Riverstones Gallery ~ Karen Phillips

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2010-04-03T10:33:00.001-07:00

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Stuck in Bermuda

2010-02-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

Winds water and wild weather have me 'trapped' here in Bermuda. The isolation of the island is intense, we are further from the reset of the world, here, than almost anywhere else in the world. Only in times of bad weather is it an issue. The rest of the time, it is a blessing.

I have been in Bermuda for about a month now, painting in Featherbed Studio in St George's, recharging my Bermuda battery as it were, and teaching the art of watercolour to some wonderful people, beginners and those with some experience, through a marvelous organisation called the BSoA (Bermuda Society of the Arts) Their residence is at city Hall in Hamilton. A wonderful space with the National Gallery just down the hall. I also have spent time passing on my accululated knowledge and expertise to the Bermuda Drama and Music Society (BMDS). They are a keen goup of theatre aficiaonados with a lovely little theatre space in downtown Hamilton. All over the island I am met with the joy of creating. Wonderful!

I was not destined to leave on schedule and so am enjoying the downtime afforded me by winds, weather, and the most marvellous sea air!

I will await that great goddess of serendipity to direct the path.....

Courage

2009-12-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

Ahh another set painted, ready for set up in a few days. A large translucent drop for the production of Mother Courage at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. This is an image of the reverse of the piece, in progress. It is a translucent drop and so has particular theatrical properties designed to amaze and astound...that need to be applies in certain order and style.

finally

2009-12-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

Back on line again after a lengthy respit, made posible by ineptitude.........

Painitng again big time, the next project is an 18x50 foot drop for the play Mother Courage at the National Arts Centre. Its a kind of abstract expressioist sunset.....wonderful!

summer light

2009-12-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

Ahh, summer is in full swing. I find myself entranced once again, by light. Dancing shadows on walls, windows, shutters, gates and columns capture my imagination. Large watercolours veer towards the abstract, as light and colour dance together on the paper. Monumentalism embeds itself as my vision creeps closer to the subject. Colour rages vibrantly, as my lost sight returns and the joy of pure rich colour is like a prodigal son returning from far away. I revel in the rush of dense layers of colour on the paper.

I work in two studios at once, upstairs and down. Watercolours in one area and acrylics in another. Right now I have four separate series on the go, a sense of exploration is pushing me ahead. Rich landscapes, in bold acrylic, and a collage series using gold and red oxide take up the space upstairs. As well, I am working on a series depicting yoga poses related to chakras.....it is pure joy.

Fire!

2009-12-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

The Changeling, the last production of the year at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. It is a Norse children’s fable, with trolls and cats and ducks…, you get the picture.
I’m here painting one of the several folding panels that indicate a fire….seen through the various windows of the main flat.

returning

2009-07-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

Ahh I've been away from my blog, lots has been created since I last wrote.....this piece was a part of my exhibit at South of 60, the Barry's Bay Arts Centre. http://www.southof60.com/.

Karen

Seoul

2009-05-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

Life slips by with such speed these days...its hard to keep up!

My time in Korea seems the distant past, I've painted two theatre productions since my return. (The Governor General Awards in the Southam Hall opera stage, as well and a most wonderful production of a Norse tale called The Changeling, for the Studio stage at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.)

I want to hold the images from Korea in my heart and mind a bit longer. While I was there in the midst of it, the astounding largeness of it all was overwhelming, my muse got drowned out by sheer volume of it all. Upon my return, the images of it all repeat unexpectedly, like an unfortunate pickle, abrupt, and full of the aroma of the pleasure it gave upon ingestion.

The forms I recall, haunt me, their simplicity, their complexity, secured embedded by centuries of time.

City of "Soul"

2009-03-31T03:08:00.000-07:00

The city of Seoul is large, its huge, its monumental, its grand, its massive....I know, you get the point. I live in a town of less than 100 people, its taken me a week to get used to all this. I come from a country that is young, the antiquity here is hard for me to grasp. The longevity of this country, this culture, is astounding to a Canadian. It will be a few weeks before I can absorb what I have seen and experienced here.
In this mass, this hubbub, I am finding it hard to locate my muse, where is she? She is my constant companion, yet I think the mass of humanity has scared her off, she's in hiding. She has disappeared! I hope to turn a corner here, one of the millions available to me here,. and there she will be. Maybe she's wandering around looking for me in this mass of humanity....I'll be easy for her to spot, I'm one of the few Caucasians here, or so it seems. I hope I run into her soon...I miss her.

home again

2009-02-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

Image shown is one of the projects I did while at Cobalt Studios. It is 9' x 12' painted on muslin in traditional theatrical style designed and painted by...me.

Ahhh, that delicious feeling of arriving home again, all that familiarity kissing you on the face.
Life switches gears now, and the self~directed approach reigns again., the keystone, or the baine of existence, of the artist. My house and studio are full of post it notes with ideas of things to do, I'll be sifting through them all this weekend to figure out where to start!
My time away at Cobalt Studios in White Lake New York taught me many things, new ways to look at the paint surface, new ideas about things to do!
Creative energy abounds right now.
Off we go~

motivation

2009-01-25T16:21:00.000-08:00

Shoot for the stars , I always do, guess I'm an idealist. Here I am at Cobalt Studios, learning all I can about scenic painting. The best tool a scenic artist has is ingenuity- how can I get this done, the fastest, most efficient, physically easiest method? (You begin the think this way after spending 8 hours hunched over, on your knees on the floor drawing with a magic marker...). Process is as important as inventiveness. What to do first, then what, these are the important questions, think ahead. To have to go backwards is a nightmare, a waste of time and resources, not to mention spirit. I beautifully finished foreground usually precedes a fast and easy application of background. The question of tools comes into play, what tool is best for the job, most efficient. Often scenics use tools in unique ways, as well as a raft of unique tools of their own. Bow lines, scenic foot, snap lines, long handles brushes...
But, I was talking about motivation. What is artistic motivation? In this instance it is a project, a challenge. I am beginning work on a small canvas, (by scenic standards) only 9x12 feet. I am planning it to include as many challenges as possible within its borders. It is a piece of hung drapery, crumpled folded, trusted, above an arched doorway that is also curtained with sheers with lace, and a heavy curtain with tassels. All this is encased in marble, with a stone wall and a wooden floor. Surely this will be a gleeful test of my capabilities hopefully with lovely results!

week one!

2009-01-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

I am having a great time here at Cobalt Studios, today is one whole week! It has flown by, as well as a sense of having been here forever. I am comfortable, warm, engaged in activity all day long, so no time to be bored or restless. I am learning new things all the time but not in a pressured environment, all very easy going. I even have an opportunity to occassionally teach them a tidbit or two. The environment is great, the workshop is well equipped and bright. The processes used here are more traditional so I get a chance to learn the good old ways, see the tools, use them, nothing like hands on to embed a teaching....

Cobalt

2009-01-09T14:25:00.000-08:00

A drive, a path I've not taken before, leads me to Cobalt Studios, nestled on the edge of the Catskills, wonder and experience anew awaits me, tantalizing me, teasing me, almost scaring me, until I settle in. A short walk through the wintery woods of New York state brings me to the workshop of Cobalt Studios. I am here for a month, time enough to learn and rehearse, then embed most of the tricks of my trade. I'm an artist who, when called upon, paints scenincly, for the theatre that is. I hope, after my time here, to finally feel comfortable calling myself a scenic artist. I think this hope my well come true. Turning hopes and dreams into reality is the stock and trade of the artist is it not?
Collabaration, risk taking, geometry, absolute rendering capabilities, strength of character and physical strength, flexibility, ingenuity, persisitance, diplomacy....just a few of the required traits to be a scenic artist.
My first of four weeks has been wonderful. The challenges met, the rhythmn comfortable. The learning curve steep, as I discover new ways to tackle old challenges. A sense of callaboration and a common goal permeates each day.
At Cobalt we work together, eat together and live together, surely a test of character, diplomacy, compassion and a healthy dose of a recognition that we are all in this together. Only working together will the job get done. Not for the faint of heart.
I am in love with it all.
Cobalt, a colour, a place, a dream, a tradition.

Buried Child

2008-12-26T07:21:00.001-08:00

The set for Buried Child, a Sam Shepard play, is finished except for the final touches. It lies in wait in the now quiet workshop; in the dim light, it has a spooky presence, and rightly so. It consists of high walls made of slats, that we wallpapered over then cut out all the slats, it resembles a skeleton of a home. A porch lies behind the walls. Large doors and windows stare like dead eyes towards the audience, action will occur behind them, in jagged, hard to see snippets. Stairs and a tower rise from stage left. All is grey, worn and nicotine stained.Wikipidia says: "Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard that won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwrite. “Buried Child” is a piece of theatre which depicts the fragmentation of the American nucleic family in a context of disappointment and disillusionment with American Mythology and the American dream, the 1970s rural economic slowdown and the breakdown of traditional family structures and values."Playing at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa Canada from Jan 7-24th.

Giving Thanks

2008-10-13T11:46:00.001-07:00

I thank my talent on a daily basis. It is so much of what I am now, after all these years of being a painter it is part of my cellular structure, it is deeply embedded in my being. I take the world around me, the one I experience, and endeavour to replicate the joy and love I find for a simple splash of sunshine on a stair, the wonder of a fall landscape, the simplicity of transparent liquid skimming over some smooth rocks. Its the stuff of life for me.
It is said one must enjoy the wonders of the world around us, 'smell the roses' as it were. I feel thankful to have the capability and nerve to smell the roses every single day now.

Happy Days are here

2008-09-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

'Well Done' I say. The play Happy Days is up and running at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. I was there to be a part of opening night. It is a wonderful production. The play is intriguing, as Samuel Beckett explores with humour and a, barely underlying, dark sensibility. It speaks of our enduring strength in the face of our own real, or imagined, adversity. Winnie, (the main character) finds hope in the smallest things, despair is experienced than sloughed off in order to survive to the next moment. The set we created exhibits a sense of desolation, and isolation, yet has an enduring solidity to it.
My job is done. So, on to the next. I am gearing up, framing and getting the space ready, for the next exhibition here at teh Riverstones Gallery in Burnstown. Richard Gill, my neighbour and fellow artist, is setting up his fall show. Both begin on the 3rd of October continuing through Thanksgiving weekend. "The Sense of Light" are paintings, in watercolour, that explore that sense of dappled warm light. Dancing shadows intrigue me.

Soon there will be an image gallery on my website look for it!
Karen

Happy Days

2008-09-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

'Happy Days', by Samuel Beckett, is on its way, being created. The set for the upcoming production at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa is in full swing. The rather large frame, resembling a beached whale, has been constructed and we are in the process of applying fabric and our painterly version of mud, to its carcass. It develops gradually. My interior child gets a workout as we apply our ‘mud’ to it all. There is a lot of it, the mound is about 20 feet by 30 feet. We have already painted thousands of square feet of floor cloth to accompany the mound. This week we began work on the curtains…. A very red curtain, a yellow, a blue one, as well as a brown one. Whew!

Summer Works (In Progress)

2008-07-25T14:46:00.001-07:00

“Summer Works (In Progress)” is the theme at the gallery right now. I am working hard this summer, using a new found creative fire to keep on paintin’. A steady stream of a few new series’ has kept me busy this summer. Right now there are watercolours of fabulous dancing shadows on the downstairs easel. In the upstairs studio, I rotate between a new gold encrusted trompe l’oeil collage series and a new evening landscape series, and at the same time finishing off the chakras yoga series.

I will be leaving it behind soon, as I get nearer to my return to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, to construct and paint the season opener in the theatre, Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. The set will be a challenge. It is what I love most about theatre, the constant challenge to think outside the box. The designer decides upon an idea and we must work out how to effectively, efficiently and convincingly to create an effect, and sense of place that cannot be found anywhere else other than the imaginations of the designer, director and playwright.

Till then, I paint. Happily

the seasons

2008-05-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

They say time flies when you are having fun, these days are whipping by at a breakneck speed.
This winter I was I Bermuda for a month of sun warmed painting. Work flows easier when the days are unfettered by the concerns of everyday life and your only mission is to paint. I’ve been painting in Bermuda since 1986 when I first ventured to the island in search of inspiration. My work has sold here ever since. These days you can find pieces of mine at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard. I love the light the texture of Bermuda and the colours are to die for. The sense of age and sunbaked time embodies my favourite places there. The people themselves are warm and generous.
Since my return I have been the beneficiary of the everyday miracles of medical science and my failing sight has been restored. A rare iris melanoma in my eye was responsible for greatly diminished sight, a darkening of the light, which has now been restored. Colour, light and my life has been returned to me, for an artist this is truly a wonderful gift.
The National Arts Centre has taken my attention since my surgery. I’ve painted at least one set for each stage there this year. The work I do there helps pay the bills but more than that it fosters a ‘monumental’ dimension to my work.
The month of June will see my Stones paintings at the Arts Centre at Brockville, Ontario. My work will hang in the lobby of the theater. The ‘Water & Stones’ images explore lake and riverside water and stone’s reflection and movement.
My own gallery/studio The Riverstones Gallery, in ‘downtown’ Burnstown, will be open Tuesday to Sunday 12-5pm starting in June. We are about an hour from Ottawa, at the crossroads of Renfrew, Calabogie, Arnprior and White Lake, beside the beautiful Madawaska River. You won’t regret a visit to our marvelous collection of artist’s studios, cafés and shops.
See you soon!

change of pace

2008-05-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

It's gear changing time again. I am almost finished painting the season's cache of productions. "The Way of the World" goes on stage at the National Art Centre on Monday. I will have a touch up call and then it will be opening night!
So, now I will be gearing up for our grand opening in Burnstown called "The Affair of the Arts" where local artists of many types will descend upon our village and create a festival atmosphere. Local business support and produce the event, now in its sixth year.
I will be able finally to get to some of my own painting too. It has been waiting in the wings for a few months as the NAC took precedence.
I hope to have some images up on the website soon, it has been a long time coming and I hope you will apreciate them when they finally do appear!

I can see clearly

2008-04-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Mostly, I can see clearly now. The return of my sight continues to amaze me and I am so grateful I did not realize how scary it was for an artist such as myself to be in the process of going blind....I am glad for vision again.
This month I am painting a small set at the National Arts Centre, it is called "All for Love". Fortunately for me, it is a wonderful old fashioned trompe l'oeile style set, with columns, panelled walls and doors and a forced perspective floor and ceiling. A treat for this weary soul.

return of the vision

2008-03-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

After over three years of poor vision, as a result of an iris melanoma tumor in my eye, I have my sight back!
Modern medicine is to be congratulated!
I can see again.
Colour has returned as well, I had not realized I had lost it.
How have I been painting all this time without the aid of vision one could easily ask? Well, I just went ahead and did it. A lot of painting is movement and so I used movement learned from years of painting, to create the images. Like finding your way in the dark, through the rooms of a familiar home, you needn't see to get there. My style has had a chance to loosen up relax a little as attention to detail was lost. Its all for the good.
I am amazed, grateful, overwhelmed and excited for the future.

bermuda light

2008-02-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

Bermudifulllll
The transition from the cold blue light of a Canadian winter to the warm yellow light of Bermuda is, well, heartwarming.
For me Bermuda is all about the light. It is a palette of warmth. I use my cool blue for contrast, to accentuate the warmth. I am indeed enchanted by the island. the stone walls of all the buildings capture the light in ways unknown at home. Shadows dance, balmy breezes caress. I am transfixed, I have to concentrate to be aware of the rest of the world. I awaken and want to rush out to see what the day brings is the light strong, filtered angry stormy and so on. I go back to my studio and time slips by me. I speak in paint, in colour, in light.
The ambient humidity is my friend. The paper is moist and receptive. It stays alive for extended periods. I can spend lots of time on a wash, manipulating the paint pushing it here and there. the rush of my Canadian studio is gone, languid feelings envelope me. It is wonderful. I revel in the time allowed and keep moving. Paintings roll off the boards and I am very happy. Suddenly, a month of painting seems too short!
another 10 days to go.....

the snow show

2008-01-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

The Snow Show is the latest National Arts Centre production. Its a play about the time the Thames froze...1605 I think...
The best part was doing a 10 foot by 20 foot map of London circa 1605. It is detailed and a wonderful image on unbleached cotton. It is sewn up to be a curtain in the show.
I am looking forward to opening night.

On another field, now that the play is done, I am getting ready for my painting trip to Bermuda! I am very much looking froward to being there in that special light, and in the warmth of the island.
I have a plan to execute a new series on water making use of my new vision (cataract). They will be acrylic paintings on canvass, in a long thin format.
More later.

selling art

2007-11-30T14:49:00.000-08:00

Ah, the vagaries of weather can once again be blamed for a poor showing at an art sale. (Its always good to have a handy excuse why art is not selling. Its an easy choice there are so many opportunities to gather excuses too!)
Selling one's own art, is an art. Your skin thickens with time (thankfully). Eventually one can begin to see your own work through the eyes of others. Its always a revelation, and trends seem to emerge.
It has taught me a lot about people and my art, selling it to them directly. I just wish they could get here tonight.