How to be an artist

Adam Hill at Two Trees This is the official photo. A musician, Adam Hill of Brackendale, British Columbia, takes part in an artist residency at Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. He’s working on his own creative project, the creation of a new musical piece constructed from recordings of conversations, found sounds, acoustic instrument and electronic …

In joy and beauty They were dark days. No, it isn’t a metaphor. It’s a weather report. For two days in late July the sun barely rose. Thunder rolled and rain sheeted down. The wind tore off branches as if they were toothpicks. Land flooded. Then, as it does in this southwest Saskatchewan prairie climate, …

 Studio in July In my studio today I’m making inspiration. It isn’t a mystical process. It’s more like making bread. Workmanlike. Yeast, water, flour, seasoning. Maybe it’s more like making bread without a recipe. How much flour? Unbleached? Whole grain? How much of each? Now, mix. Too soft. More flour? Which kind? Mix again. Knead. …

A good start on a new painting I’m retreating. Not retreat like the forced withdrawal of troops. Retreat like refuge. Five days of clear studio time. No jobs, no community responsibilities, no promises to keep. It’s been the best day. A little extra sleep, brunch with a newspaper, good studio time and a good start …

Back Porch Let’s take a step back in time. It isn’t a very big step, just a few months to August, 2014. I’ve owned and operated Grasslands Gallery in Val Marie, SK, for five years, showcasing and selling original art and craft by almost 30 of Saskatchewan’s finest artists inspired by the Grasslands experience. Now …

I had a bad case of post-exhibition letdown. Of course, it doesn’t feel like post-exhibition letdown when you’re in it. It feels as if the world has no purpose or structure and like you’ve lost your last friend. It’s convincing. As convincing as any other short term grief. And it is grief. You were completely focused …

So many questions. Questions about the value of art, the opinions of others, the importance of recognition, the meaning of success. I ask them all the time. I think every artist does. And so many hard answers. Because the answers always come back the same. They come back as more questions. Questions like, “Where do I …

Artist with sign What is the value of art? How do you measure success in your artist’s life? Do you gauge by the world’s response or your own? What is the measuring tool? At the end of January I was asked to participate in an exhibition at the Assiniboia Gallery in one of Saskatchewan’s two …

Laureen Marchand, “Sunlight Changes Everything: Softly” (oil/board) The last brush stroke on the last painting headed for an exhibition of my newest work. 27 hours before the exhibition opens. The gallery hosting the exhibition is 390 km/235 miles from here. You can’t ask for finer cutting than that. In January of this year I began …

Crocuses, April 2015, Grasslands National Park A woman doesn’t live by studio alone, but in the last weeks of intense art production before an exhibition, you’d sometimes never know it. You began this process feeling like you might have found meaning, but by this stage any meaning that exists is in the completion. It’s only …

Studio, production mode, April The other morning I went for coffee with a friend. Not much news, you might think. But I’m in the last stages of getting ready for an exhibition and shouldn’t I be painting all the hours of the day? I have the Puritan work ethic. It’s a blessing and a curse. …

Great blue heron near Campbell River, British Columbia Just small ones… If you want a new way of seeing, a tiny epiphany, a different version of yourself, this vast Canadian country is a good place to look. Space, change, beauty, room. You could find anything you wanted here. A companion and I headed west. Just …

 A question of balance… I don’t have a good sense of balance. The year I was ten I grew eight inches, to my full 5’5″ height, and after that nothing was where I had left it. The lower edges of upper kitchen cupboards. Streets as I stepped off curbs. My feet. Even now after all …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …