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Recent/Blog

News and blog posts about recent works, workshops, events, presentations, expeditions and exhibitions by Canadian artist David McEown.

Filtering by Category: Lake Superior

McMichael Canadian Art Collection "Art Mentorship Project"

David McEown

"What Grows Here", 29 x46 inches , watercolour
"What Grows Here", 29 x46 inches , watercolour

December 20, 2013 - March 02, 2014

Exhibition Opening

Sunday, January 19, 1:00 to 3:00 pm, with remarks at 2:00 pm

  McMichael Canadian Art Collection

10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada   L0J 1C0

(Islington Avenue north of Major Mackenzie Drive on the east side)

Information: 905.893.1121 or toll free 1.888.213.1121

In the summer of 2013, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection partnered with York Region Arts Council (YRAC) to launch a new Art Mentorship Project to provide support to emerging artists and foster professional development, production and exhibition under the guidance of local, established artists in a distinctly Canadian context.

For the project’s inaugural term I was honoured to be mentor and was delighted to work and share ideas with the programs first successful applicant Ben Barak, a recent  BFA graduate of Nipissing University. We had several sessions working on site at the McMichael Gallery and used the historic Tom Thomson Shack as shelter and place for critiques. The highlight for me was painting on location along the Humber River and a week long trip to Algoma in Northern Ontario, following the rail tracks to places that so inspired the Group of 7 and close to where I used to live.

The mentorship program has been a great opportunity to share, reflect and build upon my past body of work.

I have been interested in painting remote wilderness areas from Antarctica to the North Pole attempting to capture their wondrous beauty as well as witness the increasing changes in the landscape. Equally inspiring my artwork is the local indigenous flora and forest not far from my own home and how it is interrelated to what is going on at the “ends of the Earth”.

In response to the mentorship studio demonstrations of watercolour techniques, I chose to paint a large spring wildflower painting inspired from my hikes over the years when I lived near the Humber Valley. “What Grows Here” is a microcosm of the brief unfolding complex circus of wildflowers that covers forest floors that used to dominate York Region.

Juxtaposing the   local Humber River Valley painting is a selection ofmy watercolours inspired by remote wilderness of the North Pole, Antarctica and Lake Superior. Ben Barak’s work, on the other hand, focuses on themes of searching an identity, executed using many of the techniques he practiced under my demos and critiques.

_ANP5252
_ANP5252
Painting Along the Humber River
Painting Along the Humber River
"White Pine", 30 x22inches , watercolour
"White Pine", 30 x22inches , watercolour
2 Comments
categories Algoma, Antarctica, Arctic, Art Workshops, en plein air, Lake Superior, Landscape painting, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, North Pole, Northern Landscapes, Watercolour
tags art mentorship, Ben Barak, en plein air, Group of Seven, Humber Valley, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, north pole, Tom Thomson Shack, Trilliums, watercolour, watercolour techniques, York Region Arts Council

Lake Superior Paintings

David McEown

The painting is one of a few recent large commissions inspired by Lake Superior’s coastal trail in autumn. The complexity and technical challenges are exciting to take on and are sometimes over the top!

This 26 by 62 inch watercolour was painted on 140lb Arches cold press that comes on a roll of 44 inches by 10 yards.  Cutting off the roll allows custom sizes in which in the past I have done watercolours up to 72 by 176 inches.  Not cheap, but when framed with non-reflective UV90 museum glass the results can be wonderfully rare and transcendent.

Coastal Trail, Lake Superior
Coastal Trail, Lake Superior

Often large works have some sort of plan going, and being a studio piece photo reference is used. However I like to leave room for  the image to evolve and use memory and imagination, thus I do not pre draw to much. When it comes to rocks, each one is a portrait interrelated to another by wear and reflection if wet, so they have to be well seen to be believable. I love the natural spirals and inner rhythms of a boulder beach. Even though it is a representational painting I basically just paint a dance of light and dark coloured shapes that grow and interlock with each other that hopefully create a hierarchy of entertaining focal points that sing a reverent song of place throughout the illusion of space.

Gichigami
Gichigami
2 Comments
categories Algoma, en plein air, Lake Superior, Landscape painting, Northern Landscapes, Watercolour
tags 140lb cold press, Arches, en plein air, Group of Seven, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Provincial Park, large watercolor, Watercolor, watercolour