Deep Bay Residency
handling chaos
Brenna George
Deep Bay Residency
August 13 -26, 2012
I arrived on the Monday evening and scoped out possible painting locations. I was looking for tangled bits of vegetation. During the phone interview I asked Anne Nesbitt for possible good locations. When I picked up the key I also asked a parks naturalist at the visitor centre. They each gave me good lists of where to paint, bog plants, a old burn site and many hikes. Then when I arrived at Deep Bay I walked around the site sketching as I went.
At first I was nervous that I might not be up to the project but as soon as my brush hit the canvas I was right at home. Hours would go by and many many snacks consumed but I would be so in the zone of painting that I hardly noticed. It was a fantastic experience to paint outside directly from nature. Leaving photography behind gave a experiential tone to the work. It was not about perfect lighting. It was about how I was emotionally and physically reacting to the environment. When I was trying to understand and organize the chaos, by recording the plants so they would be recognizable, recording spatial depth and recording light, I would try very hard, painting continuously to capture it all. When I painted my letting the chaos wash over me paintings, I was more contemplative, pausing more to consider how I felt about each bit of the scene and painting that feeling.
My biggest breakthrough was in my third overwhelmed painting. I discovered that when I am overwhelmed and tired I focus on one area at a time in detail but my eyes whoosh over and blur out the rest. These pockets of clarity and pockets of void was a new understanding for me and translated well into paint. These paintings were best made at the end of the day when I was very tired, then I was in the right mind set for them.
I was surprised how tired I got. Plein- air means I was outside all day and it was hot. My pallet I fondly referred to as “ the place where bugs come to die” because once they landed they were covered in paint. Because the light source, the sun, is in constant motion then light could not be a big part of the painting or had to be captured fast or remembered. Being outside meant being in the public eye. I talked to a lot of people each day as they passed by me and stopped to look at my work, talk about my work and the residency. Everyday I was asked for my business card, I don't have one but I should. It was a validating experience to have the public care about and interested in my art. Usually I am a hidden artist painting away in the solitude of my studio.
I did two community outreach sessions. One on the first Friday that I was there. My friend, who works at camp Wasaga, and I arranged for her to bring a group of adult campers over for an art session and to see the cabin. 14 people came from camp Wasaga and I showed and talked about my art project and then gave them supplies and encouraged them to make art about tangled nature and they embraced the idea and went with it. 6 people painted watercolour, 2 painted acrylic and 6 drew. One woman who had never painted before kept staring at her finished work and smiling she couldn't believe she had made it.
My second community outreach secession, the one publicized, went well. 8 painters came, some with big plein- air kits and tweens with no supplies who I provided with watercolour sets. About 8 other people who did not paint but wanted to see my work were there too. It was a good experience to share the location where I was painting with others and chat about painting and plein air kits. Karen Elves, my volunteer ambassador, introduced me. I showed and talked about the work I had made during the residency. Then we all went painting down on the lake shore. When we returned to the cabin we showed and talked about the paintings and drawings we had made. It was great to share the painting energy of my residency. Karen Elves painted watercolour for the first time, her work was lovely.
This was a fantastic experience to be able to immerse myself in an art project, to progress so rapidly, to get out of the city, to be inspired by Canadian nature and to be an artist out in the public eye. I am grateful to Manitoba Arts Council and Parks Canada for providing this opportunity.
