Poets & Artists

My painting, "Symbiosis," is featured in the latest issue of Poets & Artists. Didi Menendez has created this wonderful venue for artists to show their work. It's an honor to be in the company of so many great artists and always a pleasure to work with Didi. If you click HERE you can read the issue online, or follow the link under the image for print and digital purchase.

Published in the Artist's Magazine

I feel so honoured to have been awarded third prize in the experimental category of The Artist's Magazine's 28th Annual Art Competition. An image and write-up of my painting, "Rise" has been published in the December 2011 issue, which is on newsstands now. It can also be ordered online, either as a printed version or as a digital download.

Fine Art Connoisseur

Fine Art Connoisseur has graciously put our photo from 'An Ordinary Aspect: Paintings of Women by Women Artist' in the news for this month's issue. The exhibition was presented by Joseph D. Carrier Gallery (Toronto) and Under the Moon Fine Arts (Hamilton, Ontario) in June. I haven't received my copy yet, but it should be at the newsstands now!

Salmagundi Club's annual juried exhibition in New York

I am so excited to announce that my painting "Symbiosis" was accepted into the Salmagundi Club's annual juried exhibition in New York. The Salmagundi Club was established in 1871. Matthew Innis wrote a great post about it on his blog, Underpaintings. This spring the Salmagundi Club presented its 4th American Masters show which included work by Jeremy Lipking, David Kassan, Nancy Guzik, Rose Frantzen and and many other wonderful painters. The exhibition that my painting will be included in runs from August 8th- 19th, with an awards banquet on the 19th.













"Symbiosis"
diptych - each canvas 18 x 14 inches
oil on canvas, 2011

Exhibition at BiBO in Nelson, BC

Next Thursday will be the vernissage for an exhibition of my recent paintings at BiBO (518 Hall Street) in my hometown, Nelson, BC. The show will be comprised of a number of my recent figurative works as well as selected landscapes and still-lifes. The vernissage is from 4:30pm - 5:30, hope to see you there!

Two Upcoming Portrait Painting Workshops

I have two upcoming workshops that I will be teaching this month. One will be held in Nelson, BC from August 11th to 13th, and the other will be held in Lake Country (near Kelowna, BC) August 25th to 27th.

These three day portrait painting workshops will center on the experience of painting from life. Each day will include a demonstration, discussion and individual instruction at the easel. Discussions will include proportion and structure of the head, stages to developing a painting, as well as form, shape, value, colour, edges, balance, unity, harmony, light and modeling with colour temperature.

Here's the full write-up for the Nelson one. For more information about either workshop, email Bev at beverleybobshe@yahoo.ca

A Morning of Plein Air Painting

Check out the new video the filmmaker, Jesse Ewles made of me, Juan Martinez and Sara Sniderhan painting my lovely sister, Jessica Rae Gordon, outdoors before I moved away from Toronto!

Beyond Certainty: Flaws of Form

It's neat how sometimes there are themes that run through a few shows that I'm in all around the same time, and recently there have been a couple shows that highlight female figurative artists. The Exhibition "Beyond Certainty: Flaws of Forms" will take place at the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts (984 Queen St West, Toronto) from June 22 through July 3rd. There will be an opening reception on Friday June 24th from 7 to 9pm. I'm actually in Norway apprenticing with Odd Nerdrum for a couple months right now, so I wont be able to attend, but I hope you all go and take lots of photos for me!! I'll have eight of my latest paintings in it, including the two below as well as the two from my previous post.






















"Indigo," oil on canvas, 10"x 8"






















"Christina," oil on canvas, 10"x 8"

New Paintings of Friends

Here's a couple new paintings I just finished of my friends here in Toronto. I'm moving away from Toronto next week (flying to Norway first to apprentice with Odd Nerdrum, then I'll probably return to BC for a bit or something). I'm really going to miss all my friends in Ontario and I was so happy to get to paint Christina Mazzulla and Nicki Brooks before I leave!


















"Looking Inward," oil on canvas, 24"x 30"























"Nicki," oil on canvas, 18"x 14"

Exhibition of Female Canadian Artists in Toronto

I have 6 paintings included in the exhibition "An Ordinary Aspect," which will be held at the Joseph D. Carrier Gallery in Toronto from June 2nd to 27th. This group exhibition of female Canadian artists explores the concerns women have for the ownership and health of their bodies; for the social and cultural roles they take on; and for the challenges that stereotypes present to a woman’s feeling of self worth. There will be a reception on the evening of June 2nd from 6:30 to 9:30. Hope to see you there!

Gushy and Grateful

Hey Guys! I'm feeling all gushy and grateful right now so I just thought I'd write a quick post to tell you all about it. Yesterday I received a book in the mail from a good friend. We have a neat friendship in that I seem to just randomly connect with him like every few years, whenever I need like guidance about where to go with my art (and life) from here. So recently we started writing again and he asked if I had ever read the book "Letters by a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke. I hadn't so he totally sent me a copy! I pretty much spent the whole day yesterday laying in bed reading it and I can tell you it is amazing and exactly what I needed to read. I highly recommend it to all you artists out there, and actually just to everyone in general. It's sooper moving to read these heart felt letters from Rilke that he wrote to a young poet (who in the introduction states that their correspondence started after he wrote a letter to Rilke, who's work he really admired, in which he 'revealed himself without reserve as he had never done before or since to another human being." I get tingles just thinking about it :) Anyway, here's a quote that stood out to me from it so far:

"...have patience with everything that is unsolved in your heart and try to cherish the questions themselves, like closed rooms and like books written in a very strange tongue. Do not search for the answers which cannot be given you because you could not live them. It is a matter of living everything. Live the questions now." ~Rainer Maria Rilke (pg 21)

and actually that got me interested in reading more of Rilke's stuff, and I have since stumbled on this other quote by him, not sure what book it's from but it's beautiful.

"I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other." ~Rainer Maria Rilke

So anyway, I am just gushing with gratitude to Jay for sendin me exactly what I needed, and thought I'd take a moment to point out how awesome random acts of kindness are and how much we can help each other on our journeys :) People are amazing. Oh, and I started a word document where I'm going to keep track of cool quotes, so if you have any I'd love to hear 'em (it doesn't just have to be Rilke quotes either;)

I may as well end this post with my all time favorite quote ever, said to me at 14 by my 21 year old friend Dez at he put his hand on my heart:

"Don't draw back from anything you feel is important." ~Dez (I don't even know his last name, but his advice has stuck with me;)

lovek!

My Painting Installed in the Great Canadian Theatre Company

I am so excited that my painting "Who Am I? The Performance of Everyday Life" is now installed on the walls of the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa! (1227 Wellington Street West) The theater is right up the street from Cube Gallery (1285 Wellington Street West), so people can view my big painting in the theatre, then continue a block up the street to the gallery to see more of my work. :)




































Apparently it was a "terror to install," but they did it! Here's a pic of the installation team after their accomplishment:








































"Who Am I? The Performance of Everyday Life," oil on linen, 80"x 50," 2010

My First Military Commission

Here's a commission I recently finished. I thought the lighting was really striking in the photo reference I got. It was an interesting challenge to try to maintain the simplicity of the lighting across the complex grouping of the troops. Hope you like it!

















"Lieutenant-Colonel Conrad Mialkowski addressing his troops in the Mojave Desert during pre-deployment training for Kandahar." oil on canvas, 18"x 24"

Source of Reference Photo: 1 RCR Ready to Deploy
National Defence. With the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2010.

Trinary Review on Visual Encounters

Visual Encounters has posted a review of the exhibition at Cube gallery, as well as some good photos of the show! The show is up until March 27th (1285 Wellington Street West, Ottawa). For more information please contact them at info@donmonet.ca or call them at (613)728-2111.

Studio Interview

Check out the video interview that I gave in my Toronto studio for the artist talks at Cube Gallery today. The video is by Jesse Ewles and the music is by Alexis Marsh and Samuel Jones. Hope you like it!

Trinary Vernissage

Thanks to everyone who made the vernissage at Cube Gallery such a success last night! It was so great to see you all and it meant so much to me! The show is up until March 27th, so if you didn't make it to the opening you still have time to check out the show! Also, check out the mention in the Ottawa Citizen about my work and the exhibition! Even though Peter was sick and couldn't attend the vernissage, he still wrote about the show in his column! Thanks Peter!

















Me and John Flynn from Cube Gallery

















Cube Gallery was broadcasting the exhibition live with Ustream.

Trinary Opens Tomorrow!

Just wanted to remind you all that "Trinary" opens at Cube Gallery in Ottawa tomorrow and runs from March 1 - 27. There will be a vernissage this Thursday from 6-9, hope to see you there! The show will be comprised of paintings I did in Italy as well as a selection of some of my most recent works. For more information please contact them at info@donmonet.ca or call them at (613)728-2111.


















Here's the write-up for the show:

Three emerging artists who push the boundries of contemporary painting. Kristy Gordon has chalked up a long list of awards as a landscape and figurative painter, including honours from the Federation of Canadian Artists, the Orillia Museum of Art and History, and the Portrait Society of America. Her paintings hang in collections worldwide, including the Government of Ontario Art Collection. Susan Ukkola’s encaustic abstract painting has been recognized with numerous awards. Her transparent layers of encaustic or bee’s wax painting reveal traces of what went before, the “pentimento”. Pentimento describes the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over. Peggy Hughes is an emerging Ottawa artist whose award-winning work is shown regularly at the Cube Gallery. Primarily a studio artist, she works in acrylic with mixed techniques to create multi-layered and textured pieces. Peggy explores concrete, intellectual and emotional subjects in an abstract or non-objective manner, she also is fascinated by the act of creating: the process to her is paramount.

Ten by Ten Craze

This winter, I ended up on a kind of 10x10 craze. I was really into it. Everything I was painting was on 10x10 canvases. My 'bachelorette' apartment was filling up with them! Since most of my walls here are made of cement I can't even hang anything on the walls, so my floors were just lined all around with these 10"x10" paintings... here's a few of them, hope you like 'em! Some of them are going to be for sale in the upcoming exhibition at Cube Gallery in Ottawa which runs from March 1 - 27. There will be a vernissage on Thursday, March 3rd from 6-9pm, hope to see you there! For more information please contact them at info@donmonet.ca or call them at (613)728-2111.






















Eli in Headphones, oil on canvas, 10" x 10"
























Adam, oil on canvas, 10" x 10"























Nadaa, oil on canvas, 10" x 10"


Eli Profile, oil on canvas, 10" x 10"


Eli in Hoody, oil on canvas, 10" x 10"

Salon International 2011

I just found out that two of my paintings were accepted into the prestigious Salon International 2011, a project of the International Museum of Contemporary Masters that is hosted by the Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art in San Antonio, Texas. The show will be judged by Daniel Greene, who's work I greatly admire and will be held April 2nd through 22nd, 2011. The paintings that I will have in it are "The Grown-Up" and "Armour at the Bardini."























"The Grown-up," oil on panel, 14" x 10"

Portrait Society of America - Members Only Competition

It has just been announced that my painting "Armour at the Bardini," has received an honourable mention in the Still-Life category of the Portrait Society of America's Members Only Competition!






















"Armour at the Bardini," oil on panel, 12"x 8"

"Trinary" at Cube Gallery in Ottawa

I'm excited to announce that in just a few weeks "Trinary," a showcase of work by three emerging artists, opens! It will run from March 1 - 27 at Cube Gallery in Ottawa (1285 Wellington Street West). There will be a vernissage on Thursday, March 3rd from 6-9pm, hope to see you there! For more information please contact them at info@donmonet.ca or call them at (613)728-2111.

Best of the Contemporaries Exhibition at the Loch Gallery

I am pleased to have two new paintings included in the Best of the Contemporaries exhibition at the Loch Gallery (16 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto). The shows runs December 11th, 2010 through January 27th, 2011. For more information contact the Toronto Loch Gallery by telephone at 416-964-9050 or email at toronto@lochgallery.com.








"But my heart does not in any way agree with the perception of my eyes," oil on canvas, triptych 3 panels of 10" x 10," 2010








"Lapse," oil on canvas, triptych 3 panels of 10"x 10," 2010

New Year, New Painting

Happy New Year! Here's another new painting I recently did. At first I was going to go into it more, but then I decided I like it the way it is. Hope you do too:)


















Untitled, oil on panel, 8"x 10," 2010