Shaver hill

 soft pastel 11"x14" on illustration board with acrylic pumice ground 

June - 2008

“Rosie dips her brush into the dark-green paint and makes a careful little curve with it on the wall. She does it again, and then she does it again. Jamie was right—a monkey could do this.”  This is the first paragraph from a short story by Deborah Eisenberg  - Rosie Gets a Soul.

I am not Rosie but to some degree I identify with her leap of faith. I am rooting for her. I am on her side. 

The beginning of the second paragraph: “When the green dries, Jamie will show her how to add another color, and, when that dries, another. “

In my case I  pick up all manner of shades of green pastel to shove around on the toothy acrylic pumice ground to indicate fields in diminishing summer light. The light in itself is hypnotic and all the pastels have exotic names.
Unlike Rosie I don’t need to wait for anything to dry. I can add and subtract and smear and wipe and smudge all within seconds – the fresh evening air is subtle and caressing. This plein air experience is addictive – I begin to think I have a soul!

Celsius

10 minute gesture - charcoal on manilla

Our neck of the woods is feverish – Hamilton has a temperature and the Celsius is rising. 

No it’s not social unrest. It’s called summer. I’m the patient. What to do?  I could take a Tylenol or I could go for a swim – I’ll opt for that.

Victoria pool is a 5 min bike ride to the north, Ryerson is even closer to the east – Coronation is closed for renovations  (tragic) but Dundas has a salt water pool 15 kilometres to the west. Actually this city has about 70 pools  all easily accessible   by foot bicycle bus or car. There’s even our bay front harbor, replete with geese and a swan - lake Ontario with a stretch of beach and cottages going back to the 20’s – the water is still a wee bit polluted (steel factories nearby) – I’ll put a hold on that option.  

my young jenny and her dad



and a more recent young jenny grown up

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

low light midsummer's eve

Hilda's place, concession 2 

soft pastel 11"x15 on illustration board prepared ground

I remember meeting at this place in June of 2008 early evening. There was an abundance of rhubarb which  Cathy Gibbon encouraged us to pick. The next day I made a large quantity of rhubarb sauce to have with our morning toast.

Dear neighbors to the south, have a wonderful Independence Day! You have a magnificent country which of course, you already know.

state of siege or no picnic

George, balanced solely on his haunches held this pose for nearly 20 minutes. I don’t know why I called it state of siege - I could have called it marooned on solid ground or resistance or endurance or persistence or suspended animation or tipping point or god knows what.

vine and compressed charcoal on bond or cartridge - 18" x 24"

 Perhaps I was thinking of Toronto this weekend and the uncharacteristic unleashing of vandalism that occurred outside the G20 security zone during what was primarily a peaceful demonstration  of peace activists numbering as many as 10,000. There were representatives on behalf of Oxfam, native aboriginal groups, the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Save the Mothers in Uganda, etc - and as well a small malicious group of anonymously dressed persons in black hoodies known as black bloc. 

It’s conjectured that the so called black bloc -  anarchists, have no commonality, they could be anyone and everyone including  some agent provacateurs planted there by the police themselves.

See articles:

http://gu.com/p/2txz5  http://gu.com/p/2t2xq

Afterthoughts:

I was in Toronto on Wednesday  and cycled through a seemingly endless corridor of high chain link fence making my way west to where my daughter lived. I passed massive groupings of police everywhere, many on bicycles looking like fun loving boys and girls, scouts assembled for a picnic. 

I stayed over on Thursday with the intention of going to Robarts a huge U of T library for a book on Isaak Levitan. The library was closed – the entire university was closed! I barely made it to the AGO in time  knowing that it too would be shut down Friday afternoon until the following Tuesday. Then I headed back to Hamilton. That was wise because on Saturday Union Station was shut down and I would have been marooned. Marooned!?

Yesterday I watched a video by an independent jounnalist on Huffington Post,  Brandon Jourdan, I was immediately struck by how threatening and intimidating the police looked in their riot gear - visor shields and weaponry.  That was a transformation from what I saw when I was there on Wednesday. No picnic indeed. All that securigard, the fence, the 20, 000 police – the cost – a mere one billion.

Couldn’t the esteemed leaders have met, conferred, convened  through the advanced high tech of teleconferencing, skype? Too modest? But think of the budget – one billion - they could have saved? $$1B 

The sun is just

This is a cliché of course the young man explained to us in beautiful English as we stood in line, waiting for our bus to arrive at Estación Plaza Eliptica to take us to Toledo. He approved the dirty white gardeners hat David was wearing – he elaborated that in Spain they have a saying – the sun is just, it shines with the same cruelty relentlessness or lack of mercy on every one  - so a hat is definitely a good idea. 

wax torso approximately life size cast first in plaster and then ciment fondu

I worked on this piece for several months when I lived in Toronto, building up the wax over a wood, metal lathe, burlap and plaster core.

The idea for the torso was that of a pivot,  of the body moving around itself as in dance and specifically flamenco. Nevertheless while we were in Spain we didn’t leave ourselves enough time to take in any flamenco or bull fight. I was reading In Our Time by Hemingway while I was there , some of his stories describe the strange obsessive fascination this ancient and cruel ritual had for him.

I hope we can return to the south of Spain in late fall and take in some of what we missed this spring.

But not to complain - the time spent at incredible museums in Madrid and Barcelona swept us away!

two tree gestures

  

pastel 11" by 14" pumice ground on illustration board

I did this pastel two years ago around this time in late spring,  – an oak tree I believe which had an incredible amount of character, I ought to go back there – muskeg swamp beside the rail trail off hwy 52.  I remember how relaxed I felt, sitting in front of this magnificent tree without a coat on,  one of the very  first really warm days. I was able to sit with my materials spread around me as though I were at a picnic. It felt luxurious.

This weekend we’re off to Spain for two weeks, Barcelona and Madrid. Making a pilgrimage to Gaudi, El Greco, Goya and Velasquez among others. While it’s nice to look at art on my computer it doesn’t compare to the physicality of standing in front of the real thing. It’s one of the reasons I resist  working from a photograph I might take, which becomes a copy of a copy of a copy.

Yet I'm not going to Spain without my camera or my recently acquired ipod touch with skype. Oh so brilliant and yet mindless these gadgets! It seemed to take forever to get the hang of it. Yes, at times I fall into the 'oi' syndrome - the voice of complaint -  but then miraculously I recover into the wow and yay  syndrome. One fluctuates as it were.

gesture of a willow tree early March 2010,  9" x 11"

Kozawyk farm near Waterdown

pastel on rowney pastel paper

rest along the way

 seated figure carbon pencil 18' x 24' Fabriano paper

This was another theme pose. The same person who conceived of the Easter crucifixion theme  presented us with the  notion for this pose – he wanted to ‘drama it up’ as it were.
It  was a three hour pose with breaks for all of us to stretch and for some of us to sharpen our pencils.

So our model last Sunday was meant to be a pilgrim taking a rest on her way to Santiago. But in reality the model at the end of the afternoon would just be heading back to Grimsby, a lovely town to the south of us on the Niagara escarpment – where there are vineyards and wineries. And at this time of year - orchards of fruit trees in blossom! That indeed would be worth a pilgrimage.