Making and taking to the world… Laureen in studio, early 2015 “There are lots of artists in the world, but there’s only one you, and the only person who has your point of view is you. If you decide to not make things, all you’ve done is deprive the world of all the stuff that …
Goals, plans, structures, accountability, faith… Sunlight Changes Everything: Ribbon (oil/board, 12″ x 12″) A couple of decades ago I worked as a sessional lecturer for the University of Saskatchewan, teaching visual arts in a multi-disciplinary introduction to fine arts course required for first year elementary education students, with eight or nine sections each year and …
Reach out. Keep faith… A day’s work The world outside my studio is sparkling with diamonds. The snow on the ground looks like someone sprayed it with glitter. In southwest Saskatchewan where I live near Grasslands National Park, last night’s low temperature reached -35C/-31F. Today, ice crystals float glimmering in the air. Indoors where it’s …
And the whistling wind… Beginning again There are days when the paint flows off your brush like water down a string. And days when it feels like you’re poking clay with a stick. When you feel like Sisyphus in a song by the late great Jesse Winchester that I used to listen to back when …
And a failure to comply… Dining table before compliance On a January afternoon like this one you hesitate to go outdoors, even though the sun is shining and the temperature is well above freezing. There’s a north-northwest wind gusting to 70 km/45 mi per hour. You could blow right over, into one of the …
Beginning… Photo and drawing For me starting a painting isn’t an action, it’s a series of steps. Choose an object. Arrange the object somewhere, including lights that cast shadows. Take photographs. Download the photos and begin the long process of fiddling with them on my computer. (“Fiddling with them” is my technical term.) Choose an …
Just showing up? A kitchen photo studio Maybe the answer is not trying to be profound. Maybe the answer is just showing up. What was the question? Oh yes. How to be an artist. Yesterday I showed up in the kitchen. With my second easel, rescued from its languishing and dusty state in the back …
The best of the season to you… Tree, 2014 May your days be merry and bright. * * * Know someone who’d like to see this? Please feel free to pass it on! The blog is a series of posts from one artist’s life. To receive updates, just put your email in the box on …
Everything is possible… Exhibition reception, Legacy, AGSR, with four paintings by Laureen Marchand on the right (photo: Robert W Harwood) For two days the sky has been white. We’re in permanent twilight. The trees are thick with hoar frost, so full there is little distinction between branch and air. Heavy fog reduces visibility to almost …
