Category:

CAPTURING THE JOY OF PAINTING WITH MAUD LEWIS : A CANADIAN TREASURE

8/18/2017

CAPTURING THE JOY OF PAINTING WITH MAUD LEWIS: A CANADIAN TREASURE

I wish to acknowledge that the photographs included here were taken with the permission of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Images of Maud and her husband Lewis and their tiny house in rural Digby, Nova Scotia were taken by photographer Bob Brooks and were included in the book " The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis" with text by Lance Woolaver ; Nimbus Publishing Limited/Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

Maud Lewis 1903 -1970 / Shown here painting in her tiny house in Digby, Nova Scotia

Maud's house now situated in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and open for viewing

Maud painted all the things in life she loved and she painted these things on every available wall and object in and around the house - from breadboxes to the stove , walls and doors; even the few stairs leading up to the loft where the bed was located were covered with flowers.

In Lance Woolaver's book on Maud, he writes of her painting day - first a cup of tea and a slice of bread; then she would sit in her same chair by the window and using her TV tray as her easel, and a Campbell's soup can to hold a little turpentine, she would mix her paints in sardine tins and begin to paint.

Early on , her husband Lewis would bring home leftover marine paints or house paints from various odd job locations. He would cut up old scrap wood for her to paint on. Later on, as her fame spread and her work began to sell, her brushes and colours came from the Eaton's catalogue or from May's Stationery Shop in Digby and as time went on, Ontario painter John Kinnear supported her work with good quality paints and brushes and canvases. In exchange she sent him paintings , wanting to ensure she paid him for the packages he would send her.

Here Maud is posing by the door with one of her paintings.

The house and yard with Lewis bringing in firewood which heated the house . The house was really only one small room ( about 12 feet by 13 feet) with a tiny loft above.

This sign hung right outside the little house at the side of the road. As tourists and other folk passed by and saw the sign, (with paintings often sitting beside the sign in summertime,) they would stop, chat with Maud and often buy one of her paintings. Her work is described as being in the "folk art" tradition , but for those who bought her work, they were as curious and interested in Maud and her life as they loved her paintings which told stories of her love of life in rural Nova Scotia. Maud lived her whole life in a very limited geography from where she was born.

Peering through the window into the little house where Maud painted day after day.

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia now collects and exhibits Maud's paintings and I urge anyone who travels to Halifax area to visit the gallery and take in the wing dedicated to Maud, her life and her work . Maud's paintings tell us stories from her life and environment - here , tapping trees for maple syrup. There are many stories to discover- from the U.S. President who wrote to buy her work to the CBC special on Maud [ check it out online] to people who encouraged and befriended her throughout her painting life.

Maud loved her cats from early childhood and throughout her life. Every cat was named Fluffy and she painted a great many Fluffys.... One of my first paintings was in the folk art tradition and it was of my cat "Harry". I keep it close by me in my studio.

Maud painted the water , the sea boats and sea gulls, fishermen and fish.

Maud grew up around oxen and knew a great deal about them. Her oxen are loveable enough to kiss.

Maud is a Canadian treasure . She also reminds me to paint with joy and love and to be enthusiastic about sharing my work with those that also find joy in my painting . It is important to value our Canadian artistic history and heritage and celebrate all Canadian art. This year a movie has been released celebrating her life - parts true and parts fiction - but still a beautiful idea of the life of Maud. The movie is entitled " Maudie".....

In Search of Josef Albers - My Colour Hieroglyphics Series

10/20/2016

For all of this year, I have been hidden away in my studio - exploring my painting style and fascination with colour . Close by, this quote by Josef Albers is tacked to my wall -

" Art is revelation instead of information, expression instead of description, creation instead of imitation or repetition. Art is concerned with HOW, not the WHAT, not with literal content, but with the performance of the factual content. The performance - how it is done - that is the content of art."

So , who was Josef Albers and why is he front and centre in my current art practice?

Albers is often described as " the square man" in the art world. In the last "25" years of his life, he created over 1000 paintings and prints which he entitled " Homages to the Square". He called this work ' platters to serve colour". The work was his passionate exploration of how colours change according to their positions in relation to their surrounding colours.

But let me step back and provide you with a very brief summation of Albers key life events from an art perspective -

- Born 1888 Bottrop , Germany , he was ultimately known as a renowned American artist and educator
- Bauhaus artist /teacher [ google the significance of the Bauhaus within the art world] ; along with Wassily Kandinsky - both were exiled from Germany when the school was forced to close in the early 1930's
- It is posited that Albers became one of two major art teachers in America - first teaching at Black Mountain College, North Carolina [ Hans Hofmann the other notable teacher during this period ] , later at Yale University
- At various times in his life , he worked in glass, painting, drawing, printmaking, furniture design and poetry writing
- He is considered in many ways to be a pioneer in abstract art and a great art theorist

This year is a milestone in the history of Colour Theory. It is now 50 years since Alber's book " Interaction of Color" was initially published . The 50th Anniversary Edition is available for artists and colour junkies alike who want to advance their understanding of colour and colour theory .

If you are an art student reading this , you will recall the many studies of colour , colour mixing, and other colour studies you may have practiced in school. Many of these exercises were developed from Alber's colour theories and ideas. For Albers, the key principle concerned the relationship between colour, form and space. He wanted his students to " see" , to recognize that a particular colour - say red, changes according to the colours that surround it . The interaction of colours create differing psychological and emotional reactions. And, even more significant, everything depends upon individual perception - what I see is not what you will see; how I react is not how you will react. As a teacher , he threw out a lot of the then methods of teaching art, and pushed his students to experiment - to try putting colours they "disliked" together..... to develop their own emotional connections to what they painted. For Albers, he wanted his students to focus such that " An element plus an element must yield at least one interesting relationship over and above the sum of those elements". For Albers, and now as I paint, each solid area of colour pigment must result in a " kernel of energy".

Albers said to his students that " a change of colors transforms both the emotional character and the apparent physical action of forms". He showed through his colour forms and studies that perception of colour and truth are not the same. This is due to colour superiority. This colour theory was proven out in his series of about 100 paintings he entitled " Adobes" or " Variants". In these paintings his forms remained constant or were only slightly altered, but the colours were changed radically .

COLOUR HIEROGLYPHICS

I have loved exploring the theory of colour and how colours interact since my first art class. Colour interacting with form on canvas is a higher level of study. Colour and form in a spatial context adds yet another layer of complexity . The emotional reaction to colours is personal to every viewer. Look at every artist's work you love. What colours do they use? How do they use them ? What is your emotional reaction to those colours?

As an artist I totally get the idea that Albers spent 25 years painting colours in squares . As I look at various of these squares I am personally fascinated at how I react [ or don't ] to each one. My current work is to experiment with colour interactions in form . I have titled these " colour hieroglyphics" as they are the creation of my personal language in paint. What do you think ?

Some reference for follow up if you are interested-[ geared to artists I think ]

1.Josef Albers - Interaction of Color , 50th Anniversay Edition

2. The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, located in Bethany, Connecticut.

3. Google images of " Homages to the Square"

Footnote: Colour is the Canadian spelling: colour is the American spelling .....

<<Previous

CAPTURING THE JOY OF PAINTING WITH MAUD LEWIS : A CANADIAN TREASURE

In Search of Josef Albers - My Colour Hieroglyphics Series

Archives

Categories