Completing the Circle A creative journey of a life time.

 

Spontaneous Combustion, 36" X 72", tryptych, oil

Throughout my artistic life, from the time I was a young adult, I craved to find the center of my heart, my truth and my passion,...through art. Looking at great art took my breath away and I wondered if I would be able to ever make incredibly beautiful art, as others had done before me. Would I ever create art that took someones' breath away?

In this time of copying photographs, competitions and the pressure to be "successful" (whatever that means?!?-that's another blog post), how can my only reason for painting be to take someones' breath away? It's so easy to be swept away by the pressures of promotion. 

I've had some personal and professional goals that I wanted to accomplish in my lifetime. It's been the reality of life to put other peoples' needs ahead of your own. I have no regrets -- Mom, girls. While running around in life for others', my imagination would run wild, thinking up all the ways I could take my own breath away, creating beauty. 

I did have the choice to not teach, and just get really ambitious with my painting, but that would have been so much pressure, and let's face it, many people will agree -- Once you start selling your artwork and working with galleries or even just the buying public, the pressure to sell can change who you are and what you say in your art. 

So I could be angry that it's taken this long to realize the dream,.. but it's been happening,...slowly,...for a very long time. It's hard to say I've finally landed, at the tender age of 62. 

This spring was a very busy challenging time. I'm still renovating my house. This year, I painted the exterior (stucco!-not easy!), parged the retaining wall and foundation, and much more! Teaching, public art commissions, and private art commissions all kept me hopping til the end of July.  Then life took a turn and I began a journey into landscape that I had been planning for a long time. 

Spontaneous Combustion,...a starting place. 

I've always been turned on by mosaic, geometry, math, and their place within art. So splitting the picture plane arbitrarily, based more on intuition and less on logic was a very new place for me to go. 

These 4 girls were found at the local public pier in Shanty bay. They were having a ball jumping into the water together. My thing, painting the figure in unusual positions, them  all jumping together. magic! I am thrilled with how the water turned out and feel this expresses more about what I wanted to say, than a realistic painting. The colours create the excitement. 

It was kind of crazy, after not painting anything important for months, to start with a 18 square foot painting, but this is what my intuition was telling me to do. Over the years, I have learnt to trust my intuition. 

French River Rock, 22 X 28 $1350.00

The next piece I started was French River Rocks. I knew I wanted to  follow the contour lines that were in the rock, creating a division of the rockface. But it was what I did in the water that I feel was such an interesting contrast to the organic lines in the rock treatment. I was thrilled with the water when this happened and love the contrast between the rock and water. 

I've described the first two paintings in this series, which I am calling New Directions.  I'm closing the circle and completing the goals and dreams of a lifetime. I've created 12 new paintings in this series since the end of July, and have many other ideas of how I'll be extending other thoughts and creative ideas into future work.  Not too significant, eh?

I will continue to post more about this series,...after the open house and tour, this Thanksgiving weekend, 2022. See you on the other side! 

Margaret

 

Avalon A tribute to my friend, Gaye Trombly

Avalon, 24" w X 36" h, pastel on sanded paper, 2022

I met Gaye in a pastel class several years ago. Her talent as an artist was right there, just under the surface. She had a light, jovial sense of humour, was great fun to be around and we connected on many levels in our respective philosophy of life. 

It wasn't long before I started accepting invitations to paint, and then teach also, at Avalon Orchards. Gaye bought this property to set up some type of farm, and discovered apples grew well in the area. Thus, Avalon was born, and it was a passionate endeavour for many years. With over 10,000 organic apple trees 

not only was this a going concern, but the view of these trees in their spring splendour of full bloom, was quite a heavenly sight to behold. I'm glad I got the chance to paint in this magical period on the farm a few times. 

Gayes' fairly sudden departure from this earth happened last November. She didn't see it coming, leaving her family and friends in dismay at th eloss. Last Sunday, May 30th, we gathered to pay our respects to a wonderful woman. People came from very far away to gain some closure and remember a witty, extremely intelligent, KIND, funny, and loving soul who gave out to so many. 

My painting Avalon is in tribute to Gaye, to remind us of what this type of person stands for. Love, and kindness. What better way to be reminded then through the beauty of nature that surrounds us all. 

Avalon will be on exhibit at the Neilsen Park creative center in Etobicoke, from now til June 18nth. It will then be on exhibit at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection over the summer, before it travels to its forever home.  

 

Everyday Sacred

My first foray into independent online learning began this winter with two advanced classes of pastellists, working indepenently on their own individual ideas and artworks, in an open studio setting. 

My job was to guide these artists to notice the frequency of their concepts/ideas for painting, to document them, organize them, and most importantly, to prioritize, let the best ones, rise to the surface. 

Many years ago, a student of mine from Tennessee gifted me this book, Everyday Sacred (thank you Suzy and Curtis). I knew, at some point, that I would design a course around this book. The concept is philisophically elemental for artists. To pay attention to our everyday lives, and find the sacred in the most familiar, seemingly average days. To find sacred, in the seemingly, at first glance, ordinary. It's all in your state of mind.

One of my jobs is to expose my students to excellent examples of great artworks, born fo great ideas. So we took the time to study and search out artwork by other makers. First, I would create slide shows based on a theme. It could be colour treatment, or subject matter. The following week, each student had to provide an example for another slide show to be shared with everyone.  

It's all about pooling ideas, and developing your own taste. Finding your direction and style in art is as simple as asking oneself whether you like something or not. Over the many years I have taught, I've noticed that students often don't take the time to simply appreciate the work of others. We have no excuse, everything is at our fingertips with the internet. 

I gathered students from Florida to B.C. , one of the great things about online classes, no geographical boundaries. We did this at night for members of the workforce and in the afternoon for my retirees.  

This was not a beginner class, you had to have some experience, in order to feel comfortable working on your own. I do have a process I teahc my students, so they know how to take an idea, create a thumbnail, choose a pallette and have some understanding of composition. 

For many years now, I've been involved in helping my students develop QUALITY ideas and themes in order to develop their voice in art. We talked a lot about working within a theme, but also bounced around a lot with different subject matter. I really enjoyed quite a lot of discussion on winter landscape, but we also delved into flowers, still life, colour saturation, with much discussion on ground choice.

The results of these classes has astounded me. I am so friggin proud of my students! I've seen so much growth, and know that everyone has benefitted so much, from seeing and hearing about the work of the other people in their class. 

I would like to give a BIG thankyou to everyone who attended one of these classes, it has been my honour and privilige to teach you all. I look forward to doing it again. 

B.C. flowers from Janets' garden.

 

Kathys' careful apples.

One of many of Vals' beaches. 

Miriams' original ideas of shape and placement. 

Cindy find the sacred in everyday

Gillians' theme of tulips - a graphic and personal approach

Risk taker Mikkis' Cottage life is sacred.

Audrey captures the mood.

Jennys' love of nature  

Margos' theme, of this sacred plate.

Leilahs' patience has won

Cates' realism realized. 

Julies' lovely and loose Fawn Lily

Thankyou to all my stduents who attended these classes,a nd to those who sent in a piece for this blog post. 

If you work in pastel and have some knowledge and experience and are interested in working independently, in a safe and encouraging atmosphere with other pastellists, please be in touch. 

As always, thanks for listening, Margaret Ferraro.

To contact me about coming into the advanced pastel program, send an e-mail to marg.ferraro@gmail.com

 

Underpainting: so many choices! No right or wrongs, just different effects.

Swing! oil, 20"h X 40"w, with red underpainting, also oil. 

Many years ago, a student gave me a wonderful photo of her daughter swinging. It's just my kind of thing. The figure, in a challenging position, giving the effect of huge fun, full of colour and play. Like many artists, I have a huge collection of images, and sometimes it just takes a lot of time to get to them all. 

So I thought I'd give a little explanation of what happened here, in the evolution of what if? with this image. 

It all started with the large amount of intense and varied greens, everything on the spectrum from blue greens to yellow greens. I've noticed in my extensive work as a plein air painter, that you need a few tricks when working with greenery. This was a studio piece, but plein air informs studio work. I think of plein air as the training and foundation. Plein air gives you spontoneity, easy light choices, and opportunity to try things and learn. From this learning, came the idea of making an underpainting in reds. Warm red at the upper left (cad red medium), fading to cool and darker red, lower right (alizaron crimson). 

What I've observed in past paintings, is that by contrasting pure reds against a host of greens, I can add a lot of fullness and colour harmony to the overall effect, which I thoroughly enjoy. Also, with the structure in place, it's very easy for me to add a little blue and purple in the lower right, and a few different yellows in the upper left. A rainbow of pure pallette. 

 

Swing!, pastel, 12" h X 24"w, with raw sienna underpainting, in oil, on Uart 400 sanded pastel paper. 

This was a demo piece I had the pleasure of painting for SOYRA and RHGA on March 10nth. We didn't quite have enough time to finish, so I promised more images as the piece progressed. The medium is different, (pastel), but the underpainting is quite different. In my work in underpainting, Many students read an artcile that outlines one artists method for creating an underpainting-You know all thos DIY art mags? They are very informative, I'm not knocking them, but there are SOOO many approaches to underpainting, and no right answer about how to do it, which colour it should be. There are no right and wrongs, just different effects created through different choices. 

With that in mind, I wanted to see what would happen with a much bright underpainting. Basically, the first one supports the value system already in place. The 2nd one contrasts against the value system, creating a light overall appearance. Making the light areas more prominent. In fact, when I wrote this, I hadn't included all the lights I wanted and feel the second piece could go much lighter. That's one of the reasons I wanted to try it. Although I do like the intensity of the oil painting, I wondered what the image would look like in a much lighter value range. 

I thought by presenting the two pieces this way, you can observe the different effects. Now, it's just up to me to decide which one is more in tune with my original idea and inspiration. 

Painting Algoma 2020 2nd annual Canadian Master Class in Plein Air Painting

I think the photo says it all. OMG. Colour!!

Painting Algoma 2020 In mid-September 2020, I took 10 adventurous and courageous students to follow in the footsteps of the group of 7, and see what they saw, when "THEY" painted Canada. It's been a dream unleashed, and I can't wait to see more of what "they" saw. I'd like to thank my intrepid students for their enthusiasm and dedication to do this, in a very unsettled time. We got lucky with Covid, as our time frame co-incided with nice weather and came before the 2nd. It was a perfect pocket of fortune. Sorry, we didn't have nice weather, we had exceptionally beautiful warm weather, with maybe one or two licks of rain, and I mean licks. 

The North Channel, La Cloche. A magic dawn, just outside our cabin. 

 Our trip has several layers to it. First of all, we were following the places the group of seven painted frequently, in the La Cloche area, and Mitchipicoten, just outside of Wawa, Ontario. Without a doubt, the highlight for me and many others, was the drive between Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa. Lake Superior Provincial Park. Wow. This is Ontario? OMG. So dynamic! I cant believe I have aged to a certain vintage and not seen Ontario, in my own country. Oh yeah-One more lucky, the leaves were in full throttle of change, bold reds and oranges, all the way to Wawa, where the forest becomes boreal, with greens, and golds only. 

 Let's start at the beginning. We met up in Sudbury, a town also have never been visted by me. Our hotel was almost right across the road from the Art Gallery of Sudbury. Most of us made it over there to see locally made artwork, before heading off on Sept. 17nth for our first destination, the La Cloche area. This is about one hour southwest of Sudbury. 

 WILLISVILLE MOUNTAIN 

Jon and Kerry Butler and myself, standing on a bit of rock, where the group of 7 painted over 250 paintings in any given direction. That's Frood and Cranberry Lake behind us.

 We decided to start the whole tour off with a very exciting bang, by meeting up on Willisville Mountain. Myself, my students, with Jon and Kerry Butler. 

Here are a couple of examples of his work, obvious keen knowledge of where the poet- trees exist. These are both from the La Cloche area. 

I feel especially lucky to have Jon speak to our group. Not only is he an excellent photographer and knowledgable about the whole area, he had extensive knowledge about where the group of seven painted, locally. In fact, the first thing we did was follow him, scrambling up a huge piece of white granite, to view the notch between Frood and Cranberry Lake. 

                                         

Our first day and first time being together as a group, scrambling to this remote rock, were the "group" painted many times. 

Bonnie knocks one out of the park.

I was astounded to learn in his lecture from the rock, that more than 250 paintings had been done by the group, from this rock- it bears repeating! Just astonishing. Jon and his wife Kerry were more than hospitable and I thanked them with the golden elixir, my homemade raspberry liqueur. Once we had our bearings and found out all of Jons'  group of 7 facts, we were left on the rock to paint, in any direction. It was a clear, bright day and in fact got downright hot out there. We stayed all afternoon, shooting pictures, making thumbnail sketches and paintings, in pastel, pen and ink, and watercolour. 

 Our day was toasted off with Champagne and cake because hey! we just have go to celebrate, whenever we can. Being around other people during covid seemed a joyous occasion enough. 

                                          Day 2 -- Boat tour, Cranberry lake, hiking to Grace Lake 

 Day 2 took us back to Willisville, where we were boat-taxied through Frood lake (much painted by the group 7) into Cranberry lake. We mosied by Carmichaels' cottage, still owned by his descendants, and onto the end of Cranberry, all of us taking pictures wildly. At the end of Cranberry, was a portage trail, which we took, all the way to Grace Lake (painted much by the group of 7), inside the boundaries of Killarney Provincial Park. 

                                      Just a weird growth on tree in dense forest during our hike. 

Quintessential group of 7 Pines and Island

Our reward for hiking in to Grace Lake, a la group of 7

We spent most of the day painting in that magical landscape, and magical it was. I enjoyed mid ground Islands, huge vistas of red covered mountains far away, and close ups of light and detail on trees, bushes. The weather, spectacular. 

Margot, soaking in

 Trish working it out in pen and ink. 

Gorgeous pen and ink illumination by Trish

                           Another gift on the boat trip back. Was this colour real? Stay tuned on this one,...

 By his time we're pretty exhausted, so Day 3 saw us painting around our cabins, painting the north Channel, pretty colours of maples in change, and whitefish falls, truly beautiful. I learned so much about the group of 7 on this trip, I am amazed, and hope to get to know Killarney better. 

Close to the finished painting, oil, 11X 14 by Ferraro

 Art Gallery of Algoma , Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario

Here we are at Art Gallery of Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie, being given our own special show of group of 7 artwork, from executive director Jasmina Jovanovic and her assistant, Ky. 

Here is Ky, public engagement officer for the Art Gallery of Algoma, showing us the back of a painting! They have 2 such paintings at the gallery. 

We had quite a treat and I'd like to thank Jasmina Jovanovic, executive Director of the Art Gallery of Algoma, for producing a special exhibit just for our group, on the works they have of the group of 7. We got to see works, up close and unframed (no touching!) as well as hear all about these works and the group of 7 in this area both from Jasmina and Ky. One thing I learned there, is that the group often painted two images, one on either side of the small panels they took on location. The Art Gallery of Algoma had two of them, which we got to see. I also got to see just what kind of an excellent technician Carmichael was, in smaller pieces, done with a very small brush, patience and impeccable precision. 

                            Driving through Lake superior Provincial Park, was absolutely amazing. 

Sorry about the fuzzy, check out the colour! 

One on many beautiful waterfalls

Many waterfalls, camping areas, views of  Lake Superior, and spectacular vistas of hills bordering on Mountains,  in vivid fall colours. It was hard to keep eyes on the road. (Once our tour was over, I spent an entire day travelling back through the park, hiking, taking pics and doing some sketching.) It was truly breathtaking. 

                                                                Wawa and Mitchipokoten 

Rock Island Lodge, the view

View from the rocks on our very private coastline at Rock Island Lodge. We had the whole place to ourselves, to paint, and get together to share our work. This was the more open and windy side. Many excellent shots of Lake superior were had. 

Margot, having fun with rocks and water 

Rock Island Lodge, a protected little alcove for socializing

The beach on the other side at the lodge. Nice composition by Hilary.  

A lovely fire our last night, before getting dark and stargazing

Did I mention the gorgeous sunset over Lake Superior? Pastel, by Carole. 

                 My personal view upon waking each morning, with or without ethereal morning fog. 

Did someone say morning fog (?) by Jacques. An artist observes and finds a way to speak his own language regardless of the setting. Many variations were done, this is only 1of many. 

                                              

 This leg of the trip, we learned quite a lot from our next presenter, Johanna Rowe. She's a local historian, who is writing a book on A.Y,Jackson and his meanderings in Mitchipicoten. 

We saw the cottage AY owned with a few friends, right on the north shore of Lake Superior. Once there, it's quite obvious where he got his inspiration from -- many, many paintings done on this small beach. 

AY Jacksons' beach

There are many waterfalls still in this area, and many of us got to paint silver falls (below, bottom), very close to where we were staying. 

High Falls, just south of Wawa, Ontario

Sweet and small, Silver falls. I could have painted this from many perspectives. 

Not enough time!

Margaret Stalker has been practicing her compositon and drawing skills. Look at this gem. 

Blueberry fields turned a gorgeous red.

                          Someone was bound to do it, variations on red. Colour Harmony! By Patricia 

 Fields and fields of blueberry bushes changing to red here everywhere, making for some very unusual palettes and subject matter.

In the Footsteps of the Group of 7-By Jim and Sue Waddington

Jim and Sue Waddington are Art historians, and avid canoeists. They started a journey of canoeing and finding the spots the group of 7 painted many years ago, and have discovered so many of the locations that they decided to write this excellent reference book. 

Many of us brought this book with us, and could see for ourselves what the group of 7 painted, as nothing has moved after all these years! It was astounding. 

What really impressed me is seeing a scene painted many years, decades earlier, that is very accurate to what is still,..actually there. It gave me a new found appreciation for the draftmanship of the group of 7. I find graphic artists make a seemless transformation over to fine art. Much design practise can serve your fine art side. The views I saw in general all reminded me constantly of group of 7 paintings. I can see how excellent designing skill helps makes the most of what is actually there. For example, the black spruce trees that are typical of Algoma. The group would use these as a design element that "anchored" paintings ,texture, cushioning values and colours, generally providing fullness to these natural scenes. In my own teaching, especially plein air, I often instruct to take objects out if they don't serve your composition. It was obvious from observing the scene of one famous painting after another, that the group did not do that. They painted everything in, but found excellent compositions to work from with accuracy. 

Look at the light on the rocks. Really feeling the reflections too. Thanks to Bev for this one. 

                              WIP, Frood Lake Magic, oil by Ferraro, I'm working a large oil of it now.

Capturing the movement of water. magical. Vivid splashing water. Thanks Betty!

 AS with all my trips, there was a multitude of different subjects and different scenes to paint. I find it frustrating in turning off and rejecting subject matter I'm not going to use.  We only painted such a small bit of what we saw. Time was limited. The fall colours are such a spectacular time of year, but only lasts such a short time. But it was truly a wonderful time, shared by likeminded artists. 

We were from all over Ontario, as far east as Ottawa, and as far west as Guelph, Ontario as well. Thank you to the hardy, positive individuals who made this trip such a success. 

I look forward to Post Covid time, more travels, and marvelling at the miracle of nature, through art.  

In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy and happy painting to everyone.