The Season's an ARTX project

Last year for my final project I wanted to work big. I wanted to use a clear vinyl for canvas and make like a corridor with the seasons represented on both sides, one side abstract and the other realist. I spent a weekend in a wharehouse working on this project.




I used acrylic paint because of its fast drawing action. And for 20 hours I painted. The clear vinyl held a pleasant surprised, when I installed the piece in the room I saw that somehow the backside was showing a different picture, dream like; this was really interesting because as a viewer both side revealed something different.

Each piece was 20 feet long by 52 inches in height, I hanged it from the ceiling with ropes. Right now it is sleeping in my basement, this is way too large for anything other than a show or installation, and I don't know how long this clear vinyl will age.

Still, it was fun to be able to work on large surfaces and to actually be able to install it in a public area for all to see. I especially like the reactions from the viewers.

Encaustic Journey

After last week's lecture on Encaustic painting we had a workshop. In groups of 4 we all gathered around the hot plates and started the process of melting wax and adding pigments and working with this new texture. New to us, this medium has been around three thousand years.

We also watch a video of a Canadian Artist who specializes in this medium you can see his work at : http://www.artnet.fr/artist/13203/jacques-payette.html

It is a fun technic that makes you feel like a kid again! You have to experiment with encaustic, get a feel for it, be adventurous and see where it will take you. I enjoyed the quick drying action and being able to melt it back to flatness and introducing hew colours or texture. You can scratch, melt, add and substract whatever; working with wax allows you to make mistakes because it is easily fixed.

My first try in class last Friday was very basic, I did not take a picture of it, but decided to work it over, I wiped it out and started fresh. Friday's class wasn't a waste, I got to work at home and did a scenery. It took me four hours to complete it, I think it is ok for my second try, much better than the first one.

I settled in the second kitchen in my home because it has a stove fan, and two windows and I turned this area into my personnal space. The house was meant to be a duplex but we use it all, I use two small rooms one is suppose to be a kitchen for upstairs and the other is a closed in porch lots of light in either rooms, but the porch gets cold in the winter.


Anyhow, the fan was nice to have. I used a small two burner stove and a hot gun. I melted the wax(microcrystalline mixed with carnauba) in a muffin pan and added the dry pigments to it. After wiping the panel clean I started to build up the background and started with mixing the sky working my way down the panel.


I really like working with this medium, you can really explore different texture effects. I believe this is something I will be experimenting with for a while.

Next Friday we will be working on our second panel and I will get to see what everone else has done. This is great fun!

The beginning

I engaged in painting in order to disconnect from life's stresses, I needed a vehicule to let it all out, to scream, cry, laugh, feel, and understand the emotions behind it all. Maybe it could be classified as art therapy. This painting journey started with dreams, series of dreams filled with colour flashes, like a spectrum of paints thrown on a wall, I felt that my brain was invaded by colours. These dreams went away once I started to transfer these colours on canvas.

I would get home from work and sit at my easel and paint the night away, I burned a few dinners in the process, went to sleep late and spent my days waiting to get home and get back to my brushes.

My first paintings were really an outlet, everything came from my gut since I had no real training. This was an experimental phase, a creative exercise. I would get to bed exausted but energized at the same time, all I could think about was my next move, ideas were overflowing, I was obsessed.

After a year of painting my gut away, I decided to sign up for a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts; the first couple of years taught me that I knew absolutely nothing about the art world and its history. It was really stimulating to discover this new world. However, the more I learned the less I painted, my creative streak came to an halt.

After 4 years in Fine Arts, I have lost the driving force behind my paintings. Doubt and frustration took over. I guess the frustration was the hardest, because when I was engaged in painting nothing else mattered; I now understand why a lot of the great painters spent a lot of time alone. Relationships, obligations and work are time consuming. Is it possible to balance your passion with family, friends and work?

After 6 years of painting, I haven't found a particular style or signature. Just when I think that I may have found a particular direction, new ideas emerge and send me on to an other path.

So, I considered what I did best and where I felt more in my element, and this is when I paint nature, forests, trees, lots of trees. However, I do enjoy the freedom of abstraction, the evolution of an idea, how it shapes itself on canvas. Art is a challenge, making art is a quest demanding constant adjustment and realignement.

It is truly a journey of the soul.