List of Call to Artists: Art Show Submissions Western Greater Toronto Area 2014

Are you a visual artist in the Greater Toronto Area? Here are some 2014 western Greater Toronto Area juried art shows to keep an eye out for in the next few months. It's a little to early for some exact deadlines, but I hope the list below helps you plan for 2014.  Good luck, everyone!

• Check starting early November  2013. Visual Arts Mississauga (VAM) 36th Annual Juried Show of Fine Art at the AGM (Art Gallery of Mississauga). Entry date & details through VAM is not posted yet. https://www.visualartsmississauga.com Note: Opening reception is listed on AGM site for Thursday, January 16, 2014, 6 pm
• Check from December 2013 on until early 2014 for entry deadline. Ontario Society of Artists " 141st OSA - Annual Juried Exhibition"  http://ontariosocietyofartists.org The show dates are Tuesday, April 1  – Friday - April 25, 2014
• Check by March 2014. “Through the Eyes of the Artist” Lakeshore Arts Annual Juried Exhibition. http://www.lakeshorearts.ca
• Start checking in January 2014.  Artcetera 2014. Elora Centre for the Arts.http://www.eloracentreforthearts.ca
• Deadline early March 2014^.  7^th Beaux-Arts Brampton Annual Open Juried Show 2013 www.Beaux-ArtsBrampton.com
• Deadline end of March 2014  5^th Annual Open Juried Photography Show 2013 Beaux Arts Brampton Gallery www.Beaux-ArtsBrampton.com
• Deadline early 2015. The Kingston Prize occurs every  two years. The 2013 show is on now. Nationwide Juried Portraiture painting show.  http://www.kingstonprize.ca
• Check by April 2014. 18^th Annual Juried HAFestival Art Show & Sale (Headwaters Arts Festival). Show is in September during Headwaters Arts Festival. http://headwatersarts.com
• Check by April 2014 . “Insights” Wellington County Museum and Archives. (between Elora & Fergus) www.artscouncil.elora.on.ca
• Check by early summer 2014  6^th Annual Open Juried Wildlife, Nature, & Native Juried Show 2013 Beaux Arts Brampton www.Beaux-ArtsBrampton.com
• Start checking in the summer of 2014 for the October Canadian Society of Painters In Watercolour show. www.cspwc.com
• Check by  September 2014. Colour and Form Society Annual Open Juried Art Show. www.colourandformsociety.org

Some Other Calls for Entries of Interest

• entry starts in December 2013 until early March 2014. Toronto Outdoor Art Show. Nathan Philips Square. www.Torontooutdoorart.org
• Sign up in October 2013 to receive sketchbook. Note: Be sure to include your sketchbook in the tour to your area. Finished sketchbook due early January 2014. The Sketchbook Project.www.sketchbookproject.com

Art: See Gull painting. New Acrylics Golden.

I finally finished this 20" x 20" inch canvas of a sea gull by the steps of Gairloch park in Oakville, Ontario.  This is the second painting I have completed using the relatively new Golden Open Acrylics.

Having concentrated on teaching myself oils this past 6 years, I have very little experience with acrylics. I do know that I found the actual process in my traditional acrylic work too different from how I now naturally paint in oils.

What lured me to try the new Golden Open Acrylics, however, was the promise of a longer drying time. As well, the colours stay quite true when they dry to how they looked when applied. I have been told that traditional acrylics dry darker (imagine thinking of acrylics as traditional).

I had some technical difficulty at first with my brushes as they were meant for oils - easily solved with a few more dollars spent.

The slow drying time of the paint really does lend itself to my method of applying paint and as I got into my painting "zone" I easily forgot I was working with a new medium.  The paints are looser than oils (thinner?) and so I missed the feeling of "carving" into the canvas. As well I haven't really figured out how to glaze.

Thanks to twitter buddy, Bernard Victor, I learned that Winsor and Newton , now also have a line of slower drying Artists' Acrylic , not yet available in Canada. Here is a terrific area on the  Winsor & Newton site with videos on featured artists - all who have very different methods of using acrylics, and a contest (you can rate the entries- Bernard has entered this) for acrylic painters- http://acrylics.winsornewton.com/en/.

Speaking of  Winsor & Newton, have you heard of their North American rep, Canadian artist Doug Purdon? The extensive and fascinating knowledge  this artist has  on the history of materials, technique, and more, is an experience not to be missed. If you ever can hear Doug speak, go for it, he is  a treasure trove of educational and entertaining anecdotes.

Have you tried the new Open Acrylics? Let me know what you think or any tips you have to share.

Big heART Ideas for Mississauga Small Arms Building

In the blog earlier today, I wrote about the thoughtful & inclusive process Mississauga has undergone to research the betterment of arts and culture in the city. The creation of venues for culture, heritage and education in Mississauga, has pretty well taken a back seat to 30 years of building houses, and attracting business. Pretty well complete, the city has outgrown its "bedroom community" moniker. More people are coming into Mississauga to work than leave, and guess what? A lot of artists want to work, learn, perform, teach, exhibit, sell, share, mentor, here too. But where?

Well, AIM, (Artists in Mississauga) and the Lakeview Ratepayers Association, may have the solution! Sitting on Lakeshore Blvd East, with Lake Ontario to its back is the 33,000 square foot Small Arms Inspection Office Building. This building has everything one could envision for a world level arts (all arts) centre.

The positives:

· It is ENORMOUS- solving city's desperately needed room for studios (visual art , dance, sound, & more), workshops, installations, cafe, galleries, heritage museum

· fabulous lighting everywhere - huge windows, skylights

· high ceilings (which do play a part in creativity - high ceilings, big ideas)

· Location, location, location. By the lake, Lakeshore Rd & Mississauga Transit, by Longbranch Go, by TTC streetcar, by Marie Curtis Park, by future parks and Lakeview's Heritage Plan

· Plenty of free parking space

· handy to plenty of walk by traffic - especially when those parks go in

· Large welding area- large garage doors - set to go as metal sculpture centre. Who else has one of those?

· Important potential for tourism, arts, culture, and citizen destination

· Important potential for artist to sell, work, interact, teach, exhibit, Stay in their city to create!

· Heritage: This building with its historical connections to World War 2, feminism, 40's architecture, & Mississauga development deserves to be saved, and used well. It embodies one of Mississauga's most exciting historical stories.

The Negatives? We're not in there..yet.

Napkin Art - Taking Stock (everything's coming up roses)

I know I am not alone in being a doodler.  Nothing is safe - the newspaper, telephone book, napkins. If I have a pen in hand any sheet of paper is in danger of being obliterated by doodles.

Tuesday, as I ate lunch, I  mused (obsessed),  pen in hand,  on how best to move forward with my career.  To my surprise, this doodle  was much calmer than one I drew a while ago - me flailing between two pieces of bread, a palette where the lunch meat should go.  Of course, the doodling progressed to another napkin -  penguins in the shape of pink pearl erasers and and me naked doing fan dances with palettes instead of fans, but that's a whole other napkin.

Later that afternoon, thanks to Beaux-Arts Brampton artist Steve Wilson, I learned of a new art fair in Toronto, Art-2009. Thanks to the help of  a very affable organizer, I found myself, the proud inhabitant of Booth 465 0f the upcoming  Art 2009, May 12 -14th, 2009, in the Toronto Convention Centre.

I wonder if the fact I used the good flowered napkin was a sign ?

Mini Art lesson: Drawing to Underpainting. Christine Montague Oil painting "Wishing.." Begins

Do you ever wonder how one begins a painting?  Here are the first steps of my  painting  in progress now. Anxious to start painting "Wishing it was His Turn to Go" ,    and not interested to make my own canvas (the image is a not to standard canvas size), I ordered a Fredrix, artist museum quality primed linen board that I could cut to size.  Bought online, the statement "hand-primed pure Belgium Linen sounded good to me.  But when they arrived approximately a day later, I was surprised to see the warning, in caps,  that includes .., EXPOSURE MAY CAUSE HARM...NERVOUS SYSTEM, KIDNEY OR BONE MARROW DAMAGE. Wash ahnds immediately after use. When using so not eat, drink, or smoke. (shouldn't do that when oil painting anyways). Wear an apron (what kind?! a lead one?)  .

Oh, my.

Still, onward.

The first step in transferring my drawn image is to tape a sheet of tracing paper over the image. I carefully draw the  outline edges first. This serves as my registration reference.

Next I do an outline drawing fof the image. I do not bother with any shading. In this case I draw quite carefully. I like the original drawing and do not want to leave impressions on it by pressing too hard.  I include all major detail as there is a fair amount of detail in the original image that I do not want to loose.

I  tape the traced drawing onto the linen board & slid a sheet of graphite paper between the two layers.  I had not yet cut the board to size and so had extra space on which to tape. I was grateful after I did this. I usually work on gallery mount canvas (canvas with a deeper profile) that I do not frame. That I had not yet cut the board let me add a 1/4" around the image to accommodate for any frame overlap.

Here is the transferred drawing.  Somehow , in the using the new board, I have been thrown in my process. For an under painting I usually stain the surface first. If I do it at this step, it will dissolve the graphite drawing. Staining gives me a mid tone to work from. I remove the paint for my lights, and add to it for the darks.  Now, as much as the drawing and redrawing in the above processes helps me really know my painting, so I paint with  confidence,  I don't really want to be that confident, and start the whole process again!

Here is the tonal values of the painting.. Not as well defined as normal due to the lack of staining , but enough so I understand what is going on with the piece when I begin to paint with colour. I did the under painting in Old Holland Classic Oil Colours Burnt Sienna. Note: I found the oil gesso on the linen board very different to gesso on pre purchase canvas. It was shiny and almost acted as a resist.  Also, because I had not precut the board or sealed it with a stain, my hands had been in constant contact with the board. Remember the lead warning at the beginning?

GR33N...& Good Night

GR33N

Well, this was the day I was going to start posting a new painting - showing its progression right from the beginning. But it has been a busy day writing art stuff - Juror's notes from judging the Beaux-Arts Brampton "Youth For Heritage" Art Show (which opens Thursday if you are in the area) , AIM (Artists in Mississauga) updates, twitter, new photography web site and on & on.  Hope you like this new little painting instead. Not in my usual style, but great to test out open acrylics. My daughter loves this green sweatshirt. She is texting . What else could the title be..GR33N

Cars, Kids & CBC

Did any one hear the Q Show today on CBC radio? I tuned while in my car just in time to hear a rep from Museum Watch UK making very odd statement on how museums weren't for children.  As my brain went wha-a-at?!, I hit what must have been the only ice left on the road in Mississauga - the stop sign I sailed through - although hitting those abs breaks mighty hard- was in the shadow of a rather large high rise.  Luckily for me the oncoming driver on the busy through street was paying attention and veered into the next lane.  Needless to say I didn't hear the rest of the show. So I know I need to hear the rest of the show in case its out of contex. But sorry kids in museums is a good thing in my book. Here in Missisauga we are desperate for museums, galleries and more.  I envy the UK for its amazing museums & galleries - free to the public. That is one of the things that the UK has right! That anyone can have access to knowledge, history, culture, inspiratiion, and community...how odd to want to deny this to our most cherished members of the human race.

Not long after my another grey hair moment (and my apologizes to the poor driver who got to share in the moment) I had the pleasure of being a juror for a high school art competition & Show "Youth for Heritage" up in the Beaux-Arts Brampton. Grade 9 - 12 students submitted drawings, paintings & photographs of heritage buildings in their community.

As I ajudicated BAB martist talked excitedly planned  a children's art event for 3 - 5 year olds in their workshop.

I am glad that the people and institutions  I know welcome energetic young people  in their establishments.

What do you think?