Sir Anthony Caro passes away

Tony Caro will be missed by many artists, especially the Canadian ones who met him at workshops here in Saskatchewan at Emma Lake or in upstate New York at Triangle.  He was a great role model, with his engaged approach to making sculpture and his enthusiasm for new work.  When we went to London, if we phoned him we would be sure to get an invitation to his studio to look at what was going on there.  Afterward, over an hospitable glass of wine, he would enquire after our own progress and  make us believe that everything was possible.

Here is a photo of him at Triangle Workshop:

That is Darby Bannard closely examining a sculpture, while Tony keeps his council directly behind; in 1983 he already has his white hair and beard.  Clement Greenberg is the one in the hat, but I can't remember the names of the others.  That is me on the left, thinking I was very cool I guess.  The photo is courtesy of Cora Kelley Ward, who documented much of that workshop.

Show Up in London, Ontario - COLOUR TREE PAINTING

My exhibition in London is now hanging!

You can see the others at Michael Gibson Gallery.  Thanks to Ian Thomson, for being able to do my stretchers at short notice; to Karyn Nelson for helping me to stretch and prepare the canvases in my studio; to West Art Framers for making some beautiful frames; and to Denbigh Shippers for getting them there in good time.  And of course thanks to Michael and Jennie for putting it all together.  It was a tight schedule but, with some luck, it all worked out.

Summer Group Show in Toronto "PAINT"

The Nikola Rukaj Gallery in Toronto included me in a group exhibition this summer:

http://rukajgallery.com/news/paint-exhibition/

P A I N T J U L Y . A U G U S T  S E L E C T E D  A R T I S T S SOYHUN BAE   JOSEPH DRAPELL UNO HOFFMANN  JANETLAGE  ILANA MANOLSON  RENE MARCIL  MELISSA MEYER  EBERHARD ROSS  PAT SERVICE  DOUG STONE  ARMIN TURK RONAN WALSH  CHRISTINE VAILLANCOURT Nikola Rukaj Gallery 384 Eglinton Avenue West Toronto, Ontario M5N 1A2 (416) 481-5995

They showed some of my Vivid Lake paintings.

Portrait Hits The Big-Time

This spring Oliver Simon Design did up the loft of actor Callum Keith Rennie and their work is featured in the current issue of Canadian House & Home (September 2013, P.60).  The designers chose one of my funny portraits for the 'art wall'.  They also hung one of my lake landscapes but, wouldn't you know it,  the editor replaced it with text.

This portrait is part of a series I did a few years ago, with made-up faces from people passing by when I was out and about.   Sometimes friends were the starting point, but I didn't tell them; they wouldn't like how they ended up.  This is one of the last of the series; the paintings were getting too much like real people and I lost interest.

City Drawings

Here are some drawings I sent to Art Placement in Saskatoon for their summer drawing show:

They are all quarter sheet watercolour paper.  Art Placement did not seem to mind that they are drawings of Vancouver.

My First Studio

On early 1980 I got up the nerve to search for studio space in an old building down in gastown.  The Gault Building on Water Street was completely undeveloped at the time and I talked the manager into renting me a space on the 6th floor.  Here is the view from the window:

It was a great space, for I think about $50 a month.  Here is my work table:

And here are some watercolours in progress:

The Problem with Commissions

On occasion I have been asked to paint a painting as a commission, perhaps the same as another painting of mine that has been seen and liked.  As much as I would like to accept, I always refuse.  I try to explain that  it is impossible to duplicate a painting, that no one painting is ever the same as another.  However, this is a difficult concept for people to understand and I think they often wonder why I won't do it.

Recently I was delighted to read James Elkins writing about this individuality of every brushstroke in every painting:

"...each painting would insist on its own uniqueness, because no mark can be like any other, and no picture can duplicate another....  A painting or drawing...is unique, and so is every mark on it.  As every artist knows, a single brushmark can never be retrieved: if it is painted over, it is gone, and no matter how many times the same hand passes over the same inch of canvas, the mark can never be reproduced.  Every mark is a different beginning ...."    P. 41, "What Painting Is" by James Elkins.

If every brushstroke is unique, you can imagine how a whole bunch of brushstrokes can never add up to the same painting.