Flabbergast-Ted

Thank you to everyone that stopped in to Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill over the weekend. I thought you would like to see the finished demo painting, 'Flabbergast-Ted' .  

Visitors who came to Hillcrest as I was demoing were asked to guess what the baby and Ted might be looking at.  Some of their ideas were: hundreds of butterflies, snow for the first time, Santa, mommy dying her hair purple, Dad taking a photo with a big flash and a huge hairy spider. I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have.

Ona

Demoing at Hillcrest Mall this Weekend

As part of the Culture Days | Fête de la culture Richmond Hill Studio Tour & Art Sale preview show, I am going to be painting at Hillcrest Mall this Friday, Saturday or Sunday (26-28th). Watch me as I work on this new Ted painting.

Any guesses from the painting so far what the Ted word will be?

  I will be located inside the former Costa Blanca store (south/east corner of the Mall, where the three pathways intersect). Several other Studio Tour Artists will be there too so come and see some art and watch us at work!

 

 

Thank you to the Northern Ontario Art Association

I have had a wonderful few days in Sudbury jurying the Northern Ontario Art Association's 58th annual exhibition. It was a tough task with so many beautiful works of art entered. The photo below shows only half of the entries which were placed around the room on jury day. From around 130 entries my fellow Juror and I were asked to choose between 35-40  which will tour many of the communities in Northen Ontario for the next year and from these to select 12 award winners.

The selected works were then displayed along with the rest of the paintings for the official opening of the exhibition so that the community could enjoy all 130 paintings and hear the announcement of the award winners.

Many local business sponsored awards. Its always so good to see a local community supporting the arts in this way.  Joe Miller from Cheap Joes Art supplies also donated an award. Thank you for your generosity Joe.

Fellow Juror Joanne and I were made to feel very welcome and enjoyed speaking to many of the artists.

I would  like to thank the local art community not only for making me feel so welcome but also for giving me the beautiful hand made gifts, souveniers of Sudbury and flowers. They are lovely momentoes of the occasion.

Ona

Strokes of Genius 7

It's been quite the week for good news! I was VERY pleased to get a Congratulations e mail from Sarah and Rachel at North Light Books when I got back from Jurying the NOAA exhibition yesterday evening to say my pen and ink drawing 'Paws for Thought' has been selected for publication in North Light Books' Strokes of Genius 7: Depth, Dimension + Space. 

 

 

Ona 

NFWS 12th International Transparent Watercolor Exhibition Acceptance

I was thrilled to receive notification today to say that both 'Taking Time' and 'Heart Strings' have been juried into the NFWS 12th International Transparent Watercolor Exhibition. The exhibition will be held at the Kenan Center Gallery, 433 Locust St. Lockport, NY 14094 from October 19th- November 16th, 2014

Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour Open Water Exhibition Acceptance

I was very happy to receive notification today that my painting 'A Penny for your thoughts' has been accepted into The Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour Open Water 2014 International Exhibition.

It is one of only 40 paintings  selected for this exhibition which will take place at the John B. Aird Gallery, 900 Bay St., Toronto, Ontario from October 28th – November 21st, 2014.

Ona

Tasty

I thought I would finish the little painting of some nuts and seeds in the autumnal sunshine that I have been working on outside today as it is such a lovely day. I put it down for a couple of minutes and ...

 

...Do you think I paint a little too realistically?  (grin)

This was lots of fun to create and a welcome break from all the matting and framing I have been doing.  The painting within the painting is 4.5 by 2.5 inches and the whole painting is 6.5 by 10.5 inches. 

I thought you might also enjoy this photo that James took as I was working on it early yesterday morning when it was not so sunny.

As you can see I needed the magnifying glass to paint all the little details on the tiny chipmunks.

Ona 

Finalist in Richeson 75 International Figure/Portrait 2014 Exhibition

I had some happy news yesterday. My Transparent Watercolour 'Time Warp' has been selected as a finalist and will be on display in the Richeson 75 International Figure/Portrait 2014 exhibition. The exhibition runs from Oct 20-Dec 6, 2014 at the Richeson Gallery in Kimberly Winsconsin US

The painting depicts my son Alex's childhood. I wanted to show him as he grew up and how it feels like the blink of an eye  since he was small and yet him growing up is such a large part of my life too. Time is a funny thing.
 
Ona

Featured Artist

I am the featured Artist this week on the 'Art on the Hill' Richmond Hill Studio Tour Blog.

This is the feature I wrote. I hope you will enjoy it too

Featured Artist: Ona Kingdon

I am taking a break from painting this week as I prepare for the Studio Tour. I have matted about 15 paintings and am in the process of framing them. I have also been creating the designs for many new art cards.

This year my theme for the tour is going to be based on our senses. My section of the tour will be designed to encourage visitors to discover the art through many senses not just our sight.  So if you live in southern Ontario, come and visit me at Boynton House on Richmond Green on the 17^th 18^th or 19^th of October and see how many of your 5 senses you end up using or see being used in the paintings or drawings. There will even be nibbles to tempt your sense of taste and music to listen to as you look around.  I often use music as an inspiration for my paintings or to help me set the mood as I paint. I will have some of the music playing so maybe you can identify which music I listened to for some of the pieces on display.

My popular demand I have also been designing Ted series bookmarks. I can't wait to get James to print them on canvas and varnish them. They will be ready for sale in time for the Studio Tour and yes, I will be selling them on line too Have you got a favourite?

 

Ona

 

Paul Jackson Kolinsky kayak brushes

I have been trying out the 4 Paul Jackson Kolinsky kayak brushes over the last few months

 The info on Paul’s website says-‘These double-ended brushes are perfectly balanced and weighted for the ultimate painting experience. Sizes: 0/2, 2/4, 6/8, and 10/12. Sold only as a complete set.’

Having a brush both ends is so useful. I have been able to load one side with paint and the other with clear water which makes softening an edge of a wet on dry wash so much easier. I can also load the other side of the brush with a different colour allowing me to merely flip and then continue to paint. Previously I would need to either use two brushes or stop and clean my brush and reload with the new colour for a variegated wash. Thirdly I can load both ends of the brush with the same colour and merely flipping the kayak when one brush runs out of paint. This allows me to cover a larger area with one glaze before the paper goes past its optimum dampness and I need to let it dry fully before rewetting. Lastly I can also have one end of the kayak dry giving me a thirsty brush always at hand to lift any unwanted paint.

The brushes hold a point well making detail possible, even with a larger brush than I am used to, but at the same time they are extremely soft (a quality I really look for in a brush so that I can achieve my ultra smooth washes that I so enjoy creating).  

 I still use my Winsor and Newton series 240 goat hair mop/wash brushes for glazing large areas as I have yet to find a large wash brush that ‘kisses the paper’ as gently as they do without moving the paint on the previous layers around but must say having to use two brushes (one for paint and one for water) feels cumbersome after a couple months with the kayaks.

I also use my existing tiny brushes sizes 002-004 for very detailed work e.g. painting eyes or fur or hair but would happily have a kayak version if one existed.

My ideal brush set? Paul’s 4 Kayaks with an added 2 kayaks- a kayak mop and a kayak teeny tiny brush.

An added bonus… the care instructions the brushes come with are very amusing and make me smile every time I read them. 

Ona

Silverback

I still haven't decided on the title for this. I would welcome any ideas. I guess the message I was trying to convey is best said by this except of the poem by Lysa Schuler.

They are beautiful, proud, and can be feared.
But understand, they are a creation revered.

 We protect to keep the remaining alive.

But who knows how long the few will survive?

The drawing is done completely in pointellism and took just over 21 hours in total to complete.

Working in pen

While I have been planning  and drawing out my next watercolour I have also been working on another pen and ink drawing. The whole drawing is created with dots using a technique called Pointillism. This has taken me about 12 hours so far and I am guessing it will probably be close to 30 hours before it is finished. Its easily transportable though so I can keep it with me and draw at odd moments throughout the day wherever I happen to be.

I just love his developing expression. I wonder what he is thinking. Any ideas?

Ona

The creative process: an analogy

To all my creative friends whether you are an artist, a writer, a photographer, a composer, a choreographer… 

...don't give up, remember the creative process is not a linear one. You don’t begin at one point and travel upwards in a straight line to your chosen goal. Very much like the seed cracking open and completely destroying its outer shell in the process, or the caterpillar breaking its very essence down to the absolute basics and then completely re-inventing itself, the creative process is more of a metamorphosis of thought, of understanding and most of all of belief that the power of your ideas is worth pursuing through the ups and downs. In the words of Cynthia Ocelli,

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To some that don’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”

This has happened to me this week as I worked on the idea for my next painting. I had sketched away for days on the idea. On Friday morning I had a finished outline but as I looked at it I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. It was a big fat lumbering catterpillar with too many legs and no wings. So I took it back down to the very essence of my message again. To many, that stage may have looked like almost total destruction, but I had faith because I knew it was just a stage in the process. My greedy fat caterpillar of an idea had to be broken down, and then reformed into the outline idea that I am just finishing now which I hope, when painted will be a beautiful butterfly ready to take flight. Hope you enjoy my analogy. I have too much fun with my pencils and wild imagination sometimes.

 

Ona

Heart strings

I have listened to the following piece of music by Danny Wright quite a bit as I was painting this.  It's called 'keys to the heart'. I thought you might enjoy listening to it as you look at the finished painting.

I nearly used this title as the title of the painting too but James and I both felt 'Heart Strings' was the one to choose. 

So near and yet so far

There is always the temptation when you are reaching the last stages of a painting to want to get it finished but there is still a long way to go. The dress I will be painting is a dark one so there  will be many layers or glazes to create a similar rich dark feel to the background colour. The reflected colours and shadows need to be developed and enhanced on the skin and white piano keys from the dress skin and violin, the music needs to be painted  also and lastly the jewellery added.

There is actually a little more colour in her skin in the actual painting than the camera has captured in this wip photo but hopefully it gives you some idea of my progress.

I am also working on the outline for a painting of my model Sarah's sister who plays the viola.  I am hoping to get the basic idea finished so its ready to draw out once this one is completed.

Ona