Decisions, Decisions

I'm in the process of making a lot of decisions. I am making reservations to go to Cill Rialaig, my artist's residency in Ireland in October. Afterwards, I'll travel on to Scotland to visit my relatives who live near Aberdeen. Then I'll go to the island of Iona for Quiet Week, a program which will involve meditation, sharing and contemplative prayer. I have many, many small decisions to make about flights, places to stay, where to leave my big suitcase full of art supplies so I don't have to lug it around Scotland. Those sorts of things. I am thinking today about the process of decision-making in life and in art.

This reminds me of a story my daughter once told me. She was working at a camp in western Canada. She and her friend had gone into town for groceries. As she was nearing the checkout, she was hesitating to decide which checkout had the shortest line....back and forth she went, intent on finding the shortest line. Her friend saw her doing this, and from across the grocery store he shouted out, "Pick a line and stand in it!". This wisdom has become our mantra. Whenever we have problems making a decision, we remember what Murphy said that day in the grocery store: "Pick a line and stand in it."

I watched the film, Gerhard Richter Painting at my local independent cinema last week. It was fascinating to watch Richter in the process of painting, with all of the decisions he had to make. He felt intimidated by the camera and at one point, said that this was not going to work (his painting while the camera was rolling). Painting is a secret process he said, meaning-as I understood it-that it is done alone, not in public, and the decisions are made privately. The product at the end is seen by the public, but the process is private. However, he persisted. The camera kept rolling. He allowed us to see him working and to observe the mistakes and the happy accidents. He let us witness this vulnerability.

I met a friend, Lila Lewis Irving yesterday at the opening of an art show in Aurora, ON where we were both exhibiting our work. The exhibition was called The Ontario Society of Artists, Celebrates 140 Years. Lila is an Abstract Expressionist painter who is known for her large exuberant acrylics.
A stunningly beautiful book of her work was published for her recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. She said to me, "I have never been afraid to make mistakes."

In getting back into the studio after a long hiatus, I am encouraged by these painters who pick a line and stand in it.

“I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Sir, What is the secret of your success?" a reporter asked a bank president.
"Two words."
"And sir, what are they?"
"Good decisions."
"And how do you make good decisions?"
"One word."
"Experience."
"And how do you get Experience?"
"Two words."
"And sir, what are they?"
"Bad decisions."
Unknown Author

Meet the Owners of a Scottish Castle

Anne Tristine Nguyen, Ali Orr Ewing, their children, Ava, Atticus and their dog, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Dunskey Estate, Portpatrick, Scotland Anne Tristine Nguyen and her husband, Alistair Orr Ewing are the owners of Dunskey Estate near Portpatrick, Scotland where I will teach a painting workshop in September. Dunskey is a splendid Edwardian castle on 2000 acres of ocean-front land with miles of walking trails. As well as daily workshop sessions in the studio on the top floor of the castle, our small group of artists will enjoy breathtaking hikes, superb accommodation and fabulous meals. Not having met owners of a castle before, I asked Anne if I could interview her to hear a little of their background story and that of the castle. Can you tell me a little of your personal story and that of your husband, Alistair Orr Ewing? Anne emigrated to America when she was ten years old, but it was at an art gallery in Saigon, her birthplace, where she met Al

The Importance of Silence in Art

Gathering Light 60x60" Oil on canvas © 2014 Janice Mason Steeves Michael David Rosenberg, the musician known as Passenger, sings, "See all I need is a whisper in a world that only shouts." In the workshops I teach, I find that one of the most common problems with paintings is that they shout. Most have too much going on: too many small shapes, too much texture, extremes of colour, too many lines, too much, too much. One thing I say most often as I walk around the classroom working with students individually, is 'make bigger shapes'. But not only bigger shapes. Quiet shapes. Where can your eye go and rest in the painting? That isn't a consideration in much of contemporary painting or much of contemporary life. Ours is a noisy world both visually and auditorily. Ours is a world that shouts. People are afraid of silence. I wrote a blog post 3 years ago about planning a retreat in my own home, where I shut off the computer and the phon

Lessons that Stone Walls Teach

Dry stone wall in the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland I've just returned from teaching a Workshop in Wild Places class in the Burren in County Clare, Ireland. Writing this post, I'm reminded of another post I wrote after visiting Inishmaan, the middle of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland several years ago. Stone walls crisscrossed the island in tight webs like a fisherman's net. I wrote then that the web of stone walls made me think of the idea of putting limitations on our painting as a way of exploring more deeply and how walls give limits against the limitless. You can read that article here. As our group hiked in the Burren with our guide, Marie McGauran we learned that the walls are stronger because of the holes in them. The wind can pass through. The oldest stone walls, estimated to be 3500 years old are at Skara Brae, a Neolithic site in Orkney. Most walls were built in the 18th and 19th century, marking areas of private ownership and resulting in poverty

Janice Mason Steeves

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