Waving a quick “hi” in the hallways and ducking back inside the studio to avoid lengthy conversation gets a bit tedious after awhile.

I’m opening my doors to share with friends what I’ve been doing in the artcave these past many months, in preparation for my show at the end of June in Montreal at Galerie de Bellefeuille.

“Varnishing day” or “vernissage” was a term used in France and England in the 19th century to describe the day before an exhibition opens, when artists would varnish or put finishing touches on their works in the company of friends and patrons. Today it is known as the “private view” or “opening”.

So tomorrow’s event is actually a  “Pre-Vernissage”.

Please join me Saturday, May 12, 2-5:30

Leon Phillips, Expand 1, Watercolour on paper, 15 x 20½ inches, 2012

Leon Phillips is a Vancouver painter who should be on the radar. His recent exquisite watercolors intelligently comment on photography, yet beautifully personalize that world. These works speak of human experience.

Phillips states: “These paintings were executed during a particularly difficult phase of my mother’s ongoing struggles with dementia. My time in the studio painting the Expand and Nest series were a refuge for me. Although at the time I felt my work was an escape from the pressures wrought of my mother’s illness, I feel that she is somehow in them — along with [painter Gerhard] Richter.

What attracts me to Richter’s work is the way he contrasts blurred shapes and areas with more sharply defined forms suggesting depth of field and the reflective lens distortions that we see in photographic images. The camera lens is always present in his work. Taking my cue from him, my goal is to reference photography. In these works I have contrasted tone, transparency and focus to communicate depth of space and movement. These contrasts suggest an image coming into focus or a fading memory.”
Please take a look at more of his work on his website.

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Painterly Realism Workshop with Val Nelson

Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria BC, August 20 – 24 Mon-Fri, 10 – 5

The strong presence of realism in painting today is an exciting affirmation of this centuries-old art-form; its resilience after the emergence of photography speaks to a continued interest in image-making that bears the touch of the human hand. This one-week intensive will help students inject movement and flow into their paintings. Students will bring a project or projects to develop during the workshop (bring sketches, photographs, objects for a still-life set-up, whatever interests you). The course will cover applied colour theory, techniques for rendering of space, compositional strategies, and discussion around how the language of paint communicates meaning/intent. The workshop begins with a brief overview of historic and contemporary realist painters, and a demonstration of tonal painting.

Tuition: $395.00 (30 hrs)

http://www.vancouverislandschoolart.co

Drawing and Painting Workshop with Val Nelson and Tom Ruggio

Study drawing and painting workshop with award-winning artists Val Nelson and Tom Ruggio in Tuscany at Studio Borgo. In the historic birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, artists of all skills levels have the opportunity to learn and create at Studio Borgo. Your instructors will help you reach your next level in one of the truly great inspirational environments on earth.

Courses with Tom throughout the summer months. Unique two-instructor week July 23-27. For more information:  www.studioborgoart.co

The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.

-Henry Moore

I will be teaching a one-week drawing and painting workshop with Tom Ruggio in Tuscany at Studio Borgo this summer, and would love for you to join us! It should be a very inspiring time, as we will be surrounded by reminders of the golden era of the Italian Renaissance.

We will be there July 23-27. More information is here:  www.studioborgoart.co

Please email me if this interests you.

all the best to you,
Val

email: val@valnelson.ca

Eri Ishii, Web of memories, oil on canvas, 2011

My painter pal Eri Ishii is really pushing the paint around these days, with her emotion-drenched but playful compositions. As well as at the Crawl, you can also check out her work at her upcoming solo show at Ian Tan Gallery, Dec 3-23, 2011.

Carla Tak, Untitled #26, 46 x 66 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2011

It feels like Carla Tak has one foot in post WWII New York, and that’s a good thing. Her intuitive mark-making is a stunner.

Carylann, oil on canvas

Carylann, who has a studio across the hall from me, has been slaving away for seven years on her own, and a mature style is emerging. What might at first glance appear merely nostalgic has a darker urban undertone which grounds it nicely.

Martin Greenland, Northern Landscape (detail), 2011, oil on linen, 48 x 60 ins

Martin Greenland, an artist living in the Lake District, is about to open a show at Art Space gallery in London (16 September – 14 October).

His obsessive renderings of nature are not just pretty postcards; they have an urgency that seems to speak of a world in decline that the artist is compelled to record.

Check out his amazing work in the gallery’s online catalogue.

Paul de Guzman

Anne Palmer and Andrea Taylor at Elliott Louis Gallery

Anne Palmer, Untitled #6

Andrea Taylor, Peter

I’ve just completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. In Vermont I met some wonderful artists of like minds. We visited each others’ studios, talking late into the evenings while we tussled with the various states of our practices. Some of us were there to make a specific body of work, some were taking the time to start anew. For myself, I was not interested in “production” at this time in my career; I wanted the time to step away from old habits, try some things I had wanted to investigate but hadn’t had time to do because of deadlines and professional commitments of the past eight years.  I wanted to take a big reach outward, even court failure–in fact, I gave my residency a title: Joyful Bungling.  Intense, vigorous, and puzzling, the experience endowed me with some new friends and a re-engagement with my initial compulsion to paint and to draw. This is slowly developing within me as I take time in my own studio back in Vancouver to develop my next body of work.

The American painter Philip Guston, in the newly released book Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations (2011, University of California Press), talks about reaching very far, and then when the work shakes down, it can end up outwardly being only a little more advanced than the last painting you’ve done. We keep circling back.

When I returned to Vancouver, I spent four weeks as artist-in-residence at St George’s School, where I spent time painting in the wonderful Visual Arts Centre there. Some of the boys were at the early stages of learning how to paint and draw, some quite advanced. The energy of the place was contagious, so I obviously needed to respond to that. The final work I made there was this painting of the grade eights in their drawing class.