'Tidal Fury' inspired a cocktail: the Sea Cube!

Now *this is a review (the best! lol!): Tidal Fury has inspired a cocktail: The Sea Cube!! Tequila, seaweed, sea salt, chillies, limes and mangos, oh yum! You can read one of the poems, On the Beach (I performed it at RAW Artists presents VERVE!), *plus download a PDF of the first 14 pages - a good taste of Tidal Fury indeed! Sea Cube Cocktails anyone?!!
___

 

Self-Portrait painting nearly done!

Self-Portrait, ©Brenda Clews, 2016, 20" x 16" x 1.5", oil on canvas.

It is if-y to post something not-quite-but-almost finished, and yet I am so close to the end... the veil needs to be defined more, and the photo of the painting was taken in the last rays of sun in downtown Toronto and that light caught the paint at an odd angle and made some glistens that don't belong there. I want one side of the face to be becoming perhaps a white mask and 'that other' side of the face to be rather strange, sinewy, the skein of colours almost nice, but also like the sinews and muscles underneath the skin. A face lit by a light that is composing it on one side while it is twisting on the other and undoing itself in a skein of muscley colours. Yet oddly polished too - as if this is an ordinary state (which it is). A self-portrait.
___

 

VERVE Showcase was Wonderful!!!

      

Verve Showcase on August 25th was a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who came out - so good to see you all! The art in the room was fantastic; everyone was so friendly; the musicians rocked; the fashion runway show at the end was darling. It's hard for me to gauge how my performance went, but I seemed to have the attention of most of the people in the room, about 300-400 people at that point. It was an amazing experience to be performing on a runway in a mask and a headdress with my Split Mask and book trailer videos on three screens! (I stripped the sound in the videos and performed poems.) I sold books, raglan tees and a painting, which made it a lovely evening. The last photo in the row above is from the end of the night looking down on the floor from my artist's spot upstairs. On the aftermath of Verve, yeah, I'd say, a beautiful evening.

Cate McKim wrote a fab article on RAW Artist's Verve Showcase  highlighting some of the artists and offering a slideshow from the evening. Check it out. Thanks Cate! [Cate gets the photo credit on the 1st two photos of me on stage. Mucho gracias.]

The next night I was back at Verve Showcase to celebrate my niece, Tara's showcase! Took a double selfie... and we were lit up by purple lights!

As I made my way around the venue, enjoying every artist, the whole shebang of everything, what a great venue, Strike Boogie struck in the midst of transformation (that's him in the photo below), oh wow, wow! And Philip Cairns came, and, yes, he got some fabulous bling!

[A friend took video of my performance and I was waiting to meet and get it before posting. So I will be posting more photos later and possibly video, depending on how it turned out.]
___

 

Verve Showcase Thurs Aug 25th & some raglan tees!

   

I would like to thank everyone who purchased a ticket to Verve Showcase!!! So happy! Looking forward to seeing you all!!! ❤️ I will be performing two multi-media poems on stage, and will have an artist's display upstairs by the bar on Thurs Aug 25th. With 700+ people expected, it's gonna be a big, wild art party!!!

http://www.rawartists.org/brendaclews

Verve Showcase
8pm - 1am
The Mod Club
722 College St
Thursday Aug 25 (my night) and ticket good for Fri Aug 26th too
(If you thought to come, and hadn't got a ticket yet, you can pre-purchase right up until the event for a bit cheaper - and can also get a ticket at the door.)

I was told it best to also offer prints at Verve Showcase. But the cost of giclee prints, prohibitive, and which drawings or paintings to choose? So, I thought, wearables. Even I would buy a nice t-shirt. But I like sleeves! I found a local company that did raglan tees. Their reviews were great. I took the plunge. I bought 40 raglan tees in different sizes, but I'll have less to sell at Verve because I am keeping a bunch (for myself, and my family). The quality of the cotton is good, the print is excellent and the style is very comfortable. I hope to have enough tees to sell for the next year or so, but who knows, they may prove popular. These are beauts. Somewhat promo for my new book, Tidal Fury. The tees are for selling at art shows, though - I cannot imagine selling them at poetry readings! 😊📱❤️ (And I won't be too embarrassed to post this and leave it up, I won't.)
___

 

"My Studio" Ha!

"My Studio" - or what my apartment turns into when I am painting. I can't have guests when I'm working on paintings since there is literally no room. The set-up works, though, and I get paintings of all sizes done. These small canvases (16"x20"x1.5") are almost finished - but not quite yet - especially the one on the right needs more hours. I am very busy this weekend socializing and won't get much done, and these will not be dry for Verve Showcase on Thursday, but that is no reason not to finish them anyhow.
___

 

Close-up Portraits of Women, last one *almost* finished

Have re-painted this gorgeous face multiple times, and maybe finally almost there (painted while watching Bolt's astounding final race in the Rio Olympics). Tomorrow have to work on the eyes when hopefully the paint is a little drier. The flourescent daylight bulb in the studio light picks up the blues and accentuates them. Nice effect though. 16"x20"x1.5", oil on canvas. © Brenda Clews 2016

I did a series on the masculine in watercolours and so I thought, I'll do a series on close-ups of women's faces in oils. Oils are harder to work with in the style that I am doing but perhaps the end result is satisfying in different ways - these paintings are much smaller than the sizes I usually work in, and the oils are lovely, thick, rich and there's nothing like the fragrance of oils in your studio (which is what my living room becomes when I'm working).
___

 

Unfinished Self-Portrait, Close-ups of Women Series

Self-Portrait, unfinished (the fascinator has a veil that has yet to be painted in), ©Brenda Clews, 2016, 20" x 16" x 1.5", oil on canvas.

About 12 hours later:

The middle one not finished. The fascinator on the one on the right has a veil to come. Night-time photos (not the best). Close-ups of Women. Each painting is 16" x 20"x 1.5", oil on canvas. ©Brenda Clews 2016

___