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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

Investing in art helps to enhance staff and client experience in any corporate space. Bau-Xi offers the following complimentary services for corporate clients:

• Art proposals, collection planning and curation
• Digital renders of art in elevations or environments
• On-site consultation and on approvals
• Monthly art rentals
• Interest-free payment plans
• Complimentary delivery and installation for clients in the Greater Vancouver and Toronto areas

Learn more about how to begin building your corporate art collection by contacting our associates in either location. 

Artwork pictured: Virginia Mak, "Small Moments 01", 47 X 47 inches, chromogenic print mounted to archival substrate.

VIEW MORE BY VIRGINIA MAK

Bau-Xi artists Bobbie Burgers, Drew Burnham, Barbara Cole, and Joshua Jensen-Nagle's works are beautifully documented in their art books. These publications contain your favourite artworks curated within, accompanied by texts that complete the picture--a colourful holiday gift option! 

TO BUY ONLINE

A gift wrapped painting--a surprise for a long-time Bau-Xi client.

CLICK TO VIEW ONLINE CATALOGUE 

With the holidays upon us, art lovers often plan on selecting a special piece for their friends and family. Bau-Xi Gallery associates love the opportunity to create a special moment for our clients and their loved ones. We are happy to accommodate special requests to deliver and install artwork as either an expected or surprise gift.

Gift certificates are also available through the gallery, which offer a nice introduction to art collecting for those who may be new to the process. Associates in the gallery are pleased to consult on artwork selection, and provide a tour of the gallery.

Joseph Plaskett, Suffolk Spring #1(diptych), 1992, Oil on Canvas, 36 X 96 in. ACQUIRE

Bau-Xi Gallery is pleased to announce that a selection of Joseph Plaskett paintings have been released for sale, following the recent settlement of his estate. We look forward to discussing these works with collectors. Plaskett passed away September 21, 2014 in his home in Suffolk, England. He was 96. 

Joseph Plaskett is considered to be one of Canada’s most talented and established painters. In the spring of 2001, he was awarded The Order of Canada for excellence in the field of visual art. Since the 1940’s, he has had over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with work in major public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. He has exhibited with the Bau-Xi Gallery, both in Vancouver and Toronto, since 1973.

Born in 1918 in New Westminster, B.C., Plaskett studied art in Banff, San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris, where he lived for many years. His chosen subjects are intimate expressions of everyday life – interiors, still life, and portraits of friends and models. There is a warm humanity to his work; a love of light, form, and colour that is evident in every painting he produces. The ensuing results are masterworks of visual delight.

Read Joseph Plaskett's obituary in The Globe & Mail here

VIEW AVAILABLE JOSEPH PLASKETT ARTWORK HERE

1) What would you like viewers to feel or experience when they look at one of your paintings ?

 A deeper connection to the experience of conscious life

 2) You suffered a serious stroke when you were a young adult and this experience has clearly re-defined and changed you as a painter. Could you elaborate ?

 Painting wise I went from being a predominantly figurative painter who worked in acrylics and was heavily interested in the darker aspects of the human psyche, to landscape painting with a heavy interest in consciousness, meditation, wellness, pure/true pitch or sound in colour's relational pattern vibrations etc .. I'm less interested in creating personal (cathartic/therapeutic) psychological work,  and more interested in tapping into a deeper collective connection and evolution and creating from this place (if possible).

 3) How is this exhibition different from some of your other exhibitions that have preceded it ?

 The work has become quite abstract. Fellow artist Val Nelson called it "celestial" and on the surface it kind of is.

I've really been interested in the similarities between patterns found in nature under a microscope and patterns found in the vastness of space. Macro and micro. And somehow trying to depict those so called "polarities" or perspectives,  and creating movement between the two on each canvas. Instead of painting left/right or forward/aft movement, I'm trying to create more of a 4th or 5th dimensional experience. Kind of a lofty goal but it's really interesting to try.

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

 My dogs

 5) Is there a colour you deplore or simply cannot use ?

 Phthalo blue & phthalo green

 6) You have gradually moved from painting primarily on wood panels to painting primarily on canvas. Why ?

 I was at Windsor Plywood one day talking to one of the guys I'd gotten to know there. We were talking about the doorskin I used to paint on and he told me it was cut from old growth forest. That didn't sit well with me. Painting trees on old growth forest felt like such a massive act of betrayal. Especially after being up in Haida Gwaii in 2004 and seeing some of the big logging trucks driving into the bush and coming out with one big tree, hundreds of years old, on their flat beds.

7) What is your creative process like ? Do you start many paintings at once or work on them individually one after the other ?  Does your concept of a painting at the beginning look like the completed painting or is it often a surprise ?

 I meditate a lot. Most of the work is done there. I just get out of the way, sit and listen and let my brain do the work it loves to do. Then when my mind is clear and can articulate its vision ( for lack of a better word, I live with Aphantasea and can't actually "envision" anything), through all the cells and nerves and structures of my body, I get to the laborious part of painting. Sometimes I start many paintings now and sometimes I work on one for a longer time. Sometimes it looks like how it did when it began, just more evolved, and sometimes it looks totally different.  

 8) Do you ever encounter creative blocks and if so how do you overcome them ?

I don't believe in  "blocks." I think this is an inaccurate use of descriptive language and a way of describing something that is not fully understood. If you need water, you go to the source and get some water. I realise this is a first world analogy, but for the sake of this metaphor, the water is always there.  If there are obstacles in the way of getting the water, is that a "block" ? When someone says they have a creative block, in my experience, they are imagining they are in a desert, waiting for it to rain when they could just get up and go turn on a tap, drive to a spring, walk to a well. This isn't the desert.

 Do the work, there is no block.

 9)  Is there a particular artist or artists, living or dead, that has made an impact on you or your work ?

Several. Early on it was Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, Turner, Braque and Cezzane. Sam Messer, especially his series on Jon Serl ( One Man By Himself ). Etienne Zack has had a huge influence on me and my work even though we paint nothing alike. Julie Heffernan is a massive influence although her work is figurative and more literal/psychological. Many of the Lenningrad School of painters, I look through their work very often. And Johann Groebner who is now in Vienna. Jay Senetchko, Kim Kimbro Taylor. When I was in NY I studied a few of the Valesquez paintings there for hours. Emily Carr's work too. And AY Jackson. Christopher and Mary Pratt, too. Visiting with Christopher in his studio in Newfoundland was really incredible. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, I have so much respect for that man. And my paternal grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother was a Sunday painter and my grandfather made exquisite pen and ink drawings.  I'm interested in making a contribution to the history of painting and am conscious to learn as much as I can from other painters but take that learning and develop it into my own style of communication or connection.

Impact for me can come from looking at the work or knowing the person who is making the work. Most often it comes from both.

 10) Are there upcoming projects or a series you are excited to explore ?

 Many. I'm currently writing three books (a memoir, a book of recipes and a children's book), and continuation in developing ideas in painting.

 11) Regardless of the subject matter in your work over the years, there is an overarching sense of movement, a shifting light, and a current of energy running through the paintings.Is this something you intentionally try to create in each work ?

 To me, in paint or in life, what else is there really?

 VIEW SHERI BAKES' COLLECTION OF WORKS HERE

Andre Petterson, Of the Hour, mixed media on panel, 48 x 48 inches, click for more information

Join us Saturday September 10th from 2-4 pm for the opening reception of Andre Petterson's exhibition 'Transition'.

CLICK TO VIEW EXHIBITION HERE

Andre Petterson's mixed media on panel works combine elements of photography, painting and drawing. Taking inspiration from his frequent travels abroad, current contemporary art practices, and art history, the artist offers insight into his studio practice and the different techniques involved in developing Transition from concept to fine art: 

"How I develop a concept for a new series varies from year to year and show to show. My exhibitions are always conceived as a series where a development of each work happens, keeping in mind how it will contribute to the bigger themes the show is tackling. At times I get inspired by the smallest thing: the image of a typewriter, which recalls thoughts of the past and how I relate to the technology today. There is potential to find a new subject anywhere:  it could be the way piece of cloth dances on a clothes line in the wind or a horse standing on its hind legs, seemingly frozen in time. 

I’ve been fascinated throughout my career by images and their relationships with other images. It’s not always easy to determine how an image will inspire a body of work or how to approach a new subject that fascinates me. Transition, the title of my latest exhibition, is emblematic of the latter. The title appropriately expresses what I see as a shift or change happening in Buenos Aires and other cities I've visited recently where a large population of people live with economic, environmental, and political uncertainty. There is an overwhelming feeling that young people need to find a voice and a way to make ends meet as they begin their adult lives. The suit jacket is a symbol of authority, prowess and professionalism that is indicative of the challenges facing youth. It stands in stark contrast to the radical graffiti effacing so many buildings in these cities. By merging the two subjects and the inherent symbolism associated with each in a way that is meaningful, I came upon a new direction. 

I began development on the series by acquiring a variety of suit jacket from second hand stores and photographing each in their pure, unaltered state. I then paint directly onto the jacket and photographed it again. This process is repeated many times until I feel that I now have an image to work with. I hang things from the jacket: ribbons, string, bits of cloth, wire, etc. These things represent a kind of stash of possessions that someone who may hold dear for various reasons. The items represent memories of the past and their original function now changed and celebrated by the new owner.

Once the photos have been applied to the panel surface, I paint over it using a variety of tools and techniques to unify all elements into a complete, finished composition."

VIEW AVAILABLE ARTWORK BY ANDRE PETTERSON HERE