Painting Commissions: A great reward for practicing artists.

"Jared", oil on panel, 8"x10"

"The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist.  The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life." ~Henry Miller

The only thing as sure as that there are artists out there creating art is that there are people who want to commission them. I am talking, dear friends, about paintings commissions. Commissions have sustained artists for millennia. It is an invaluable method to supplement an artist's typically sporadic income. It also is a very symbiotic relationship and has many many benefits.

I do many painting commissions every year, including the portrait of Jared above and his sister Keira below. Some commissions are for strangers and some are for friends. Many are for strangers who subsequently become friends. I value and enjoy this process. I love working on a piece of art that will be in a collection for many years to come. It is wonderful to do a painting that you know will make someone happy. A loved one, a house, a landscape, whatever resonates with the client/friend, is what I will do. Half the fun is collecting the reference (I often travel to the client to shoot the reference myself). This way I am able to engage with the clients and have developed many good friendships as a result of this. After the photo shoot I travel back to my studio and begin work on their painting. If time and the opportunity permits I deliver the piece to them in person. If not, I carefully wrap it and ship it to them. There are few things as moving as unveiling a commission and having the client become emotional at the site of the piece. That is one of the best feelings as a painter...to move someone strongly when they look at your work.

"Keira", oil on panel, 10"x8"

If you are interested in a painting commission please do not hesitate to contact me in the "contact" section of this blog. I will respond to you as soon as I can. Here are a couple of other paintings that I have really enjoyed completing for clients and friends recently...

"Mills", oil on panel, 16"x20"

"Uzes Street", oil on canvas, 40"x60"

"Sneggy", oil on canvas, 16"x20"

Some people have said to me "But when you do commissions you aren't painting what you want to paint!" It is all a matter of perspective. I am painting what will make someone else happy and to also help me continue to be able to paint what I want when I am not working on these commissions! It all works together. I have made some lifelong friends through painting commissions. It is a great benefit of being an artist.

In other news I am starting the process of converting my current, clunky and just generally outdated website to a Wordpress site. I used Flash to make my site years ago and it is time for a change. I want folks to be able to access my paintings on a mobile device, hence the switch. Look for these changes in the coming weeks. My website name will remain the same: heatherhorton.com

Here is a new painting in progress that will be featured in my upcoming exhibition at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville, Ontario. This piece is 36"x48", oil on wood panel. It is about 90% complete. Two paintings have already sold for this exhibition so make sure to keep an eye out for new pieces as they are produced! You can purchase paintings in advance through the gallery. They are happy to answer any questions you might have.

Finally, I had the great pleasure of seeing Radiohead recently in Kansas City. Such a fun show! Here are some shots from a spectacular evening...

Behold the coveted wristband indicating general admission access to the concert floor:)

They played a great selection of songs from a variety of different albums.

Most songs were from The King Of Limbs but others were taken from Kid A and

Amnesiac. 

A month today I will be in Kentucky to lecture at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. What an exciting opportunity! I will be participating in critiques, having a small exhibition of paintings and giving a lecture to the Fine Art Department! Any chance to talk to other artists and engage them in the process of creating art is a great thing :) I am very thankful to the university for extending this invitation to me.

Thanks for taking the time to read about these updates and happenings. I hope this entry finds you well and creating new work, words or ways in your life!

Heather

"Painting is a strange business."~J. M. W. Turner

Enduring the maudlin and loving reprobates

"Self-Portrait with Sasha"(in progress), oil on canvas, 18"x24"

I love to write but often feel that I need to write about a new painting or some type of epic adventure. This doesn't need to be the case. I need to use this space as more of a journalling opportunity. It is rather terrifying and also quite cathartic. Thus the next few entries might be shorter and I apologize if they are much longer with more to wade through...Regardless, here goes...

I have been watching films like no one's business lately. Recent films seen include:

My Week With Marilyn
J. Edgar
The Tree Of Life
Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close
Crazy. Stupid. Love.
The Artist
Hugo (3D)
The Descendants
Midnight In Paris
War Horse

I thought some of these films to be an utter waste of my time and others were sweet and charming. Some were poignant and a bit pat, but still very good. The most overrated films I found to be 'The Artist' and 'Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close'. I could write a whole polemic on each but will save you the time of reading them. Just please, if you want to see Hollywood schlock, watch 'Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close'. The young actor in it...is an incredibly annoying character. Trust me. I thought 'Midnight In Paris' and 'Crazy. Stupid. Love.' were excellent. They didn't try too hard. They were just lovely and hilarious. Do you know of Terrence Malick's films? Good. If not, I envy you. Malick should just do NOVA specials rather than feature films. His cinematography is beautiful but please, no more with the highly paid actors wandering about in barren landscapes trying to appear to be deep, okay?

In other news I have a new addiction: spin class. I love it. Now the instructor is crucial to your class enjoyment. The strangest and most idiosyncratic instructors are the best. I find their quirks compelling and entertaining.Therefore it is their classes that I return to faithfully. It's a great opportunity for a bang-up aerobic workout. Plus it saves your knees from all of the abuse they withstand on the road or on the treadmill. I find 3 spin classes as week combined with a yoga class, weights and running is a perfect routine to give you lots of energy and happiness. Plus I'm "training" for a 160km hike across the western edge of Greenland next year with my friend from Whitehorse so that helps motivate me as well! Goals are so important. If you don't have one, make acquiring a goal your goal. My lungs need travel to breathe. Travel and adventure are the air that sustains me.

Atop Mount White near Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory

Last but not least I was thinking about my artistic inspirations today. My first inspiration as a college student was the artist Tamara de Lempicka. She lived and painted in my favourite decade, in one of my favourite places: Paris in the 1920's. Can you imagine it? I can. Art Deco, Hemingway, Anais Nin, Henry Miller, and on and on.. Lempicka showed me the beauty and potential of female painters. Frida Kahlo's inspiration came later, but that's another blog entry. I am not as drawn to Tamara as much now, but it is important to give a nod to your inspirational roots. I have already spoken of Andrew Wyeth and Lucian Freud as my other main influences. Sargent is in there too but I'll return to them at another time.

I hope you like the newest painting I am working on, shown above. The finished painting will be on display with my upcoming solo exhibition at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville, Ontario this autumn.  My cat Sasha wandered into frame as the tripod and camera did their reference collecting for me. I like that Sasha is very subtle and almost not discernible until you really look. He is five pounds soaking wet, five years old,and one of my best friends and closest confidantes. He's patient and never tells my secrets. He loves me unconditionally and is a positive reprobate when I am gone for long periods of time, let alone a couple of hours. I adore him for his beauty and his beautiful flaws. In fact, here is a painting of him....

So these are a few ramblings from me to you. I hope you are having a beautiful last few days of this February as it ebbs away. Thank-you for reading, following, supporting and believing in my painting and me.

Best,

Heather

p.s. I must suggest you acquire the official soundtrack to The Social Network. It is amazing. If you are a Trent Reznor fan I am sure you have it already. If not get it, please. It is perfect to work to, think to, write to, paint to, bathe to, fall asleep to, drive to. Here is a link to information about it... 

p.p.s. David Fincher is a genius.

"Woody Cove, Gros Morne"

My paintings are my friends. It's as simple as that. Your art, like your friendships, needs nurturing and, subsequently, you develop connections with your paintings. At least I do.


"Woody Cove, Gros Morne", oil on canvas, 36"x60", has been in the back of my mind for years. This place reminds me of some sort of Avalon, or perhaps some veiled world found in J.R.R. Tolkien's mind. Fortunately it is happily within reach of all of us, in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Canada. It lies near the center of the park near Norris Point and Lobster Cove Lighthouse. 


This painting is another piece that will be a part of my solo exhibition at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville, Ontario this autumn. I hope you can make it out to the exhibition! I will post dates for the show as soon as I find out when it is. Stay tuned. The show will include a selection of figurative paintings, landscapes and a couple of still life pieces as well. Variety is good :)


Some of the most challenging things (for me) to paint are skies and water. This painting has a lot of both. A successful painting means you have created a successful illusion. I think the key is knowing that it will ultimately work out as you want it to. You just need patience and belief. Just keep your head down and paint. 


Mind you, stepping away and assessing your painting periodically is imperative. My college painting instructor Katharine MacDonald always told us that. Take a step back and look at your work. Don't get too close for too long or you will cease to see the painting in an objective light. In fact this technique could work for any aspect of your life. If you get too close to anything for too long, you can lose objectivity and your view can become distorted. Balance, stepping back, weighing what is working and what isn't, yields your best work and perhaps your best decisions in and out of the studio. 


The only thing more exhilarating and terrifying than a blank canvas is the first mark you make. This means you have started the uphill climb in the creation of a piece of art and a hundred, two hundred, a thousand more marks will follow this initial brushstroke. Yet we paint because we must. We love it and are terrified periodically by it. I know I am. A little fear keeps you creating your best work.


So fan the flames of a little fear in the studio and I'll be writing again soon with a new painting to talk about. 


Happy creating!


Heather

"It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish."~J.R.R. Tolkien

"Clothesline, Fogo Island"

"..in great souls I sail before the wind without a watch,

and never reach the shore."~Henry David Thoreau

There are few places as evocative as Newfoundland. I have waxed romantic about this province before and I must take a moment to do it again. "Clothesline, Fogo Island", oil on panel, 30"x40", brings me once again back to that windy day driving around this small island on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland. Here is a link so you can see where it lies.

There is unique character to Newfoundland that makes it instantly recognizable. Certain destinations that we have had the good fortune to experience and explore remain within us while others fall away. Why is that? I believe it is because those places hit us like tuning forks with a resonance that we almost cannot explain. And it is okay not to be able to explain them. Perhaps when words fail us we are not meant to have them anyway. We simply must be held captive by Newfoundland, or Alaska, or Patagonia or wherever calls to you.

I am working on a painting currently, that a good friend saw (keep in mind I had only worked about eight hours on it) and he said "I think I've been there!" He was correct. We talked about it and he had. That is the power of landscape, to have set an indelible print within your mind that you are instantly taken back there when you even see a hint of its final rendering. Here is the painting to which he referred:

I am planning on doing a time-lapse video of this painting with the help of a friend. I will post it here when the piece is completed.

In "Clothesline, Fogo Island", I rendered the clothes in a more detailed way, while keeping with a more expressive rendering of the landscape behind them. Similar to the other clothesline I painted years ago, I wanted the clothes to almost want to fly off of the canvas and out over the water. The painting is now available at Abbozzo Gallery, where I will be having a solo exhibition of my work this coming autumn.

In other news I will be giving a lecture at the Burlington Art Centre for the Burlington Fine Art Association this month. I am excited to talk with other artists about the creative process. Also, this spring I will be a guest lecturer at the Western Kentucky University. I will give a talk, participate in artist critiques and have a small exhibition of my paintings at the university over the course of my visit. What a great opportunity! I have never been to Kentucky and look forward to an exciting road trip.

Here is a painting that I recently completed for a friend. Cats' eyes really are windows to their souls...our furry friends make life beautiful, don't you think?

I hope that 2012 is off to a great start for you. Wishing you happiness in your art and life and thanks for reading!

If you are inclined, please follow my art on Facebook and Twitter!

"What Frida Taught Me"

I want quiet feet on quiet floors and quiet fears behind quiet doors.

"What Frida Taught Me", oil on panel, 36"x24", was inspired by Frida Kahlo's famous 1938 painting "What The Water Gave Me". "What Frida Taught Me" began in Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory last autumn. I have painted my legs in a bathtub before, but this time, like every time, is different.

There are many reasons as to why artists have painted themselves in bathtubs. These are places where we are cleansed and they are also places of refuge. They are receptacles for our fears and concerns. There is peace to be found here. I began this painting with an idea of revisiting the theme of the previous piece, Quietus, seen here, from years ago:

I enjoy painting the natural world as well as things which cover us. Whether it be fabric or water, anything that surrounds us can serve as a metaphor. It can provide protection and can also wash away layers to reveal important truths. The water in my painting is symbolic of how our minds and bodies are able to have time to heal and reflect (no pun intended) in that place. The quiet drip of the faucet, the occasional creak of the house, these simple sounds become the backdrop for our thoughts as we sculpt our theories, weigh opinions, develop plans and dwell on sentiments. Quite simply, places where we are cleansed are crucibles for all that goes on in our minds.

Perhaps the composition of "What Frida Taught Me" is a bit strange to the casual observer. It makes sense to me though. Haven't we all sat in a similar places and looked down at our legs, faithful friends who have helped us through the world and not questioned why, but simply took us where our minds told them to go? They trust us, and we them.

I had gone on a long hike up Mount White with the Yukon Outdoors Club on the day "What Frida Taught Me" was conceived. I had fallen at the end of the hike but did not paint my injury into the painting. It felt strange to do so. I went with my gut and omitted the gore. I did paint the tan lines from my sandals which seem permanently etched on my feet from hours of hiking and exploring in the sun. This painting was the end of a beautiful, strenuous day. It was the opposite of the previous six hours of ascending and descending the mountain...

 Halfway up the mountain..

Walking along the top of Mount White..glorious:)

Two of my greatest loves are painting and traveling. "What Frida Taught Me" is a representation of many things, and those things change from day to day. Like Frida, I place my life into my painting. It is there to see, but less obviously as the direct symbolism in Frida's work. No my story is more subtle. Like Frida I believe our paintings are places to tell our stories, the painful ones and the pleasurable ones. She lived her life intensely and followed her passion. She "painted her own reality" as she once said. I agree with her. Paint what you know. Listen to that quiet voice, that inner child and and let that voice have the final word on your canvas.

"Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?"~Frida Kahlo

My handmaiden named Anxiety.

Light filtering into the studio recently..

"A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety."~Aesop

Sometimes I wonder if it is better to be frayed as an artist, or to seek the stitch.


I am a type 'A' personality where 'A' = anxiety. T.S. Eliot once wrote: "Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity". What a wise man he was. Yes, anxiety can be a huge hindrance to creative flow, output and inspiration. If you are naturally predisposed to anxiety it can be a regular guest in the studio with you. A few years ago I was having some health struggles and remember being so anxious that I couldn't even paint at times. So, how do you work through anxiety with regards to your work?


Fortunately my anxiety rarely centers around my paintings but other thoughts that drift in and out of my mind while I work. Ideally your creative space should be a refuge, a crucible of energy that you can distill you work into, unfettered by anxiety and worry. However this is rarely so. Thus we must make the best effort we can. I like to listen to music, television shows or movies that I know well. I can paint away while enjoying a film and this serves to dissipate anxiety while providing entertainment too. 


Also, if you can mix exercise into your workday I think you will notice an improvement in anxiety/mood and certainly fitness level. Exercise is a panacea. It is better than any medication in my opinion. It is natural and your body doing what it was meant to do. I wish I had mountains within reach every day but I enjoy a good jog along Lake Ontario as well. Everywhere has its own unique beauty.

Here is a photograph of some flesh tones I was mixing on my palate recently. There are so many variations of colour and value that go into anything, let alone skin. When I first started to paint many years ago, I used about three variations of the same colour for the skin of my subject. Now there are innumerable ones. It is all a part of learning. It is evolution. It is not a fast process...but with time it will happen and your work will blossom. When I am painting, I strive for a subtle edge. This can refer to creases or areas that recede from the eye. If you mix a colour just a value or two away from the one adjacent to it, you can effectively "mix" the colours but in a more segmented way. Yet when you step away and move back your eye will naturally blend them together. See Lucian Freud's work for the best example of this ever (RIP Lucian).

Yes, this is a photograph of the isolated chaos that is my palate and paint tubes. Are you one of those artists where paint flies everywhere? If so, let me know. I'm a very "quiet" painter. I've wondered about how many artists are really "Pollocky" out there...a hurricane of paint etc. In fact I'd love to know or see photographs of other artists' studios...feel free to send them to me if you wish. I work in a VERY small space which is a part of the larger space where I live. One day I will have a room devoted just to painting/work. I can't wait :) Until then I realize I could probably paint in a linen closet if I had to.

And finally here is a photograph of a section from a larger piece that I recently completed. It will be featured in my upcoming solo exhibition at Abbozzo Gallery in less than a year's time (it takes a long time to paint a full show!). I hope to see you there! This show is an exploration of the theme of waiting and the human condition (two favourite topics). In this painting above, you can see the work of applying different tones and values with minimal blending on the panel. Skin is one of the trickiest things to render I find, and therefore quite  intriguing. 


I hope this day finds you well, anxiety-free and smiling....:)


Heather

"Montana Mountain I"

"To live for some future goal is shallow.

 It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

~Robert M. Pirsig

"Hiking Montana Mountain I", oil on panel, 30"x40", is based on a hike that my friend Ian and I did near Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory recently. The North is beautiful any time of the year, but in the crisp days of autumn its beauty is particularly bewitching. 

We did this hike on August 26th and had to turn back eventually because of blowing snow up on the mountain ridge. Two years ago I was in the Yukon on May 1st, driving to Skagway, Alaska for the day to hike. At one point I drove through snow driving over a pass in Northern British Columbia and encountered a family cross-country skiing. On May 1st. This place is always keeping you on your toes. It can change its mind in an instant. It does not suffer fools gladly. These are just a few of the reasons that I love it. 

The deep crimson foliage was abundant as we ascended the mountain. A hundred years ago there was a mine based here, and the trail we followed ran below a steel cable that helped move ore up and down the mountain. Our path was steeped in a hardscrabble history, filled with the sweat and effort of many dreams. We passed ancient pots, the remains of cabins for the men working in the area, and different tower structures made of dry, groaning wood. 

The great thing about being an artist is that you are able to relive your memories, good and bad, every day you come to the easel. Not only must you mix paint, apply it and observe the technical requirements to render your piece, but you can also experience the joy of watching a painting develop into reality from your past reality, to live permanently in the world. 

The air is so clear and clean up there that there is no impediment to seeing the far off mountain tops except atmosphere and any weather that rolls in. I could hardly wait to work on pushing those mountains back to that far ridge where they belong. I wanted to delve into the blues, as blues help cool things off and push them away from you. The blue of the earth as seen from all of those photographs taken from space, is everywhere, even in the humblest of paintings. 

I used smaller brushes as I moved further away into the mountains on the horizon, while keeping brush strokes looser and more painterly up in the foreground to show the texture of the foliage. The sky is bleak and white because of the snow that day, but other days it would be as blue as the sea. We hiked over to the far ridge that you can see in the painting, and then headed back. Further on there are alpine lakes and even an abandoned monastery! I want to return there to see the evidence of what sheer tenacity it took to live up there on a permanent basis. Fortune favours the bold. Despite the stark and unforgiving climate, there is plenty of fortune to be had here. 

On a side note, I blogged a while ago about painting a portrait of my friend Joe, who helped me out by letting me stay at his wonderful place in Chicago this past summer while I was on my way to the Midwest. I painted this little portrait for him as a thank-you. He received it yesterday! Great friends are a great treasure.