Black Velvet Paintings

You know those treasures we can still find in second-hand stores, the paintings painted on real velvet?  They gave me the idea of starting with a black canvas, which is the opposite of how I have traditionally worked.  Using different blues, reds, and yellows, I mixed my own blacks, then layered thin washes on the canvas until the surface reached a rich matt finish.  This formed the base for the brush marks I placed on top, the marks thick and thin, opaque and transparent, with their edges jagged or smooth depending on how the brush draws across the canvas.  The dark grounds make the colours pop, but also the dark grounds make a wonderful surface to draw on.  Below you can see the steps I took to paint a Black Velvet painting.  

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'Spring Fever'

These paintings and others of the floral series are presently in a group show at the Oeno Gallery Royal  Annex in Ontario.  This is a very nice exhibition space in The Royal Hotel, Picton, a lovely town near to where the main gallery is located in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County.  Catering to a triangle that encompasses Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal the gallery attracts devotees all year round.  

Here are the other of my paintings in the show:

Velvet Poppy, 30x30", 2020

Twin 2, 30x30", 2020

Purple Rain, 30x30", 2020

Blossom, Pale, 30x30", 2020

If you go to my post for November, 2020, I talk about how I started this series.  I had such fun during that uncertain time.

Pat

New Arrangements

Something fell into my lap last year that I hadn't been looking for; but I knew when I saw it that I wanted it.  For the last few years I have been trying to simplify my life and here was something that might work.  There are so many things I do, things that I do and enjoy doing, but I struggle to stuff them into the few short hours of every day.  

Up until now, I have always had 3 or 4 galleries showing my work.  From the early 80's when I went to Toronto and met up with the formidable gallerist Miriam Shiell; and through the years when I connected at the Emma Lake Workshops with the brilliant artist Robert Christie and his gallery at that time, Art Placement in Saskatoon; and then there was John Long of the Wade Gallery who took my paintings to Los Angeles.  That is only the beginning of the great galleries that I have been lucky to be shown by.  They were artists and dealers who loved art and worked in a difficult business to introduce me to the world.  

Because I have had the luxury of being able to go to my studio every day, I have always had paintings galore to show.  That is not the problem  The problem is selecting shows, sending jpegs out, keeping in touch with the galleries, packing paintings to be delivered to the galleries, and so on.  Lots to do.  

When Oeno Gallery made the suggestion that I show with them exclusively, I was very ready to listen.  This would be simpler.  Rather than having work all over the place, and losing track of it, and forgetting about it for a while;  I could focus on the one relationship and be on top of what is happening.

And that is what we have been doing for a while now.  It is going very well.  In fact, it is going so well, that there is only one hang up - I am busier than ever.  

Here is a photo of me relaxing at the Sandbanks in Prince Edward County, which is where the Oeno Gallery is located.