Evan Rensch - Enterprise Faucett Foundry

Evan Rensch - Photographer

During my daily walk I saw a graceful hawk soaring and gliding over the salt water marsh. When I see birds or other wildlife like this, I'm always transfixed and excited to see them. I'm of the belief they are signs or perhaps a spirit animal, especially when seen frequently.

I was immediately reminded of someone in my past that I once thought I loved and had motivated me to create a painting of a Fox and a Hawk. I was later saddened that my hopeful thoughts of love had been dashed. But I dodged another bullet. I'm no longer that hopeless romantic I once was, but I see myself as a hopeful romantic.

Throughout the ages artists are inspired by love and romanticism to create. It can be heart rendering to read a poem about unrequited love, or a spurred lover who's life comes to an end, because of a broken heart. The awesomeness of nature inspires thoughts of the divine when expressed in music or song and the horror of war can be depicted in the view of a camera lens that can haunt with grief and emotion.

Artists can be mocked for sentimentality, idealism or romanticism. That said, I see the role of the artist and art, to  inspire, to move, provoke thought, and even change lives. Not necessarily through sentimentality or by simply making something pretty or beautiful, but through creating art work making us reflect, perhaps even shock, that challenges us to open our mind or causes a combination of several responses, all at the same time.

In 2012 I saw an exhibition of photographs that touched me deeply, made me both happy and sad. I felt loss and a gain, pride in a sense of heritage and personal identity.

Evan Rensch's exhibit entitled Enterprise is a series of matter-of-fact photographs of the workers inside the Enterprise Faucett Foundry in Sackville, New Brunswick. This exhibit at the Owens Gallery on the Mount Allison University campus, brought together a whole community of historically hard working folk, a testament and bore witness to those who have a direct connection to Sackville and to the historical legacy of the Enterprise Faucett Foundry, dating back to the early 1800s.

My late grandfather Roy Winslow Milner was born and raised in a big egalitarian farming family, just outside of Sackville (Westcock). As an adult and he worked hard his whole life at this foundry, as a molder, to provide for his family. To this day I have a number of cast iron frying pans, and decorative items he made while there, and I treasure them.

Sadly my grand dad developed silicosis or what was commonly known as black lung and then lung cancer eventually took his life. It's not much wonder, as there was no filtering or exhaust system in the work place.  My grand father was much more than an iron worker as many all the other workers were as well.
Grandad had a thirst for learning, with two sisters who were teachers, and he was a multi-talented musician, who had a love of the land, growing his own food and a great respect for all animals.

The photograph below was taken by Evan Rensch as part of his poignant exhibition. It is a portrait of my talented and gifted cousin Gary Milner, who also worked at Enterprise Faucett Foundry.

I'm happy Evan Rensch took these photographs that document an era that has come to an end. My happiness is tinged with my feelings of sadness for the workers and their families left without an income after the devastating fire destroying the Enterprise Faucett Foundry in 2012. Etched in the faces of each worker, you can see the personalities and the years of hard work reflected in their eyes, and on their faces.

Evan Rensch has told a powerful story that's imparted a deep appreciation and love of community, within a context of history, and in the tradition of photographers that have come before him, honouring the soul and body, and reclaiming the beauty in the world of the individual, through the lens of the view camera.

Gary Milner

Alex Colville's Family Gift

Alex Colville's daughter, Ann Kitz, in front of the restored mural called Athletes, in the Colville Gallery in Owens Art Gallery. (Owens Art Gallery)

Alex Colville is an artist I've long admired. This morning I heard that his studio is about to be recreated and displayed on site in the Colville House on the Mount Allison University campus, thanks to the generous gift from his family. I was very excited to hear this news.

This CBC article describes all the details, and the permanent exhibit will be on display July 2017. I can hardly wait to visit Alex Colville's studio space!

Alex Colville, in his Sackville home in 1961. (Owens Art Gallery)

Writing About Your Art Work

Today I have a theme going about writing. It's just the way it happened. I love when synchronicity happens. I have become more acutely aware of this because I think my many years of journaling has helped me to fine tune my intuition. My experience is that the more you use your intuition, the more it works.

On my other blog Apple River Tarot Readings I wrote about communication and had a comment left on this post and she mentioned the term slow-journaling where you write very slowing your entry each word in neat cursive writing, thinking about what you are writing, and having a mindfulness in your journaling. I am familiar with what slow-communication is but had never heard of slow-journaling. I am certainly going to do this and I'm certain it will improve my writing.

After I finished this post in my Tarot blog I got and email from the site Curator entitled Smart Words. Interestingly, there was a great post on writing about your art work. A very important topic for artists that often goes under looked I believe. Below I have left my comment in response to this article.

" A great article and obviously very pertinent and essential to every artist.
As an artist who attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design way back in the 70s and again to complete my degree in 2012 at Mount Allison University in Sackville New Brunswick, I had the great opportunity to see first handed how art schools have changed for the art student. In the 70s we were given next to no information about marketing ourselves. Thankfully it is very much improved, and there is more focus on learning how to market ourselves.
Many artist’s are uncomfortable writing or explaining the work they create, much to their detriment.
In the 70s many students in University had very poor writing skills. Contemporary art students seem to have even less. The majority of the writing is composed online and there is next to no cursive writing even taught is secondary school. You don’t even have to look at a dictionary with auto correct. Eliminating cursive writing, is a huge mistake within the educational system, as I don’t think it can be replaced by online communication.
There needs to be a foundation to build on. It’s like learning to paint before understanding how to draw. Bringing back writing skills could enable artists to have the skills to know how to write about their work and feel more comfortable in doing so.
Thank you for this article I love your site! "

Julia Feltham - A Creative Change Maker

Julia Feltham - Creative Change Maker

" Shop local" is a frequently heard statement. I think the same should apply to local artists. We don't always have to search outside of our geographical location to find talent that we might think is some how bigger and better, because it's 'come from away', as is also an often heard statement in the Maritimes. There are so many movers and shakers with a plethora great talent, and it can be found right under our noses.

A few years back I was invited to a story telling night in Sackville New Brunswick as part of what is called Baked Ham, to be a participant. It was really fun and exciting to be part of this very talented and interesting group. I was particularly taken with one young woman. When I try finding the adjectives to describe her, vibrant, vivacious and full of life and talent, these come to mind.

But you can see this for yourself on her site. She is a storyteller and so much more. I'm certain you will agree, she is also someone you'll not forget because she has an infectious enthusiasm that inspires and lifts the spirit.

I am talking about a beautiful young woman inside and out, Julia Feltham. She is a creative change maker.
This is my second blog post I have written about Julia, because I want to world to know just how special she is, at least I certainly think so.

Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts

Here's a great photo of my heuristic Professor Thaddeus Holownia, in the brand spankin' new Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts. I'm so happy he didn't retire this year, and will carry on as the Head of the Fine Art Department at Mount Allison University in Sackville New Brunswick.

Sackville made the pages of the Canadian Art Magazine, with this article about The Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts. Here's the link. http://canadianart.ca/news/2014/10/06/mount-allison-new-building/

Graeme Patterson

Recently shortlisted for the 2014 Sobey Award, Canadian artist Graeme Patterson is a really wonderfully fun, and amazingly dedicated artist to his art, and creative imagination.


What I really appreciate and love the most about Graeme, besides his humble, yet very engaging personality and dry wit, is his sense of play. He hasn't forgotten his childhood, not only remembers, but pays attention to what it was like to be a kid, and the lessons it can teach.

Graeme Patterson's love of creating miniatures is embodied in creative, three dimensional stories, and is the real stuff of imagination, that you see in children. It is refreshingly creative, charming, thoughtful and insightful. His playful pieces simultaneously reflect  a serious commitment and dedication, that is very admirable, and I think somewhat enviable to me, because he and builds puppets and miniature art  and then brings it all to life through animations and installations, that really appeal to my inner child or mini-me!

Often paying homage to a Canadian life, his art work and creations are so much fun to see in person, and nostalgically deeply touching.
If you ever have the opportunity to visit one of his exhibits, I strongly recommend that you do so. I assure you, you will feel joy, a little sadness perhaps, and definitely amazement.

I have provided a link below to one of my favourite of Graeme's installions, entitled Woodrow, the place where he is from. It is a beautiful and touching homage to his grandfather Herb.

Woodrow

I think it is essential for artists to be very connected to this sense of play in their work, because if you are having fun creating your work, chances are very good, that others will enjoy it, and pickup on this kind of energy. Play and humour can connect us to memory and identity, and what it means to be human, through the power of imagination.

Graeme has had an interesting life, and is a real story teller. This past Winter I had the great pleasure to be apart of a story telling event with Graeme in Sackville, New Brunswick. I was transfixed by his story telling, and it is always fun to talk with him, because he is such a salt of the earth type of character, and always ready to laugh.

John Haney - Photographer

'I don’t use them because they’re a novelty. I use them because they are the tool that helps me make the kind of images I want.'—John Haney

Here's a great article from CBC Hamilton news entitled, Why Hamilton Photog John Haney is the opposite of Instagram

John Haney is a friend and mentor. In 2009-2012 when I was at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick he was one of my photography teachers. He is lovely, good human being, a wonderful photographer, and for me, embodies everything about what I love ' old school ' photography.

 I learned a great deal from John and we both learned from Thaddeus Holownia who is the Head of the Fine Art Department at Mount Allison and an amazing mentor and talent.
 

Thaddeus Holownia

The Sweetest Little Thing

The Sweetest Little Thing 2013 from Owens Art Gallery on Vimeo.

If you are on your own this Valentine's Day, and God only knows most of us are, and single be sure to take your own Valentine self or your own Valentine, get your best duds on and come to a very special fundraising event in Sackville, New Brunswick, Friday February 14th on Valentine's Day.

Here is video collection of The Sweetest Little Thing

You can bid on this now, my Float Rope Basket !

Why Story Telling Is Important. Once Upon A Time I Ate Your Hamster This Morning...

I believe these two birds, in Nova Scotia, the Snowy Owl and Raven are telling their story to one another. All animals including ourselves have a story to tell, whether we know it or not. If we tell it, and there is someone to listen, we can hear, and hopefully understand it with our heart, if we listen, and we speak with our heart.

 This past Friday Night, I had  this wonderfully rewarding kind for experience, an evening of story telling with peers, old, and new found friends, and artists, at a venue called Baked Ham, in Sackville, New Brunswick; and no, no ham was baked or eaten.

I heard  fabulous stories about helium balloons following an invisible professor around her house, a beautiful cellist, and songstress who described herself as a Newf-Scotian, or was that a Scotian-Newf? I heard a heart warming story about how bags of stolen apples lead to a young man becoming an award winning, world famous, choir member. A story was told about an adventurous vacation that had us sitting on the edge of our seats, when the story relayed a unexpected situation that developed, taking a sudden twist that presented itself, as being a potentially, and possibly very dangerous scenario. involving a arms dealer, and men in black.
The story of WWF and a young man's experience with famous wrestlers and how this affected his life.
I told my story about a cross country trip by train, bus, and then crossing an ice bridge, on the last day before it closed, to Yellowknife NT in 1981.


" Stories set the inner life in motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is frightened, wedged, or cornered. Story greases the hoists and pulleys, it causes adrenaline to surge, shows us the way out, down, or up, and for our trouble, cuts for us fine wide doors in previously blank walls, openings that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love and learning, that lead us back to our own real lives as knowing wildish women." (p. 20)

                                                 -  Women Who Run With The Wolves - Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes


I believe humans inherently know that stories are vital to understanding what it means to be human, and have been since the beginning of time. If you have ever experienced  the art of story telling, you will know how transforming it can be, to both the teller, and the listener. We have made an deep connection to another, which is essential to life, culture and society. Stories are the emotional glue that connects us to each other.

Bianca Filoteo makes this list comprehensive reasons why story telling is so important that I like very much.

So we can help others understand — our pain, our joy, our beliefs, our purpose, our desires, ourselves.
So we can warn others of what’s to come.
So we can share with others what we have already done.
So we can tell others what to expect — a few steps ahead, or further into the future.
So we can give each other hope — for those times we’re challenged with personal obstacles, or when we need to defeat our own demons.
So we can guide those who are lost — and help them find their way.
So we can learn life’s lessons.
So we can discover what love really is.
So we can celebrate.
So we can enjoy life with laughter.
So we can feel more compassion and less judgement.
So we can inspire others into action.
So we can know that we’re never alone.

Stories act as guideposts, and when we hear a story or we tell our own, though the stories may not be the same, we can identify with the emotions, and perhaps the experience of our  own story can help another to find their way along life's path. We are all emotional human animals that need stories.

Alex Colville-Being and Time-A Free Man

As I listened to the radio morning news yesterday, I felt a sudden jolt of shock, and sadness to hear announced, that Canadian artist, Alex Colville had died. His death caused me to think why I would be surprised, as he was 92 years of age. But I realize in our death denying culture, human beings are often tempted to engage in a kind of magical thinking. We expect some how, some way, that those we love, will live forever, and often we do not want to face our own death. Even if we do not deny the reality of death, it is always difficult to accept. We all experience loss differently, and cope with varying degrees of acceptance, and ways of grieving, often being unprepared.

It is my belief that Alex Colville had a wise insight into knowing how to seize, and appreciate life with integrity, in the present moment, that seems to resonate through his painting, with himself as observer.
Listening to him in interviews, and what has been said about him by others who knew him, one gets the impression he was a gentle, humble, and very grateful man, for everything in his life, particularly his family, and his life as a artist.

In an interview Alex Colville gave CBC Radio in 2005, at the age of eighty three, his philosophy, and unassuming nature is evident. As well a more indepth interview was the CBC Sunday Edition, by Michael Enright.
The 1987 issue of Canadian Art magazine from the archives, there is a very comprehensive, well written article, by Hans Werner, who gave a wonderful poignant glimpse into understanding Alex Colville, the artist, and the man. There is much wisdom to be gleaned form this gifted, and insightful Canadian painter.

I am proud, and grateful to know Alex Colville and I share the same Alma Mater,  part of the Mount Allison University family, and I am very privileged to have been a Bachelor of Fine Art student, involved in it's wonderful Fine Art Department, in Sackville, New Brunswick. I am sorry I never had the privilege of meeting such a mentor, and benevolent human being, that has left a great legacy, who had the courage to truly be a free man.

Creative Mothers/ Family of Origin/ Family of Choice

My mother was  a piano player, and a singer. One of my most vivid memories as a little girl, was of her playing the piano, while I, in an ethereal state of mind, imagining I was a wonderful ballerina, as I swirled, twirled myself, and with arms flailing, moving all around the living room. She didn't blink an eye, but simply applied her talent and serious attention to supporting this budding ballerina.
Much later in life, when we would talk about this, and laugh, she admitted to me, she would sometimes have to leave to room laughing. I never had a clue. We were often involved in these ballet performances together, whether it was in our living room or in a theatre hall, which she would take me to at Christmas to see Swan Lake or the Nutcracker. She knew how much I loved dance,and she appreciated any kind of creative and cultural activity, be it musical, theatre or art.

Once I'd disappeared into the basement, where I constructed and painted an odd looking wooden giraffe. She was thrilled regardless of it being odd. For years into my adult hood she'd always proudly display my strange abstract art, and self portraits. My mother always supported my creativity, and desire to study art, making sure I had early art lessons with painting supplies. She was a very creative person. Her own creative endeavors always inspired, and encouraged my own pursuit of artistic goals. She never once discouraged me with statements like, " You'll never get a job being an artist " or " Why would you want to become an artist, you'll never make any money at that. ", and all the other kind of negative and soul crushing messages children hear, especially if they want to become some kind of an artist.

Having grown up during the great depression, my mother was unable to attend  University and pursue her dream of studying music, at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. She was able to get music lessons and played for years in Church, at various venues around, and was able to even make a little money at it.

 When we would come back to the Maritimes from Ontario, we'd head over to Westcock to the little Anglican Church, nestled in the woods, where our Milner family Bible is, and she'd commence to playing that old pump organ. It's a beautiful memory.

She was very talented with her hands, always finding time to make hats, socks, rugs etc. She had the great patience to teach me knitting and crocheting, which is not and easy thing to do, with a rambunctious child. Fortunately, I was a fast learner with dexterous fingers. I always found it fascinating that my mum was ambidextrous using her left and right brain.

When we lived in Toronto I remember a very special day. It was raining and she decided we'd spend the day together and we went to a puppet store. I was crazy about puppets. I thought I'd died and went to heaven and she really was the best mum in the world to me. She bought me a marionette of a Flamenco dancer. Oh she was beautiful!

This Mother's Day, like most folks, I'm thinking about my mother, and though she has left this mortal coil,  unbelievably, almost twenty years now, I think of her often and miss her always, especially this time of year.

My mum,  Sarah Helen (Milner) Meyers was not a feminist, as she grew up in a time when the word didn't exist. She was an amazingly strong  and good woman, in that she brought my brother and I up mostly single handed, working hard as a receptionist, from the time I was a toddler, and made her way through life in spite of the many very difficult obstacles she had to over come, and deal with. She helped and allowed me to find my own way, instilled, and imparted  her strong faith, and good values, that I aspire to live up to through her example.
 I am forever grateful to her. She was not perfect, but she was perfect for me. I love and miss her so much and I carry her close in the heart of my heart everyday, and I hear her gentle voice guiding me often.

On Saturday, November 18th, 1995 my mother died. I had come home early from a meeting with a treat for her and found her barely breathing and not conscious.
The same day my mother was dying in hospital, my father was also admitted after having alcoholic induced psychosis. He wasn't aware my mother was dying a floor below him. We had been separated for 26 years and recently had been reunited, after I hunted him down.

At this time, throughout that year, I had been keeping my first life changing morning pages journal, a companion book to Julie Cameron's book, The Artist's Way . My daily writing in this journal allowed me to process the great grief of losing my mother, and closest life friend.
 I also had a year into my own recovery from alcoholism. When the first year after my mother's death rolled around, I didn't know what to do, nor know how to process my deep grief. I was at a complete loss, and very close to a breakdown. It then suddenly dawned on me to go back, and read what I had written on that November day.
It was a healing balm, like God was speaking through my own written words to comfort. It gave me such a strength and peace of mind to cope with so much.

That day, I'd also found the one and only  recording I done of my mother playing the piano in our living room, which she did everyday, even when she lost her eyesight to macular degeneration late in life. She then through memory, and a good ear, taught herself to play again without her sheet music. Hearing her play that music once again, was very consoling and helped me to grieve, to begin the long healing process.

I would love to tell you things got better from here on in, but they didn't. I went on to have an emotional breakdown, that no one but me, and those morning pages, knew about, and I hid it all very well, or so I thought, especially from myself. How wrong I was. What followed but a shit load of hard emotional work, through the help and support of three different 12 Step programs, where I found many mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters; my family of choice, through the fellowship of a God given program ,for over the past 18 years.

Westcock/British Settlement Kids - near Sackville, New Brunswick

Today I had a lovely visit from a dear, sweet, and long time friend who I don't get to see very often, as she lives far away. She has become like a sister to me.
We had a heart to heart talk at the kitchen table, over a hot cup of tea, about our mothers,  our own lives and broken hearts.
I told her how truly very grateful I am, having had such a loving, beautiful, kind, trusting, forgiving and compassionate mother. I know there are many of us that do not. We can't choose our relatives. However the family we are born into, does not have to dictate to us, who we are. We have a choice, whether to be nurture a bitter root that will grow, invade and choke out our lives, or we can put ourselves, and our souls, into having a kind and giving heart, that will help to heal our wounds and even the wounds of others. We can also have families of choice, that can give us what we need.

After my friend left this afternoon, I thought to myself, I am going to email her, tell her how much I love her, and what she means to me. Then the door bell rang, it was her! She had returned, baring gifts and I was able to tell her face to face! We both hugged, shared a few tears and talked again. I gave her some books to read, that I thought would help her.
I've learned if you feel love, show love, and act on it.
As we exchanged our goodbyes, we both acknowledged we were feeling better.

Whomever you mother/father/sister or family is, tell them you love them, show them what they mean to you, you'll all feel better for it.

I am  happy to share this picture of my Amaryllis that  bloomed in a very timely fashion during this Mother's Day weekend. I like to think it did so just for my mother.

Happy Mother's Day Sarah Helen,

and to all of our mothers.

Killing Us Softly 4

Professor Toni Roberts who teaches Gender Studies was the guest lecturer this past week, while Dr. Koval was away. It was a fabulous class and he is a very interesting man!

Firstly it was so refreshing to see a man who is so involved in feminism at the university level. I was discussing this with my friend and classmate over a burger at Mel's diner in Sackville. She said there had been some discussion and controversy over having a man teach Gender/Women's Studies and issues involving feminism. I think it is a progressive development that sees men taking a proactive role in raising consciousness within the female population but perhaps just as importantly, if not more so, within the male population that will hopefully demystify and deconstruct hyper-masculinity and hyper-femininity that exists in our society.

We had a very engaging discussion after viewing Jean Kilbourne's lecture "Killing Us Softly 4".We were asked our opinion about this video and I expressed having lived through the "second wave" of feminism I have come to the conclusion education, personal and individual activism is this way to change. I felt that the situation surrounding advertising and the sexualization of woman in the media seems to have gotten far worse. Jen Kilbourne reaffirmed my perceptions about how women are dehumanized and objectified  that often culminates in violence and through the tyranny of the ideal of beauty and bodies are used to sell products.

I am anxious to read about Sandra Barky a Philosopher and feminist I learned about who is interested in doing phenomenology and what has been referred to as "feminist moral psychology "
I also learned two new interesting words during this lecture hetronormativity and para-thematic!

Paintin' With The Chicken Eggs

The question was asked today on a site I subscribe to called, CanvooBrushBuzz, about what grade of paint is being used as artists. Do we use the cheaper student grade or the higher priced and supposed better quality grade. I could not help but comment, being a convert and champion of egg tempera painting.

I find it strange and well, I suppose it's a sign of the times we live in, that I attend a wonderful University, and in my opinion, an even more wonderful Fine Art Department, that has a long history, once full of artists, students and studio Professors that were steeped in the discipline of egg tempera painting. Now, there is next to none. 

I am very fortunate to have a Studio Professor/Advisor that has both encouraged and helped me to find the information I need in order to enable me to learn. He is a wonderful teacher and mentor and Mount Allison University is full of them.

Before a actually took up egg tempera painting, I was very blessed to see Tom Forrestall's retrospective show, in the Owens Gallery at Mount Allison University, where I am a student going into my fourth year,  completing my BFA degree. 

I was absolutely spell bound by all his paintings and sketch books and so thrilled to be able to meet him and discuss the process of egg tempera painting.

As an artist, and now a mature art student, monetarily the price I pay for paints is an one going consideration and struggle. I have used oil paint for many years, and when I could rarely afford the better paint grades, I would purchase them.

I'm always on the hunt for bargains without sacrificing quality, that said, I think art supply companies are making money, hand over fist, selling extremely over priced products, to usually artists/students, who on a very lean budget.

I have recently taken up egg tempera for many reasons. It is more environmentally friendly, much cheaper and very high in quality. There is nothing to compare it to I believe.

The natural powdered pigment is good quality, along with some preferably fresh eggs, that really helps to give the binding egg yolk a good consistency, if you learn to mix, prepare and apply it properly. The translucent, luminescent quality the yolk gives, is amazing and beautiful. 

Learning, being the operative word, painting with egg tempera is an ancient disciplined method, that has long stood the test of time and lasts for 100s of years. The painting actually gets better as it ages.

I have always worked with a very basic palette. I ordered  my pigment through a Canadian company and purchased five colours and a white, which cost me a total of $40. Each came in quarter pound packages, with the exception of the allizarin crimson which was 1/2 lb, in a container. I don't think I could find that much quality oil or acrylic tubes of paint for cheaper, and will last much longer. As well, I no longer have to bother with canvas as egg tempera needs to be done on a hard surface, like wood.

I doubt I will ever return to oil, and though I have much more to learn about painting, and egg tempera painting, I am so enjoying the learning process, which for me will never stop, and for this I am grateful to be a perpetual art student. 

“I do have a fear of chaos and a strong sense of the fragility of civilization.” - Alex Colville

In one of my recent Canadian Art History classes, we were covering the work of Alex Colville, and we were asked if we liked his work. One of the class members was very emphatic that they did not like his work stating it was even rather misogynistic and another adjective that was very critical that has escaped my memory right now. I will have to refer to my Professor and ask her, and update this blog entry in order to address the criticism. I expressed that I loved his work as a matter of fact I greatly admire it and am thrilled to know that he once studied at Mount Allison and taught painting. It makes me wish I had known him I would love to have been a student of his.

I may be mistaken but I think some subjectively and reactionarily judge artists like Alex Colville based on misconception or misunderstanding or simply because they don't think the tradition of what has gone before within the art world is important to their own practice.

I am very interested in egg tempera, which is the medium Alex Colville often worked with to produce his paintings. I remember the first time I actually saw one of his paintings, Seven Crows, at the Owens Gallery. I was awe stuck, because it was a scene very Maritime to me, where I live, in the place I love . I felt it was almost a spiritual experience. Perhaps this was the magical realism I was experiencing, the term that is often used to describe Colville quality of style. There is a timelessness and atmospheric essence in this painting, and in others I have seen, simultaneously one is acutely aware that time and life pass. All the more reason to savor the present moment and to be live life in a mindful way.

Egg Tempera - a slow process - Alex Colville Transcript
I wanted to be able to work for a long time on one image, that I couldn’t achieve the kind of thing I hoped to achieve in a short time. This is a kind of limitation in the …you know a great Chinese painter of the great period does something and it’s done, it may be done in a matter of minutes actually and it may, he may do, you know, thirty of them and one of them seems perfect. It’s a kind of gestural thing, it’s more in a sense like dancing or something in a way. My stuff, it’s a much more plodding procedure. Incidentally I should just mention extremely boring to watch, you know, that is a person would be just bored to death if they could watch me work. Far from it being interesting or exciting as some people think.