire in the UK. She showed us other artists’ work, did demonstrations, answered questions and gave us homework. We were invited to post our work to a private FB page where we got feedback and comments. We built skills, we built confidence and we built a community.

All that in the midst of a pandemic lockdown. Here’s the interview about making art and connecting to other artists.

Finding the Light - a series

For the past six months, I’ve been in a dark place coping with grief and loss after the sudden unexpected death of my dear husband, Glenn. Tragically, he passed away in October, 2020 after suffering a stroke at sea while he sailed our boat West Wind II five hundred miles offshore heading towards New Zealand. He was on the last leg of a journey he started in 2008, one that would take him single handed around the world, west about. Going Solo is a blog we created together to tell that story. My situation was made even more lonely during the Covid-19 lockdown without the ability to be with and close to friends and family.

After months of grief counselling, and many virtual visits and conversations with friends here and around the world, I’ve been taking small steps toward recovering and healing and have recently found my way back into my studio. The urge to make art continues to be strong. What is emerging through the process is an area of strong, bright light amidst a darker field. It seemed that every painting I’ve made wants me to see that there is light.

The first one in the series is called Go the Distance which initially was created with the intention of telling a story about finding space and freedom of movement and a way forward. The piece has layers of acrylic paint and ink and marks of various kinds that were mostly covered up by the process, except a few, and one in particular. While I was examining it closely towards the end of the process, I stared at one mark in particular that looked to me like a small sailboat (difficult to see except in real life) on a vast expanse heading towards the horizon and into the light.

I didn’t draw a small sailboat and yet there it is, to me it’s clear and present. I’m not going to speculate about why I see a sailboat, except that it’s me trying to make sense of my world that’s been turned upside down. It’s also about me thinking about where Glenn is and how he might be. And, of course, it’s also about observing oneself and the stories we carry within us that become part of our inner landscape and how art makes it possible for us to tell those stories.

Here’s a few more in the series.

Sentinels, acrylic on canvas, 20 inches x 16 inches, 2021

Coming through the Pass, acrylic on birch panel 12 inches x 12 inches, 2021.

It’s Out There, acrylic on birch panel, 12 inches x 12 inches, 2021

Stepping Into It, acrylic on birch panel, 2021

WORKING WITHIN CONSTRAINTS - PANDEMIC 2020

One of the ways artists reinvigorate their work is by imposing some kind on constraint into their art practice. Constraints can be anything from using a limited palette, working within a limited time frame, or on one type of surface etc. The idea of constraint presents an interesting dichotomy. How can constraining the seemingly endless options foster creativity. My own exploration of working within constraints started in March 2020 with the new reality imposed upon all of us with the COVID-19 pandemic. My shared studio space closed so I was forced to find another space where I could paint freely. Suddenly, an old potting shed at the back of my garden presented itself as an option. It was small, filled with broken pots, bags of soil and gravel, with no electricity or running water but it was filled with natural light from the glass paned walls. In other words, it was perfect. I cleaned and painted the floor and dusted off an old easel, filled a bucket with water from a nearby hose, and found an extension cord that would power a sander when I needed it. I’ve been happily painting in that small studio ever since or until very recently, mid November to be exact, when winter storms with cold and damp weather forced me back into my home office/now art studio.

Back to constraints. I signed up for a few projects that involved some amount of constraint. The first was an invitation from a tiny printmaking studio in Paris called L’atelier Silex Ink, Atelier de Lithographie (silexink.com). We were invited to create three prints without using a press, just with tools we had at hand. We mailed them off in exchange for three prints from other printmakers. I used acrylic paint and ink with parchment paper, plastic and the top of a water main et Voila!

The second one called Postcards from the Pandemic, involved creating and sharing small postcard sized works of art that were mailed to another participant to add their marks and alterations and then passed them on to the next person and so on. In the end, about 80 artists participated and the organizers, Boxcar Six Artist Collective had a small exhibition at the Fifty Fifty Gallery in Victoria where we got to see the entire collection. It was a truly great way to collaborate with other artists within the constraints of a postcard sized ‘canvas’ and share an interesting artistic exploration.

The third was an online course called Find Your Joy led by artist, Louise Fletcher who resides in Yorkshire, England. Classes were held over Zoom and work was posted to a private Facebook page for feedback and comments. While I stood in my humble little garden shed in Victoria plugged in to the internet, I listened to and watched Louise in her lovely studio in Yorkshire talk about colour and composition and contrast and the idea of letting go of fear and judgment - all designed to help each of us find the joy in painting. And, although we were on opposite sides of the world, Louise made the experience engaging, exciting and positively transformative.

I continue to use the idea of constraint in my practice and love the idea of how limiting something can expand the possibilities at the same time.

My rustic garden shed becomes my art studio. 8 feet X 10 feet Made of wood and glass with a moss covered roof. March, 2020

An artsy version of the humble garden studio.

Pandemic print using acrylic paint and parchment paper. April 2020

Le Corps is a handmade print without the use of a printing press. This work on watercolour paper was in response to a Call to Artists from L’atelier Silex Ink in Paris who invited print makers from around the world to produce prints without the use of a printing press during our shared global lockdown. I used professional relief ink in Supergraphic black and muslin cloth to create the print. Many experimental versions were created and this is the final one. The name Le Corps is a nod to the French atelier that initiated the print exchange. In exchange, I received three beautiful hand made prints from members of L’atelier Silex Ink. Magnifique!

My collaborative line drawing over a painted postcard, May 2020

Postcards from the Pandemic exhibition, Fifty Fifty Gallery, August, 2020

Ink and acrylic on watercolour paper, Find Your Joy, Summer 2020

Finding Currency - The story behind the painting

In 1997/98 my husband and I embarked on a sailing adventure with our two young daughters across the South Pacific to New Zealand, then on to Australia and finally to South Africa. The four of us sailed our tiny 26’ Haida to tropical islands and experienced life aboard a sailboat for a year that was like no other. One of our destinations was the island nation of Tonga which was the inspiration for this painting. As we navigated across the coral shelves and into tiny bays, my job was to sit on the bow of the boat and help direct us across the currents and over the shallows. The title of this painting, Finding Currency, is a play on words. In one way it means negotiating the currents that run over the coral. The other meaning, which is personal, is that during the course of this journey, I discovered my own personal ‘currency. I wasn’t an experienced sailor and as a crew member was taking direction from the skipper (my husband), but I realized I also had an important role beyond cook, school teacher, boat cleaner etc., which I hadn’t necessarily realized before. Finding my own personal currency and value was something I gained as a result of putting myself in a situation that was out of the ordinary, at times difficult, not always comfortable, risky and scary at times and in every way priceless in terms of friendships made and adventures had. This painting, recently appeared in UNTIL magazine published by the Victoria Arts Council inn Victoria, BC Canada. The theme of the issue was Memory.

Solar Impressions Exhibition Catalogue

Here’s a glimpse at the catalogue from the Solar Impressions Exhibition at the Southampton Arts Centre, November, 2019. One half of the catalogue includes work from printmakers, including myself, from around the world, the other half is a collection of prints from print masters. Click here to take a look.

From Vancouver Island to Long Island, New York

GoWestShore magazine recently published an article called The Amazing Journey of a MISSA student about my extraordinary journey to New York to participate in an international print show following a week-long intensive printmaking course at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts with master printmaker Dan Welden.

Art can take you places

In July 2019, I got word that one of my solar plate prints had been accepted in an international exhibition at the Southampton Arts Centre in Southampton on Long Island, New York.

After a brief internal debate and discussions with family and friends, I decided to fly to New York to attend the Opening on November 16th. It felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

During the months leading up to the event, I learned that organizers had received more than 700 entries from 11 countries and accepted about 100 works. I was still trying to let it sink in that my work was one of them. Earlier that summer at MISSA, an international summer school for the arts on Vancouver Island, I met Dan Welden, master printmaker and inventor of the solar plate print technique. Under his watchful eye I began to learn everything I could about solar plate printing. Dan was generous, inspiring, particular and encouraging, especially when it came to submitting our work to an exhibition that would take place later that fall. He informed us there would be an independent jury of noteworthy artists and professionals who would select the work and mount the exhibition.

The Opening was everything you’d imagine. A beautiful, light-filled, elegant gallery bustling with artists and members of the local Southampton community, about 400 in all, who came together to mark the occasion with food and drinks. There were photographers, media and lots of buzz. I found myself immersed in conversations with fellow artists from all over the US and some Euro countries and people from the local community. To even be in the same building and have my art on the same walls (in a separate gallery) with some of the master printmakers was nothing less than a thrill. At one point a gallery curator approached me and asked me to come with her. She then handed me a gorgeous flower arrangement my husband and daughters sent for the occasion.

We watched print demonstrations and listened to a presentation from jurors ( Laura Einstein, manager of the Mezzanine Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alex Ferrone, artist and owner/director of the Alex Ferrone Gallery, Cutchogue; and Ron Pokrasso, Santa Fe artist and world printmaking traveller) about the challenges of curating an international exhibit. In her remarks about the calibre of the artwork, Laura said…” Don’t let the size or price of some these pieces fool you. There is a work here by MaryLou Wakefield, which is a little gem.”

I introduced myself to Laura after the talk and thanked her for her very kind words. She leaned in and said, “I just want you to know, I bought your piece.” It was definitely a moment I won’t soon forget. The next day we toured Guild Hall, Pollock House, and the Parrish Museum on the east end of Long Island where a number of Dan’s beautiful prints were on exhibit. Late in the afternoon we hopped on the train back to the city, my head filled with images of abstract expressionist art and events of the past two days. It was a terrific experience, in large part because of the generosity and support of a teacher and mentor who encouraged me to go further and put myself and my work out into the world.