Girard Portfolio: Celebration of Spring

Friday, May 27, 2011

Celebration of Spring

In early May 2011, my attraction to early spring growth in the garden and my newly found medium of encaustic (from the Greek word, enkostikos literally burning into using a hot wax process) led me to investigate and research early spring garden flowers in my garden.

I also grew concerned about structuring smaller co-ordinated images to support a somewhat larger panel 12” x 18”. I wanted to create delicate small visual stories that would support the focal central panel.

Of course, as the series of images of cultivated bulb growing flowering plants progressed, I looked to the edifying documentation on Canadian wild flowering plants that Catherine Parr Traill wrote and illustrated in 1848: Wildflowers of Canada (lithographed by Agnes Fitzgibbon). So I carefully noted correct structure, line and form as I paid due respect to early botanical illustrations that had gone before me. Here is where the attentiveness to realism so ended.

My colour scheme you will note is analogous, that is colours selected side by sde on the colour wheel, always hovering to the central flower as a starting point to local colour. Following that colour selection all the components of the encaustic painting needed to play a secondary role to the flower while the selection of colour needed to reflect the value of its original local partner. The analogous colour scheme literally radiates, i.e. comes from the central floral colour to achieve the effect of ‘celebration’ to the edge of the image.

In many respects I come from a tradition of working in fibre arts from very skilled women artisans, skilled in the handling of embroidery, crewel work, crochet, applique and quilting. Floral subject matter was always a dominant theme in their work and it is to my maternal grandmother, Lily Cote that I dedicate this series as I so often felt her watchful hand as I formed petals and leaves to her gentle approval.

I also offer these images to the many visitors of the Dandelion Festival 2011 who will visit North Grenville and celebrate the advent of spring on the weekend of May 27-29. These works and others will be viewed in the Old Fire Hall on Rueben Street, Old Town Kemptville with fellow artists from ArtScene, Spencerville. Come celebrate with us and enjoy and edify the lowly Dandelion!

Tulips Series 1: Central Panel; 12"x 18"; $177. plus HST; 3 6" x 6" panels $26.54 each plus HST

Periwinkle 1: Central Panel; 12" x 18"; $177. plus HST; 3 6" x 6" panels $26.54 each plus HST

Tulip 2: Central Panel; 12" x 18"; $177. plus HST; 2 8" x 10" panels $35.39 each plus HST

Daffodils 2: Central Panel; 12" x 18"; $177. plus HST; 2 8" x 10" panels $35.39 each plus HST

Daffodils 1: Central Panel; 12" x 18"; $177. plus HST; 2 10 x 12 panels $88.49 each plus HST
Edifying the Lowly: 3 12" x 18"; $177. each plus HST

1 comment:

Michelle LambtonMay 31, 2011 at 7:40 AM
Wow, Linda!
Your colour choices are knocking me out and gathering me up at the same time, what great pieces! need some display space? say at a mini-house somewhere?
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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.

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Celebration of Spring

1 comment: