My Perspective on Windows and Doors. A Solo Exhibition of Paintings by Marion Meyers
Colborne Art Gallery, Ontario
June 9, 2018 through July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Saturday June 9, 2018, 2 to 4 pm
Windows and doors: they seem to tell me, “You’re welcome here.”, or “No one cares.” Would I like to open that door? Bang on that knocker? Reflect on what goes on behind that window? I imagine being on the other side, looking out that window or just admiring how the light streams in. I find odd angles intriguing and often work the architectural patterns of windows and doors into abstract work.
For years I had a recurring dream of a giant old warehouse building filled inside with what appeared to be a giant “Mousetrap” game. And I rode around in a small cart, like I was on a single-person roller coaster, going in and out of doors in walls and windows in the frame of the warehouse, bumping into things and setting off chain reactions of cogs and wheels turning. It was a gritty, grimy place of clanging metal and old wood. Years later we played a video game called Riven, where finding the right door or knob to turn would open a passageway, leading you to the next window or hole in the wall to climb through. It was dark inside with light streaming in where you might find a way out or back into the game again. Just like in my dream.
There are always strong lines in images of windows and doors and often repeating patterns, gorgeous colours and texture. These images come out in the texture and piecing of quilted wall hangings. The images swirling in my head, either from photos I’ve taken or abstract impressions of places, are ideas I bring out in my encaustic paintings. Encaustic medium is an ancient process of melting beeswax and damar resin together with pigment to paint, hot and fluid, on birch panels. It dries immediately and each layer of encaustic paint must be fused with a blow torch, heat gun or hot iron to the layer beneath. Encaustic paint is a wonderful medium for scraping away, layering colour, adding texture and making glossy surfaces, all key elements of My Perspective on Windows and Doors.
The Colborne Art Gallery
51 King Street East, Colborne, Ontario
905-355-1798
Gallery Hours During Shows: Thursday to Sunday 12 to 4 pm
A block is a piece of wood, linoleum or styrofoam used as a matrix for a print. Ink, a mixture of pigment suspended in a water-soluable base with gum arabic, is used for block and Collagraph printing.
The ink is applied to the block with a brayer, the block is flipped and positioned on the paper and then a baren or spoon or even just your thumb is used to press the paper into the block to transfer the ink.
The number of images printed from the block is called an edition. These identical images are pulled by the artist (in my case) and then numbered in pencil directly on the print (for example, 1/10 through 10/10)
In many of my prints I make a block print (take a look at my duck) and then a monoprint over it. By adding the monoprint over the block print I’ve make each one unique. These are numbered with “V.E.”, meaning various editions.
I learned this technique in a program with Linda Kirstin Blix. You can find her at her website.
Monoprints and Monotype are the most painterly among printmaking techniques. They are essentially printed paintings; one-of-a-kind prints conceived by the artist and printed by the artist. No two prints are alike: although some images can be similar. The appeal of the monoprint/monotype lies in the unique translucency that creates a quality of light very different from a painting on paper or a print. This combination of painting, printmaking and drawing mediums is spontaneous.
Monoprinting is a unique process using a combination of painting and traditional printmaking processes. I used a Silk Screen frame with a stretched mesh fabric (historically silk) and paint with a brush, sprayer or wooden sticks on the screen with Procion “H” fabric dye solutions.
These dyes are responsible for the brilliant colours. Once the dye is dry, I use a traditional print making technique. A single sheet of Acid-free paper is placed under the screen and taped down. The screen is held up, and using a squeegee I flood the screen with wallpaper paste. In a monoprint, it is the flood stroke that allows the dye to soften. The wallpaper paste, Dynamic 212 premixed, is tested for lightfastness. I then lower the screen onto the paper and pull the print, using the squeegee again with firm pressure to push the dye and paste through the screen onto the paper. You now have an original fine art print. It will be numbered 1/1, named and signed in pencil.
I learned these techniques in a program at the Haliburton School of the Arts with the fabulous instructor, Linda Kristin Blix. You can find Linda’s work on her website.
I spent a week with Linda Kristin Blix at the Haliburton School of the Arts in the summer of 2015 and joined her course at Arts at the Albion in Gravenhurst that fall. Linda is a fabulous teacher. One of the processes we studied was making a Collagraph. A Collagraph is a print made from a specially constructed plate that has been produced in a collage manner, resulting in high and low surfaces which hold the ink differently during printing. Here are a few photos of this process. You can find Linda, her work and her classes on her website.
I’ve always loved to paint urban and rural landscapes and in oil painting landscapes are a common subject. However, when I started to paint in encaustic medium I discovered that it’s hard to get those clean edges that you need for the lines, perspectives and boundaries between colours when painting buildings. So I had to create a way to do this with the techniques I’d learned.
Take a tour of studios in the Township of Scugog, including my site, at Utica Memory Hall in the wee hamlet of Utica. (Just this year – next year it will be in my new studio!) I’m at site #9 on the tour. www.scugogstudiotour.ca Site #9 has 5 artists and features lot of different media. I’ve got encaustic paintings and quilts, Pamela Meacher brings her beautiful watercolours, Colin Whitebread will display colourful acrylic and mixed media work, Kelly Fraleigh is selling emotional photographs and finally, Libbie Burns will show a gorgeous selection of fibre pieces. Libbie will be doing demonstrations of how she felts wool to make her wonderful garments and I will demonstrate techniques in encaustic painting.
It’s exciting to have both paintings and quilts in two group shows, both at Port Perry galleries. So get out there! The Kent Farndale Gallery is inside the Scugog Public Library and that show is on until Wednesday April 29th. Walk one blocks west and drop into the Scugog Council for the Arts Gallery. This is a group show “pre-tour” of Lake Scugog Studio Tour artists.