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1) What intangible or immaterial moments are you most interested in representing through your work?

I am interested in painting a visual and materially formed record of time. This record of time is created by way of a visual methodology of paint application and reactive decision making. 

Meditation and contemplation are part of my toolkit. I seek to evoke an internal state where a passage of time is experienced, and physically recorded by a calendar of sorts - the grid created by painted layered impasto lines. 

I like the analogy of duplicity and what it reveals: what we first see and know, and what light and shade reveal to us from different vantage points and at different times.  I find that transitory passage inspiring and poetic, like watching the day`s light fade into evening.  Those are the moments that I want to integrate into my work.

2) What kind of material properties have you observed through the act of painting? How does colour or your perception of colour change as you apply paint layer upon layer? 

The invisible painting layer is the shadow cast by light reflecting off the depth and accumulation of paint.  This is often more apparent in the white grid paintings but the coloured grids also have a directional quality and optical play between the colored impasto lines which have a similar intent.

Within the White Shade grids, the relationship between the form and shadow is depicted in a subtle way.  There is often two works in simultaneous production, one at times invisible. 

3) Your work uncovers the fundamental properties of paint and is often read as drawing, painting and sculpture all in one. Do you see it this way? Do you consider it more like one than the other(s)?

This current body of work has become bas-relief sculptures made by accumulated lines drawn with paint.  Paint, and its properties as a medium, historical references and traditions from different cultures inspire me as do handiwork and textiles. I consider myself a painter who is exploring the visual vocabulary of painting within in a personal experiential framework.

4) Your work appears to be very process-driven. Could you lend a little insight into your process? How does chance play a role in your work, if at all?

The grid for me is a point of departure.  I like its simplicity and perfection when I begin, but it`s the curious imperfection of my mark-making that moves me forward.  Each painting is, although often only subtly different, solved by a visual and emotive reaction unique to each piece.

5) You have spoken of the many skilled artisans in your life, most of whom are women who have worked in textile (knitting, weaving, sewing, embroidering) who have inspired you and your work through the years. What role does craft, and/or these women play in your work?

Generations of women in my family have been skilled in these traditions.  Often out of necessity, they sewed and wove their cloths and linens.

There's always been a skilled beauty to their designs which I've long admired. At first I did not even notice how it was influencing me and my work.  I was always consciously making and seeing patterns in nature and in architecture.  I think the dedication and pride of their skilled production was imprinted on me at a young age.

I have never acknowledged the elitist distinction between so-called “women’s work” and high art. Content and intention of the craft form is what makes it art. I like how both traditions have a voice in my work and together create an equilibrium – I appreciate them both.

6) Looking at your work, one is reminded of the minimalist artist Agnes Martin whose work also had a lot to do with line and repetition. Your work, like Martin’s, demands intimate viewing and quiet contemplation. Martin has remarked about her work: “My paintings are about merging, about formlessness ... A world without objects, without interruption.”  Does this statement resonate with you? If so, how?

Agnes Martin’s work resonates with me in the same way Mondrian does.  When you see how both artists have abstracted reality down to an elemental purity such as line, it’s really quite incredible.  Finding the inner bones, the essence of an object was both their intent and their spiritual experience.  I have a lot to learn from these artists as they continue to inspire me.

VIEW NEW WORK BY VICKY CHRISTOU

Elliott Wilcox, Rackets 03, Chromogenic Print Mounted to Archival Substrate

Here we take a look back at Leah Sandals' Q&A with Bau-Xi artist Elliott Wilcox, which sheds light on the inspiration behind Wilcox's award winning series Courts.

Leah Sandals, National Post

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

If art was a sport, Elliott Wilcox might be seen as a future Grand Slam contender. In the past two years, the young U.K. photographer has won multiple international prizes for his strangely haunting series of work on racquet-sports courts. Now, with his first Canadian solo exhibition on in Toronto, Wilcox rallies with Leah Sandals about squash, space and Saatchi's art-reality TV show.

Q. I grew up in a squash-playing family, so these photos have nostalgic value for me. What drew you to this topic?

A. When I first started, I wanted to look into something that hasn't been looked into in photography so much--the idea of leisure. A lot of photography in England has looked at work. But I was interested in what people wanted to do in their own time, at their most
comfortable. So I started looking at spaces of leisure, from football grounds to cinemas. Through that I got into squash courts and real tennis courts.

Q. The marks left on the walls of these courts are fascinating, almost like drawings, aren't they?

A. They look amazing. I love the fact that it's history on the wall itself--the history of the game and of the people who have played. There's a great sense of time on the walls. One of the real tennis courts I photographed in the south of England was made in the 1700s with a special pigment. It creates a really painterly effect. What I'm fascinated by even more is the large space of these courts. It can be very overwhelming, especially when there's nothing else going on. When there's people there playing, it's about the sport. But when you're a spectator only of the space it becomes something completely different. A lot of these clubs are also prestigious. Queen's Club in Notting Hill is where lots of people play before Wimbledon. When I photographed their rackets court they'd just had it painted, and the members were upset because they thought the paint would make it play differently. That fascinated me, because you wouldn't think paint would make a difference. But if you've been there so long, maybe it does.

Q. Most North Americans aren't familiar with real tennis or rackets. What are these games?

A. Real tennis is the original version of tennis. Originally, it was played in a courtyard--a court --with sloped walls. The crowns on the walls relate to scoring. And there's other royal connections, too--many of these courts go back to the 1400s and are in palaces. Henry
VIII was a famous real tennis player. I went to photograph his court at Hampton Palace and actually had to pay to book a 6 a.m. Monday morning slot, because it's so busy. Rackets is the predecessor of squash, and squash was I believe invented for the poorer
man who couldn't get a rackets court. Picture a squash court and times that by four. They're often painted black, which is nice; it makes your eyes want to look around. It's a really fast and strong game, like firing a snooker ball around the room. I've heard it's
really dangerous as well.

Q. Do you find it difficult to play now that you're so focused on photographing courts?

A. I still play squash once a month. It hasn't stopped me. But it has made me think more. When I first started the project, I'd go to play and say, "I wish I'd brought my camera."

Q. In terms of treating art as a sport--you were a contestant on the BBC reality show School of Saatchi. What are the pros and cons of doing art that way?

A. I'm not that big a fan of reality TV. But the benefit was having the opportunity to work with big names like Tracey Emin and get some good feedback. I also met a lot of friends through that show. It's good in one thing and bad in another, but overall it was a good
experience.

Q. Does art perhaps contain a mix of discipline and pleasure that's similar to sport?

A. I believe that. This project is not quite an addiction for me, but I'm fascinated by these courts. It's been a whole process of meeting people, of research, of getting access to photograph. I also have a new series on another kind of constructed space --indoor climbing walls. I'm intrigued by what we bring indoors--we bring cinema indoors with home entertainment, say...when maybe it'd be better to get out and experience things.

Click here to view the collection

1) The Bau-Xi Gallery feels a great sense of pride and gratitude in having the privilege of representing your work for forty years. Are there any touchstones in your practice or philosophy that have remained a constant theme or preoccupation over this period of time ?

Because the camera can reproduce almost any subject, place or incident in exquisite detail, it leaves the painter free to invent and insinuate oneself into a world of one’s own. This is both an advantage and a problem. People still insist the artist should try to become the camera. The inventor-painter can open other aspects of reality. That is challenging and one has to newly invent the world each time when starting a new work.

2) Double Entendres is an intriguing and heavily weighted title for your solo exhibition. Please explain the genesis behind it. 

Double Entendres have different interpretations or meanings which allow for poetics and insights, plus in this particular situation, my two exhibitions ( at Bau-Xi Vancouver and my retrospective at the Burnaby Art Gallery ) are running simultaneously but with different approaches and media and time sequences.

3) One immediately equates the word COLOUR in bold letters to your work in general. What role does colour play in your work ? 

Colour: That is hard because colour use is such a personal expression, possibly even cultural with those choices of values that become recognizable in place and context.

Emotions and deep or fragile feelings can be remembered through colour as well as the other prime senses. A coloured stroke put beside another hue or tone evokes a dialogue of its own for me.

Colour is love. 

4) The sense of sound is often strongly evoked in many of your titles such as Arpeggios, Diminuendo, Mumbo Jumbo, Clashes and Bangs, Sun Song with either their musical references, use of sound poetry, or references to human speech or sounds from the natural world.
How does music or sound inform or inspire your work ? Do you have any favourite composers or musicians or genres of music or a radio program or station that you often listen to while you paint or do you paint in silence ?

Music and soundscape is vital to me. In a time of great grief and trauma, I feel it was music that saved me from total despair. The abstract language of music speaks to the visual artist in the same way. The approach to the form and vitality of expression and feeling is similar. There is enormous happiness, excitement and humility in recognizing that unique understanding that is humanity at its best. 

I am from another era in today’s mass media hype. Classical music in most of its forms as well as contemporary composers and performers keep my CDs flourishing as well as the CBC ( when it behaves itself.)

Today I prefer chamber music, more intimate noting, although opera excites and thrills me with the marvellous voices that flourish today all over the world. The combination of theatre, sound and drama can’t be beat !

5) Another consistent theme in your titles seem to be about the journey or the transcending of boundaries or the reference to this particular place or geography that you call home for example: Coming from Away, Out of Bounds, Crossing-Ways, Pathways and Partings , Vancouver Sound-scape , West Coast Suite . 

Titles are a way of adding poetry, linking the message/subject and giving some insight to the art, with the necessity for naming. Often it can be more difficult than painting . 

The “Journey“ is a metaphor for a traveler in time and idea space. Every experience brings new questions and revelations not always digested at the same time , so pathways just lead the way as boundaries eventually get fragmented and blown away.

6) Please explain the difference and/or similarity between painting on paper and painting on canvas in your works as you typically include both media in your solo exhibitions.

Painting on canvas or wood or paper is quite different. Each surface has different qualities and different pigments seem to require special techniques. I love the sensuality and depth of colour of painting with oils for the canvases, but the racy fast drying acrylics work best for me on paper.

7) Congratulations on your upcoming solo retrospective at the Burnaby Art Gallery opening Nov 16th, 2017. What can we look forward to there that would be different from this upcoming exhibition at Bau-Xi Vancouver ?

A few years ago art critic, writer, and art historian Robin Laurence suggested a “look back” for a possible retrospective of my work. So I revisited old drawings and paintings from the very beginning. Things stored away not seen for years brought back new feelings that I could enlarge upon and add new vigour to my palette and confidence. The retrospective that the Burnaby Art Gallery has most generously offered to mount will consist of multiple paperworks done almost from the beginning of my Art Journey up to the present day.  I understand there will be a published catalogue as well.  

The upcoming Vancouver Bau-Xi exhibition consists primarily of new works on canvas as well as some new large mixed media paperworks. I am grateful for the tenderness and generosity of both galleries and curators.

8) And do you have any advice for young artists just beginning their artistic journey ?

Words for young artists …. .. keep the passion alive and trust your instincts.

VIEW MORE WORK BY SYLVIA TAIT

In anticipation of her most recent series, Figure Painting, we sat down with Toronto artist Barbara Cole to learn about her process, methods and inspiration behind her most minimal work to date.  

1) “Figure Painting” is a remarkable title for a series of photographs. What inspired this title?

I have been known to have five, six or even more "working titles" to my shows. This has the effect of driving people crazy – especially my studio assistants. It’s very unusual for me to find a title at the outset that sticks but this one did. Figure Painting embodies the correlation between drawing with the camera in water and messing around with finger paints as a child. It was a fun play on words that sums up my approach to photography.

2) What was the most challenging aspect of creating this particular series?

Working with these talented performers is always quite challenging. Not only do they need to work under the water in a graceful way, but they need to learn how to breath for balance, keep their eyes relaxed and open, straighten their wardrobe and hair, and brush any stray bubbles off their faces and bodies. With Figure Painting they were stripped down, quite literately. Their body was their wardrobe so on top of everything they had to find poses that would cover certain parts of their anatomy.  

Technically there are always challenges because every idea requires a new approach. I think you just have to believe that anything is possible and then get your crew on side to see your vision and help with its execution.

3) This series has an unusual back story - it turned out quite differently than you had originally conceived. Can you tell us about the original concept, and how it transitioned?

It was amazing how this show came about. I had worked up big plans for another body of work called WHIRL, based loosely on the idea of a Whirling Dirvish. As is often the case, things underwater work differently. Within moments of the first day of shooting I knew I would have to think of something else. As I looked around my pool-side studio at my crew, and feeling no small amount of pressure, I pulled the Figure Painting concept out of my back pocket…which is to say virtually out of thin air. I didn’t know I had a backup idea until that moment, but I suppose all of us artists do.

4) There is a historical tradition of painters referencing photography, and vice-versa. Are there any artists whose transcendence of the boundary between the two mediums you find inspiring?

The moment I saw the work of French photographer Sarah Moon I recognized how powerful photography could be. Nobody else’s work has ever touched me the same way since. The evocative nature of her imagery still takes my breath away but back then I was totally spellbound. Since the first Sarah Moon photograph I ever glimpsed  I understood how the camera could be used for nuance and gesture.

For the past six years I’ve been reading about the talents of past image makers and I especially love the mood and atmosphere of the Pictorialist photographer, Heinrich Kuhn circa 1900’s. He has created without a doubt some of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen. Kuhn had complete control of the photographic medium.

5) Could you describe how your passion for swimming informs your practice as an artist?

Strangely, I have always solved creative problems while swimming. If this happens early in the swim I cross my fingers for the rest of the swim so that I don’t forget. It is awkward to swim with crossed fingers! The water has been my office since the 70’s and I swim as many days a week as I can. I look forward to what will happen. Sometimes I figure something out that I didn’t even realize needed looking at. Other times my mind wanders and I find I’ve set up the next shoot. All the time I feel energized to tackle life.

 6) What advice would you offer to emerging artists?

I would encourage an emerging artist to find their own voice. I believe that is the best way to succeed. There are so many people out there all doing the same thing with various levels of expertise. One creates art for oneself. It’s something that comes from inside you and not the other way around. Manage your expectations so you don’t get discouraged and give up. You are building a practice and that takes time.

Learn more about Barbara Cole's incredible new series here: 

Bau-Xi Gallery will be showing a special preview of Figure Painting at the Toronto International Art Fair on Thursday, October 26. Visit us in booth A18 for an exclusive look. 

The full series will be on display at Bau-Xi Photo, (350 Dundas St. West, Toronto), starting Saturday, November 4. There will be an opening reception from 2-4pm, and the artist will be in attendance.

1) Is painting a deeply personal process for you? What does painting mean to you?

I think painting for me is a way to process things deeply. To connect to and align with the miracle.  Frederick Franck describes this best in speaking about drawing: 

"It is in order to really see, to see ever deeper, ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw what the Chinese call 'The Ten Thousand Things' around me. Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle”. – Frederick Franck

2) You’ve mentioned before that you often work from photographs because it helps ground and stabilize your compositions. From this place you described how you can create movement from “a more intuitive place”. Could you describe in more detail what it is that you attempt to capture?

Capture is an interesting word. At the base of all of my work, from the beginning, is wind: Ruwach - Spirit, breath, wind - which are impossible to capture. I think that's the challenge: how to really express this quality in a painting. Being impossible to capture without ending its life, the trick is to somehow become it and express what that feels like. Seemingly impossible, but fun to try. 

3) We’re excited to hear that Darlene Cole’s work served as an inspiration for these new paintings. What other artists have informed your recent body of work?

Honestly, Darlene is completely blowing my mind with her work. She's the only one I really follow on Instagram and she's it as far as I'm concerned. She paints with such a great mix of confident vulnerability and in such a masterful loose and free way. Her style is so foreign to me and I'm completely in awe of her skills, intuition and heart. 

4) Could you describe your own relationship to gardening, or more broadly, to nature and how it informs your art practice?

When I was a child I spent hours every day in my parents’ gardens. Especially the food garden. When I was young our garden was huge. Peach, pear, plum and cherry trees, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries and a lot of vegetables. I haven't had my own garden for many years and am looking forward to having one again next year. As far as nature goes, I feel best when I'm outside. I always have. As a kid I slept outside as much as I possibly could. This show was all made while painting outside. I feel disconnected when I'm not outside. When I can't experience shifts in light through the day, changes in barometric pressure, birds singing ...

My work needs to stem from a place of alignment (as opposed to competing or being out of tune) with nature so it informs the work a lot. Nature is the tuning fork. It keeps everything in tune. 

 Sheri Bakes, Feeding Bees, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 40 in.


5) Could you speak more about your plein air painting practice? Do you have specific rituals or routines that help ground you?

My dogs actually ground me the most. On breaks from painting we go for walks, hikes or do some training. Their non-verbal companionship grounds me.

In the studio I sometimes listen to the CBC and sometimes music but often it’s just silent. I do find silence grounding, as are the natural sounds of birds, frogs or crickets. While painting for this show, I was surrounded by mourning doves every morning. I found their sounds very soothing and sympathetic to the process of painting.

6) How important is spontaneity in your art?

I’m drawn to the freedom of spontaneity after conceptualizing an idea. It’s a process of letting go and learning as you go. In my first poetry class in university, the instructor introduced us to Theodore Roethke's poem, 'The Waking'. This poem, and his reading of it, completely transformed my mind with respect to process and taught me to "learn by going where I have to go."

7) You seem to have a great interest in the physical world’s process of transformation and renewal - how would you say you respond to the cyclical nature of seasons through your work?

I appreciate the structure that natural cycles provide, kind of like growth rings in a tree. In the larger picture, natural cycles are stabilizing and grounding.

8) How has your work developed in the past few years and how do you see it evolving in the future?

The work has become increasingly abstract and the movement is now often contained within the piece instead of veering out of the top right of the canvas. I seem to be making less small work now and using photos less and less.

I'm interested in the physicality of the paint, and also in saying more with less and moving into a painting practice that is very minimal. I'd like my paintings to become better listeners. I really need the vastness of space and silence. It seems a bit like the world could use more of that, too.

 Sheri Bakes, Rain Oil on Canvas, 52 x 52 in.

Wind Songs opens at Bau-Xi Vancouver on September 9
VIEW MORE ARTWORK FROM SHERI BAKES

1) There is a story about your initial inspiration deriving from a forgotten yellow pages on the curb. How do you continue to derive ideas from found objects and your surroundings?

I am continually collecting old books, un-wanted books, phone books, periodicals, newspapers, mail order catalogs and used envelopes.  There is always something new that appears that will spark an idea.  After I’ve completed a new body of work, I’ll take a break, clean out the studio, and start collecting again.

2) When you are considering a book, or some other printed material for a new piece, what formal characteristics factor into your decision?

I prefer to compose most of my images within a square, which is classical in photography. I like symmetry and balance most of the time and often I weight the image from the center.  A circle in a square is a favorite beginning.

3) Do you begin sculpting with an idea of how you want the final piece to take form, or is there a different process involved?

Much of the time I don’t begin with a clear idea of how the final image will be.  I like to move the pages around, wet parts of the book, and use different media such as dye and watercolor.  As I manipulate the pages I can start to see what I think will work.

Cara Barer, Dreamscape, 2017

4) What is the most indispensable item in your studio?

It would be hard to choose only one thing that I consider indispensable. One thing for sure - air conditioning!  My first studio did not have that and living in Houston makes it essential.  If I’m thinking about being hot I can’t think about the work.  Of course I use a computer, but if I didn’t have an excellent print making set up I wouldn’t be able to proof until I’m satisfied with the final image.  For me that is really important.  I have to print at the full size before I can send them off to be printed by a lab.

5) Once your sculptures are complete and you have translated them to a print, what becomes of them?

I’ve been saving most of the sculptures after I’m finished.  Some I can’t save because they have fallen apart.  

6) You have an incredible instagram feed that depicts your work, as well as your experiences travelling the world. How do your artistic practice and travel experiences inform each other?

I’ve always liked to travel. I find it inspiring to see new places and different cultures.  For example, India is a visual overload of color, patterns, print and textures.  It is everywhere.  Photographing just those elements led me to create “Namaste.”  

7) Certain elements are consistent in your work, such as background colours the use of print materials, and yet each piece you create is completely unique.  How do you adjust your process to give each piece distinct characteristics? What factors do you consider?

Each piece is unique, because each book is a new beginning.  I start fresh every time with a different one.  The quality and properties of the paper can vary a lot.  Age, and the way the book is bound are also factors.  Now that I’m also printing my own images and binding them into book form, the images are truly one of a kind. These hand made books have never been officially published and consist of my own personal photos. I have an almost infinite source of material as long as I keep traveling and photographing.

Cara Barer, Kashmir, 2017

 
Cara Barer, Baroque, 2017

Steven Nederveen presenting “Ocean’s Crossing” at the Canadian Consulate in Reykjavik


1) It’s been a busy year for you so far. You recently had the honour of receiving a highly- regarded commission by the Canadian Ambassador for the Canadian Embassy in Reykjavik for Canada’s 150th Anniversary. How was your experience in Iceland?

It was wonderful! The people are very warm and welcoming. The presentations went well and the audience was very keen on my latest work, the abstracts and the sculptures. I had a couple days to travel around and take in their unique landscapes. That was very inspiring. I highly recommend Iceland as a place to visit.

2) One can’t help but observe your careful treatment of the elusive properties of cool, arctic light in your upcoming solo show, Nature Transforms. What is it about light that intrigues you?

I've always been intrigued with the play of light on moving water or its refraction through objects. It has a strange hypnotic quality that enlivens my sense of wonder. Sometimes it puts me into a state of meditation that connects me to my soul, and that is usually followed by a deep sense of connection to the world around me.





3) Emotional memory of place is a theme that you explore and delve deeply in throughout past and present bodies of work. How is this new series informed by your recent trip to Iceland? What was it about Iceland that inspired you to experiment with new materials?

Iceland is a place of stark contrasts with its volcanic underbelly and glacier peaks, and soaring cliffs against black sand beaches. It's a memorable place with lots of distinct experiences but I focused mostly on the glaciers. Seeing giant slabs of ice drifting towards open ocean is really beautiful but also deeply worrying. With icebergs you're seeing ice that's been frozen for eons, marked with sediment deposits from years gone by. They led me to meditate on the expansiveness of nature and time, giving me a sense of awe and wonder. Seeing these singular white monoliths against the dark blue water inspired me to explore the theme of water and ice - it's transformative nature, our impact on it, and also the hypnotic beauty of ice with its transparent depths and sparkling refractions of light. 

In my abstracts, I use an ice-like sheet of acrylic with fractures and clear pockets, to conceal and reveal, manmade markings (ink brushwork). The varying colours reflect the Nordic skies at various times of day or night. 

Detailed shots of Iceberg 1

The sculpture is a result of testing the boundaries of multiple layers of transparency. Through 24 painted sheets of acrylic, a fully 3 dimensional object is created. A stylized iceberg floats in a sea of colour. As the viewer walks around the piece, the iceberg changes from a unified image to a series of disjointed layers and back again to a unified image on the other side. 

Also, Olafur Eliason is one of my favourite artists, he's Danish/Icelandic, and a bunch of his work is in Reykjavik. Seeing it first hand was incredibly inspiring and has single-handedly encouraged me to explore new methods and concepts in my work.

4) How would you say your work has developed in the past few years and how do you see it evolving in the future?

I've spent a lot of time depicting contemplative landscapes and trying to evoke a sense of wonder from nature. They are informed by my own experiences. I love this exploration and how it's developed so far.

I plan to continue on this path while incorporating the viewer into the work more directly.  I can see how the sculptural pieces can lend themselves to large-scale site-specific works, possibly incorporated into architectural interiors. In my new multi-layered abstract pieces, viewers may be reflected in, or revealed and concealed by the various layers as they move around the piece. I hope that my work re-awakens in the viewer a similar experience that perhaps they've had in the past.