Spring 2009

Happy Spring to all

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying this season to the utmost.

Here’s what’s new here, and if you have any questions, just drop a line?


The Roaring Game
Curling in Canada’s early days was an essential component of small community life, one which suited our landscape (and probably the Canadian psyche) well. It is not surprising that we lead the world in this Olympic winter sport. 'The courteous sport'...(website has the rest of the ‘story’)

The original painting is an oil on panel, 12”x 21”approx. There are prints available. Enquiries about the original may be sent here.

Other news

There's been a visual artist’s Page started on Facebook—hope you can drop by.

Under the ‘events’ page in Facebook you’ll see ‘The Other Canvas’ — some photos may surface as this painting proceeds. (I try to do a worthy project at least annually and felt this was a great goal, helping to finance a much-needed CT scanner for a rural hospital.) It’s creativity in action! and the ‘unusual canvas’ seems to have intrigued other artists from several disciplines too. (Not at all sure what Brent Butt might come up with, although I'm sure it will be interesting!)

My children’s book, Popsicles For Breakfast—the tonsil book, is now sold out at the publisher. I do have a small quantity on hand for those in need, and have been shipping these as well; the border does not seem to be a problem (between Expresspost and Paypal, the last book made it to Alabama within 5 days and both of us were delighted. But it might be best to order as soon as you know you want one—)

There has been an updo on my website. There are new pages; one has all the miniprints that are available, now grouped together. There are now two different pages for miniatures—paintings over, and under, 10 square inches. (Miniature paintings under 10 square inches are only available as original paintings, not as prints.)

The 2009 show list is on my website (events), and also on the newsletters to come. I've found out how to put colour newsletters, with links, right here on the blog too (the sidebar at right should have both kinds, the introductory one, and the annual update newsletter).

A sabbatical leave will be taken from Art in the Park Stratford for this year; the first ‘away’ show will be the Buckhorn Fine Art Festival in August. (This summer there are plans to take a course or two, do some portfolio work, hopefully extend some of the series through the summer, and to get outside to ‘push paint’.) I hope to be updating here as works are completed.

Following are some ‘art quotes’ and I’m so glad that so many enjoy them—I like to collect these, and pick the best ones that make me laugh, or think, and pass them along to you.

All for now!

Cheers, Judy

Quotes for the day

Art doesn't have to match the couch. (Penny Pennington)

How important are the visual arts in our society? I feel strongly that the visual arts are of vast and incalculable importance. Of course I could be prejudiced. I am a visual art. (Kermit the Frog)

Art is like frozen music. (6th grade art student)

To an artist, a picture is both a sum of ideas and a blurry memory of "pushing paint," breathing fumes, dripping oils and wiping brushes, smearing and diluting and mixing. (James Elkins)

Artists ought to walk a mile in someone else's pants. That way you're a mile away and you have their pants. (Joseph P. Blodgett)

Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary. (Amedee Ozenfant)

JM

The Art of the Miniature, Bethlehem PA

I have sent off several watercolour miniatures to the Snow Goose Gallery in Pennsylvania. Details of this exhibition:

The Art of the Miniature XVII
17th Annual Invitational Miniature Exhibition
May 3rd to June 13th, 2009
The Snow Goose Gallery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Cheers, Judy

January '09

Happy New Year to all!

Painting season is in full swing. I will jot a note here though before I forget:

The Lindsay Gallery show has begun and will run from January 7th to February 10th, at the public gallery in Lindsay, ON. Several brand new miniatures were sent along to this show.

Here are a couple of samples of the work sent there (you won’t see much of the detail though as the resolution has to be reduced so much for the internet). The painting of the piper is a (rare)self portrait.

I see that ‘Pickle Season’, a piece I sent to ‘Smallworks North America’ in Connecticut (previous entry below) is in their ‘Top Forty’ according to online votes. I note from their website that the other work, 'Pansies in Antique Creamer' has been sold.

That’s all for now, back to the ‘ground’!…

Cheers, Happy Trails,
Judy

November 08

Happy Autumn

A fine Fall Season to all of you!

News here includes the annual

Studio Art Show



Show hours are—

Sat. Nov. 1 11-4
Sun. Nov. 2 12-4

-15 South St. E., Aylmer, Ontario-
(here is a link to written directions (scroll down) and a local map)

Other news– Both my following paintings have been accepted at Small Works North America (curated by the Greenwich Village Workshop Gallery). Smallworks is open for voting; there are some very nice images to be seen there, and if you wish you can set up your own favourites in a gallery and give them a ‘gold’, ‘silver’ or ‘bronze’ vote. Enjoy!


Pickle Season
Transparent watercolour on Arches paper, 5” x 8”

sold
Pansies in Antique Creamer
oil on board, 4” x 5”

‘Relish Elgin’ is a wonderful mini magazine devoted to all the neat things in our own county (food, culture, recreation); I have been interviewed as feature artist for the upcoming issue which should be published shortly.



After the ‘home show’ I’ll be hunkering down at the easel again while the snow flies. It will be a relief, as so many images in my mind have been demanding to be painted. I hope to be posting here through the winter as these come to life.

Happy Trails, Cheers,
Judy

Art quotes’ for the day:

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. (John Steinbeck)

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it. (Claude Monet)

Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue. (Henri Matisse)

Art is a pigment of your imagination. (Darcy Gerdes)

All information, text and graphics, is copyright Judy Minor.

The summer

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The summer here was packed as usual with shows and wonderful travels, and I hope yours was pleasant as well.

I treasure many conversations I’ve had, online and in person, over the course of the summer. It is delightful to chat with people who are also ‘visual learners’. (I have often wondered what brain imaging might show, if done on different persons as they examine art. I speculate that--with some--the whole posterior portion of the cortex might light up.)

—the Maryland State flag (from the ‘Chesapeake Bay’ miniature, 3.5" x 2.5")--sadly, the low resolution for images (required for the internet) is not capable of transmitting the detail of the miniatures

Chesapeake Bay (oil, 3.5"x2.5")
However, here is a ‘detail’ example, which magnifies an area 1/2" high on the painting (it helps, but due to low resolution, can still only provide a small amount of what would be actually visible in the painting if you were holding it in hand.)


—the following miniature was done on commission and provided a good challenge
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Going-Away Dress
miniature oil painting on panel 3.5” x 2.5”

--from the Snow Goose Gallery in Pennsylvania -- the critic’s award had been received for the ‘Exploring By Kayak’ miniature (also 3.5” x 2.5”); the review was published in the newspaper there, The Morning Call (PA and NJ states)



—the ‘brush study’ painting, filmed during creation as time lapse photography, has been sold. The short video is on YouTube and was a fun experiment; I’m not sure when I’ll have time to do another

—there is still a number of upcoming shows in the fall

A massive ‘purge’ of my studio (the old horses’ stable behind the house) was also done in early summer. It now sports brand new shelving all the way up to the high ceiling, plus a clean, spare & freshly painted look. It is full of light (sparking the imagination in new ways), and the easel has a certain ‘come hither’ look. Some on-site colour studies from summer are lined up nearby; these are vivid reminders of the place and time and whole aura of the places where I made them.

Right now, there is that wonderful September light, quite golden and slanting. On the hazy mornings I see a landscape painting wherever I look, and it feels like time to get the ‘big brushes’ out, too.

Happy Trails—Judy

Quotes:

(in J. M. W. Turner's studio)Whistler exclaimed: "Don't touch it, the paint's wet!" "Oh, that's all right," replied Mark with his characteristic drawl, "these aren't my best gloves!” (Mark Twain)

‘The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. (Piet Mondrian)

Working method; evolution of a painting

‘Across the Avon’

Stratford (ON, Canada) to me is a place bursting with creativity and whimsy—world class drama in a wonderful setting. The image is the footbridge to Tom Patterson Island, in the middle of the Avon River there. I have seen this place probably hundreds of times over the past decade.

My favourite time is early morning, especially when it’s foggy and the sun illuminates the mist as it rises from the river. The air is heavy with moisture, and silent—sounds are muffled except for the splashing and calling of the waterfowl echoing across the water. There is a powerful sense of solitude and even a feeling that one could be very close to the Otherworld. (Fittingly, willows in ancient lore are trees of enchantment, and swans in Celtic mythology are often the guardians of a druid’s island home—or humans who are under a spell.)

In my painting I wanted to capture both the look and the feel of that experience. To portray this in a painting, in practical terms, first I needed an on-site colour study (quickly, as it the light is very transient) — and cameras do not capture colours accurately. Secondly, I needed some sort of photo of the bridge (to have a reference of the ‘draftmanship’ sort, such as how many braces on the bridge and the angles of it. It is amazing how easy it is to forget those things when one sits down to paint in midwinter.).

The photo is rather uninspiring, but gave me all the shape data needed for the drawings; my colour study was really just a mishmash of layered pastel colours but provided the colour data. I knew that I‘d be painting this in a fairly intuitive way, sort of feeling my way along from one brushstroke to the next, and so did a small 6” x 8” study painting first in order to work out any hitches.

I evaluated that painting, determined some changes I wanted to try, then followed up with the larger 11” x 14” finished version. The lead swan in the final painting was designed to echo the shape of the bridge—and to rise up as if to meet the sun’s rays.

Across the Avon (oil on panel, 15"x11")

This is my usual working method—to get the mood and the feel of a subject; then to gather the various reference materials, and then to keep tweaking and fixing as I paint until I feel that the image communicates what I want it to say.

Enjoy--Judy

The Art of the Miniature XVI; Snow Goose Gallery, Bethlehem, PA.

16th Annual Invitational Miniature Art Exhibition

The following three paintings are a sampling of the ones I've sent along to Pennsylvania. (The penny is shown below so that you might see the relative size of the works.)

Chesapeake Bay oil on panel 2.5” by 3.5”

Our travels this year included a trip to Maryland and Chesapeake Bay, and while there, I noticed the unusual Maryland state flag. It displays the Calvert/Culver coat of arms--one of my ancestor families who came from the Northeastern United States in the late 1700’s. Purportedly, (my several times-great-) grandfather Jabez was the chaplain for George Washington’s army. Of course I had to put this flag in my painting.

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Evening in the Smokies oil on panel 2.5” by 3.5”

We travelled through Pennsylvania on our way home. To me, the Smoky Mountains have a very ancient feel and a somewhat mysterious aura—I could almost imagine Jabez making his way north. I am sure conditions were very primitive at the time.

sold

A Marvellous Bean oil on panel 2.5” by 3.5”

In keeping with that theme, I also did a painting of an antique coffee grinder. I expect that real coffee was a luxury in those days. As I was painting I marvelled at the care and pride taken to build this simple kitchen implement—dovetailed joints and extravagant detail in the cast iron reservoir.

This show runs from April 27 to June 7, 2008. The address of the Snow Goose Gallery is 470 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA.

Cheers, Judy