suzanne northcott news

Marrakesh, Yes!

2012-01-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

This is the absolute dream trip for me. Imagine it, the colours, the history, the markets, the textiles! Small group, so check it out, and contact Angela at ACE CAMPS if you want to come along with us. Can't wait.

Naramata painting retreat weekend

2012-01-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

If you have ever been to Naramata, you know that its enchanted. I will be at a beautiful B&B right there on the lake in February with a small group of people who would like to paint, maybe do a little yoga, definitely eat and drink and talk and laugh. Our host is Renee, who traveled with me to Spain last year and it promises to be cosy and productive and, I am hoping, enchanted!

COURTING THE MUSE

A Weekend Workshop

February 24, 25, 26

with

Professional Artist and Teacher

SUZANNE NORTHCOTT

www.suzannenorthcott.ca / suzannenorthcott@shaw.ca

Presented by Renee Matheson

Robinson Place Workshops

www.robinsonplace.ca

60 Robinson Point Road, Naramata

Home (250) 496-4265 Cell (250) 488-4999 Email: info@robinsonplace.ca

Painting, writing, dreaming...what awakens the muse in you?

“I invite you to join me in a place of warmth made for a passionate encounter with art and spirit. We will spend our time painting, eating, and talking, and certainly laughing.” Suzanne Northcott

Join Suzanne for a creative adventure. She will delight in helping you to find the way of working that suits you, from playful and wild to focused finesse, and in the medium of your choice. Painters at all levels are invited to share in a small group atmosphere with emphasis on individual attention and instruction. Fill your sketchbook journal with fresh lively sketches and anecdotes, or linger over creating paintings, Suzanne looks forward to helping you to make this workshop your own creative adventure.

This is not just a painting class but will be an opportunity to take time to explore your creative impulses in the company of people who love what they are doing and love to share it.

Suzanne Northcott is a painter, teacher and philosopher who brings her passionate and enquiring nature to all that she does. She finds resonance for personal understanding through observing the natural world and uses imagery and stories to share insight and questions. A teacher for over twenty years, Suzanne brings a vast store of technical knowledge of painting and drawing mediums and a clear and lively way of relating what we learn about painting to what we come to know about our lives.

From yoga and meditation in the morning, to conversations over a glass of wine and dinner, this is an opportunity to court and open up to your individual and distinctive creative self.

Suzanne’s work is collected and published internationally and she is in demand as a teacher and lecturer.

Robinson Place Workshops

Imagine giving yourself the gift of a creative weekend at a beautiful home on Okanagan lakefront…a time away to paint, learn, share, and relax. Good company with like minded artists, comfort food, a crackling fire, a warm therapeutic Jacuzzi…a time to create, reflect and rejuvenate. This is what Robinson Place Workshops offer you.

Robinson Place Workshops are hosted at Robinson Place Bed & Beach. Owned and operated by Renee, great granddaughter of the founder of Naramata, this beautiful lake front home sits on the land that once was part of the Naramata Heritage Inn built by Mr. Robinson. This lovingly restored home is filled with beautiful art and antiques, many from the original Inn.

You are welcome to use the open kitchen, the beachfront Jacuzzi and property at all times. This is your home for the weekend to enjoy, your home for relaxation, restoration and rejuvenation.

This workshop is limited to 10 students in total, on a first-come first-serve basis. The Full Immersion including sleeping accommodations is limited to 6 people with some sharing.

Your Investment

Workshop Only (without accommodations)

$285.00 plus HST

Includes: All instructional workshop hours, Friday evening Tapas welcome and dinner, Saturday evening Tapas and Pot luck dinner, coffee and tea beverages for the weekend, access to the Jacuzzi, Saturday and Sunday morning yoga and meditation start up before art.

Full Immersion (workshop with accommodation)

Includes: As above PLUS accommodation and breakfast.

NOTE: Please bring your own cocktails or wine for dinners to share. The workshop does not include these beverages.

Accommodations

The Robinson Suite: Large room on main floor with a breathtaking view of Okanagan Lake, a King size ‘plus’ bed, claw foot soaker tub, two sinks, walk in rain shower, patio door to Jacuzzi. $150. a night

The Lilly Suite: Lake view room on the main floor, King size bed or 2 twin beds, large walk-in rain shower, patio door to Jacuzzi. $125. a night

The Gwendolyn Suite: Second floor room with private balcony and beautiful lake view, Double bed, shower.

$100. a night

Note: If you want to share a room with a friend, please make your own arrangements.

Weekend Schedule

Friday, November 25^th

Full Immersion participants (with accommodations) will be able to check in any time after 2:00 pm on Friday.

Workshop Only participants are invited to arrive at 4:00 pm on Friday.

Everyone please arrive with your supplies for the weekend.

*5 PM - We begin the workshop weekend with a glass of sherry, tapas, soft music, and a crackling fire. Introductions and a description of the weekend to follow.

*You will be welcomed with Tapas inspired by Renee and Tina Baird’s recent ‘Flavour of Spain’ art excursion to southern Spain in October. This was a fabulous 11 day all inclusive art experience that was lead by Suzanne Northcott. We will share some of the high points of this experience with you. www.flavourofspain.net

*6:00 PM - Dinner for all participants provided by Renee and Robinson Place.

*7 PM- 8 PM – Suzanne will begin instruction.

Saturday, November 26^th

*8:30 AM - Continental breakfast for the Full Immersion participants.

*9:15 AM to 9:45 AM - Informal yoga stretch and meditation in the living room for all participants with yoga instructors Suzanne and Renee.

*10 AM to 12 Noon - Morning Art Session: Instruction, Demo, Painting

*12 Noon to 1:30 PM - Lunch break - Self provided

Suggestions - Bring your own or there are several offerings available in Naramata: NeverMatters Café for soup and a sandwich, The Pub, China Beach Restaurant, or The General Store Deli for a soup and sandwich to go - delicious!

*1:30 PM- 4 PM - Afternoon Demo and Painting Session

*4 PM – 5 PM - Group Sharing and Critique

*5 PM – 7 PM - Refreshments, Tapas and Pot Luck Dinner for all participants. Please call Renee for suggestions of menu contributions, and the meal plan. Please bring your own desired dinner beverages for the weekend.

* After dinner- visit, rest, relax, paint, Jacuzzi, sleep, journal, or watch an art movie.

….Goodnight….

Sunday November 27^th

Same as Saturday’s Schedule with the same final group sharing and critique from

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

Wind up and check-out for all participants will be from

5:00 pm- 6:00 pm.

…Thank you all…

Registration:

For workshop registration and accommodation reservations please contact Renee Matheson at Robinson Place Bed and Beach. Home (250) 496-4265 Cell (250) 488-4999, Email: info@robinsonplace.ca

A 50% deposit is required upon reservation for confirmation.

Supply list available upon registration.

little bag

2012-01-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

I made this small bag from the last pieces of a really great jacket. It was inspired by a beautiful crumpled worn bit at the cuff, where the leather had been gathered slightly. That became the flap, the fittings are all riding tack, the interior is from a pair of men's chinos, my new favourite solution. It is very small, just 6" x 10" and I have been using it, loving that I open and...there's my stuff! No digging. After photographing it, I lengthened the strap so it rides just under my hipbone when worn crossbody.

making things

2012-01-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I am happy when I am making things, especially when they are for someone and there are no expectations. This Christmas I made a lot of things, mostly tiny drawings, ornaments from leather and metal bits, and nests.

David's mom, Yuki, turned 90 in December. She doesn't need any thing. I made her this painting of a crane, the symbol of long life...

Crane for Yuki, 6" x 6", mixed media on cradled clayboard.

Snowberry Nest, 3" x 3", snowberry branches, lichen, spaghnum moss, wax, pigment

Bog Silver

2011-11-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

For several years I have been donating work to the Art For Life fundraiser. This year, we agreed to use a 12 x 36" colour photograph of mine, Bog Silver, printed on metallic paper and mounted on aluminum. The piece went very close to value ($2500) which is great for me and for the cause.

My work in the Derby Bog was completely absorbing and the transition to photography that resulted from it completely unexpected. I began by taking the photos to use for source material for paintings and eventually realized they were already themselves, not needing reinterpretation.

Later, I also did paintings inspired by the series.

This one, Bog Grass Fall, 36 x 48" in acrylic was the most recent, finished this past September. I continue to be inspired by the linear and spatial possibilities of light on and through grasses. When I notice that light it gives a lift to these days when the colours of fall have fallen away. Whoa, guilty of overuse of the word "fall".

tiny drawing

2011-11-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

Rabbit for Linda, graphite and coloured charcoal on cradled chalkboard panel.

This piece is just 6 x 6". It was a pleasure to work simply, letting the delicate gesture be the focus and finding the small nuances in the line at the contour of little rabbit.

new bags

2011-11-18T23:07:00.000-08:00

Grommet Bag, from famous painter and my beloved bro-in-law, Alan Wylie's, old black leather jacket, very slouchy and soft (the bag).

cavalry bag, vintage chocolate brown leather, harness fastenings

I am leaning into getting some bags finished for our sale (Bohemia in the Burbs) next weekend. I had thought I would start to standardize them a little but find myself still spending a lot of time with each one, figuring out how to best use the materials. Loving the use of riding tack as a fastening solution in some and found some beautiful old kilim type rugs to make the "new bohemia" bags I had envisioned.
All the bags have linings with interior pockets, many sourced from men's shirts and chinos.

New Bohemia bag, old kilim rug, brown leatehr jacket, reins, halter fitting

Still have some stunning materials that I haven't had a chance to get too. Will keep you posted.

New Bohemia bag, detail

Live at Lava, Dances of Universal Peace Retreat

2011-11-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

My dear friend, Patsy, is putting on this retreat in Idaho. A long way for many of you but, if you go you will love it! www.onenessproject.com

Front Gallery, Edmonton

2011-11-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Feather Drawing l, 12 x 12", graphite and coloured charcoal on clayboard panel

Feather Drawing lll, 12 x 12", graphite and coloured charcoal on chalkboard

I have just sent three 12 x 12" drawings on clayboard to Front Gallery for their Christmas show. I haven't shown in Edmonton before and look forward to being part of the strong community of artists Gregoire is representing there. If you are in town, I invite you to check it out. I will include the invitation here when I have an e-copy.

Feather Drawing lll, 12 x 12", graphite and coloured charcoal on clayboard panel

Bohemia in the Burbs

2011-11-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

six artists, three days, one house in the burbs and a pop-up gallery show and sale. Check out our blog for the artists, the work and the stories...
http://bohemiaintheburbs.blogspot.com/

A joyful blend of makings, this show is coming up fast. My contribution is one of a kind repurposed leather and textile bags. I am calling the line "1/1", or one of one. Every bag is made entirely of salvaged used belts and garments.

the wall of belts

..."I am obsessed with making bags! Several of my compulsive tendencies are served with this new project. First, all the materials are re-used, found through thrift stores, sales, rag shops, etc., satisfying my inner corvid, the scrounge. Next, it's 3D construction, super challenging to an artist working in 2d (painting, photography, video projection) for over thirty years. Then, it's materials. you know that feeling you get in a yarn store, a bead store, a glass place, a salvage yard....I wanna make something....and put together this, with this, add that, and..SUBLIME. Last, it's fashion, my guilty fascination out in the open. It may not change the world but I am fascinated by clothing and the bag is such a personal part of one's gear."

The bags have been selling as fast as I can make them (not very) so I am keeping these ones as an intact collection for the show. I should have between 15 and 20 bags.

Andalucia, 2011

2011-11-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

I have been back from Spain for a few weeks, long enough to really feel the difference between the soaked gold of the maple tree beside the stone path up to David's house in Seattle and the soft parched gold of the hills behind El Molino del Comte, http://www.elmolinospain.com/index.html. The restored mill is in a bowl, each soft hill wearing a chenille blanket of evenly spaced olive trees, each with a pool of shade beneath shifting with the day's light.

My group and I ate like kings, explored some of the intimate and the grand aspects of Andalucia, and filled sketchbooks with pen and watercolour images and notes.

We visited the exquisite Mesquite Mosque in Cordoba and stayed late for a flamenco performance, driving home through the countryside in the moonlight. We visited the small local village for their feria, agricultural fair, where I sketched the little girls all dressed up in their flamenco for a competition. We saw gorgeous Andalucian horses for sale, massive bulls tethered and I bought a cow bell, battered and resonant on its old leather strap.

Another evening, we were all invited up the hill to the small, beautiful home of our hosts, Lari and Mike Powell. Mike is the gourmet chef, Lari is in charge of to-die-for desserts. This night, Mike made paella while the gang hovered over the kitchen island taking notes. I drew instead (knowing we must all play to our strengths), wildly adding ingredients to the page before they ended up in the pot. The meal was delicious and we finished up the evening watching La Belle Epoque, with Penelope Cruz at age 16, projected on the wall in the courtyard, the moon coming up full behind the hill, the scrawny cat watching the best parts intently.

New Work, opening Sept 22, 6-9 pm

2011-09-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

"Hive l", 12 x12", mixed media (tar) on clayboard panel

My first commercial gallery show in a long time opens tomorrow evening, September 22nd, at Granville Fine Art, Granville and Broadway in Vancouver, from 6-9 pm, with Joe Coffey.

Joe's work is brilliant, cohesive, masterly. Mine ranges all over. From small studies from life, (nests, flowers, honeybees) to transformational figure to big pieces with feathers floating through them, they represent my effort to ground myself in love in a time when many things are "up in the air".

Hope you can join us for what is shaping up to be an exciting evening.

Raven Nest, process

2011-09-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Preparing for my September 22nd show at Granville Fine Art has been an intense process, not the least because I am living between Fort Langley and Seattle. So, in spite noticing that a whole lot of artists are working with nests right now, I am pulled back to this metaphor. I notice, too, in this work that I've laid down the sword in my fight with my romantic side and this collection is lighter than the work of the last many years. Roses, nests, transformational figure. Love. Who am I to argue?

I haven't done a process photo series here before because my process tends to be intuitive, responsive, so that I wouldn't think to stop and photograph while working. In this case, the image came so strongly and clearly that I felt I could see how to proceed and was interested in capturing that. My inspiration is the white raven that appeared in the Queen Charlotte Islands some years before I visited there. I saw a photograph and never forgot it.

These photos don't tell the real story of how the power of the image in my mind faltered when the disconnect between the separate elements meant that I had to find a way to relate them without losing all the power. The falling in and out of love with what was happening, the dance with the muse. But given that, I did have that feeling of painting, moving with the elements, that is why I love doing this work.

1. drawing and blocking in white feathers (I had some raven feathers and had just been using them to draw with on the "Hive" piece I will share with you another time)

2. dark underpainting (burnt umber, payne's grey, ink)

3. thick light value layer (self leveling gel, gesso, colour), poured on, scraped away

4. dark nest layer poured on, scraped at (tar gel, ink, burnt umber)

5. negative painting, positive branches, flattened light areas, finished painting

Raven Nest, 48 x 60", acrylic and ink on canvas

median roses

2011-08-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

Median Rose, triptych 12 x 36", mixed media on clayboard

The hardy shrub roses that started to show up as municipal median plantings along busy suburban highways in my part of the world a number of years move me with their sumptuous beauty. Bombing along on my way to cross things off my endless list, the unexpected bounty of blocks of bloom along the miles of shopping malls stops me in my tracks.

Instar

2011-08-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

I just had a chance to work in my sister Janice Robertson's beautiful Fort Langley studio for a couple of days, once with Jan and the other day with my friend, Judy. The doors were open to the sunny garden and we were playing Eva Cassidy and Emmy Lou and Dylan. I got lots done in that atmosphere of joy and support, including finishing this piece, started a long time ago.

Instar, mixed media on canvas, 60"x 36"

I learned a lot about butterflies during two deeply magical periods spent volunteering at El Bosque Nuevo, a small "butterfly farm" cooperative in the Guanacaste area of Costa Rica. Caterpillars go through several stages, instars, before the final tucking into pupae to become butterflies. I love the word and the notion.

This piece, worked with acrylic, graphite powder, gouache, and powdered pigment, brings together a number of themes I have worked with in the last many years. My concentration seems to be around the notion of the wild mind, a kind of trust in the power of imagination and surrendered will. Other pieces explore the compelling way in which individual objects, grouped, resolve into pattern. Something about my individual self and the collective that I want to know more about.

what wants to happen?

2011-08-02T07:31:00.001-07:00

I just returned from co-teaching a class at the Naramata Centre and it was a week to remember. I was teaching, with my friend Kim Brandt, a class we called Heart, Mind, Soul, an integrative week. We did breath work, movement and creative projects. It was so fun, people were very willing and the place had an amazing vibe. It is a United Church centre and they were incredibly welcoming to this contemplative yoga girl. I met some fascinating people, both at the centre and in Naramata and came back feeling well and full of the scent of sage, cherries and sunshine of the Okanagan valley.

There were three faith leaders, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, who have been meeting to exchange inter-faith dialogue at Naramata for many years. From those discussions came the question, "What wants to happen?", shared by Tim Scorer of Saint Andrews Wesley. I loved that and used it throughout teaching our course. It is a wonderful way to orientate oneself for very conscious exploration.

wee nest

2011-07-20T13:43:00.001-07:00

I have been enjoying small Claybord panels, discovered at Daniel Smith in Seattle, then yesterday by "happy accident" as my friend Jay would say, I encountered artist Mary Ann Peters http://www.maryann-peters.com/site_specific.html, working in the window of a Seattle downtown architectural firm on a beautiful large installation piece done on, yup, Claybord. She orders the 4'x8' panels directly from the producer, Ampersand. It got me totally turned on to the possibilities that had been hinted at with my early explorations.
Having only small panels, I spent the afternoon creating this small piece with graphite and gouache. It looks a lot like something I would do, doesn't it!

Lavender Nest
12x12"
graphite and gouache

Looking forward to some more abstract explorations of the surface.

Woodshed Studio

2011-07-12T09:34:00.001-07:00

I spent yesterday afternoon painting in the woodshed. I hadn't been bad, well not that bad...okay I had been bad, but that's not why. David made work space for me there, where the roof and some of the walls are made from translucent panels that allow filtered green light through. The door stood open to a view of the pond, a black cat from next door wound around my legs.

I painted this small panel...

Its on a clayboard cradled panel from Daniel Smith. The surface is very smooth. I worked with graphite powder, water soluble graphite pencil, walnut ink and titanium white acrylic. The wild white roses grow in a scented craziness by the gate in Fort Langley. I am between worlds.

Wild Rose, mixed media on cradled panel
12x12

the bags

2011-05-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

I promised photos of the bags I have been making from old jackets and belts and whatnot. I have loved this process, re-seeing what is being thrown out as full of potential. Its gong to take some time to execute the million ideas coming to me. Email me if you want to know more, I have made about 10 but have sold many of them already.

Amusing the Muse

2011-05-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

,
I am on my way, in just a few minutes, to Painters Lodge in Campbell River. The Lodge hosts about thirty artists who do talks, panels discussions and demos and paint on site at an event called Painters at Painters. People come from all over, most booking a year in advance to get a spot. I am doing a chat with my sister and great friend, painter Janice Robertson. We are calling it "Amusing the Muse". I have been away all month, first at a contemplative retreat, then to New York, and just last night finished the new painting I am bringing. Its a departure, a floral, large, very old world in a way. Must reflect my romantic state of mind.

Peony, acrylic on canvas, 36x48

whistler workshop

2011-03-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

I got a reminder in my inbox today from the organizers of Whistler Art Workshops on the Lake about the summer program. I have been teaching for them for a number of years and it is a stellar program. The venue is the Alta Lake Station House, perched over the lake where you feel as though you are away from everything. I am doing Life Drawing and Painting and it historically sells out quickly so I am giving you a heads up. There are lots of good programs, including my sister Janice Robertson's acrylic painting workshop. Her students adore her (I do, too!)
http://www.artswhistler.com/resources/visual-art-award-of-excellence/events-a-programs/whistler-art-workshops-on-the-lake

Andalucia

2011-03-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

The October trip to Spain is coming together beautifully and I can't wait for that sunshine and the beautiful food, wine, painting time...You can still join us. I have dropped my Spanish studies for a while so I need to brush off the Rosetta Stone and get back to it. Lari and Mike Powell, my dear friends and the hosts for the trip at ElMolino have put together this video:

http://www.flavourofspain.net/2011.htm

dust/dust

2011-03-09T14:09:00.000-08:00

Just moved my old singer sewing machine downstairs to the Fort Gallery for the group show entitled The Ten Pound Show. In addition to the machine, the installation (Dust/Dust) includes a thrift store leather jacket, a big chunk of tattered tarp (the same one featured in the opening sequence from my from my Crossing Boundary video below) and a nearly finished clutch bag made from the materials.

This piece is about the way that materials (us included) are in motion, constellating and dissolving and re-becoming. These worn material are on their way to a new incarnation as an evening bag.

Having broken my last leather needles trying to finish this one, I am looking for an affordable industrial machine so I can finish bags. My ideas are way out in front of my production right now and my love affair with the idea is far from over.

The group show opens Friday the 11th of March from 7 - 9pm at the Fort Gallery, 9048 Glover Road, Fort Langley, B.C.

Crossing Boundary clip from suzanne northcott on Vimeo.

cookin'

2011-03-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

My idea of fun: David and I at the kitchen island tonight...me, fabricating a new "clutch" bag so I can make use of some of my crazier colour ideas, drawing, cutting a card template, sewing canvas. He, fabricating an adaptation to a camp stove, filing, sanding, grinding metal. In between these sounds, which call up images of sadistic dentists, Miles Davis blows, Adele croons. Happy camper.

everything old...

2011-03-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

So many things to share...but I do want photos to accompany so that is slowing me down a little. I have been making purses out of old leather jackets. Weird for someone who has spent thirty years learning to paint to be taking time to generate patterns for bags, make prototypes, search out the perfect thrift store jacket, piece and ponder and match with the perfect salvaged lining. I am obsessed. My daughter and I tried to do this years ago but we didn't have the skill set or the machine to follow through. Now, providence has sent me a sweetheart whose background includes designing and fabricating backpacks, camera bags, etc., and whose studio includes three, yes three, industrial sewing machines. Meant to be. I will post photos soon. I am still painting, too!

teaching dates

2011-01-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

Teaching,Travel up-Dates

What am I talking about?

I have updated the teaching postings on the site, under the heading "Calendar",so if you have been wondering what's up its all there now. Coquitlam, Victoria, Whistler, Naramata and Chemainus as well as Painters Lodge in Campbell River, are on the list and my courses run from acrylics, mixed media and figure drawing to yoga and spirit work! Spain and Morocco are the travel destinations. I know, ain't life grand?

A Place in Mind

2010-11-18T14:31:00.000-08:00

I just delivered a new piece to Granville Fine Art for the Contemporary Artists Show, opening tonight and continuing through November 30th. The piece brings together two streams of imagery, nest and figure, and asks questions about the embodied and the invisible as well as the nature of home and the role of imagination. Perhaps contact with the creative muse might be an unconditional home, a nomads home.

A Place in Mind
mixed media
24 x 48

Making a Splash

2010-10-30T18:10:00.001-07:00

Each year I donate a piece to the Arts Umbrella fund raiser, a very well organized and attended auction called Splash. This year, the piece, "Nesting l" valued at $5200, sold for $11,000. I was thrilled and so was the charity.

"Nesting l" mixed media on canvas, 36 x 60"

What's the story?

2010-10-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I hung my show with Doris Auxier downstairs in the co-op gallery in my building, The Fort Gallery. Betty Spackman and I founded the non-profit gallery several years ago to give artists in the Fraser Vallery some freedom and support and I have generally used my yearly three week space there to do something outside of simply painting that takes advantage of that freedom.
This show, with two pieces from my recent Evergreen Cultural Centre show and seven new pieces, is "just" paintings. They continue my exploration of deliberate marks and surrendered, naturally derived, marks and of the play between figure and ground.
I found myself back in a place of wondering about work that is narrative, or objective, work that has a recognizable "something" in it, as opposed more abstract pieces that ask the same questions but are not representative.
I have a bias toward the abstract pieces, because it seems to me that they tell an open story, but I often find it easier to solve paintings, especially small pieces like some of those in this collection, when there is an object to hang onto. This seems to hold true for many viewers, as well.

The exihibit :Protected Spaces: New Myths opens tomorrow and runs through the end of the month. The opening even is this Friday, the 15th from 7-9. You are invited!

The Fort Gallery
9048 Glover Road,
Fort Langley, B.C.
Canada
V1M 2S5

604 888 7411

2010-09-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm seeing lots of the country these past few weeks. I started this week on beautiful Gabriola Island and am leaving in an hour or so to start my fall teaching with a life drawing workshop this weekend in Kelowna. Just found out that there is still room in my acrylic workshop in Calgary with http://www.greatartworkshops.com/ so, if you are having trouble finding room in a local workshop, come along to Calgary.

My show at Evergreen Cultural Centre comes down tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting back into the studio with a series that is brewing, following on the bog grass and nest works. Im always stirred by these between seasons times.

its a website...

2010-09-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my new site, thanks to my most amazing friend Konrad Breuers, designerdude@telus.net. He and my good friend and force-to-be-reckoned-with Nancy Crawford founded the online creative process website Out of Your Mind where you will find a video interview of me speaking (at length!)about process.

Figure and Ground

2010-08-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

I wrote the following essay when creating a body of life-sized figure pieces, the most recent of the archived paintings on the site. I would like to thank Robert Genn for his help inspiring this series.

Touching Down

We can look to science to understand that the world is connected, that the bodies we perceive as separate are quivering and porous collections of energy and matter in similarly alive space. We share the air we breathe and our skin flakes and settles in dusty corners to become part of the next layer of geology. Through meditation it is possible to sense this connectivity and glimpse the fullness of space. The body is the site of our experience and wondering, and the place from which we reach to connect and yet, embodied we feel separate, and from here we tell stories of our estrangement and our yearning for connection.

Dancers leap past gravity to include the space above in their work while musicians use the space between notes, poets the white of the page, the breath. A painter can use the relationships of figure to ground, constructing and dissembling connections and containment of one to the other using transparency and opacity, contours that assert and then disappear or a disorienting point of view.

In this work, I am finding the opportunity to explore the oldest story, maybe the only story, that of being born into separateness and journeying toward connection. Some of the figures in these pieces look inward to find connection, some reach toward another, searching to bridge a real or imagined separateness.

travel to spain

2010-08-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

www.flavourofspain.net

As I have done for the past several years, I am taking a group to Spain in October of 2011. Its a fabulous trip...come along!

2010-08-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

The exhibit "Transformation and Memory: Endangered Spaces" with artists Doris Auxier and Jeff Warren is underway through September 18th. You can access a video about the making of the work, curatorial essays and other material through the venue, Evergreen Cultural Centre, http://www.evergreenculturalcentre.ca/ART+GALLERY/default.htm. My artist's statement follows...

Transformation and Memory: Endangered Spaces

asylum. Sanctuary, refuge, shelter, from the Latin root asylon, “inviolable”.

As a child, I would make myself a nest in the middle of the long summer grass, my visual field simplified to gold grass and blue sky. I listened intently, encircled, hidden, safe, belonging to the natural world.

In the mysterious landscape of the Derby Bog, mounding sphagnum floats and matted grasses reflect in black water. Years ago the ancient beds of peat were mined requiring a network of sawdust roads through the bog. Through the changing lens of value, that commercial history now seems a violation of a rare and complex natural system and Metro Vancouver Parks protects the fragile and dangerous site.

Colony Farm in the summer is smothered with a thick covering of grass, taller than the birders, cyclists, gardeners, and photographers who find refuge there. Away from the paths near a darkly cloistered pond coyotes have flattened nests in the grass. The history of connection to Riverview Hospital, as rehabilitative workplace for patients who in turn raised food to feed the institution, is all but invisible. The hospital as a place of refuge teeters toward extinction, along with the artifacts and extraordinary histories inside.

From the web of connectness, what do we separate out to hold up as sacred, to be cherished, protected, remembered? What do we hide away, forget or keep apart as disturbing or frightening?

suzanne