Watercolour Series 2016

Portrait of the Artist's Son, 2016, with and © by Brenda Clews, watercolour on 140lb cold press archival watercolour paper.

Show at Arcadia Gallery, June 2016. Paintings © by Brenda Clews. From left to right, Sir Jorge and the Dragon (2'x5'5"); Glam Queen Ballerina (2'x5'5"); Consequential Drawings (2'x6'); Arabesque ...twirling, undulating men (2'x6'); and Portrait of the Artist's Son (4'x3'4"). Watercolour and/or charcoal on Canson Montval 140lb cold press archival watercolour paper.

Since I hung these paintings as I was working on them in my apartment on a rig for a video backdrop, I knew they could easily be clipped. A visit to a lumber store elicited 1/4" PVC pipe; I cut the lengths, wrapped them in black duck tape. The 6' piece of plastic PVC pipe, however, curved like a crescent moon and was in danger of ripping the paper on the long paintings. With hours to go before installation at the gallery, I grabbed an old shower rod from my storage, and dashed off to Dollarama and bought a broom handle! I'm not happy with 'the look' of the hanging apparatus' of the two large paintings, but am happy I was able to hang them! Barring frames and glass, this is a good way to display them.

The paints used for all the paintings are the highest quality professional watercolours, Windsor and Newton, Daniel Smith, etc.

In all, the materials cost for each painting is about $80.-$100., this includes the watercolour paper, many tubes of professional watercolours, and the expensive, protective layers of Golden's UV protection varnishes.

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Gallery Sitting @ Arcadia Gallery in TO Sat June 11 & 18, 1-6pm

Inviting friends and colleagues by email to drop by while I am gallery sitting @ Arcadia Gallery 680 Queen's Quay W, Saturday afternoons, June 11 and 18, 1-6pm, where there is a show I am in with Philip and David, first, the in-line photos were not showing in the sent email, and then I sent another email with them attached and apparently those were not opening either! How irritating. It is either Google or Apple or, perhaps, both conspiring as their supercomputers take over deciding who is to see what images in what email when! :)

So. Last ditch effort. A blog post with the images, and even more images. Here is the email:

Dear Friends,

I was honoured to be invited by Philip Cairns to join he and David Bateman in a group show at Arcadia Gallery, a small, non-commercial gallery at the foot of Bathurst St in an artist's co-op. I bought a roll of Canson 48" x 5yd cold-press 140lb watercolour paper and got to work. My portion of the show is what I did on that single roll of paper!

The Opening on Sunday was low-key, and wonderful. I set up chairs near my paintings and people came in and we sat and chatted for awhile, half an hour maybe, and then, when they left, more would come. It was one of the best experiences I have had at an Opening in that there was time to connect with everyone at some depth.

I even sold two of my small drawings, portraits done at poetry & music events, and commissioned two more graphite portraits! Both of those portraits will be begun, if not done, during the hours I will be sitting the gallery.

Please come on down if you'd like to see the show - the three of us are quite different as artists and our work syncs well together - and to chat and hang out a bit and then I can catch up on you, your life, and what's going on (my favourite part).

Here are a few photos from the Opening (photo taken by John Oughton) and iPhone pics of David's and Philip's & my paintings from when we hung the show. The final 7 images are the 'official' photos of my paintings, taken in direct sun, the full spectrum, and colour-corrected.

After, you can browse Harbourfront, take in whatever show is on at the Power Plant, enjoy the lake.

Hope to see you either Saturday June 11th or 18th, 1-6pm.

And hope all is well and you are enjoying the Spring! Such a beautiful season!

love, Brenda

Here are the images

            David Bateman's paintings        Philip Cairns' paintings    

                 

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Portrait of the Artist's Son

My latest painting, finally finished. Portrait of the Artist’s Son, 2016, 40” x 48”, watercolour on 140lb archival paper. It is in the show at Arcadia Gallery, which runs from June 4-19, and the Opening is Sunday afternoon, June 5, 1-6pm. Arcadia is a small gallery, 680 Queen's Quay West, at the foot of Bathurst, in an artist's co-op. The Facebook event page is here: Three on the Scene.


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