2011 Holiday Art!

Each year, for the past several years, I've made my own cards to send out my holiday greetings.

In the early days of this endeavor, I first used a cartoon I drew, then I used my oil paintings as the starting point but, as oil painting is time intensive, I eventually switched to oil pastels on paper.

Then, I have photos made of the artwork and paste these photos onto cards. It's fun but labor-intensive, meaning I tend now to only exchange these cards with friends and relatives who send me cards in return.

For everyone else I know, I am offering the online version and wish you all the best for the holidays and the new year ahead!

"Hey! At the North Pole, we hold our Xmas Party after Christmas!"

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

BRAin a.k.a. CereBRAl hemispheres

I've been dithering as to whether to post this entry on my art blog or my fashion/design blog but, in the end, I decided to do both.

The photos show my entry in the Artful Bras Against Cancer fundraiser at the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York.  This is the third year there has been an Artful Bra exhibit at the University and it is undertaken to raise money for breast cancer research through the American Cancer Society.

My entry is partly a wordplay, using as it does the B-R-A in both the words "brain" and in the phrase "cerebral hemispheres".

I even researched the brain in my anatomy and physiology texts, to make sure I had some approximation of the differences in the gyri and sulci on the surfaces of the left and right hemispheres.  Although both halves of the cerebrum look pretty much the same, there are some subtle differences.

I also incorporated some of what we know about differences between the right and left hemispheres in the decorative motifs.  Above the right cup - which obviously symbolizes the right side of the brain - are motifs representing art (a crayon), music (a violin and a treble clef) and also in mirror and a heart.  And what does that represent?  The right side of the brain is where we recognize people, so the heart symbolizes people we love and the mirror the act of recognition.

On the strap above the left cup,which represents the left hemisphere of the brain, I have sewn symbols for the things the left side of the brain is best at: logic, mathematics, language and spatial recognition abilities.  This is why there's a small blackboard with both numbers and letters, an applique for handyman stools, a truck, et cetera.

If you want to see the bras in person - I have no idea how many entries they will have but they usually get a good number - they will be on display from September 26 through November 4, 2011, at the Center for the Arts, Amherst campus, University at Buffalo.  Hours are Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

You can also bid to win one of the bras.  Use the link provided to learn more and to also see pictures of all the bras submitted.
http://wings.buffalo.edu/org/artfulbra/

The 2011 entries will be posted soon so, if they are not there now, try back in a few days!

Opening reception

The 2011 entries on display

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Flipside/Behind-the-Seen

Time for another group show! In August, I've had a canvas accepted into the 9th Annual Square Foot Show at AWOL Gallery in Toronto.

The work is titled "Flipside/Behind-the-Seen" and tackles a theme I've tackled before: the ritual of the wedding or, more correctly, in this case, the wedding photos. However, to put a different spin on it, I've painted the scene from behind and onto the BACK of the canvas, no less. That's why you can see the edge of the canvas and the staples.

As with most of my work, this one is satirical and there's a lot going on when you get up close. The bride went to the washroom and didn't check her gown from the rear...the groom is very busy at the rear...so is the best man. And I wonder if the maid of honor is happy about what he's doing? And can you imagine their faces? All smiling happily, not letting on what's really going on!

I also had another revelation while painting this. Naturally, I've drawn on the wedding traditions from my own culture and upbringing. But I realized that, with most churchyards, when you sally forth onto the church steps for the pictures, you stand there facing the... gravestones! How cheerful! (I suspect this is one reason many couples choose to go to the park to have their photos taken!)

As the name of the show suggests, all entries have to measure no more than 12" by 12", so that is the size of this piece. Artists can only submit up to 3 works and there will be hundreds of canvases on display.

The show runs from August 6-21, 2011 at TWIST Gallery at 1100 Queen Street West. (near Dovercourt). (AWOL Gallery, on Ossington, is undergoing renovation).
Hours are Wed-Sat 12 noon to 7p.m. and Sun 12 noon to 5 p.m.

The opening reception starts at 7 p.m. on August 6 but be warned: line-ups of 1,000 people stretching round the block are common for this show! One consolation: this area of Toronto includes the hip Ossington Strip and West Queen West areas, so lots of great restaurants and bars if you find you cannot get into the show.

Post Scriptum, August 21, 2011: Just went and collected the canvas. One of the show organizers told me: "Actually, this work generated quite a lot of discussion among us, as to what was going on..." And a show visitor emailed me: "It is even cuter in real life than on the email."

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Undercover at Studio Vogue Gallery

Time for another group show!

This time, I'm taking part in a juried show at Studio Vogue Gallery entitled My Toronto 2011.

Undercover, Oils on canvas

Although I've lived in Toronto for many, many years, the city hasn't really featured in my work. This is the only painting I've ever done with a Toronto theme and it is set in the subway -  Underground or Metro to some of you folks overseas.

Ironically, the subway was merely the setting I chose to convey another idea (can you deduce what it is...?). It did offer the ideal setting for showing people, notably adults, in close quarters. Obviously, they are all traveling somewhere and, in this case, you can assume it's ON the way to work, NOT coming home in the evening.

Now, what are they wearing? Notice anything unusual? And, if it's unusual to our eyes, would that have been the case a few hundred years ago - and I'm not talking about the changes in styles of clothing, it has more to do with COLOR...

My Toronto 2011 will run at Studio Vogue Gallery from May 11 to 28, 2011. The opening reception is May 12 from 6-8 p.m. The gallery is at 216 Avenue Road, just south of Dupont, on the west side. (And yes, there IS a 216, if you see "210" a lot, don't think you've gone too far, there just seesm to be some confusion with the numbering.) The gallery can be reached at 416-459-9809.

P.S. Once upon a time, I used to worry that the fellow in the blue suit was disproportionately tall but then I met a fellow actor who is 7 ft 1 in tall, so now I know otherwise!

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Five to Six, Christmas Eve

In my sketchbook

("Five to Six, Xmas Eve" is now in a private collection)

Let's be honest: we've all left it to the last minute at times... Christmas shopping that is...

This painting is actually a rendition of a pen and ink sketch I did for my Christmas card one year.  In the first two photos, you can see the original sketch in my sketchbook and then the copy I made to reduce down to a Christmas card-sized print.  The cartoon influence is probably seen most strongly in the pen and ink versions rather than in the oil painting. (Those who like to play those "Spot the Difference"  games with two pictures can do this with the pen and ink and the final canvas.)

Copied on white paper for eventual reduction

My idea was to capture the absurdity of Christmas shopping.  We all know it's coming and, while there are exceptional humans who get it all done by the end of August, most of us don't because we don't know what to buy for other people.

Maybe it's time to change Christmas so that everybody goes shopping for themselves, that way we'd all get what we wanted, retail would not suffer from the lack of Christmas shoppers, and it would be far less stressful.  (I'll leave aside the issue of why we don't know what to buy for people we've known for years and years...  maybe we'd be better off spending Christmas examining why we know so little about those closest to us...)

Five to Six, Xmas Eve in oils

This painting will be hung in the Eccentricities 2011 Show, the 26th Annual Juried Exposition of Scarborough Arts.

The exhibit starts March 30 and runs through April 17, 2011, at the Papermill Gallery, at Todmorden Mills, 67 Pottery Rd.  Gallery hours are Wednesday to Friday 12 noon to 4:30 and 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.  The opening reception is March 31 from 6 to 8 p.m.

My work hung in the gallery

Some admirers

Part of the opening night crowd

Pottery Rd. runs between the
Bayview Extension and Broadview
Avenue in Toronto.
There is parking on site.

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer.

Wedding Ring

Hello... divorce present, anyone?

Wedding Ring

When I painted this, I partially had in mind the divorce rates and what these tell us about the "marriage myth".  Obviously, something has gone wrong in the last 50 years or so with marriage, based on the divorce rate.  But I also had in mind the highly stressful ritual of the wedding, with the emphasis that is so frequently placed on making everything perfect in an incredibly rigid way, so that people spend ridiculous sums of money getting married and stress themselves out with worrying about what everyone else will think of their special day.  So much of what goes on doesn't make sense...

This painting includes most of the elements of a traditional Western-style wedding.  There is obviously the bride and groom, and the Minister, along with the bridesmaids, parents of the bride and parents of the groom, and various other guests and relatives and, on the table in the lower right-hand side, wedding gifts (not visible in the photo, which has been cropped). You can see the white dress and veil, the bouquets of flowers, the flower girl and ring-bearer... The only thing I did not include was the wedding cake.

This canvas will be on display at Bezpala Brown Gallery on March 26 and March 27, 2011.  It's part of the March "Last In" exhibition which the gallery holds, from time to time, throughout the year.  Bezpala Brown is at 17 Church St near Front Street East in Toronto.  Phone 416/907- 6875 or info@ bezpalabrown.com..

I'll also be re-exhibiting my canvas "Rats! (She's winning)", which won the Best Last In; Jury Award at the February exhibition.  You'll find details about Rats!  in the January 28, 2011 post on my blog.

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Vertical Sprawl

I originally painted this canvas to be part of a series I was working on.  I had a specific idea for this series and this was to be the first work.

Vertical Sprawl

However, by the time I got to the point you see in this painting, I realized this was not the right background to convey the ideas I had.  So I actually started another canvas as the first in the series (this is still in progress and not ready for showing yet.).

Meanwhile, I had a finished painting and was not sure what to do with it.  One option, taken by many artists in the past, would be to sand down the paint on this canvas and then gesso over it. (This way, the canvas doesn't go to waste as it can then be re-used.) Gesso is the thick white ground, that is used over raw canvas to create a painting surface.  As I work in oils, it's always possible to cover over things anyway; this is why modern x-ray technology often reveals older work under the surface of well-known canvases.  Surgeons bury their mistakes while artists paint over theirs!

The artist at the opening

However, I didn't take that option and put the painting to one side.  Then I read the call for artists for Gallery 1313's Eco 2011 show, in which they wanted to feature work about environmental issues, including air quality, energy conservation, "buying local", and urban sprawl.  I thought this painting was a natural fit in the urban sprawl category and so I christened it "Vertical Sprawl" and submitted it.

You can see it on display at Gallery 1313, starting March 16 through March 27, 2011.  The opening party is on March 17 between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.  Gallery 1313 is at - not surprisingly - 1313 Queen St West,. in Toronto between Lansdowne and Dufferin on the south side of Queen.  There's a Green P parking lot right next door, and it's on the Queen streetcar route.

Part of the opening night crowd

...and another part...

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

From Above (Saturday Afternoon)

This painting is something of a departure from my usual "imagined realism" featuring animals in human settings.

I often paint from elevated perspectives, however, in this painting I am even higher up than usual!  I actually got the idea for this painting, a scene from above, in my own house where I have a walkway with a half wall on the second floor, overlooking the dining room, which has a cathedral ceiling.  So, no, I didn't get the idea when I was out and about, but more from watching visitors to my house walk through the dining room, when I happened to be on the second floor on the walkway.

As with many of my paintings, this one contains a lot of detail.  You can see who's bald and who's not, you can see how people have parted their hair, you can see who has a bun or a ponytail.  You can also see who's speaking on their cell phone... holding hands... carrying shopping bags... etc. etc. There are also people walking dogs. I'm showing a small close-up of one corner painting in this blog post. To fully appreciate all the details, though, it has to be seen in person.

"From Above (Saturday Afternoon)" will be on display from March 4, 2011 through March 27, 2011 at El Buen Amigo,  at 114 Elmwood Ave in Buffalo, New York.  El Buen Amigo is affiliated with the Latin American Cultural Association and includes a fair trade store as well as an art gallery.  You can find out more information at www.ElBuenAmigo.org.

(As well as this painting, I'm also exhibiting another already featured in a separate blog post, namely "Fat Cats IV: Touchdown?!")

The art exhibit at El Buen Amigo is to celebrate Women's Month, with International Women's Day falling on Tuesday, March 8, this year.  The objective of the art show was to feature many women artists, and I think they'd hoped to get more women out to participate.  Those of you reading this blog post, who are women artists yourselves, may want to e-mail and see if you can be put on the list for the 2012 show.  To contact El Buen Amigo, you can either use info@elbuenamigo.com or lacanewyork@yahoo.co.

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Fat Cats IV: Touchdown?!

One of the things I like about this work is that we will never know the outcome - it will always hang in the balance. Will the player with the ball score a touchdown? Or will he experience a touchdown of another sort?

I've always thought this picture - along with others I've painted - would do well as art in an office lobby... a doctor's or dentist's waiting room...on the walls of a restaurant...or in a private dining room at home where a good conversation piece is needed. This is a painting to amuse people and get them laughing and talking.

FatCatsIV: Touchdown?

I've used a lot of strong primary colors in this work, as I believe the use of color is important in everyday life, especially if people are selecting neutral colors for their furnishings and wall coverings. Of my other Fat Cats series, one is in a private collection and another may be in an upcoming show at a different location.

You can view this work at the Bezpala Brown Gallery in Toronto for two days only, February 26 and 27, 2011. Bezpala Brown's location is 17 Church Street near Front Street East and gallery hours are 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. 416/907-6875. This is a group show so there will be many other artists displaying their work.

Detail: Note the glee on the cats face...

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Red Envelope Show/What'sYour Rabbit? - until Feb. 13/11

"Now even the bunnies have guns!"

As it turns out, my first show of 2011 is at Hang Man Gallery which is honouring the Chinese New Year by having a Rabbit-themed art show.

All works on the walls - and this is a group show - have some sort of rabbit motif or theme. There's quite a variety of work: graphite on mylar, oil on canvas, acrylic on board, photography, etc.

My two works are entitled "Paradise Regained: After the Humans Have Gone" and "Now Even The Bunnies Have Guns!"

"Paradise regained"

Paradise Regained was painted several years ago and is part of my ongoing series of anthropomorphic works.  "Now Even the Bunnies..." started out as an idea I had, at which time it was more of a cartoon. But then it changed as I painted, into a pastoral scene in which a sinister development has occurred. Farmers beware; now even the bunnies have guns!

The Red Envelope Show runs through February 13, 2011. The gallery is at 756 Queen Street East, near Broadview Ave., in Toronto. Lots of restaurants and other shops nearby. The gallery can be reached at 416/465-0302.

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Images also copyrighted to the artist.

Rats! (She's Winning)

February 28, 2011: UPDATE! This painting won the "Best Last In: Jury Award" at Bezpala Brown Gallery. This means it will be re-hung in the show in late March 2011 as well as entered in the overall Latest in Art 2011 competition..

In this painting, we're taken into the interior of a bar, Anyplace in Anytown, on a Saturday night. The "usual suspects" are there: the couple on a date... the buddies having a brew or two... the gangster with his moll... friends and strangers having card games...

"Rats! She's Winning"/oil on canvas

It's all there... except the characters are rats, dressed as humans. I'm not sure why I decided to use rats in this painting but it may have been due to research work I was doing at the time, where I was reading a lot of studies which used rats. As you know, rats are used because certain aspects of their physiology and biochemistry are near identical with ours!

Some people look at this painting and see mice... although I've painted scenes with mice (now in a private collection in Canada), these creatures were modeled on the rats in a Visual Dictionary I have. Based on unfortunately close observation of mice (when a few took up residence in my house back in 2009), the tails and ears on mice do not look like those of rats.

Detail: Upper right corner

But, as every picture tells a story, all interpretations are welcome. Some of the details are lost in the photo; for example, the mugs of beer and ale on the bar, shown in the detail below, are actually painted with the faceted glass and reflections on the glass. You can see such attention-to-detail better when you view the real painting. All being well, this canvas will be on show at the Bezpala Brown Gallery in Toronto in late February.

Detail:Lower left corner

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

A view of Rats! in the place of honor

All images copyrighted to the artist

Busy Beavers

The painting I'm writing about today, and posting pictures of, is a work I have titled "Busy Beavers", commemorating life at the office and a very chaotic form of office life, at that.

Busy Beavers - Oil on canvas

In this painting, everything is an accident waiting to happen as, at any moment, the beavers will either trip over the telephone cords or bump into each other, sending piles of paper flying!  No-one seems to know what anyone else is doing, there is a lack of direction and all the staff are in reactive mode! But as this is a painting, a moment frozen in time, we will never know for sure if the catastrophe happens or whether it is diffused.

This painting won an Honorable Mention in one of the Fall National Juried Art Exhibitions held at Impact Artists Gallery, in Buffalo, New York.  There were entries from all over the United States, where I was living at the time.

A couple of years later, I donated this to a fundraiser for Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo and it was purchased by the theater's then-Marketing Manager.  I don't know where it is today, but I'm assuming it is still in a private collection.

In the photos, I'm showing the painting in its entirety plus a detail from the upper right corner.  As the painting was already varnished when photos were taken, there is some distortion due to the light reflecting off the varnish.

Busy Beavers - Detail

I think most people can relate to this picture, because who among us hasn't worked, at some point, in an organization that is an accident waiting to happen?


Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

All images copyrighted to the artist

Lunchtime at the 'Head in the Sand' Diner

Welcome to my blog about my art! Over the years, I've painted a number of canvases - some of which are in private collections - and plan, each time I post, to show you one of my completed canvases and tell you a bit about its creation.

Lunchtime at the Head in the Sand Diner - 36"H x 36"W

The first canvas I've selected is one that will be part of a group show, in late February 2011, at Bezpala Brown Gallery. Although I painted this a few years ago, it has not been shown before in Toronto, Canada.


One of the challenges all artists face is how to capture the colors, details and other attributes of a painting in a photograph. The generally held view is that you cannot - no photo does justice to a painting. Otherwise, why do so many people flock to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, up close and personal?!



What you cannot see in the photo is the myriad details of lunchtime at a diner frequented by ostriches. I've also included a close-up of the right hand corner, for anyone who cannot make it into the gallery in person. For example, it is not possible, in the photo, to see exactly what is written on the outside of the menu , but it is something VERY important - from an ostrich's perspective!

Detail: Upper right

This canvas will be on display on February 26th and January 27th and the gallery is at 17 Church Street, near Front Street East.!

Detail: Lower left

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

All images copyrighted to the artist