Janice Mason Steeves

I'm having fun experimenting with making cold wax and oil monotypes on paper and had some interesting results today.  Although my work has become very non-objective this summer, these monotypes seemed to work well with an image. I was teaching this technique in my workshop and have decided to experiment further with it.                                 ©2010 Janice Mason Steeves "The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." Carl Jung

This past weekend I had a wonderfully enthusiastic and intense group of students for my Oil and Wax workshop at my studio.  Here are some images of the studio cleaned up for the workshop, with some of my new work on the walls. I've been working long, long hours, almost obsessively this summer, creating a new body of work that is becoming non-objective. It's been an incredibly powerful summer of work.  I read once in the book, "A Prayer for Owen Meany " by John Irving.....and this is not a quote but a remembering...that if you stand in the way of the gods, they will go with you.  I feel like I have been swept along this summer in a wind so strong that I've had no choice but to go with it.  I'm getting ready for my show at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville which opens October 22nd. But meanwhile it was a fabulous class here at the studio.  Much sharing and learning happened and some really exciting work was produced. We talked during the workshop about the d...

The group show, Modern Works/New Artists opened on Friday June 19th at Agnes Bugera Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta .   I couldn't be at the opening but Edmonton friends took this photo for me.  Here's a closeup shot of the painting in the window.           Night Garden 15 42x48" Oil/wax on panel   ©2010 Janice Mason Steeves  I am embedding a Rumi poem in many of the pieces.  One of the poems I love is entitled, “Bend, Tend, Disappear“ from the book The Illuminated Rumi , translated by Coleman Barks.   "This is how you change when you go to the orchard where the heart opens: You become fragrance and the light that burning oil gives off."  

 I am delighted to say that Agnes Bugera Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta is now representing my work.  Four of my recent paintings will be part of a group show called:  Modern Works-New Artists , which opens on Saturday, June 19th. Here is a close-up of the piece that is on the invitation:                  Night Garden 8 24x24" Oil/wax on panel   ©2010 Janice Mason Steeves This painting will also be in the exhibition:             Night Garden 10 24x24"  Oil/wax on panel ©2010 Janice Mason Steeves

Kamaria ©2010 Janice Mason Steeves oil/wax on panel My exhibition, Night Garden , opened at Wallace Galleries in Calgary, Alberta on Saturday, April 24. The show runs until May 8th. I flew out to Calgary for the opening. This very beautiful gallery with its floor to ceiling glass wall is located in downtown Calgary at 500-5th Avenue S.W. All of the paintings in the exhibition can be viewed on the Wallace Galleries website or my website . The day was beautiful and balmy in the morning but just after the show opened at 2pm, the weather turned. It began to rain. Shortly afterward the temperature dropped and it started to snow! Big, fat wet snowflakes. A couple of days later, Calgary was hit with 40cm of snow. I was grateful that it didn't happen during my opening. I have lots of family in western Canada and almost all of them came to Calgary for the opening- from Edmonton, Vernon, Salmon Arm, Red Deer and Winnipeg . And old friends came...

Requiem ©Janice Mason Steeves 2010 This is one of my new paintings that will be in my show at Wallace Galleries in Calgary, AB from April 24 to May 8, 2010. I have written a number of articles about changing direction in art. It's topic that interests me because it happens to me now and again so I enjoy reading articles about other artists' thoughts on this. There was an article in the Artdaily newsletter this week about the work of Therese Oulton with a comment on her changing styles. Her work is being shown at Marlborough Fine Ar t in London, England . "Those who are familiar with Thérèse’s work will be initially surprised by the apparent change of direction that her work has taken. In place of the large scale abstract compositions of the recent past, she is exhibiting here a new series of 24 small format landscapes. The artist, however, sees this new body of work as representing the conti...

Carrizo © 2010 Janice Mason Steeves I think one of the things I love best about painting is play. I love constantly trying out new techniques and materials and using them to push my work into new and unexpected directions. Robert Genn in one of his recent newsletters, suggested a project encouraging play. He encourages an artist to: "Line up a hundred or so small inexpensive panels, papers or canvases and have them ready to go. Give yourself a more limited palette--perhaps half your normal range. Put all reference material and prior works out of sight. If this is not possible, work in a new environment such as a hotel room or friend's cottage. In preparation for starting the program, bring yourself to a mentally uncluttered, dream-like state. Now, over a relatively short period of time, fill the first support with a limited number of strokes. Get your subject matter from the deep well of your memory. Don't finish, move on...