Monday, March 28, 2011

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.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

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

Monday, March 14, 2011

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

Saturday, March 5, 2011

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