Girard Portfolio: February 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Drive By Shootings

Our contemporary society seems always in a deliriously rushed state. As we clutch our smartphones and attempt to squeeze an impossibly busy set of events into the day, we are even rushed when we attempt to relax.
This post takes me that place that we offer for ourselves when we seek repose and renewal. As visual artists, we are also caught up in that societal frenzy to try and capture some creative inspiration in a cramped couple of hours.
Clutching a camera in hand, a friend, also an artist, sought an escape to the Gatineau Hills to view that last of the glories of our colourful Canadian autumn from the blurred vantage point of the car window.
Streams of reflected colours, sharp accents of light and blurred shapes are captured by the lens. Even leafy shapes are pulled and distorted to the edges of the window.

As I caught these images, I felt that they were also a metaphor for our hurried lives. They are 'Drive By Shootings', an attempt to grasp at beauty that is fleeting, working against time. Even at the end of the day and the end of the season, we clutch for another moment to appreciate in our rush of life.

Credits for Drive By Shootings

Drive By Shootings IV encaustic on board unframed 24" x 24" $500.
Drive by Shootings III encaustic on board unframed 18" x 24" $400.
Drive By Shootings I encaustic on board unframed 24" x 24" $500.
Drive By Shootings II encaustic on board unframed 24" x 24" $500.

Monday, February 6, 2012

The Whitehorse, Yukon Series

Let me introduce you to recent encaustic works from a journey I took to Whitehorse in February of last year 2011. With my daughter Camille, 29 on a work related trip, and my camera in tow, we arrived in Whitehorse and made our way to Kluane National Park and the majestic foothills of one of the mountain chains in that vast landscape. A week later we travelled further north to Dawson City and along the route saw some inspiring vistas. It is always formidable to take on the challenge of capturing images of the Canadian west.

I well understand Paul Cezanne's obsession with Mount St. Lazare, as he returned to capture it again and again. The mountain became his muse. A landscape can take its grip upon you as you try to capture its monumentality.

I'm so pleased to bring these fresh vivid forms to you.

Credit Information:

Kluane Yukon, 2011; 18"x 24" encaustic on board $500.

Yukon Landscape 1; 18"x 24" encaustic on board $400.

View to the Cliffs, 2011; 18" x 24" encaustic on board $400.

Lake Labarge, 2011; 18" x 24" encaustic on board $500.

Biography

My childhood has been delineated by my marauding father who joined the Forces to have us uprooted from place to place: stationed in Picton, Prince Edward County, Petawawa, the Rhone Valley, Germany, and Edmonton. Finally I concluded my high school days in Timmins, Ontario, my birthplace.

I graduated from Queen’s in Kingston in 1974 with a minor in art history and history followed by a teaching degree in secondary visual arts education the following year, 1975. At Queen's, I was instructed by Jennifer Dickson, Trevor Hodgson and Allen Dickinson. In 1975, I began exploring painting with wax using the traditional Javanese tjanting needles on textile and exhibited in a student show.

In the early years in my education career, I travelled to northern Ontario to the James Bay region and worked as an arts & crafts co-ordinator. I learned more from them at that point than they me.

In the late seventies, I saw the work of Joyce Devlin in North Gower and was observant of her exquisite portraits and layers of acrylic paint.

I left teaching and travelled to work as an artist in Montreal. There I handmade folk clothing and accessories using the wax resist techniques on natural fibres I had learned years earlier.

In Ste. Rose north of Montreal island I began my family and in 1980 Emilie was born. Soon in 1982 Camille followed and I returned with my husband to Ottawa and gave birth to Andrea in 1983. In the 1980’s I returned to the teaching profession and was employed with the Ottawa Carleton Catholic School Board for 13 years working solely at St. Mark’s in Manotick.

In the early 1990’s I moved to Kemptville and began working with watercolour being attracted to its fluid line and challenging techniques. I was introduced to an academic method of watercolour by the artist, Jaw Shaw then in Oxford Mills. Her knowledge and careful manipulations still impress me and have influenced my work. I exhibited with her and a group of artists in Oxford Mills at the stackwall building next to the dam. I also exhibited with the North Grenville Art Guild at this time, showing a series of watercolours of historic buildings in the area. I worked behind the scenes in set design with the Kemptville Players and later became part of the leadership team of the Dandelion Festival, North Grenville. In the late 1990’s I taught Visual Arts Education in the Education Faculty of the University of Ottawa as a part-time professor to 2003. I transferred in 2000 to teach at St. Michael’s Catholic High School and retired from formal education in June 2010.

Presently I am exploring the medium of encaustic painting soon becoming a new series. I hope you enjoy these blogs as a new series comes to completion.

Pages

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Drive By Shootings

Monday, February 6, 2012

The Whitehorse, Yukon Series