Abstract Art Award

I recently took the opportunity to enter two paintings in  the online abstract art competition in the Light Space and Time Online Gallery. It is always  reinforcing when your efforts are appreciated by an independent reviewer. I guess, I might keep painting!!

"Artists were asked for their interpretation of the “Abstracts” theme by submitting their best nonobjective or nonrepresentational art for this competition. 

The art competition and the submission process for the artists began in April 2015 and concluded on May 27, 2015. The gallery received 760 entries from 23 different countries from around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.  In addition, the gallery received entries from 35 different states.   The gallery’s art competition for May was the 6^th Annual “Abstracts”. 2D and 3D artists (including photography) from around the world, were called upon to make online submissions for possible inclusion in to the Gallery’s June 2015 online group art exhibition.

Artists were asked for their interpretation of the “Abstracts” theme by submitting their best nonobjective or nonrepresentational art for this competition. "

"Overall Winning Artists Category – The overall winning artist’s category consists of the 10 Best Entries received from the Painting & Other and Photography & Digital categories. "

1st Place – Overall – Anne Neidhardt – “Reed Flute Cave 1”

"Painting and Other Category – The painting & other category is considered to be any art where a pigment was applied to a two-dimensional surface, such as canvas, paper, or panel. This category comprises the following media; acrylics, oil, pastels, watercolor, gouache, tempera, ink, line type drawings, encaustic, fresco, etc. applied on canvas, canvas board, paper or any other flat surface.

In addition, this category also includes any 3D art, fabric, mixed media, mosaic, and various other media. "

1st Place – Painting and Other Category - Anne Neidhardt – “Reed Flute Cave 1” 

Special Recognition

Anne Neidhardt - "From Space"

There is a slide show of this art exhibition on our YouTube Channel. This Art Exhibition and all of the gallery’s past shows are posted there as well.

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New Zealand as Inspiration

New Zealand has no shortage of inspirational sites for artists. Papamoa Beach in the North Island is quite beautiful. Close to the beach, this grove of trees caught my attention and resulted in the impressions of "Papamoa" series in acrylic on canvas.

Papamoa

Papamoa Evening

Papamoa #2

Papamoa #3

   

Papamoa #4

Papamoa #6

Papamoa #5

     

Papamoa Dunes

                

     

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About Van Gogh

And you though you knew all about Van Gogh!

FAMILY TREE OF VINCENT VAN GOGH  

His dizzy aunt ------------------------------------------------ Verti Gogh

The brother who ate prunes--------------------------------- Gotta Gogh

The brother who worked at a convenience store ------Stop N Gogh 

The grandfather from Yugoslavia ----------------------------- U Gogh 

His magician uncle --------------------------------  Where-diddy Gogh 

His Mexican cousin ----------------------------------------  A Mee Gogh 

The Mexican cousin's American half-brother ------------ Gring Gogh 

The nephew who drove a stage coach ----------------- Wells-far Gogh 

The constipated uncle ---------------------------------------- Can't Gogh 

The ballroom dancing aunt ---------------------------------- Tang Gogh 

The bird lover uncle ---------------------------------------- Flamin g Gogh 

An aunt who taught positive thinking ------------------ Way-to-Gogh 

The little bouncy nephew ------------------------------------- Poe Gogh 

A sister who loved disco --------------------------------------- Go Gogh 

And his niece who travels the country in an RV --- Winnie Bay Gogh 

I saw you smiling . . . . there ya Gogh

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Group Art Exhibition

Spectrum: A Group Art Exhibition from May 21-27th

North York Arts and North York Visual Artists are pleased to present SPECTRUM: A Group Art Exhibition The North York Visual Artists is comprised of a diverse group of members who work in a variety of media (acrylic, oil, watercolour, pencil, glass and textiles).  Coming from many different cultures and backgrounds, we bring interesting perspectives and sensibilities to our artwork. May 21-27, 2015 Opening Reception: May 21, 7pm Toronto Centre for the Arts, Lower Gallery 5040 Yonge St.  Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Thursday: 11am-4pm For details visit:www.northyorkarts.org/index.php/programming/spectrum-exhibition

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I finished the "Swimmer" series

In an older post I talked about a series of narrative paintings in acrylic that I had started. The first of the series was a redo of an old watercolour painting. It's subject had always haunted me. From there I continued to add to the theme, very much influenced by the colours ,mystery and ambiguity of Peter Doig's paintings. After discarding one painting, the tale has now ended at number five.

Steps

The Swimmer

The Plunge

The Boat

Aboard

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Signs of Spring

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Now's the Time for Basquiat

The first major restrospective of the paintings and drawings of Jean-Michel Basquiat is now showing at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Basquiat, was born and raised in New York and began his career at sixteen painting street art. He eventually achieved megastar status as he gravitated to paintings and drawings on paper and canvas and discarded materials found around the city. Unfortunately, at the age of twenty-seven, he died of a drug overdose.
 As you can see from the Wikipedia summary, his  young life was troubled:

"His father, Gerard Basquiat, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and his mother, Matilde Basquiat, who was of Puerto Rican descent, was born in Brooklyn, New York. Matilde instilled a love for art in her young son by taking him to art museums in Manhattan and enrolling him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.^[6][7] Basquiat was a precocious child who learned how to read and write by age four and was a gifted artist. His teachers, such as artist Jose Machado, noticed his artistic abilities, and his mother encouraged her son's artistic talent. By the age of 11, Basquiat could fluently speak, read and write French, Spanish and English.
In September 1968, when Basquiat was about 8, he was hit by a car while playing in the street. His arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, and he eventually underwent a splenectomy.^[8] While he was recuperating from his injuries, his mother brought him the Gray's Anatomy book to keep him occupied. This book would prove to be influential in his future artistic outlook. His parents separated that year and he and his sisters were raised by their father.^[6][9] The family resided in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, for five years, then moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1974. After two years, they returned to New York City.^[10]When he was 11, his mother was committed to a mental institution and thereafter spent time in and out of institutions.^[11] At 15, Basquiat ran away from home.^[6][12] He slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park, and was arrested and returned to the care of his father within a week.^[6][13]Basquiat dropped out of Edward R. Murrow High School in the tenth grade. His father banished him from the household and Basquiat stayed with friends in Brooklyn. He supported himself by selling T-shirts and homemade post cards."

His early accident and his preoccupation with anatomy which appears in some of his work, is reminiscent of Frida Kahlo.

"I don't think about art when I'm working.

I try to think about life"

The title of the exhibition is "Now's the Time" which has a dual significance.  It is an homage to Charlie Parker and his 1925 composition of the same title and is the the title of his huge painting shaped like an LP record and made from materials found on the streets of New York.

Invoking those words also reminds us of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have  a Dream" speech where he used the phrase " Now's the time" as a call to action for equality. Race and class, power and identity were issues his large-scale paintings thrusts at our attention.
Basquiat uses a crude style - a mixture of images and texts that he painted and collaged. Drug abuse, bigotry, jazz, capitalism and mortality are his themes, with the pervasive undercurrent of racial and socioeconomic inequality. These themes are what make his work resonate now
.
 He was very involved in the cultural life of New York and often collaborated on music, film and fashion. Andy Warhol was a famous collaborator.

Win $1,000,000  Basquiat and Warhol

One very arresting painting was of his skull with the urban landscape of New York including the subway tracks in vivid complimentary colours and black.  It is at the same time a forlorn and violent image.
 

Basquiat was very affected by the death of Michael Stewart -  an artist, who was beaten by police for allegedly doing graffiti in the subway. He subsequently died.
 " It could have been me. It could have been me." He later produced this painting which speaks very much to incidents with which we have become familiar today:

The paintings require time and thought. They are not easily accessible. I comfort myself with a  quotation from Oscar Wilde: "The moment you understand a great work of art it's dead for you."
As a result I am going to watch this movie:

Some suggestions: 

https://michiganjournalhistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/dragovic.pdf 

(an interpretation of nine paintings)

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/11/jean-michel-basquiat

 (an interview and personal details about Jean-Michel)

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Peter Doig and Me

I recently attended a workshop and presentation on the art of Peter Doig. He is a Scottish painter and being Scottish, I like to think we share the same artistic genes , however inactivated mine might be. He has spent time in Canada but now lives in Trinidad. He is one of the most renowned living figurative painters. His painting - "White Canoe", inspired by his time here, sold for $11.3 million.

Many Torontonians recognize his painting of our colourful rainbow tunnel in the Don Valley which sold at auction for $15.5.

 His magic realism and rather mystical figures and landscapes are interesting and create a narrative for the viewer. I am also attracted to his use of colour.

This painting is called "One Hundred Years Ago" and again employs the canoe image, but who is that woman?

"Walking Figure by Pool" leaves the viewers mind free to formulate many scenarios. The colours are pastel, yet rich.

My "brush" with Peter Doig has inspired me to try some mysterious, colourful paintings of my own. This painting is called "Swimmer" and is  a new attempt at an old watercolour that didn''t quite work. This one is acrylic on canvas. I feel I may continue this story with a few more paintings.
Comments please!

Someone once said: "What other people think of you is none of your business" and "Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does."

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Artists that Inspire Me

You don't have to visit the great art museums of the world to be inspired by a painting or an artist.
These two artists are creating art in the greater Toronto area and are both wonderful painters and excellent teachers.
I have learned much from their workshops and classes that I have attended. Visit their websites and enjoy!

An expert in oil and acrylic, Art Cunanan also paints brilliant colourful watercolours full of light and dark contrast. They appear effortless. A workshop with Art is exciting, as it seems that he won't be able to bring the "mess" on the paper to a beautiful conclusion. He always does with plenty of laughs throughout the whole process.

See more paintings at  http://www.artbcunanan.com/

Doug Mays is also a watercolour artist. He  paints in a loose impressionistic style, much envied by his students who want to "loosen up" their painting style.

Enjoy a painting demonstration with Doug on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5C5KfZVk1w

See more paintings at http://www.arrowsinthequiver.com/index.html

See my paintings: http://www.anneneidhardtart.com

When I am not painting

When I am not painting, one of my volunteer activities is at  the Aphasia Institute in Toronto. ‘Aphasia’ is an acquired disorder caused by damage to the brain from either a stroke, brain tumour or brain injury. This condition affects more than 100,000 Canadians today. Aphasia can deprive the affected person of the ability to speak, read, write or understand the speech of others. Language skills are affected, not competence, but all too often those with aphasia are discounted as incompetent because people lack the necessary skills to help them be understood.

The Aphasia Institute is a community-based centre of excellence that helps people express themselves to the world around them. It also assists people with aphasia and their families to find new ways to re-join life’s conversation and thereby reduce isolation. There are a variety of ongoing programs - all designed to encourage community involvement and social exchange. 

As an artist, I am very inspired by the group of members that participate in the art program. Most have never painted before, some have had to learn to use their non-dominant hand as a result of stroke, and all have aphasia in varying degrees. Alex, one of our members,in spite of language difficulty and some physical deficit,  has found a new way of expression in photography and now painting. 

Making art is such a wonderful way to communicate when the right words may fail you!  I admire the energy and fearlessness of Alex  as he finds new pathways to enjoy life. As you can see from the paintings, his talent is also to be admired.

Thank you to Alex for sharing his work with all of us. For more information about the Aphasia Institute go to www.aphasia.ca

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