Geese, Art and my Reticular Activating System

The Reticular Activation System is part of a human brain that takes care of many important jobs but the one that pertains to this post is it job as an information filter, sorting through the mass of data and information that comes at us through our senses. 

When you have a new interest it is due to this RAS system that you suddenly seem to see more of that new subject around you. If you purchase a red car...all of a sudden you see red cars everywhere....it makes sense that they were there before but you were not activated to see them. 

Well long story short....my new interest is geese....Canadian geese. I am working on a project that features Canadian geese and this spring I find I am surrounded by them. If I turn on the TV there is a documentary on them. If I go for a walk they are there in the pond and or flying over head. If I grab a wildlife book it pops open to the page that features them. I love this. And it was all wonderfully topped off by 4 Canadian geese moving in to live on our property for a month this spring. First time in 30 years that any geese have lived here with us.

Every morning we were awoken by the hooking of geese....( that may have been carrying this RAS thing way too far) and our morning barn visits were overseen by 2 or more geese either on top of the shed or waddling ahead of us to the corral. In the last week or so the mornings have been quiet and I imagine that is was time for the geese to move onto larger water than available here. But what a great thing to have my inspiration right here for even a short time. Here are a few photos of our feathered visitors. 

Damaged brushes make the best textures.

It is true, your oldest ugliest and most abused brushes make the best textures in a painting.  But those wonderful old brushes are on their last legs and then suddenly just done. So sometimes you just have to help a few less than desirable brushes along to that wonderful state. So by twisting, cutting, pruning and plucking...I will try to recreate that wonderful old random texture that will help me to form rocks, bark, and soil textures on my painting. This photo shows two brushes that I have helped along to a ragged state with my favourite sponge.

Today as an experiment I took a new foam roller and had a fun time plucking out some the foam to see if I could replicate a sandy beach texture...it did not really work, some of my ideas just don't pan out. The wild patterns of a natural sponge are much better.

 So still working with my old or newly damaged brushes, sometimes a crumpled rag to lift off some of the newly laid paint and most often my finger tips to smudge and blur the paint. (Just learning to protect fingers from too much paint with either a full glove or just a finger cut off a glove.) For me the answer to creating good natural texture is first to study it for form, color and pattern....and then find the tool that will best recreate it....most often for me it is the combination of one of my tortured brushes and natural sponge.

Raccoon Painting

The animals that manage to live right next door to us, right on the edge of our yards and the edges of our towns are the some of the most clever and most adaptable animals. These are the coyotes, rabbits, marmots, raccoons, mice and squirrels: not generally admired, they really do deserve recognition for cohabiting with us.

These animals have found their ways to live with us in spite of the dangers that we as humans present. I have to say I admire their adaptability and this painting celebrates a particular favourite of mine.

Here is an acrylic painting on board of a young raccoon delicately washing up in the creek.

 This is a painting that explores visual textures... Rocks, fur and water.......hard, soft and liquid. 

I took this as my demo painting to Opus Art Store and shared part of my process in creating textures with the artists that attended. 

My Love Hate Relationship with Gesso

Yes I love gesso. It is an awesome base that acrylic paint loves to stick to. I like to tint my gesso and put in on with a foam roller.  At first it rolls out really juicy with great coverage and then I go over it very lightly to flatten off any texture. In that way I get a lovely smooth finish and a even color base for  my painting.  Looks awesome, gives the painting a cohesion of color and holds paint really well.

Yes I hate gesso. It has such a stickiness to it that it is seemingly impossible for me to gesso without it spreading out over every surface. It has a fiendish desire to attach to everything it can.  A blop here, a splat there, a smear and dab just there....and of course because it is valued for its stick-to-it ability....what it gets on it stays on and only comes off with focused scrubbing.  I am not a messy person...REALLY!

So there is my annual gesso rant, as you can tell, today was gesso day. Prepped a bunch of canvases in light blue tinted gesso......all good now.........tools all clean .... just have to get the remaining gesso off work desk,  my hands, right toe and some on upper right cheekbone.....computer mouse and studio door knob......might leave the door knob as it looks kind of cool.

Testing New Canvas - "Watching" - Cougar Painting

Testing canvas was the reason for this painting (any excuse to paint a cat , big or small.) I have a big project coming up and wanted to check out a different canvas than I have used before...15 ounce from a different supplier.  Here is a study of a cougar that I did for the test canvas.

This heavier than usual canvas had a fair bit more texture to it....good for where I want texture but requiring at least a couple of extra brush strokes where a clean edge is needed.  Now you definitely could sand down the texture level on it if needed while doing the gessoing.  But for this test I wanted to see what it would give me without altering it.

 I am pleased with it and will order up some more.

GOABC Artist of the Year 2014

 I have participated in two Artist of the Year competitions already this year.

The first one was due to a friend who purchased my painting "Seek Solitude"  to support his Guide Outfitters Association of BC and made sure that it was also entered into their  GOABC Artist of the Year Competition at their annual convention.

It was awesome to hear that it took the top spot making me the GOABC Artist of the Year 2014.  This is coming full circle for this painting as Mike was also the person who supplied me with the perfect title for this painting. His knowledge of Mt goats is incredible and I appreciate him sharing some of that with me.

My "Down by the River" grizzly painting was one of the top three finalists for BC Wildlife Federation of BC Artist of the Year program for 2015. This grizzly and I had the perfect meeting.......each on our own side of the river we evenly paced down river for a time.  It was a stress free way to enjoy being fairly close to a grizzly.

It is great to have my artwork recognized by these outdoors organizations. Thank you!

A Little Slice of Life Painted into a Little Slice of Art.

From the wet stones of a mountain creek straight up to the blue sky above. The long narrow format of a 12 x 36 canvas has caught my imagination. My last painting of a sun kissed raven was in this size but in a horizontal format but this one is vertical.  With painted gallery wrapped canvas edges it fits in the smallest of spaces .......well literally 12 inches, perhaps between doors, on a small angle of the wall. It is just a little slice of life painted into a little slice of art...love it.

Here it is from start to finish...well at least I think it is finished. Some painting take a while before I am sure. Title could be "Up a Creek" but mmmmmmmm....maybe you have some suggestions. Acrylic on Canvas 12x36 inches