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Showing posts from May, 2011

Cold Wax + Oil Workshop in Winnipeg

Last week I gave a cold wax and oil workshop in Winnipeg to these artists.  All of them have been painting in acrylic for many years, so cold wax and oil was a big departure for them. And even though I suggested that they make 'bad art' in one exercise during this class, there were some really exciting paintings that came out of the workshop. I've probably written about making 'bad art' before.  The idea was mentioned in the book, the Tao of Photography , as well as  in Eric Maisel's book, "Coaching the Artist Within ": "To create we have to take the bad with the good.  We're bound to write bad paragraphs along with good ones.  That's the eternal law.  We can get rid of those bad paragraphs later on, but first we must write them.  Otherwise we won't write anything at all.  If we try to write only the good paragraphs, we are three-quarters of the way toward paralysis.  The name that we've coined for this problem is 'perfect...

Why Do We Need Art?

Cicada 42x42" oil on panel  ©Janice Mason Steeves 2011 The southern Ontario City of Woodstock received a $3.3 million dollar grant last year to renovate and expand their art gallery to four times the space with the ability to house world class exhibitions. With construction nearing completion, this  past week, recently elected Mayor Pat Sobeski dealt the city and the arts a huge blow. In a last minute decision City Council decided to offer the space instead to a local college and leave the art gallery in the small cramped space they have occupied for the past twenty-eight years.  In a rally last weekend, a huge group of arts supporters turned out to protest this move, waving signs that said: "ART IS FOR EVERYONE" . The mayor is now reconsidering his decision and may propose that the college and the art gallery share the space.  This is a less than perfect decision for the art gallery but still affords them twice the space they had previously. Just before ...