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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

1) What meaning does the title of the exhibition Shift hold for you?

I think about the purpose of painting. Is it to record a place? A moment? A feeling? Or is it to communicate ideas and tell stories with marks and strokes and colour? If the painting is at all representational, there is a subject, a scene, an illusion. And there is always process. I like to disrupt the illusion with reminders of the process. And so, this exhibition focuses on the shift, as my current practice oscillates between the story and the storytelling.

2) There is a real sense of movement and an exploratory quality of mark-making in this body of work. Are there new concepts, techniques, or new sites/locations that have inspired you?

I am endlessly questing for inspiration and so many different things find their way into my work. It could be the negative space in another artist’s work, a stage set at a theatre or the medium. I am always searching new ways to mix and apply it.

3) It’s interesting to think that not so long ago, you were so strongly linked with the arbutus tree as your dominant subject matter, yet not a single one appears in this show. Is this a conscious decision?

Not really. I am a bit blown by winds of obsession! Currently, I’m captivated by the abstraction that oceanscapes offer, the graphic nature of birch trees, or light patterning afforded by forest.

4) Do you approach the oceanscapes differently from the landscapes?

Oceanscapes are so much about movement, and there is freedom found in painting a scene with no fixed element. Even the horizon becomes blurred with light and weather. The focus can be placed heavily on the language of the paint.


5) This is the first time we have seen the introduction of the smaller 10 x 10 inch oil studies. Could you tell us a little about them?

Sometimes I do sketches to plan a painting. Sometimes I feel that planning hampers the unconscious influences that I feel can be crucial. For this body of work, as I try to move toward the essential elements of a scene or time, I found it helpful to create small pieces. The studies helped me to maintain a sense of space when to a larger canvas.

6) What are your plans in the studio after this show ?

I experimented with a couple pieces in this show by shooting references at night. The references were illuminated by an artificial light source and being able to control my lighting helped to set the stage. I would like to look into this further.

 

Photography courtesy of Sarah Jane Photography

 

VIEW COLLECTION ONLINE

 

 

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) Poetry is a major influence for you, how did it inspire the title ‘Of Tristia, Forlorn!’ and in what ways do the two mediums intersect in your practice?

One of my favourite poems, Rodney Koeneke’s “Tristia” is my inspiration for the title. When asked about its influence, I give the example of the line, “one minute you burn, the next/you’re gelatinous as cold spaghetti.” Koeneke has the ability to seamlessly flit between these two vernaculars, one of extreme intensity and passion, and one of light jovial nonsense. This contrast is the perfect precedent for how I want people to receive my work.

Poetry is something that I learned to love before I started painting, and in those regards, I will say that my love for poetry is greater. Furthermore, I believe the two forms of expression to be quite similar in that they are both obscured forms communicative mark making.

 Michelle Nguyen, Brides, Oil & Pastel on Canvas, 48 x 59 in.

2) How does your identity and personal history inform your work?

Both of my parents are Vietnamese refugees, and as a second generation Canadian, there is this unsettling feeling of inhabiting an ecotone, torn between the clashing of two sets of values and morals. There is this transgenerational transmission of trauma that I don’t quite understand, and this otherness that exists in both the cultures I occupy. I have accepted that I will never fully be able to articulate and understand the weight of these things. Sometimes, my paintings feel like strange Freudian dreams that capture those conflicts of identity.

3) The majority of your paintings are figurative, what sources are your figures drawn from and are there specific narratives, cultures or figures real or fictional, historical or contemporary that guide your work?

I have a great deal of reference photos stocked up on my phone that I am constantly referring to when I compose a painting. It’s like one big Pinterest board. I pull inspiration from a lot of different worlds of lore and theory. At this moment in time, I am really driven by spatial theory as well as Grecian mythology and the Victorian aesthetic. Honestly, it really depends on what I have been reading that week.

4) You’ve mentioned that you’re greatly influenced by artists like Cy Twombly, Cecily Brown, Egon Schiele and Andy Dixon, could you explain the specific ways in which your practice has shifted as a result of your exposure to their work? 

They have all had a hand in defining the way I paint. I can recall each painting I made after learning about their work. Cecily Brown and Egon Schiele have kept figurative painting exciting for me (a subject I previously had venomously opposed). Andy Dixon has done the same but has also introduced me to the use of oil pastel. Cy Twombly, who is ultimately my favourite painter of all time, has shaped my practice the most. There is just so much confidence and vigour present in his mark marking. You can practically feel the vitality from his brushstrokes. His dynamism is something I am constantly trying to emulate.  

Michelle Nguyen, Jelly Jamboree, Oil & Pastel on Canvas, 48.25 x 59 in.

5) Can you explain a little about your process? Do you paint with a sketch or with a composition in mind or is it more spontaneous? How do your canvases evolve into its final form?

I don’t usually do any sketches to prepare. I’ve taken this approach a few times, and it seems more limiting to me than productive. I have a handful of loose and disjointed ideas going in and I feel like I can only figure it out on the canvas itself. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle or a collage. Additionally, I try to treat my canvas as a palimpsest. If something doesn’t work out mid-way I just paint over it with an understanding that no brushstroke is squandered and that they just add to the intricacies of the painting.

6) What does the body represent in your work and in what ways does the figure or the crowd interact with the viewer?

I am largely interested in aesthetic theory and was mostly painting abstracts up until I read Ways of Seeing by John Berger. I specifically was interested in his essay on the naked versus the nude, and the distribution of power amongst the audience and the subject. I thought it would be fun to attempt to invert this dynamic, so I began to experiment with these images of overwhelming mass crowds and alien bodies.

7) Humour plays a significant role in your work, why is it important to you to inject an element of the absurd and comedic into your paintings?

The elements of play and bricolage are very important to my process, and I want that lightheartedness to come through in my paintings.

 

Michelle Nguyen, Carnivory, Oil & Pastel on Canvas, 56.25 x 41 in., 2017

8) You work primarily in oil paint and oil pastel, which qualities in these mediums draws you to them?

I consider oil to be way more forgiving than most painting mediums. I love the texture of oil paints and its ability to capture the subtle gestures of ones brush. As for oil pastels, I think they just aid in emphasizing my existing illustrative style.

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.

1) How would you describe your work ?

Messy, drippy, oozy, sketchy, colourful, full.

2) What are you most excited about in this current body of work and what are you striving to achieve that would set it apart from previous ones ?

I love working big and loose. These are my wildest paintings yet and I'm enjoying using big house painting brushes.  I want to convey the feeling of being inside a lush, unkempt garden. From up close I hope the paintings just look like paint marks and from far away I want them to create a depth people can climb into. 

3) Most adored colour in your tool box ? Most hated ? Most challenging ?

Currently Perylene Red, a transparent hue somewhere between cherry tomato and the inside of a pomegranate is my favourite colour. Powerful and even harsh, staining colours like Thalo Blue and Green and Quinacridone Violet can take over and ruin a painting or, with a little of their compliment added can create exquisite blacks and greys.

4) As an artist who is also a writer, how do you feel your writing informs your painting and vice versa ?

I'd say writing and painting are about being moved by an experience and conveying that sensation to the viewer/reader in a unique and personal way.  Both mediums teach me that if I don’t have a clue how to start, I just have to do something - Anything.

 5) Besides living in Vancouver you also live part of the year in Umbria. Is there a difference in approach, materials, or subject matter when painting while immersed in these 2 distinctly different cultures and climates? 

The light in Italy is so beautiful and warm and so many gorgeous still life objects are available in the countryside and the markets.  Artichokes come with their leaves on them and I can pick branches of pomegranates.
I paint in my bedroom and pretty much have to make work that will fit under my arm and through the luggage scanner unless I want to get into the whole shipping thing. I don't actually mind those constraints since they make it possible for me to concentrate on smaller works and think more about the craft of painting. I used to figure skate and skaters would spend hours doing what was called "school figures" or various permutations on the figure eight. Italy is where I do my school figures.

I enjoy having lots of quiet time over there to think and get recharged to return to my busy city life and get to work in my big, well lit studio.

 6)  What would be a surprising fact for someone to discover about you ?

That I just invested in a Cyr Wheel and plan to learn to use it. 

7)  Which artists have had the most profound influence on your work ?

Artists whose work I admire and look at lot are Matisse, Joan Mitchell, Manet, and Cy Twombly to name a few.  

Just saw some wonderful paintings in New York by Elise Ansel, Katharina Grosse and Atta Kwami Thami all of whom use colours which will inspire me for a long time.

8) Given the current political climate, what role do you think artists can play ?

Since my work is not at all political I try to do what I think every thinking person should be doing right now which is stick up for what I believe in. Make noise.

 9) What word of advice would you give to an aspiring artist just starting out ? Or what piece of advice would you have wished you could have given to your younger artist self knowing what you know now?

 Being an artist is a scary and unpredictable career.  I would tell an aspiring artist to surround herself with other aspiring artists who believe making art is an important and worthy job.

 10) What are you plans after this show ?

 I already have an idea for some big new works which I hope will tide me though the postpartum time of having hung a show.  In April I’ll return to Italy.

CLICK TO VIEW ARTWORK BY JAMIE EVRARD

 

1. Why the fascination with the Grid?

 In western art history the grid is an emblem of modernism.  It references a point in timein which new ways of seeing and thinking were expressed through artists such as Mondrian, Malevich,  Rodchenko and later Agnes Martin.  These artists continue to inspire me.

 Within my artistic practice the grid acts a vessel, it becomes the perimeter for various metaphors, processes and rituals.  For example the metaphor of a veil, an enclosed space, and the ritualistic marking of counted breaths within a specific time frame.

I have also wanted to simultaneously convey a relationship between conceptual minimalism and textile handiwork.  The layered paint forms a grid, which in turn embodies a relationship to paint that is seemingly woven.

I was raised in a family where the women were avid about cloth and all forms of handiwork, crochet, knitting, weaving and sewing: that impulse has informed my art practice.

2. There appears to be a feeling of restraint and an internal elegant logic within each painting. Do you set a predetermined guideline or set of rules for each work or is it very processed oriented?

 I  do begin with a predetermined guideline of the grid, which I draw out in pencil first. I can then have a flexible guide and work on a group of paintings to begin with.

As I keep working I then begin to respond to the individual needs of each piece.  I can introduce new rules, such as colour or proportional sequence and build layers this way, but I trust how I respond when viewing a piece in determining if it’s completed or not.  If I have an internal response I know it’s finished.

This may take some time and that is why some paintings have thicker layers or are denser.  I also go back and rework paintings, sometimes over a period of years.  The accumulation metaphor of my forever and endless paintings is intuitively guided. This process is something I want to explore more of in the future.

3. Do you have rituals or routines in the studio that help you paint? For example do you listen to music or is it completely quiet?

I like to create an atmosphere through listening to different meditative music or mantras. This helps me create a focus of intent.  I have practiced meditation for many years and my painting process shares many of its elements.  Being present in the moment and being conscious of my breath.

'The Intimates' On display at Bau-Xi Gallery Toronto, December 3-18, 2016

The Intimates (window sill), 54 x 40 in. oil on canvas, 2016

 

We recently sat down with artist Darlene Cole for a conversation about her upcoming exhibition, 'The Intimates'.

 

How do you approach creating a new series?

 a) A new playlist!

 b) I find that working on a small scale in the beginning gets me to the gritty raw bits of what I want to say and feel... I immediately know if it has the push and pull that I want.

 c) I draw from what is around me, human to human, relationships, pathways, landscapes, visits to antique shops in Old Ontario, my artist retreat, etc.

For 'The Intimates' I bought a new Moleskine sketchbook and some yummy chalk that feels like I'm on a boat when I work with it. It is a green/grey blue...like a wild lake colour. I've been drawing (rather habitual) while standing at an old table that came from a historical building in Belleville, Ontario. The table is painted in an 'as found' glossy blue/grey colour that I can see the shadow of my hand in as I draw. Although I'm a bit of a nighthawk, I draw only during the day under natural light. It is an intimate experience with the music, daylight, the soft chalk on cream paper on the old table.

 

 

How do you know when you've chosen the perfect 'theme' for the show?

I keep bits of green masking tape on my walls in the studio...words or phrases that often have dual meanings. I might hear words in songs as I'm working, or often they just come to me at odd times...unloading the dishwasher or drying my hair. My work is truly on my mind all the time...like fine webbing that joins one thought to another as I move from space to space. The title for the show has to feel right in my space as I walk around this old house. It has to feel right with the ceiling height, the light filtering in...it is like part of the plot somehow or a hint of the setting...it has to 'fit' into my world...and make your cheeks blush a bit when you think of it.

What element of your work do you visualize first?

The feeling...the atmosphere of the painting.

How long will you work on paintings for 'The Intimates'? 

I never know the answer to this question...but with 'The Intimates', the small scale paintings may continue perhaps for a museum show... 

Which elements of your familiar imagery will turn up in this show?

The white rabbit, the dress, the boat, the fawn, the horse, the curtain, roses and peonies...

Do you have any surprises for us?

Palm trees, perhaps a violin, some leopard print and a honey container from WWII...

 

CLICK TO VIEW ARTWORK BY DARLENE COLE