I apologize to anyone who "might" have stumbled upon my blog for the lengthy periods between this and my last post.I really don't understand how the whole thing works really. I will continue to add a few more posts before "abandoning ship"on the project...time is to valuable to spend at my time in life by simply...."playing it away".I always try to work with purpose...and in hopes of sharing my findings along the journey.
I have been busy completing my first self-published book entitled "Two Voices-Paintings and Poetry" by A.W.Bruce Sherman.It is finally completed and can be found...and reviewed in the blurb.com Bookstore...or on my web site at http://www.thepaintboxgallery.ca/
I enjoy writing...but the truth be known...I love painting on lacation outdoors much more. I spent three days last week painting with my wife Deb and a painting pal David Kay in Algonquin Provincial Park...a world class wilderness destination here in Canada. Despite the fact that bit rained off and on each of the three days..our spirits weren't dampened and I came home with three creditable paintings. These have been "tweaked" with a few well placed strokes and value changes...and are now ready for the Gallery walls.
I do hope that this blog thing accomplishes something...for someone. If not...Hey! Nothing gained ...nothin' lost in the trying! I'll add some pix on the next posting! Stay tuned...or please do tune in!
Cheers!
Bruce
Friday, July 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Starting Your Journey or...Playing With Pencils
Our earliest Art experiences likely began with available household drawing tools... pencil to crayons and then to tempera or poster paints in our primary education. Usually , primary school experience is rich in opportunities to express ourselves with paint. However by senior grades (in Canada at least)...these opportunities begin to dry up, due in my opinion to inadequate teacher interest and training. The curriculum focus tends to be directed towards accommodating and achieving literacy and the aptitudes in the sciences.The system totally ignores any attention to integrating the Arts into this curriculum package to prepare students to make choices and course selection decisions in highschool that might lead to developing skills and interest in pursuing career opportunities for post secondary education...and life.
It is highly likely that your last art activity involved pencil exploration, so in my opinion it seems a good place to begin your new independent study program. This path also involves minimal costs to begin...requiring only a small number of pencils of varying lead thicknesses, a sketchbook and a variety of erasers.A purchase involving acquiring HB, 2B and 4B drawing pencils ...a 8x10 inch sketchbook....a soft white and a kneadable eraser will provide all the kit you will require to begin.
"First you have to think a think. Then put a line around it."
-Arthur Lismer
A Fool in Paradise
By Doris McCarthy
All that remains...is to BEGIN ! My advice is to just begin...not being concerned by the quality of what you produce...or about what you choose to sketch. Sketch whatever interests you around you...at home...at lunch...while waiting for transportation. Just keep making as many quick sketches as you can DAILY! I really mean PLAY with the pencils!!! At the end of a week's sketching....select your favourite sketch and have another try at it using your first sketch as your "model."Refine it... do a few versions of it ,until you get a feel for the object. Work loosely...and lightly! Try not to treat your grip on the pencil in the same manner that you might sign your name. Drawing IS NOT a writing task!
Set up still life activities which retain their position and therefore allow you to revisit your subject from the same perspective.Work with geometric shapes such as a box...a ball...a can or cylinder. Make a still life incorporating these shapes so that they overlap each other. Try sketching this setup using different vantage points.You can add a lamp to provide stronger lighting effects and shadows to create more interest and drama.
After a week or two, you are probably at a point where you could profit from reading a book which offers drawing instruction... there are a great many reasonably priced books to choose from in good book or art stores. Choose one that you can follow easily...one which offers clear and graphic support. Most of these offer exercises that you can complete at the end of one chapter.
Drawing is the underpinning and foundation for all great art and design. Without good draughtsmanship no painting can succeed.The last stage is to search for a local artist, group or school where you can begin a more intensive exploration of the drawing process in your own journey.
Sketch away!...Have fun!...and spend time ..... LOOKING EQUALLY between the subject and the sketch itself. Explore with line freely...and with imagination! Take risks!
It is highly likely that your last art activity involved pencil exploration, so in my opinion it seems a good place to begin your new independent study program. This path also involves minimal costs to begin...requiring only a small number of pencils of varying lead thicknesses, a sketchbook and a variety of erasers.A purchase involving acquiring HB, 2B and 4B drawing pencils ...a 8x10 inch sketchbook....a soft white and a kneadable eraser will provide all the kit you will require to begin.
"First you have to think a think. Then put a line around it."
-Arthur Lismer
A Fool in Paradise
By Doris McCarthy
All that remains...is to BEGIN ! My advice is to just begin...not being concerned by the quality of what you produce...or about what you choose to sketch. Sketch whatever interests you around you...at home...at lunch...while waiting for transportation. Just keep making as many quick sketches as you can DAILY! I really mean PLAY with the pencils!!! At the end of a week's sketching....select your favourite sketch and have another try at it using your first sketch as your "model."Refine it... do a few versions of it ,until you get a feel for the object. Work loosely...and lightly! Try not to treat your grip on the pencil in the same manner that you might sign your name. Drawing IS NOT a writing task!
Set up still life activities which retain their position and therefore allow you to revisit your subject from the same perspective.Work with geometric shapes such as a box...a ball...a can or cylinder. Make a still life incorporating these shapes so that they overlap each other. Try sketching this setup using different vantage points.You can add a lamp to provide stronger lighting effects and shadows to create more interest and drama.
After a week or two, you are probably at a point where you could profit from reading a book which offers drawing instruction... there are a great many reasonably priced books to choose from in good book or art stores. Choose one that you can follow easily...one which offers clear and graphic support. Most of these offer exercises that you can complete at the end of one chapter.
Drawing is the underpinning and foundation for all great art and design. Without good draughtsmanship no painting can succeed.The last stage is to search for a local artist, group or school where you can begin a more intensive exploration of the drawing process in your own journey.
Sketch away!...Have fun!...and spend time ..... LOOKING EQUALLY between the subject and the sketch itself. Explore with line freely...and with imagination! Take risks!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Living in Today
Living in "Today"...means exactly that to me. Too many of my artist friends retreat to the past...choosing to substitute reminiscing for actively pursuing new experiences...and embracing change in their lives. They cut themselves off from the world they actively and productively created and choose "play" versus the challenge and risking that comes from continuing to dream...and to discover "Who"... they might become.
I recently spent a weekend in February at a winter gathering of longtime painting friends with my mentor...Poul Thrane...who introduced me to outdoor painting...long before the coined phrase "plein air painter" became a credential for "high" art.Poul is now 84 years young...paints with the same vigour and fire as he did when we first start painting together thirty years ago. However today...he paints from the warmth and comfort of his van...but still...his studio is the outdoors.Nothing has faded...or heightened for that matter in his ouevre. It is simply...eloquently...constantly...
uniquely...Poul Thrane! He continues to teach by example...generously critiquing and guiding
his friends to encourage their own journeys of creative discovery....still enjoined with them in the creative dance of Living!
It is his indomitable spirit...his "joie-de-vivre"...and his dedication to his Art which allows "Me"
to journey in parallel with him...albeit...at a distance physically...yet "easel --to-easel" spiritually.
I conduct my own journey on my own terms...but I have gleaned basic tenets from his journey
that enrich my own. I have sold countless paintings in my lifetime...but those monetary "dividends"will never approach the value of the friendship of mentors like Poul. My daughter Allison's highschool art teacher,Berkley Breene...her mentor and my friend passed away two years ago ...succumbing (in body)to cancer.His funeral was a civic celebration rather than a mournful, tragic dirge. I will borrow his very last mouthful of words to his family at his passing to end this post. It reflects both his... and my own "take" on living in "Today."
"I am blessed."
Much Peace...Stay tuned!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
"Seeing"....simply!
As young children...all of us view the world "straight on"...with a fully frontal perspective and our "first language" in terms of symbols...is described in our picture-making. Our feelings happy, or sad are expressed with no hesitation or fear of rejection...in a personal palette of colours which we choose out of our own preferences. Our subjects are the important things about us in our still very limited world...and need no "rules"... classification or formulae to guide the creative process.How pure , simple...and joyful is that period in EACH ONE our early childhood lives!How sad that by the time we reach adolescence...that joy and creative feeling has vanished...forever in the greater population of adults.
I can't tell you the number of times I have had grown adult men and women say:" I can't even draw a stick man" or...I haven't got a creative bone in my body."As well, they seem unable to recognize that true creativity is not reserved just for visual art expression.Yet where individuals are willing to risk returning to their creative journey in visually expressing themselves...I find that most all not only find a level of achievement they had never dreamed of... but they regain a level of self-esteem they had earlier believed the could never have thought possible for themselves.
As in all situations in life where individuals wish to change an area of their lives,there must be clearly seen a strong need by the individual to seek that change and a willingness to receive advice and to risk persevering beyond a lack of success in the past. I liken that process to: learning to print individual letters of the alphabet in both cases...proceeding to associating sounds to each letter...followed to joining those letters into meaningful vocabulary..then to the making of phrases , sentences and paragraphs...and finally to the creation of stories, essays, prose, poems and other creative language forms of expression.
What I am trying to say is that any person open to instruction and practice can work through the basic creative building blocks towards making a creditable picture or painting. However, I am also stating that most people who undertake the challenge of visual expression can hardly expect to reach or surpass the level picture making that their mentor or teacher has acquired,dedicating an entire life to that end. What they can achieve is a vast amount of personal pleasure and a new and bold adventure which will enrich their lives beyond their wildest dreams.
"Truly Seeing"
Truly "seeing"....involves a lot more than simply looking. Looking is usually a temporary,or cursory act simply to observe briefly...and then carry on. "Seeing"...on the other hand... to me necessitates a lengthier time given to analyzing,comparing,measuring,evaluating to truly"understand"...rather than just to observe.
This skill is most important in my own estimate to both beginning and sustaining the ongoing "education"path that any person must follow to increase their artistic expression. For some of us,it is an innate part of our personality. We are often viewed as "too curious"......"day dreamers"...."not paying attention"..."off in our own little world"...ALL of which are true!
Basically, we all learn through four sensory channels: sight,hearing,taste and touch.Ideally, we should incorporate a balanced combination of all four to be successful in social situations...most especially in school. Unfortunately, we are all products of school experiences which are more heavily weighted towards listening...then copying what has been spoken...and then being tested long afterward to evaluate our "success"...even intelligence and aptitude for future success in life.
Only a fortunate few escape this devaluing experience. Those who manage to do so can thank caring and respectful parents...or a teacher or"mentor" who contributes the necessary interest and encouragement of the talent they discern early. I was blessed to have been nurtured by all three of these caring individuals."I" am...who you helped "Me" to become...and "I" am forever grateful for your gifts!
This skill is most important in my own estimate to both beginning and sustaining the ongoing "education"path that any person must follow to increase their artistic expression. For some of us,it is an innate part of our personality. We are often viewed as "too curious"......"day dreamers"...."not paying attention"..."off in our own little world"...ALL of which are true!
Basically, we all learn through four sensory channels: sight,hearing,taste and touch.Ideally, we should incorporate a balanced combination of all four to be successful in social situations...most especially in school. Unfortunately, we are all products of school experiences which are more heavily weighted towards listening...then copying what has been spoken...and then being tested long afterward to evaluate our "success"...even intelligence and aptitude for future success in life.
Only a fortunate few escape this devaluing experience. Those who manage to do so can thank caring and respectful parents...or a teacher or"mentor" who contributes the necessary interest and encouragement of the talent they discern early. I was blessed to have been nurtured by all three of these caring individuals."I" am...who you helped "Me" to become...and "I" am forever grateful for your gifts!
Friday, April 24, 2009
A Shaky Start
I spend most of my times these days working solo...especially when painting in the outdoors.Being alone to work with my thoughts and ideas is new to me really...being a school teacher for almost thirty years demanded that I "was always available" to help others learn ...and to reach their fullest potential.
I paint occasionally with a few close friends, but much enjoy communing with my own thoughts...and to move about freely in search of subjects that appeal to me on my own schedule.
Perhaps this might seem somewhat selfish to some...but with too many years already behind me...I cherish each and every opportunity to get "out there"and to search out those sacred places..."beside still waters."Each hour...with good health and good painting are amongst my richest blessings!
Perhaps this blog might be a way to share my findings in a personal and open manner...and still retain this independence.I invite you to join "Me" in this way ... to comment...and to add to my ideas expressed here on this site!
Cheers!...and good painting to all!
Bruce Sherman
I paint occasionally with a few close friends, but much enjoy communing with my own thoughts...and to move about freely in search of subjects that appeal to me on my own schedule.
Perhaps this might seem somewhat selfish to some...but with too many years already behind me...I cherish each and every opportunity to get "out there"and to search out those sacred places..."beside still waters."Each hour...with good health and good painting are amongst my richest blessings!
Perhaps this blog might be a way to share my findings in a personal and open manner...and still retain this independence.I invite you to join "Me" in this way ... to comment...and to add to my ideas expressed here on this site!
Cheers!...and good painting to all!
Bruce Sherman
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