WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST.

BREEZE AT BAY
Be my guest in this episode at the edge of Lake Winnipeg where a breeze at the waters edge on the prairie keeps everything in motion. Inspiration is refreshing and today invites us on a journey through composition and colour.
An incidental green space where vegetation is allowed to wander and stray is always a favourite of mine. This one forms a billowing grassy vista that frames the view and inspires the painter within.
Incidentally we take a backward glance to the era of muscle cars and poodle skirts in search of summertime amusements. You may not be able to ride the moonlight express anywhere soon but The painting BREEZE AT BAY, 24” x 48”, 2014 might help you to reflect on the idea of motion described by the action of a loaded brush in acrylic, the challenge of rules and new roles for underpainting.
Travel in real time inspires curiosity and takes us on a journey through a blossoming landscape at the beginning of a new season.

The meditation begins at 9:40 In the recording in unfamiliar terrain. Here we find refreshment after a spring rainfall and accept the invitation to pause for a reflective moment. I hope you’ll join me to travel a curious path where we embrace the maternal energy of a former local in a Victorian oasis.

BREEZE AT BAY, 24” x 48”, Acrylic on panel, 2014

Heading back to the beach on the first long weekend of the season puts me in mind of a painting that lives in our guest room. The guest room is also home to my computer so the guest bed makes a handy place to spread out my written thoughts for a literal cut and paste I am low tech but I’m ok with that. During covid it hasn’t seen too many visitors so it has pretty much evolved into my home office. On nights when I can’t sleep I have found myself under the covers reading and waking up to the “Breeze at Bay” from a different perspective. I recommend it actually, not the insomnia or stints in the guest room specifically but taking a look at the art in your home from a different viewpoint now and again. Its easy to become blind to the gems around us when they are so familiar we don’t really see them.

An early work in acrylic and chalk pastel on paper from 2002. This was part of a series that sought to find the colour in an emerging spring landscape. The frozen ponds get a hint of aqua that heralds the beginning of the spring melt. Its a colour I long to see after a long winter of white and grey. It shares the energy of a prairie “breeze”, though breeze might be too gentle a term for this time of year?

So, back to the beach where this painting began…We have chatted before about Candian’s and their attachment to place, particularly seasonal places, I get it now and i am totally trained by the seasonal changes and the rhythms and routines we have developed around the weather here. Sometimes the weather is accomodating and sometimes its full on warfare between the weather and our plans or intentions but whatever it is the best advice i have received to date is to pack your layers and be open to what comes at you. My other strategy is my studio which has long been my secret or not so secret antidote to the challenges of weather., particularly in the winter.

The painting I want to chat about today is called, “Breeze at Bay”. It is a 24” x 48” acrylic on panel from 2014. It was inspired by a grassy vista on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. This breezy little meadow is in earshot of the kids summer day camp that has been a summer feature for beach kids for generations a little ways down the park. The meadow also butts up against the road into the marina. The grassy space is definitely an incidental green space. A place left to its own devices that has naturalized with native grasses and wildflowers that some might call weeds.

The prairie in bloom to the west of lake country in the Interlake.

From this vantage point amongst the grasses the view flattens out to the horizon to the east and follows the sandy stretch of sand that is Winnipeg beach to the south. Winnipeg Beach is a watery oasis, one of the largest lakes in Canada that is slap bang in the middle of the continent just a stones throw from the geographic centre of Canada. At just an hours drive north of the city the area is a quaint collection of cottage villages, home to generations of cottagers along its perimeter and surrounds.

I love the energy of the brushstroke. Sometimes i look reflectively at my paintings and think i should add or change something but then i gather my senses and realize each painting is a record of a moment and the decision i made at that point in time should remain.

The region had its heyday as a summer playground when the train line brought Friday night crowds from the city to play and party on the boardwalk where amusements brought summer weary Winnipeger’s out to dine date and no doubt drink. Those who had secured accommodations at the many guest and boarding houses continued through the weekend while others without specific plans boarded the moonlight special back into town at the nights end.

The 1950’s brought with it a new era that saw the boardwalk and its amusements bypassed by travellers who were no longer dependant on the railways and its restrictive schedules. The muscle car era allowed for independent travel that often ventured farther afield to discover new landscapes and new places to gather.

Breeze at Bay is a Prairie landscape. A reflection on wavy grassland in full bloom and in motion

The simple composition is divided roughly into sections suggestive of the rule of thirds. Rules are generally only suggestions when it comes to painting for me. I use these preinciples as a visual guide only. There is no measurement done here beyond a general visual estimation alotting spaces as the painting develops.

There’s always an element of trust involved in my work. Process is different for everyone. We each find our own way to work and what is most comfortable usually prevails. I find myself often working in stages and layers. Some artists are meticulous in their measurements, others have a fully formed image of what the final composition will look like before they even make a single mark on the surface but i fully believe each and every artist must trust their own instincts and follow their route through process.

The process i used in this acrylic on panel was to underpaint in compliments or in a colour I thought would be a compliment to the basic plan i began with. A water themed landscape then naturally is unerpainted in rich yellows and warm pinks and chorals in my world. Sometimes my plans backfire and the underpainting becomes a star that i dont want to shroud or lose by painting over it. This can sometimes make my work appear flat but it can also give it some energy as our eyes attempt to balance out the reactions in colour that naturally take place on the surface. Sometimes I get confused trying to keep to my intentions instead of instantly flowing in the direction the composition leads me.

In this composition you will notice an upper third of the horizontal image is loosely painted in a range of oranges while the bottom 2/3’s of the composition features a broad range of limes and blues. The exact opposite of the aerial perspective our eye interprets where subjects in the distance recede into blues and the warmer colour range brings the foreground forward. A swath of darker tones keep the eye moving through the middle ground and marks that reference the sunbleached grasses and seed pods that abound in the physical landscape, describe the action of the wind on prairie grasses. The prairie rarely feels stationary. Even in the winter the wind sculpts shapes and drifts to tell the visual story even though we might not be physically experiencing the action of air against us, and that’s probably a good thing then, In the summer when the prairie is in bloom and the grasslands and crops reach for the expansive prairie skies, even a gentle breath of wind with ripple the vigorous growth and create the waves of movement to this painting interpreted and described in colour.

Breeze at Bay Detail of my inspiration. It is surprising how rich the Prairie is in micro ecosystems. The resilience of these fragile species never fails to astound me. Infinite inspiration right here at my feet.

It has often been remarked by clients that each time they look at their painting they see something different, or even after a considerable time they realize something new has appeared that stands out for them. Often it is the way the light in the room is acting on the surface or it could be the action of peripheral vision taking us by surprise and surprising us with a variation on a familiar perspective. It could also be like my experience waking up to a painting from a different vantage point and seeing something new. I don’t think its un usual that our art shows us new things even when we think we know them. We are just waking up to colour in a new way and surrendering to the visual journey planned and unplanned by the creator.

You know I love to view life in the details. This little vignette shows that less can definitely be more and that a descriptive mark can be made economically in acrylic paint. This is the view I see while working at an arms length from a surface. We need to take a few steps back in real life to let the perspective settle and allow for the eye to fill in some of the details. The underpainting is the choral orange of the “sky” that i liked so much i kept it. This close up muddles the boundaries where water meets terra firma in the subject matter and also blurs the expected colour story of foreground vs background.

At the studio this week my time has been disrupted by an absence, unexpected travel takes us out of familiar routines and wakes us up to the landscape around us in new ways. You've no doubt gone to new places and found yourself focused on unfamiliar details . I think that’s what i do naturally with my curiosity. I am drawn to see the world in its interesting details and then to transcribe some of that into various aspects of my art. Remembering I am never trying to replicate the environment around me but to take a vignette or a feeling or a concept that landscape inspired and allow a composition to flow and evolve in its own way through my personal process from there.

Coming back to the studio with fresh eyes also has the benefit of allowing me to see a pair of paintings i am working on in a new way from a new vantage point. The absence makes the visual equation on my painting wall somehow less familiar so i am more flexible in my response to it and can see more easily what next steps i do or don’t need to take. This new pair will hopefully have a name by the time this episode airs, hopefully something that engages with the retro vibe their colour story is flowing with.

Studio practice is not only the work of creation in a painting practice. Sometimes studio practice could be called the work of connection. The WAVE Interlake Artists Studio Tour is a biennial feature. This diptych,“WONDERLAND:HEART /SOUL” was on display this past weekend, outdoors, in sunshine and in the rain. In this snapshot they offer a little context in terms of relative size to one of our visitors who perfectly contrasted the view behind her. Wonderland is 48” x 48” x 2 panels. Even in the rain they are cheery.

Well, that’s the end of todays backstory. Thanks for tuning in to this episode. I hope the images are helpful and that you are finding something of your story within mine by listening in to the podcast, or catching up through this blog. If my work or words inspire you please consider sharing the podcast with a friend or writing a review. You can listen to the full episode anywhere you get your podcasts.

This week’s meditation begins at 9:40 in the recording. I hope you’ll take a listen…and until next time, stay well.

Amanda

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