Back to the Studio

This summer I have had the opportunity to spend a good chuck of time painting. I have been fortunate to complete some new works and have had the opportunity to experiment with new materials. One material I have begun working with are oil sticks. For those of you that have not worked with the material before, oil sticks are basically an artist’s oil paint in stick form wrapped with paper. This material has allowed for a different way of working. I am able to apply colors directly on to the canvas as easily as if I was drawing instrument. Unlike oil pastels, oil sticks are much larger, softer, and can be easily combined with traditional oil paints. I began experimenting with the sticks as a way to integrate words into my canvas pieces; as a way of creating thin, fluid lines. Although I have completed many paintings with text, most of these work were on paper. The challenge I have been facing, is how to create thin precise lines of letters on the rough tooth of canvas.

Another method have been experimenting with this summer, is something I learned from my ceramic studies, a technique called sgraffito. Sgraffito comes from the Italian word meaning to scratch. I begin by applying one paint color, then allow it to dry this usually takes 4-5 days. Then when dry I paint a second color over top of the first. While wet, almost immediately after application I will use the end of my paint brush and write words by scratching away the top layer of wet paint away, in order to reveal the dry color beneath.

I am looking forwarding to displaying this new work at the Marquee Room this fall. Please mark your calendars for Thursday, October 7, 2010 for the opening reception!

Oil painting without thinners or solvents

Peace, oil on canvas, 4x4', 2010

This blog entry is about oil painting without thinners and solvents. I think it is important information to share not only environmentally but also for the health of artists.

As I have mentioned before, when I began painting with oils it was a huge transition from acrylic paints. I was accustomed to short drying times and easy clean up. I really I didn't know how to use the medium at all despite numerous painting classes at art school, as oil paints were not allowed in the studios at ACAD. Many of my instructors at the time, had switched from oil to acrylic due to chemical sensitivities.

When I first began painting with oils I was using thinners to wash my brushes at the end of each session, stand my brushes while painting, and for cleaning my skin. After a few months of this, one day I was cleaning my arms with paint thinner and notice a tingling sensation. I knew it was from the solvents and I was sure it wasn't healthy. Later I was speaking to a fellow painter and she explained, how to paint without thinners. She suggested using canola oil to stand brushes in (like water in acrylic painting)and detergent based soaps to clean brushes at the end of painting sessions. When painting in this historical manner, you will need rags, loads of rags. Rags are used to remove excess paint between colors and canola rinses, and before final clean up with detergent based soaps and water.

Detergent based soaps also work on your skin, with the only side effect of drying of the skin. Sometimes if I have paint on my face, I will use a cold cream like nivea and a cotton ball to remove oil paint, so I am not scrubbing my face constantly. An example of a detergent based soap is ivory soap, alternatively there are oil brush cleaners that work with water, sold at art supply stores. These cleaners claim to be conditioning and to prolong the life of your brushes. I personally cannot say where or not they work, as I replace brushes frequently.

In regards to rags I don't buy them, instead I use worn sheets, old tea towels, and old clothes that are either stained or torn; first as painting attire, then as rags. This way you are giving these articles another life before tossing them into the landfill. To make your own rags for painting snip, then tear your old garments. tea towels etc. into smaller segments, then you can dispose of your soiled rags regularly to lower the fumes in your studio.

I must tell you during the painting process, there will be a residue of color left in your brushes, even after rinsing in canola and squeezing off the excess paint with rags. Although thinners leave your brushes ultra clean, I have found that working in this way has in fact made my paintings richer in color, by enhancing my color mixing.

Tip Your Hat

Paisley Hat, mixed media, Lisa Tornack 2010

You are invited to Tip Your Hat to This is My City! This year's event presented by This is My City Society and The First Flip 2010 Stampede Breakfast, will take place on July 8th, 2010 beginning at 8AM. The live and silent auction will feature more unique, artful cowboy hats created by local artists, with all proceeds benefiting art programs for Calgarians living the issues of homelessness and poverty.

New & Notable

2010, has been an exciting year filled with many new announcements and exhibitions, I wanted to take a moment to look back at the last six months and make some updates on what is new and notable.

This year started off with a bang, beginning with my participation in a group exhibition at the Southern Jubilee Auditorium. Also in the March, I was honored to be named runner up in the Homes by AVI's, Calgary's Next Top Artist Competition.

CURRENTLY
If you are in the Edmonton area, visit Henry's Purveyor of Fine Things, at 222 Jasper Avenue NW, to see my painting "Realization", that is featured in the company's design centre.

I am also very pleased to announce that the mixed media painting "Cherry Blossom" completed in Spain in 2008, is now an asset of the Canadian Embassy in Madrid. Stay tuned for photographs of the piece in the embassy's new location!

On Blogger under links, click "Art Gallery: Lisa Tornack"... there are loads of works and now an all new Etsy Mini Store.

COMING THIS FALL...
A solo exhibition of new works, at the Marquee Room (upstairs of the Uptown) 612 8th Ave, Calgary AB

Pictured above: Cherry Blossom, 24 1/2x18 1/2" mixed media, 2008
Canadian Embassy Madrid, Spain

Canadian Artists for the Poor

Look for my work to be featured for the month of May, in an online auction for "Canadian Artist for the Poor". This organization helps to break the cycle of poverty by raising funds to aid the poorest and most destitute areas of the world.
Please visit ihttp://www.artistsforthepoor.ca/auction.html for more information.

As a visual artist I am often asked to donate works for charity auctions and fundraisers. I used to feel put out by these requests, wondering what the benefit is for me, but in the last year or so I have changed my mind about this. In early 2009, I began working with the City of Calgary in the department of Arts & Culture, programming art classes for risk youth and homeless Calgarians. This experience has been very inspiring and has helped me reassess how I want to give back. Participating in this online auction is one small way I can get involved.

Looking towards the future I am interested in running annual art projects that engage children and youth in Central and South America.

Studio re-new

I will take a little break from my painting journals and talk about a project I taken on in the past few months... a studio re-new. I currently have a home based studio, one room dedicated to creating, storing, and imagining possible work. As you can well imagine it is rammed full of paintings, paints, easels, foam core, matte board, frames, etc.

I have had a number of different studios since my graduation from art school, in basements, garages, spare rooms, and even one warehouse space, but my current studio is my best studio by a long way. My studio is the master bedroom of my home, it was chosen because it had the best light, the most space, and an interesting roof line. I also share this studio with Eric Nylen, portrait painter. In the past few months we have under taken a re-vamp of the studio space, by painting the walls, working on a collaborative mural(watch for a posted photo in the weeks to come), and hanging wall paper on the longest wall, yes you heard me... wallpaper! I ordered the paper from the UK, from Cole and Son the pattern is called Malabar (see in photo above). The studio is also filled with a number of items I have picked up on my travels. Whenever I have gone abroad, I have always been on a shoe string budget, so I started getting in the habit of bring home found souvenirs. Some examples of this is shard of broken tile, glass bottles, sea shells, coral, dried pods, and pine cones. I also have a collection of postcards from art galleries and museums I have visited. I started collecting the postcards to remember the places I have been, and because they were cheap and light to carry. All of these little items are mementos that remind me of a past journey, but these objects also describe my personal aesthetic; the colors, forms, and lines that I am drawn to.

I also have a sketchbook that I fill with magazine clippings, mainly from design books that I buy. This is a good practice for a budding artist or anyone thinking of taking on a design or renovation project, to help you discover your personal style.

Welcome to Farrera

I arrived first in Paris in early April of 2008. I will never forgot the wave that washed over me while travelling from the airport on the metro. It was a grey day and graffiti lined the train track. I had my head set on and the lyrics sang out "I have been waiting, I have been waiting for this moment all my life".

Farrera is just on the over the French boarder in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountain range. The village has 25 residents, no store, restaurant, or café and public transport only arrives once a week. To get to Farrera, I first took a five hour bus ride from Barcelona that stopped in a town called Llavorsi at the base of the mountain. I was given instruction to find a small bar and call a taxi to take me up to the art centre. A half hour later a woman and her young daughter rolled up to the bar and in a giant black SUV and asked if I was Lisa, I nodded. Then the pair proceeded to grab my bags and began ascending up the long winding road. I saw a tiny sign that simply said Farrera. The village it's self is pretty and quaint. All the houses are made of stone and it is forbidden to construct with new materials; it was like I had entered an place where time had stopped.

The landscape surrounding Farrera is very simular to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, covered with evergreens and mountain peaks. I found my time in the studio observing the landscape, to be very inspiring. Although the series of work that came from my time on the mountain, is not literal a depiction of the Spanish Pyrenees the colors, lines, and forms of the pieces were informed by this region. Before my stay at the art centre, I often used the personal symbol of a falling leaf in my paintings, after my stay I also have began regularly utilizing falling cherry blossoms in my pieces, as a symbol of inner serenity and peace.