Blog

"And So It Begins" will be on exhibition at the Alton Mill, Caledon, ON during the Headwaters Arts Festival.

This is my first entry at the festival and I am very pleased to have been accepted as entries were solicited from across the province. Studio tours and art exhibitions are a great way to enjoy the Fall Colours especially in October. Driving around the countryside, visiting small towns, galleries, and artists studios-- So Canadian in Ontario!

Advanced Contemporary Landscape

I've just returned from a week long Fleming College Halliburton School of the Arts workshop hosted by McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinberg. Participants each painted a landscape on a 12"x16" canvas. These paintings become the Progressions VI Ontario Touring Exhibition with stops across Ontario. It is a wonderful week of camaraderie, art talk, chatty picnic lunching and instructive visits into the gallery. It will take a bit of reflection to summarize what I learned from this particular week but I do enjoy the exercise. Talking with the other artists, picking up ideas, reviewing approaches and professional attitudes- valuable time well spent.

Button Bush 12x12

My painting in the Progressions VI is a 12 x 16" Button Bush 2. Picture to come later but similar to above.

Coming up soon will be the Ontario Society of Artists Emerging Artists Exhibition 2016. Very exciting for me!

Another flurry of labelling this week in preparation for 2 exhibitions. I entered juried shows for Neilson Park Creative Centre's Annual Juried Show "IMPACT 2016" in Etobicoke and for Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre member's show.

Before a show, an entry form is submitted before a deadline date and administrative labels for front and back of paintings are prepared with information about the artist and the painting - name, title, size, medium, value, for sale? The paintings must be wired properly and tape wrapped on the wire ends so that volunteer handlers who assist the jurors are protected from jabs.

There is usually a one hour window available at the venue for delivery of artwork for jurying. These two exhibitions are operating old school-- the paintings are being juried in person which means delivering and picking up. Often, now a days, the paintings are juried from digital images and only accepted paintings are delivered to the venue.

Many people do not realize that there is always a fee for the artist to enter an exhibition- usually 25 to 40 dollars. This fee covers rental of the gallery space, juror fees, and reception costs. The fee can deter frivolous entries from inexperienced artists because the fee is not refunded if your work is not accepted for the exhibition.

Even though an artist's work may have reached a high level of quality, it is never certain whether the work will be accepted into the exhibition. Everything depends on what the particular group of jurors on that particular day choose for that particular show. Sometimes it may depend on what side of the bed the juror got out that day. haha. So as artists, we have to be prepared for what looks like Rejection on the surface but is really just not having their work chosen that day.

Today, "And So It Begins" was selected for the Neilson Park Creative Centre's Annual Juried Show "IMPACT 2016" in Etobicoke. I also entered a second painting which was not selected (High View Banff). Both paintings are large but High View Banff is larger at 4 feet wide, potentially taking up significant real-estate on the gallery wall. My view is that there were a lot of large paintings entered at this particular show and choices had to be made. I'm ok with that.

Tomorrow the Joshua Creek entries will be juried.

Neilson Park Creative Centre presents "IMPACT." This is the Centre's annual juried show featuring artworks of all mediums. A public reception for the exhibiton will be held on Sat July 23, 1-4pm. Food will be served and awards will be presented.
"And So It Begins" acrylic on canvas 30"h x 40"w by Cheryl Bailey will be on exhibition at this time.
Neilson Park is a hive of creative activity hosting 6 resident art groups including the prestigious Etobicoke Art Group.

www.CherylBailey.ca

www.Facebook.com/CherylBaileyArts

Instagram CherylBaileyArts

JULY 3rd 2016

It's been a great week of sunny days, blue blue skies and the puffy fluffy white clouds of early summer. It's also been an exciting week as the decision (finally!) came in from the Ontario Society of Artists(OSA) jurors for their biennial Emerging Artist Juried Exhibition 2016. The OSA is the oldest continuing art society in Canada beginning in 1872. This is the second time that this OSA exhibition will have been held. Only emerging artists in the first 5 years of their professional careers are eligible.

In early June, I steeled myself and entered! SO glad I did. One of my most recent paintings "Near Banff" was juried into the exhibition and will be on display and for sale at the Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke from Oct 4 until Oct 23. I am really looking forward to this exhibition. Happy Summer to All!

P.s. If you are out and about the Caledon, Ontario area why not drop in to the Headwaters Arts Gallery in the Alton Mill Art Centre and take in the Some Like it Hot Juried Exhibition that will be on from Wed July 6 until August 14th. My painting "Summer's Eve in Giverny" will be for sale and on display.


Near Banff 36"x36" Summer's Eve in Giverny 30"hx40"w

A whirlwind spring including 5 weeks "out of town". Summer is fast approaching and we sure don't want summer to fly by! Let's try to slow it down. The paints are going to the country with me. I'm not sure what the next painting will be but 10 to 1, it will involve hills. Something about highs and lows... when I think of it, the Meadow pics are at the bottom of the hill :D Love the Meadow.

The lupins are blooming now. We're waiting for the coreopsis and persistent ox eye daisies to join in and some others that will be bloom for the first time. 7000 square feet of 22 perennial Canadian wildflowers. I'm sure it will always be better "In Her Dreams" but the great thing is we can dream. We can paint it whatever way we want. Freedom!

In Her Dreams Lupins

Six new paintings have been added to the website. Several were finished off while I was at the Haliburton School of the Arts courses. Several were started at Haliburton.

Each year, an exhibition is mounted in the Convocation Hall for the Fleming College graduation ceremonies from work produced during the 2 weeks of Advanced Individual Studies Programme. This year the exhibition titled "Just A Position" hangs until June15. My painting titled "Airport Road" is a conceptual painting of shapes and negative spaces is currently hanging in this exhibition. Here is a snap of the work on the wall.

Well it is said often that since we are visual artists, we will know it when we see it. Here I am at my weeklong course in Haliburton. I have been painting for nearly 2 years on a black textured surface. Since there are paintings that don't seem compatible with the black underpainting, I wanted to see how it would work on a white textured surface. Well , it's AWFUL! so back to black. It is awful because the black lines recede and the white lines come forward. Virtually all colours look luminous on black because they are lighter and brighter. On white , not at all. See for yourself. I didn't spend the time completing the painting but you get the gist of it. I can see that this isn't it!

Assignment for today-- Divide a 16 shape composition into 2 areas by value(light/dark) , all shapes still visible, low intensity colours, any colours, one luminous element.

Turns out I didn't have to do the luminous shape in the same value as its neighbours, BUT I did it! It would have been easier to put the luminous area in the dark area but I thought (mistakenly) that counted as a 2nd lighter area, giving 3 areas instead of the 2. It is considered an element not an area.

If shape is a little bit lighter and a lot brighter than the surrounding colour, then it will be luminous. Check it off :D (looks better rotated 90 degrees left)

p.s. the experiment with white textured back ground was a disaster. of course all luminosity was lost and along with it , the richness of the colours. will post disaster pic tomorrow. must sleep.

Day 2 of art camp for keeners or 'Advanced Individual Studies' at Fleming College's Haliburton School of the Arts.

Starting at 9am each day, we have a 'lecture' for about an hour or more. Today, it circled around naming exhibitions and keeping bios up to date and accurate. In the afternoon at 1pm there is another presentation, usually part of the assignment for the week. This year, we are interviewing each other and being interviewed to practice the necessary skill of talking about our art.

There are 16 of us this year, as usual. Someone is always strolling around the two studio rooms talking to a fellow artist about their work . We learn from each other as well as from John Leonard our 'instructor'. By the end of the long day, most are exhausted. Today I was at the studio from 8am until 7:30 pm. But the time flies!

The Convocation Hall show is shaping up as new paintings are completed then wired and hung. There will also be a second show consisting of an artistic skills challenge: In an non objective small work composed of approx 16 shapes, paint in 2 areas by value in low intensity and include 1 luminous shape within one of the areas. To many, this is a challenge in progress--Due Friday.

Tomorrow I will be starting the second larger painting and for a change will be working my same style but on a white textured background instead of the black. Let's see what happens!

The last while has been heavy on the admin side of creating art: wiring, labelling, photographing, writing call for entry forms and of course the entry fee cheques to accompany, updating artist bio and statements, website updates, delivering, These are not really the fun part but on the other hand, any success that ensues from 'show season' feeds confidence and enthusiasm which are always good things. It has been a great season for me so far with the exhibition at the McMichael and successful entry to 3 important juried shows.

Up next: a week I look forward to all year-- spent painting all day every day at the Advanced Individual Studies course at Haliburton School of the Arts. Always, a few pennies drop or a light goes on.

In the meantime, why not check out my Facebook Artist page here or the Events page here for more info on the 3 current exhibitions and opening receptions. And let me know what you think!

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection will host a closing reception for our group exhibition on Sunday May 1st at 12:30pm. Light refreshments will follow closing remarks by John Leonrad RCA and a representative of the gallery. This would been a wonderful opportunity to return to the McMichael to enjoy the collection as put together by the new curator. All are welcome.