POSSESSION POINT

“Possession Point” Whidbey Island, oil on canvas, 11X14 inches.

Christine and I did one of our classic staycations one day, driving across the border, using I5 until Hwy 20 or Memorial Drive to Fidalgo Island which naturally takes us to the top of Whidbey Island. Whidbey is a grand drive in an open sportscar, which pulls easily to the side anywhere for a longer look at any scene that seizes attention.  We could have, perhaps should have overnighted but we didn’t. Nevertheless, we went to the very southern tip of the island and from west to east, stopping at lovely beaches and lookouts and country shops, and dining places, and at one location, Possession Point, Christine went for a long walk through pools of seawater while I took in the subjects for painting, and this is one result.

EARLY MORNING CHARDONNAY

'EARLY MORNING CHARDONNAY,’ oil on canvas, 11X14 inches - This was a experiment in darks and lights. How dark should I make my darkest areas? My visual image was very dark in the early morning light but how would it appear in oil. I decided to paint the beauty that I saw. Against the ebony greens, the almost transparent chardonnay grapes popped out at me. I loved the effect. The original looks so good. Completed just days ago.

TO BE PINOT GRIS

‘TO BE PINOT GRIS’
This was a treat to paint because the colours were luscious, rich and elegant and blending them to reality was therapeutic for me after a lengthy hiatus from painting. I probably had not painted for a couple of months, so it was a pleasure coming back to this love with such a good outcome. It’s 20X16 inches oil on canvas.

PINOT NOIR ALMOST READY

'Pinot Noir Almost Ready,’ - a small one, 8X10 in. oil on canvas but it was fun to render what light can do on objects like this. Darks and lights are enjoyable to paint.

ROSES ARE RED AND GRAPES ARE TOO

The photo is less than sharp but the colours are close to the original oil on canvas, and the painting is new, perhaps my last Vineyard Collection piece for a while. I couldn’t get over the vivid colours and consequently the unwieldy title is, ‘ROSES ARE RED AND GRAPES ARE TOO.’ For the past couple of weeks I have worked on five paintings, each quite different from one another. That serves a purpose when using oil because it is wet for some days, and this exchange allows time for setting before application of something further. Completing a piece in a day, wet oil into wet oil is called Alle Prima and it is a fruitful exercise for accomplished painters who do it well.

MUD FLATS AT CRESCENT BEACH

Crescent Beach is a favourite spot for Christine and I in any season. During the summer we frequently walked away from th crowds to find a secluded spot in the sun with a view of the mud flats and incoming tidal water, with the fragrance of seawater and the flights of sea birds. ‘Mud Flats at Crescent Beach’ is an 8.5X11 inch oil on canvas painting I’ve just finished. Solitude, Contentment, are words I associate with this simple scene. This one goes somewhere for $200 unframed. I wonder where the somewhere will be.

ROSES ARE RED AND GRAPES ARE TOO

The photo is less than sharp but the colours are close to the original oil on canvas, and the painting is new, perhaps my last Vineyard Collection piece for a while. I couldn’t get over the vivid colours and consequently the unwieldy title is, ‘ROSES ARE RED AND GRAPES ARE TOO.’ For the past couple of weeks I have worked on five paintings, each quite different from one another. That serves a purpose when using oil because it is wet for some days, and this exchange allows time for setting before application of something further. Completing a piece in a day, wet oil into wet oil is called Alle Prima and it is a fruitful exercise for accomplished painters who do it well.

CRISP WINTER MORNING

I work on new stuff but looking back is inspiring too. This is a 2009 painting entitled, 'CRISP WINTER MORNING', 16X20, oil; This was purchased by a framing and gallery owner named Sandra, and I assume that it may be in her own home unless she found an eager buyer. I enjoyed creating the depth that draws the eye far back into the woods, and the shadows were cool, I mean cool to create. 

BARBARA BOLDT - B.C.PAINTER & FRIEND

What a grand way to spend a couple of hours on Friday.

Barbara Boldt is an established painter living just outside Fort Langley. Her home located under towering trees and surrounded by farms, contains scores of available paintings. She paints in oil and has a distinctive realist painting style. Her subject matter is life in British Columbia, the time worn rock formations on Galiano, the grasses and reeds along rivers and streams, field wildflowers and cultivated florals in her own garden. She sells only original works, no prints, and prides herself that a purchaser receives a painting that is one of a kind. She has collectors on several continents.  She holds occasional well-attended shows in her home. She teaches lessons to a few students at a time.

Photo by Jane Watt

I won't presumptuously claim to be one of her best friends yet I have known Barbara for many years, beginning when she had her own gallery of paintings in Fort Langley. We have corresponded from time to time. Barbara, the person, the painter with a story, the painter who began to paint at age 45, fascinated me. Today, Friday, September 12, 2014, I enjoyed the marvelous privilege of visiting her. I've been meaning to do this for a long time. She was always open to the opportunity and today it happened. We shared with one another, displaying our art pieces to one another and talking about them. But that wasn't all. I brought some of my poems and she had a folder of her own poems and we read to one another while sipping coffee. We shared stories from our lives. I admire and respect Barbara a great deal.

She has been honoured from time to time, and deserves greater recognition from peers. She has worked hard at her craft. She has a pioneer spirit, a survivor's heart, an authenticity and determination that should make anyone proud to own a Boldt.

Photo by Jane Watt

Together with Jane Watt she has produced a book of her paintings, entitled, 'Places of her Heart, The Art and Life of Barbara Boldt.'

http://barbaraboldt.com

See Jane Watt's comments about Barbara at Watt's website, Fenton Publishers 

She has collections of paintings in several categories such as,

EARTHPATTERNS   LANDSCAPES   GARDEN & STILL LIFE      SERIES 2014   

Read her poetry here. http://barbaraboldt.com/writing---poetry.html

  

Barbara Boldt's Studio is located at 25340 84th Avenue, in beautiful Glen Valley, 5 minutes from Fort Langley.

If you would like to visit Barbara at her studio, and to ensure she's available for a visit, please call ahead, at 604.888.5490

Small group lessons are available for oils.

For more information, please call 604.888.5490, or e-mail Barbara at:  art@barbaraboldt.com

3 GRANDBOYS & PAPA ON A LARGE LEATHER COUCH

January 6th 2014
My first painting start of the 2014, 24X30 inch oil on canvas. This one has been in my heart for a long time. It's time to come to life. My 3 grandsons and I pictured in 2008 at a lakeside house in Tulameen B.C. lying together on a massive leather couch.
Using a photo reference I have sketched my image on a well prepped canvas surface, 4 coasts of gesso. Body shapes will be refined and sized better as the painting develops. This painting will be for myself, until it gets passed on. Here it sits on my large easel by my studio light.


Now (BELOW) with the first application of some paint, the dark green leather is roughed in with its striking highlights from the bright light of the window behind the subjects.

The couch is not near completion. Other highlights and definition will come after I get body shapes completed. First, however, the faces must be done.

Beginning to fill in the likenesses, I have to get this right enough to recognize (BELOW). Once I am assured I have the facial images, I can work with broad strokes to complete the arms, legs and clothing - me without the beard I have been wearing for five years. So my grandsons and I were a lot younger when this image was made & I now try to immortalize it.


January 8, 2014

A close up of the work done so far on my head. The colour of my face is much darker, tanned than the boys will be as the sunlight pours in from the window, Detail paint work is permitted to appear rough because the purpose is the visual affect when the viewer stands back to view the entire scene.









This is Jan 11, 2014 and to the photo series below I will add today, the latest addition. Jayden's face has been filled in. There's much more work to come but at least he is there, and I have a better sense that this project may work for me. It was the spontaneous delight that all four of us had that compelled me to try this. I have always loved this photo memory. Why not paint it.

January 29th, and I paint just a little bit each day. I am seeking to capture the facial likenesses and that is my preoccupation. Until I am sure that I can live with the faces as reasonably close to my grandsons five years ago, I am not moving on to the clothes and the completed couch and the, as yet undetermined background. Now, however, I can add a photo that shows that Ryan on the lower left and Kale on the right have been achieved about as well as I think I can do it. You will notice that Kale, (far right) was holding his lambie while sucking his thumb. Although he was known to do that and family would recognize that, I wanted to see his face, so I painted that next. That was work, to arrive at a likeness with which I was satisfied could represent him.

There is still some shading to both faces that may generate a bit more life as well. the great challenge for me has been working with photo images that were not taken with high definition, so blowing them up is not helpful. I still have fuzzy resolution.


Alright, it's time for you to see the progress to date … it's Monday February 3rd. Remember, I do only brief painting episodes on this large piece each day. The progress seems slow. However, this provides me a lot of reflective time. It sits and stares back at me and I notice things I need to change in composition or refinement. So, the state you see next, is with faces and clothing completed to my satisfaction, the landscape roughed in behind the massive green leather couch which is also yet unfinished. The landscape, Lake Otter, will likely be obscured by vertical white or cream blinds, allowing a nostalgic glimpse of that outside. I don't want that background to compete with the figures.

Finished painting, "Papa Tells a Story'

February 25th and now I can put up the finished painting, which has vertical blinds in the window, and just the hint of the outside scene of Otter Lake and the surrounding hills. The couch has been refined, and touches all over the piece where I wanted to highlight, soften or lose something.

It now hangs above my desk for me to enjoy.

TOY BOY

‘Toy Boy’, 11X14 in., acrylic on canvas panel, December 2013, A Christmas Gift from Father to Son (Jeff) 

Kale is Jeff’s first child, a son for my son. He is pictured here when life is still very new and every experience is the best ever. He is always learning, inquisitive, and eager to participate. The quaint town of Fort Langley has a classic toy shop called the Fort Toy Box. When Kale was still a small boy he one day came to the front of this store and absorbed by what he saw, he scrutinized everything behind the window with its strip of repeated announcements, ‘toys, toys, toys’ and silently took it in. Of course he asked “can we go in?” I have pictured him here for Jeff because he loves this boy, and because I nostalgically picture my own little boy looking into the window, then going home and making what he had seen inside.

SUNNING AT PACHENA BAY

‘Sunning at Pachena Bay’, 11X14 in., acrylic on canvas panel, December 2013, a Christmas Gift from Dad to Gina

Summers are work free, family focused, home projects and camping times for Gina and Jeff and their children. One of the things they enjoy doing is finding a less populated spot on some BC shoreline, setting up their small trailer and equipment and throwing off the footwear to put toes into sand. At Pachena Bay the view was glorious and the air was ocean fresh. Gina’s comfy shoes, broken in and well worn, bask in the sun atop some driftwood. Nearby Gina is also soaking up the warm summer sun. September comes soon enough.

DIE SEEBURG

‘Die Seeburg’, 11X14 in., acrylic on canvas panel, December 2013, a Christmas Gift from Ron to Tim

This romantic Seeburg castle, so familiar to Tim as a child, was the Wort Des Lebens (Word of Life) venue, in which his parents Larry and Joy served God with a purpose to bring the good news of Christ to young campers. The vast space with impressive rooms and halls and high ceilings within this idyllic building, became the Locken family home for Lynn and Tim. This side of the building faced to the lake, and there were other wings that created an interior courtyard. This particular view cannot display the extent of the building and the property. In fact, here are only the two upper floors. Under the tree line was yet another main level of the castle structure just faintly hinted within the trees. At one of these high windows with a window bench, Tim might sit with a book or simply gaze out over the forested trees to the water, that is, if he was not already outside exploring and playing. It is a treasurable memory recreated here on a cloudless day with the sun high overhead.

WHISKEY MAC

‘Whiskey Mac’, 11X14 in., acrylic on canvas panel, December 2013, a Christmas Gift from father to daughter (Cari)

We had made the move from Toronto to Cloverdale and a dream home. The stained glass insert on the front door of our new home displayed a beautiful rose. The home was affectionately called the Rose House. The summer following Cari’s completion of her degrees in Winnipeg she chose to move west permanently as well. The appropriate planting of a rose garden was a father-daughter project. During one of those delightful humidity free summers, Cari and Dad dug up the soil and added additional topsoil to make a garden along the south exposed wall of the detached garage at 5767 185 Street. Among the first roses was this hybrid tea rose called ‘Whiskey Mac’ with bronze – apricot colours, and a light aroma. The original greyish colours of the cedar siding of the rear of the house and the garage are noted in this painting. The floral display of this garden was enjoyed with a few minor replacements and additions for twenty years.

'LETTER BOX AND BIKE ON HIGH STREET'

This was a commissioned piece begun and finished in November. Well, OK, a slight carry over into early December because I was too lazy to add some wheel spokes. Actually, this was commissioned by my wife Christine.

Christine and I did a trip to Wales and Britain this past summer. We spent two weeks in  Lee on Solent, Christine's childhood home town. She is rich with memories of places and people that we revisited. Her school friends, like ourselves, were six decades older than she remembers, but the warmth of friendship was there so remarkably that a person would pay any amount of money to experience that again.

The painting is a nostalgic reminder for Christine. Her choice of location. "High Street" is a commercial as well as residential street, and is also where the Methodist Church is located. Her grandmother lived not far from this spot pictured here, and her own apartment home was around the corner one block away. The letter box is characteristic of British post boxes and the bikes often rested on a curb rather than using the kick stand. I hazed out the background shops at Christine's request to concentrate the viewer's focus upon the two primary objects.

Elizabeth Regina with the regal crown icon and the words Post Office are raised letters on each post box. It was fun trying to achieve that with paint. In the actual painting it appears more successfully than here.

Christine will hang this over her desk so she has a striking reminder of her roots for the duration of this her seventieth year. Happy Birthday once again sweetheart.

POP'S CYCLE

I am very happy with this piece.

This is my latest, August 9, 2013, an acrylic on canvas, 8X11 in. I really enjoyed the process and the result. I love the contrasting darks and lights and the colours compliment one another so well. A double bar bike with an old recovered vinyl seat leaning against a outside wall that has been painted and repainted many times over the years. The brick wall shows the passage of time as well with glassy blue enamel finish having worn off.

Unlike most of my paintings, I finished it without determining a title for it. On Facebook I invited suggestions and received many. One of the them was PopCycle to which I made a slight punctuation adjustment.

PAINTING OF BONNIEUX FRANCE

This is great fun. An Event Planner for a New York corporation is planning her own wedding to occur in a French town that Christine and I visited in 2009 and which I painted a rather hasty & mediocre small painting. Some week ago, this person inquired whether I would sell the painting so she could use the image for her wedding invitations. I regretfully informed her that it had been donated to the Penny Pincher Thrift Shop, a Langley Hospital auxiliary. An artist however retains the image rights, so for a modest price $25.00 I authorized to her a one time use (her invitations). She agreed and said she would also send a signature scent (perfume) from the Company she represents. Today at our door was a UPS parcel with the scent and a cheque for the cents. I have given her permission to print 60 stamps with the image as well which will go on the envelopes.

DAVID OMAR WHITE WAS A TRUE ARTIST

David enjoyed the fulfillment of every artist’s dream, of having his art covering the walls of a public facility and occupying the attention of hundreds of people every day. David Omar White, known as Omar lived in Cambridge Massachusetts where he was well known as a painter and an activist for the Affordable Housing Organizing Committee. He was 82 years of age when he passed away on June 26 from pulmonary fibrosis resulting from exposure to asbestos during World War II.

Over the years he drew a political cartoon strip called "White Rabbit" which ran for years in various alternative newspapers. He used various mediums, including small washes and enormous, color-filled paintings that celebrate both the real and surreal worlds and he won many awards and artistic grants. He taught and he lectured. He had a Chris Kringle persona with his white beard and twinkling eyes. His friends remember him as a witty, warm and quirky man who never stopped what he loved to do. He was a true artist, a muralist, a sculptor, a political cartoonist, a children’s book writer and illustrator. From his childhood there was nothing else that he wanted to do with his life. His paintings were flamboyant and surrealistic. He was recently quoted as saying that “Art has never been a hobby. I am a fanatic artist. I work as much as my energy allows; it’s my reason for living.”

His last years were difficult as he was confined to a wheelchair but he lived in a senior housing facility in which he converted his bedroom into a studio and he slept in the living room. He was often up at 4 am to paint. I don’t find that strange at all. “My favorite work is the next one I’m going to do,’’ he wrote in a recent letter to a young friend for a school project. Omar said, “My art is based on what feels right. I don’t compete with God or nature ... I feel that if I copy the creator, I’m bound to come out second best.’’ The Casablanca Restaurant in Harvard Square in Cambridge MA commissioned him to paint large murals in 1970. When the restaurant relocated in 1990, the murals were dismantled and reinstalled in the new restaurant in 1991. His now famous epic Casablanca mural depicts the classic film romance of Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.

          Personal Application

Since this is a personal blog, let me tell you how his story affects me. I admire the passionate commitment of an artist like Omar and I would like to emulate that but I cannot bring myself to treat my art as my reason for living. My reasons for living are my relationship with God which began when I was ten years of age; my relationship with the woman to whom I pledged faithfulness 42 years ago; and my relationships with family and friends. The payback on these exceeds all my art no matter how proficient I become. 

ART & LONELINESS & UNDERSTANDING MYSELF

Robert Genn, while explaining artistic creativity yesterday, provided me with an insight that helps me to understand the way I think and behave. Robert is a successful fine artist known internationally to collectors for his landscapes and to artists for his free weekly encouragement. Twice weekly an e-note, 'The Painter's Keys' comes to my mailbox. You can subscribe. Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s piece entitled, ‘Are you lonely this morning?’ “…

Un Cabellero Cubano

I have waited months to show this painting. It is a commissioned piece, a surprise for someone's spouse. It's entitled 'Un Cabellero Cubano' or, a Cuban Gentleman. It was picked up on Friday so now I can do the big reveal. It's 22X28 inches, oil on canvas. I worked at it for several months, a little at a time, allowing the oil to dry before overpainting. I thoroughly enjoyed this man.

hands are important

Using a photo the client provided, I did preliminary sketches and an initial oil study of the Cabellero's head and then began to compose the painting. Without good visual definition, one must use imagination to arrive at contrasts, darks and lights and facial details.

Working on full figure

The initial oil study of the head

The title translation is ‘A Cuban Gentleman.’
That’s how I saw him. He fascinated me the moment
that I saw this memento of your Cuban vacation.
His brown eyes shine hazel in the sunlight and without
A broad smile, they welcome you to look at him, and even
to engage him with “¿Hola, cómo estás?"
He’ll answer with a soft and courteous, “Bien, gracias."
Without knowing anything about him, I imagined
him to be a contented man, self-assured, with adequate
means for a comfortable living. He is well positioned in life,
past the need to be in the fields. He is an owner.
His machete hangs at his side as a useful tool and
as a reminder of his youth. He clears overgrowth
around his place. He is married and he has grandchildren
and he is good to them all. His wife is a striking woman,
still with glistening dark hair tied into a bun behind her head
and held with a jeweled pin. He is never without a hat, and
underneath his hat is a full head of strong white hair.
His face is lined with years and weather that communicate
identity and character. His daily pleasure is to sit in a slightly
shaded spot to smoke a Cuban cigar.

I would like to know him better.