Painting Picasso

Last term I offered a course that ran every Friday morning for 6 weeks... Painting Picasso: Passionate Art History and Practical know-how

The feedback from my students was overwhelmingly positive - they want more! And I was paid by the Kapiti Womens Centre to run the course. BONUS :-)

The course was great fun to run and I was lucky to have a delightful group of women who were very engaged in the art and the history surrounding Picasso and the modern to post-modern art movements. Picasso is one of the too small minority of artists who was a success early in his career and painted prolifically throughout his lifetime. He helped develop and inspire new art styles and aesthetics. And when he grew rich and successful he bought a huge house and filled the rooms with paintings stacked by the hundreds up against the walls. Last year - 2013 - one of his paintings sold for $155 million!

We looked at his paintings from different experimental phases in his career and also the works being created by other artists and groups around the same time. We studied colour theory and produced a 'mood' work with a limited palette, line and composition, depth and shading, politics and philosophy in art. We tried analytical and synthetic cubist works and produced a collaborative group mural inspired by Guernica (a work protesting war and violence painted in 1937).

It was a turbulent time - 100 years ago. People were fighting for equal opportunities... women for votes, workers for decent wages and conditions, many countries for independence and freedom from Western Colonisation. Racism, poverty, violence and inequality... we humans are making gains but need to keep working and fighting towards a world where the needs of every person are respected and met. NEEDS as opposed to selfish and greedy wants that hurt other people and the environment - the world - we live in. I loved discussing these issues with my students and hearing all the issues that are FIRING them up TODAY! Cant wait to offer the course again :-) And a new one focused on female artists like Frida Kahlo and Rita Angus...

Here are some pics xxx

Plein air in March

We had some lovely days in Kapiti as the weather turned cooler... perfect for plein air painting! There is  something special about a painting captured outside at the very moment you experience that time and place. These paintings are oil paint on board... providing a solid surface for mixing paint as well as holding it. Near the beach, I found a picnic table to sit at. By the pond, I sat on the grass. The soccer field was painted as I sat watching my son at his first soccer training of the season! As I go about our weekly routine, I often see a colour, or shape, or composition worth sitting with for an hour or two... to capture and share. We rush backwards and forwards through such a beautiful world!

ARTS trail at KAPITI WOMENS CENTRE

Kapiti rocks. Every year they have a weekend where artists open up their studios so you can visit and check out their work. There are also hubs in schools and community centres where several artists get together and exhibit. Early this month we had a hub of artists exhibiting at the Kapiti Womens centre where I volunteer. Knowing that I am "artsy" I was asked to coordinate the exhibition as well as participating as one of 7 artists. It was fabulous to practice a bit of curating and event planning :-)

We had super feedback from our visitors: great, lovely, awesome, fantastic, beautiful artwork, fab, cool, ʻTino ataahua enei taongaʼ, welcoming, lovely atmosphere, ʻlots of interesting artʼ, vibrant, excellent, ka rawe, ʻfantastic set-upʼ, wonderful, ʻthe new building was made to display artʼ, ʻgreat showʼ, very impressed, great art, great space, lovely people, great displays, doing a great job, ka pai, gorgeous, lovely venue, nice feel, ʻvibrant energy and talented artists - Mauri Oraʼ, ʻan inspirational place and a warm welcomeʼ

Its true - the centre looked stunning and the volunteers were so warm and welcoming that it was a great weekend enjoyed by visitors, artists and Kapiti Women Centre volunteers alike. We even raised a wee bit of money for this valued community resource caring for women in Kapiti.

Artists were Gill Allen, Jane Fogden, Jean Kahui, Marguerite Osborne, Tracey Morgan, Liz Symes and me - Abby Wendy...

Here are a few pics from the weekend 2-3 November 2013

Beautiful Kapiti!

Wow a busy couple of years. After completing honours Art History I moved to Kapiti and have been very busy settling in to the community and making my home and studio cosy. Environment is very important to productive creativity! That is part of why I moved. Wellington (and especially Thorndon where I lived in the city) became so crowded and dirty and... words fail me and when I think of it I feel that electric hum vibrating in my bones and a page full of dull dark colours slashing across in a confusion of jagged scribbles. NOISY and stressed-out. It permeates the air and creeps into your spinal cord. Thats how it feels for me... disrupting the flow of inspiration. 

I miss being close to my friends and family but it is only an hour or less to drive back and visit. Meanwhile I feel like I have moved to an oasis of calm. The air is clean, time moves a little slower, and people are happier here which makes them friendlier, more helpful and community orientated. It is more affordable to live here as well, although I suspect that is slowly changing. For a little less rent I have a house with a little garden just across from a beautiful beach. It is bliss to wake early and walk out barefoot on sand while the sun is rising. It is filling up my little artist's cup of joy and inspiration until it overflows into beautiful paintings.

Here are some pics from my morning walks...

   

Activism in Aotearoa - mural completion

Jalen with my completed mural at VUW

Party time! My mural is (finally) complete. I'm going to make a little confession... I think I'm falling in love again. I've met a really nice guy and yesterday I promised myself that IF I managed to finally complete the mural I would reward myself with a day off from painting and uni to hang with him. What awesome motivation! After months of dragging my feet it finally came together in one clear, frosty Wellington winter afternoon. At 3pm, I had to pause and get Jalen from school but instead of my usual routine of packing up and returning on the next fine, free day I went and asked my son for a wee favour...
'What?' He rolled his eyes at me. 'Let me guess... something at uni!'
'Mmmm, right, I really need some help to get my mural finished.' I replied. 'Will you please come up and film me putting the finishing touches on my painting?'
A couple of bribes later we were on our way...

Jalen created this great little clip (hehe - kept him busy) and if you can handle his 10 year-old sway n jiggle motion technique it is worth checking out. He observes and grills the artist as she works and gets to the heart of the mural with the open sincerity and candor of youth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVN3ks_jw5A

Ahhhh, Xena! (Mural update)

Finally! A whole weekend of sun that coincides with Jalen being with his dad. I feel really happy with how the mural at VUW is progressing. I can almost see the end (happy face, sad face, happy face). Even though my back and neck ache from painting figures higher than my head, even though I ended Saturday painting in the dark (red looks brown but it isn't), even though it was still fr-fr-freezing... standing in front of that wall painting makes me feel whole and happy and at peace. Feeling cold, hungry and tired doesn't even register when I get to do the thing I love.

Its definitely WORK but... other people hate working and get paid, whereas I love my creative work but usually don't get paid much. The mural is an unpaid gig but to me its worth all the time and energy I'm putting in. I love the challenge. Physically and psychologically this work has pushed me. Other murals I've painted were completed off site - in my warm, comfy home with light, heat, music, food, etc - and then installed afterwards. This project is coming to life with an audience of hundreds walking past. They are noisy and many of them want to stop and chat and ask questions - bless their friendly souls. Even the ones who clearly know little English stop and say - 'Ahhhh, Xena! Very good!' The surroundings are oppressive with walls all around me and 4 tall buildings blocking out the sun. Directly above my head is a giant crane that probably won't drop anything on my head... I hope. The wind howls through the pathway and the noise from the construction site is shattering. But still... I love it.

It is still a work in progress but here are a couple of pics...

The Sublime in Art

Over a few glasses of wine, a wise friend of mine articulated the sublime in art in a way that showed real understanding of artistic intention. I want to try and share the gist of it but apologies if I mess it up now that I’m sober... I’ve included some of the philosophical definitions at the end. 

My friend defined the sublime in contrast with the profane which is common and measurable and a thing that we can understand and comprehend with our senses and reason. Something that is sublime, on the other hand, is boundless, fathomless and impossible to define. We were discussing the Rastafari ideology of finding faith and inspiration within oneself instead of having a set of religious rules imposed dogmatically. The Bible for Rastas is a sublime pathway to a self-defined sense of rightness and my friend and I likened that to way artists often refuse to explain their paintings or artforms. 

Below are a few works that have very specific associations for me. They were inspired by a time, place, person or experience. When you look at them they may remind you of someone you know, or of yourself at times, or a memory, or an experience... My specific is not greater or more correct than yours so sharing my PERSONAL meaning is more likely to detract from your connection to my art than to enhance it. My painting should ideally be able to speak to you, perhaps even inspire you to a thought, feeling or action that is internally driven. You, the viewer, have the power to unlock the mysteries and meanings in each work that are relevant and specific to YOU.

The sublime is often related to a feeling of awe and humility before something much greater than our selves. It relates to the sense of being a tiny, frail and insignificant being but simultaneously being part of something enormous and important like nature and the Earth we stand on, the cosmos, or a shared belief and purpose. Art is sublime for existing through barriers of time and space that people can’t pass through to inspire and communicate with many people in many different ways. When we look at art, we can feel connected to its history and a shared experience but hopefully are also aware of, and value, the unique and personal interaction with it. Art won't always speak to you but I hope you will always try to listen.

Kant - Sublime shows ‘a faculty of the mind surpassing every standard of Sense.’ 

Schopenhauer - A range from beautiful to sublime that changes as feelings of danger and mortality increase while viewing art or objects.

Hegel - A formless aesthetic inspires an overwhelming sense of awe.

Victor Hugo - A combination of the grotesque and beautiful.

Jean-Francois Lyotard - Rhetoric and ambiguity of meaning reveals the multiplicity and instability of the postmodern world.