I’m so excited to have won the People’s Choice Award at the Sooke Fine Art Show! There were a lot of gorgeous pieces at that show, I feel very honoured to have been chosen. The piece that won is a new painting, called A Secret. Here it is:
She’s 36″ x 36″, oil and acrylic on canvas. SOLD
Well, thanks to the fabulous folks who stopped by my patch of grass, the Paint-In was a lot of fun. About 6 hours of talking about myself to 30,000 peeps. By 8:30 pm, after a lovely Sea Cider (I recommend the Kings & Spies) and a brief but enjoyable listen to Kumbia, I was done-for. It’s a pretty uplifting thought that 150 visual artists along a street can bring 10% of the city’s population to see them. My friend says it’s the best thing Victoria has going for it, and I have to proudly agree.
I showed some new works at the Paint In, all of which have yet to make it to my actual website. I’ll post these on here soon.
I’m participating in A Loving Spoonful’s Project Empty Bowl Art Auction again this year, with another Bird painting. The Loving Spoonful is a charity that helps provide nutritional food for people living with HIV/AIDS. Here is an excerpt from their website:
The role of good nutrition in the management of HIV/AIDS has become increasingly important over the past two decades. Access to nutritious food is one of the most powerful weapons available to fight the devastating effects of AIDS.
I decided to participate in this cause after a friend asked me to donate a piece last year. When I travelled in Africa, back in 1997, I saw people who were clearly affected by ukimwi, “the skinny disease”. It was frightening and sad to see people with no resources suffering in this way. This is my way of giving back closer to home.
Last year, I’m proud to say that the sale of my painting raised $2000 for this worthy cause. This year, they asked me to be their feature artist. Let’s hope this new painting, called Flight, Oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″ will bring in the same generous amount. I’m quite pleased with the way this piece turned out.
It’s such a joy to paint birds. The crows and swallows that I paint are so social. I recently found my first Bird moment in an old sketchbook from when I was 19. I clipped out an image of seagulls, and wrote a quote beside it: “We are all angels of but one wing, only by embracing each other can we fly” ~ Luciano de Crescenzo
I am back from a trip to Morocco, which was absolutely wonderful I have to say. Four girls let loose on the streets of Marrakech is just what the doctor ordered after moving house and participating in the studio tour.
To bring me right back into my other life, my artist friend Jennifer Olson asked me to show with her at the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. Passages opens this Thursday, May 20 from 6 to 8pm. It runs until May 26. The hours are all on the CACGV website. I’ll be showing work from my November show, Passage, which was hung at the Macpherson Library Gallery at UVic.
Last January, I was a approached about lending my paintings to Lifetime Network, working on a film in Victoria called Stranger With My Face. I also ended up doing some hand-double work for the main character of Laurie, played by the lovely and multi-talented Alexz Johnson.
I found the film on YouTube a while ago and watched it. I hadn’t realised that the opening shot would pan over some New York buildings, and back into a room (on Yates Street) and that my painting would be the first thing you see, followed shortly by my hand!
So, all the painting and drawing closeups of the girl’s hand and her paintings are in fact my hand, and my paintings. Oh, how fun!
You can watch the first two minutes here on YouTube.
The opening shot...
My hand tickling my painting
Gotta love the framing
Birdies!
Not one, but 3 paintings in this shot...My NSCAD studio mate Daniel is in the centre one
They had me re-draw the portrait on camera. The whole thing! I was cross-legged on the floor and it was freezing in there, then it cut straight to here...
Magic! It's instantly done! Yeesh. That was high-pressure drawing.
We'll give you a million for it...
Tickle tickle... They also had me re-create the "evil twin" portion of this piece on camera from scratch. This time there were about 20 people around, and the camera rolling. It was hard to keep my hands from shaking. And they cut that footage! Oh well.
"Oh, Honey, look what you did!"
I included this one, cause the clever props people snuck in my self-portrait into the background. I like that.
All images copyright Lifetime Network. Don’t sue me.
I’m working on some more pieces for the Bird series (up on the site again, as of today). This series started with a very small painting: 5 x 7 inches, back in 2003. I’ve gone bigger and bigger with them, now up to 48 x 48.
Birds (Rain) 48" x 48" copyright Lisa Hebden 2010
The subject matter of these pieces is almost secondary to what goes on in the negative space. In these paintings, I manipulate paint somewhat differently from that in the Girls series. It’s poured and splattered, and I let it take on its own life to create the illusion of rich, undulating skies. It’s terribly satisfying, I won’t lie.
Birds (Rose Gold), 24" x 36" copyright Lisa Hebden 2009
Birds (Aqua Green) 24" x 36" copyright Lisa Hebden 2009
Then the birds go on somewhere in the middle of this maelstrom of colour, and they dictate the direction of the paintings’ finishing stages. I know a painting is finished when I come in to the studio and my eye flicks around the canvas to each little moment of colour. Then I hang it in my living space for a week or so, and I really start to see where to go next. Writing about this makes me want to get off the computer and go paint. Till we meet again!
So it’s been more than a month since my last post, and I am a neglectful blogger. For good reason, my friends–I’ve been painting up a storm, though not on canvases. My hubs, my very obliging mum and I have emptied almost a dozen cans of paint onto the walls of my soon-to-be-new house. I’m very excited. Just the bathroom and the trim to go, and it’s all done.
January 3rd was a sad day, as I was required to vacate my lovely downtown studio to make way for the wrecking ball. The leak in the roof was enough to convince the building owners to push forward their plans to convert our lovely space into several condos. Sigh.
However, I have a new space to work in. And it’s warm and sunny, so to be honest, I’m much happier. Painting in gloves and a down vest (with a hot water bottle shoved in it) was far from ideal!
Inspiring books I’ll be leafing through:
Lisa Yuskavage: Small Paintings
I can’t wait to get started in my new space. I hope 2010 is a productive, inspiring year for everyone.
I’m back! I went to Hong Kong for a week (fun!) and now I have some pics of my new paintings…they’re all updated on my website, here.
Hello Lovelies. If you live in Victoria, please check out my new solo show. Passage will be showing from November 18 until December 17 at University of Victoria’s McPherson Library Gallery. After the work goes up, I’ll post some more photos. Phew, the paintings are finished, and photographed, signed and dry (unusual for me to hang fully dry paintings!) and I’m very happy and very tired. Cup of tea and cheesy novel? Yes, please.
Sadly, there is no opening reception. But if anyone would like to meet me at the gallery and chat about the work, I’ll post a day when I’ll be there.
Here is a sort-of preview of the new work, as photographed yesterday. Photographing work is my least favourite part of the whole process. I’m lying on the floor, squinting into the view-finder, dealing with tricky sheen and funky light, appreciating how difficult it must be to be a professional photographer!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s all about the eyes. I find if the eyes are off (and not in a good way), the portrait doesn’t work. These new paintings continue in my tradition of portraits of make-believe girls. They are composites and imaginings. One painting will be inspired by a magazine ad for handbags, but will morph into something else entirely.
I’m excited about this one above. She’s raw and dark.
And this one is called “Pink Lady”. I couldn’t resist. I’ll post the whole paintings after the show opens next Wednesday!