The Backpack

On my way to Yorkville, I had an adventure. When the train came, I jumped onto it, leaving my 20 year old leather backpack behind. Hundreds of dollars of art supplies, my jacket, the $400. prescription eye glasses that had been a birthday present. Finally at the next station, I ran up the stairs and over to the stairs down to catch the train back. Three endless minutes waiting for the train, then the ride back. I was going crazy inwardly. What a dumb thing to do! At Ossington I looked, nothing, and then waited for the train to move on and... no backpack on the bench. Oh, dear beautiful Torontonians, please. Ran up multiple flights of stairs to the ticket booth. As I went to ask the TTC ticket taker, I saw it on the floor behind him. Geez, I LOVE this city! People here are so gracious. Thank you, whoever you are, for your honesty, care, grace.

(The pic from the Roots website; mine looks a lot like this, since it's really never been used, though it is softer, and the tassels on the zippers are long gone.)

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Paris Black models at Epique Lounge on Nuit Blanche

Paris Black models at Epique Lounge on Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, 12" x 16", charcoal, acrylic, water-soluble oil pastels, triple-primed canvas sheet.

My Nuit Blanche Paris Black sketch. Worked on a little. I had sprayed the original sketch (that you see below) with a 'fine art' fixative and that seems to have created a finish that the water-soluble oil pastels do not adhere so well to. I added more colour anyway. It will rub off at this point, but I'll re-spray it with the fixative so that will stabilize it. What you see here is about as far as I can take the picture. I'm satisfied with it. A scan of a detail.




Paris Black, rock star, musician, artist, super model, artist's model on Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, unfinished sketch, 12" x 16", charcoal, water-soluble oil pastels, triple-primed canvas sheet.

First I did the figure on the right, but was drawing with my sketch pad flat on the table at the Epique Lounge in Yorkville, and so he was elongated. I had dutifully coloured it with vibrant blues, blacks and flesh colours, including his blonde hair, but wet a paper towel and wiped out the whole sketch, leaving a shadow of it. Then I drew his next pose on top of the original, but only in charcoal - with my sketch pad at 45 deg angle this time. Lol. There wasn't time to begin colouring it with washes. Hopefully this week I'll get to it.

A teacher from the Academy of Realist Art was there, as well as a number of other fantastic artists, like Kerry Kim, with superlative graphic arts skills, and my friend, Jennifer Hosein, whose work is strong and bold, so I tried for something spiritual, a zeitgeist perhaps. I do hope Paris likes my little attempt.

Nik Beat, fresh back from his trip to St. John's with Laura Rock, recited his poem, Unkill, and there's an interesting video of him reciting it in the old World War II bunkers in St. John. Brandon Pitts also recited some of his poetry - he is a consumate master of the poetry performance. And Paris asked me to read, so I read Dance/ ...indigo folio leaves, which there is also a dance videopoem of.

It was a warm, wonderful Nuit Blanche event. Drawing into the early hours in an extraordinary space, I felt we were in the best place in a busy city. It was our secret, this enclave.

A photo of Jen and I, hard at work!

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'LES CHEVAUX, a late night drawing extravaganza,' hosted by The Keyhole Sessions, a Rogue Nuit Blanche event!

'LES CHEVAUX, a late night drawing extravaganza,' hosted by The Keyhole Sessions was an awesome Rogue Nuit Blanche event! The offerings, incredible. Outfits, poses, the whole set-up, pure brilliance of the dear Madame, Sonia Barnett.

There was not a lot of time to pick and draw one of 5 or 6 ongoing poses, each with one or two models, since they changed every 15 minutes or so. I brought a whack of art supplies with me for this session. First I did a quick charcoal sketch; then I broke out my large set of water-soluble oil pastels and scribbled in colour; finally, I wet a brush and slid it over the figures so their lines turned into paint. I like to show 'the morning after, as is.' If I manage to further work on these, of course I will also post those whenever that happens (all my Keyhole life drawings are in a Picasa album).

Two Women, Keyhole at Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, unfinished sketch, Brenda Clews, 12" x 16", charcoal, water-soluble oil pastels on triple-primed canvas.



Woman in Corset with Fishnet Stockings and Doc Martens Boots, Keyhole at Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, unfinished sketch, Brenda Clews, 12" x 16", charcoal, water-soluble oil pastels on triple-primed canvas.



Woman in Ribbons, Keyhole at Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, unfinished sketch, Brenda Clews, 12" x 16", charcoal, water-soluble oil pastels on triple-primed canvas.



Two Sketches (iPhone photo), Keyhole at Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, Brenda Clews, 12" x 16", charcoal, water-soluble oil pastels on triple-primed canvas.



Four Sketches, Keyhole at Nuit Blanche, 29 Sep 2012, Brenda Clews, 12" x 16", charcoal, water-soluble oil pastels on triple-primed canvas



The Emotions Running Through It (Surreal Sketch), digitally finished, Brenda Clews, 2012, 20" x 13.5", charcoal, coloured pencil, water-soluble oil pastels on 90lb archival paper.



One of the many models; one of the many poses (five or six poses concurrently, which you can't see in this iPhone snap). Isn't she gorgeous? Because I was still working on a previous pose by a different model, I did not draw this one. Wish I had!


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Nuit Blanche in Toronto Tonight!

A night where over a million people flood the downtown core all night long for art! From 7pm to 7am the Arts Community in Toronto is ON SHOW. A fabulous all-night event with everything you could imagine, art shows, installations, performances, readings of creative writing (poetry, novels, etc.). It is a wild and beautiful night. It's sponsored by ScotiaBank. Here's the main website: http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/

The crowds who move from spectacular or intriguing or simple art exhibit to exhibit is mostly what I have experienced. This year, however, I am actually drawing at some venues - on Nuit Blanche, they are all free. They're 'rogue' events, not on the official roster, and not wanting to be part of the corporate culture that finances Nuit Blanche. (Keyhole at Twist Gallery on Queen St W., and Paris Black at Epique Lounge on Cumberland). But it's all fun; all intriguing. And an amazing production all in all, and a terrific boost each year for the art community in Toronto. If you're in Toronto, dress warmly tonight! And enjoy what the arts in this city have to offer!

Charcoal Poems continues...

Charcoal Poems, in-process, 2012, 5' x 5', willow charcoal, oils on double primed canvas.

And I was listening to Schönberg's 'Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 42,' Glen Gould piano, at high volume. My upstairs neighbour may have been banging on the floor, I'm not sure. After I sprayed the fixative on the charcoal, I opened the windows, and then didn't hear anything except outside sounds.

I promise to get a better camera. I can't believe how much my mother's recent death is affecting me.

Ok, so my 'influences' are Marc Chagall, Frida Kahlo, and Jean-Michel Basquiat (who I am truly into).
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Detail of 'Charcoal Poems' in-progress

Charcoal Poems, in-process-detail, Brenda Clews, 2012, 5' x 5', willow charcoal, oils on double primed canvas.

Sun shone into the living room, so the lighting was better than the photo I took last night. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get an evenly lit photo of the whole painting due to its angle, the size of my space, and so on. A part of me wants to leave it as part drawing, with lots of blank canvas, but we'll see what happens as I continue working on it.

Some notes as I responded to Facebook comments:

• These paintings are like writing. In the way that characters come to an author, I find myself getting to know the figures who have emerged and understanding what they are doing, what they are conveying, and how they are part of the visual imagination.

• The next painting will be stapled onto a stretcher - stapling to the back of an office divider doesn't work very well. Not only is the canvas a bit loose, but the divider tends to do what tall buildings do in high wind when I paint. It has a rhythm, literally. Also, it's too heavy to put on my studio easel, so I have to sit on the floor to work.

• While my mother's death is not an actual focus in this painting, yet painting is a way to work out one's feelings, which rise to the surface to be expressed and released... 

Last night, I added some orange, and then wavered off to sleep. My brother probably has already picked up my mother's ashes, and he trying to see if her niece in South Africa might be ok with spreading them there - my mother so loved her home country, and always missed it, and often said she would like to go back and die there. But we don't know if our idea is feasible, vis-a-vis shipping, or possible for her beloved niece. I think my mother's recent death came up in the Paul Celan quote I used. Paul Celan is a poet of death like no other.

In the painting, to the right of the woman (not visible in this detail), some lines from Paul Celan's, 'In Prague':

The half death,
suckled plump on our life,
lay ash-image-true all around us -

we too
went on drinking, soul-crossed, two daggers,
sewn onto heavenstones, wornblood-born

(With thanks to Pierre-Marie, Bent, Don, and Brandon [among many others] for comments which elicited these responses.)
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The Charcoal Paintings, in-process2

The madness continues. (See previous post for the fragment of a Paul Celan poem written on the left-hand side.)

A full shot from the greatest distance my living room allows; and a detail. Night-time, daylight bulbs. I'll likely keep working, maybe all night, why not, it's the weekend. :)

The Charcoal Paintings, in-process -a detail, 5' x 5', willow charcoal, oils, on double primed canvas.

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