"Grandmother With Knives"

"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected."

~William Plomer

"Grandmother With Knives", oil on canvas, 24"x 18", is a portrait of my grandmother, who lives in Caledon, a little town north of Brampton, Ontario. She has lived on her farm for over thirty years. My grandfather (no deceased) designed it, had it built and in they moved. It seems like a lifetime ago. It is a beautiful house, made entirely of wood, with a vaulted ceiling, deep carpets and 25 acres of fields and trees surrounding it. Yes, sprawl is creeping nearer to the farm, but for now my grandmother spends her days reading peacefully on her couch, surrounded by her paintings, some artwork that the rest of the family has done, and an impressive library of books. She feeds the birds, loves her tea and lives a humble, happy life. 

The field next to my grandmother's farmhouse

My grandfather collected knives. I too have a collection of them and have painted them as well. You can see the painting here. My grandfather's collection was compiled over a lifetime of appreciating the beauty of a finely crafted knife. The kukris you see behind my grandmother were brought back from the Second World War when my grandfather flew supply planes over Myanmar. The others were bought or designed for him over the years by various knife makers. 

All of my life I have seen them on the wall and admired their simple beauty as well as respected their potentially deadly use as well. 

One day while visiting my grandmother she was sitting on her couch with the knives hanging behind her and it struck me how that juxtaposition might make an interesting painting. She was listening intently as one of my family talked, and I loved how her hands folded across her knees in a thoughtful way. I enjoy paintings hands, and foreshortening is always interesting to tackle too. I thought that to someone walking by it might prove to be a rather eccentric painting, not something that you would normally see on a wall. To me it was as natural as the way she was sitting, but to others it might stand out as something you don't see every day. 

The painting has a lot going on in it, from the pattern of the couch to the lines of wood comprising the wall behind her. Wood is one of my favorite materials to render, as it is ever changing, always shifting from one hue to another. It simply invites you to paint it. I also had fun painting the little stack of books beside her. It is a very personal painting, one filled with symbols from my childhood. An extension of the comfort and happiness that I experienced when I visited the farm while growing up hopefully comes across in the painting. Nothing had been shifted or changed when I took the reference shots. It was and still is, a moment in time that is very special to me.

Some paintings spring from your mind as if from a dream. They are planned and loosely designed within the framework of your thoughts so that you simply need to collect the reference as another step towards making the painting a reality. However others are of a different nature all together. They are the more biographical and personal pieces, pieces of one's life that have deep significance despite, and because of how fleeting they are. 

The pond behind the farmhouse

"Imagination equals nostalgia for the past. It is the liquid solution in which

 art develops the snapshot of reality." ~Cyril Connolly

Paintings for the Newfoundland exhibition are selling quickly, and the show is still months away! If you would like to see images of the paintings, or have any questions, please send me an email or contact Abbozzo Gallery.

Newfoundland Portraits

November 5-22nd, 2009

Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville, Ontario

Opening Reception November 6th, 7-10pm

Have a wonderful day and take good care,

Heather

"Knives"

"Pictures must not be too picturesque." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knives" was painted in my final year at Sheridan College. Our assignment was to do a still life painting. Classmates and friends assembled all sorts of interesting things together for their projects. There were vases and fruit, clothing and shoes, action figures even appeared in one or two paintings. I wanted to paint something that interested me as well...something that would be fun and challenging to render. I decided to paint my knife collection.

My grandfather collected knives and you can see some of his collection in the painting "Grandmother With Knives". My father also had a small collection of knives and I had built up my own collection too. In fact the straight razor was my father's from when he was a teenager and there is one of my throwing knives in there too.  My friend Scott lent me his katana to complete the grouping. I lay out the knives on a white sheet to best show their form and contrast and away I went. 

Looking at this painting now I realize how differently I applied the medium back then. There are still some similarities of technique but I do paint more expressively now, with more evident brushstrokes and almost no blending on the canvas, as I had done in the "Knives" painting. It is all about learning what works best for you, how you best accomplish your goal of rendering a subject matter to your satisfaction.

I enjoyed trying to capture the craftsmanship in each knife. I like how each knife has its own story, its own maker who took pride in its creation, its own travels that had brought it to my studio. This is one of my favorite paintings for the reason that I have a connection with these objects, have held them in my hands and studied each one. They are works of art in and of themselves.

 It serves a good purpose I believe to look back at older works that you have done, to re-asses your technique and see where you have come from academically, intellectually and emotionally. Through simple observation you can mark your progress and see areas where you might improve. 

I do occasionally still paint still life subject matter, for they have as much of a story as a person does, in many ways. In fact, commonplace objects can reflect so much about a person. Again, objects are just that-objects. However they can also be much more than that. It is energy and emotion, nostalgia and attachment that we place upon these things that imbue them with a greater sense of their place in the world. 

"Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been." ~Robert Henri