``The Mystery of the Unknown``

At the end of August, I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the Surrealist Exhibit and truly enjoyed it.  I took a guided tour and the guide was absolutly fantastic.
I really got inspired by the size and the power of standing in front of a large painting. I then felt the urge to start on a large canvas myself. 

A few days later, everything felt right and I was ready to launch myself into a large canvas painting. I took the canvas (10ft x 5ft) that I had bought over a year ago and installed it on the studio wall. The process started. Contrary to my usual work, I felt like painting very muted colours with a minimalist style, possiblybecause I just finished two months of a relaxed summer schedule, that is not being constrained by the constant need to meet the daily schedule of the family routine.

When I was doing it, I felt taken over by the painting due to the size and I was in it. During the whole process, the painting was taking me where I had to go. I really enjoyed it and didn't think of the size anymore.

The inspirational trigger for this painting came from the long trip with my family around the Pacific a few years ago. We went to Easter Island and I was truly impressed with the site and moved by the fascinating story of the island`s people. Something touched me deeply there. For the painting I believe the muted colours  evoke the calmness, serenity and the mystery that reign on the most remote island in the world.

The title came the day after I complete it while I was taking my morning shower. I entitled it  ``The Mystery of the Unknown``. This title describes how I felt on Easter Island -  mysterious, peaceful, resting and isolated in the middle the Earth`s largest ocean.

Painting on a large scale was amazing to me I was taken by the painting and felt if I was there again, on mysterious Easter Island....away from the buzzing life.. This painting has alreay been accepted for a showing at a theater near us in North Vancouver.....please stay posted and you will see where and when.....

I hope you feel the peacefulness that I wanted to evoke!

Today the 24th of October

Therese and I rented a U-Haul and went to pick-up our large paintings!

Painting on a large scale is one thing, and the logistics that goes with it is another thing....

Chris Taylor is a wonderful man and extremely knowlegable about streching canvases. Definitely worth going to him if you need this kind of job done. Because of the size of my canvas, he advised me to mount it on a foldable stretcher. What a great idea!

Chris works very meticulously and precisely, doing a very good job.

Now my 10ft x 5ft canvas is 5ft x 5ft folded, much easier to transport and to store.

Here are some pictures of the process of folding it at his work place, 1000 Parker Street  in Vancouver.

Here is the stretched painting!

It's not easy to see the subtlety of the colours!

This painting needs a very large wall!

Life goes fast.... and so does my brain......

About a year ago I took a course with an artist called Steven Aimone. It was 5 day very intense workshop in Nanaimo with 20 very dedicated ladies. One thing I learned with Steven, was to work fast, from your feeling and very spontanoulsy. We had very precise instructions. One excercise was to use different mediums like charcoal, pencils and only white and black paint.

36x48

Here is the painting I did during the course. 

I always wanted to do more of those paintings. Here are some others that I just did in the same idea  using crayons, charcoal etc...and paint.

30x36

30x30

16x20

Hope you enjoy them!

Getting closer to the Kunst art show in Soleure...

Here is the prospectus for the show!

Good luck finding me....

There is over 5000 pieces of art and around 80 artists all originally from Switzerland but not all living there.

Gallery Portico in Squamish

Today, Sara Morison and I went to the Portico Gallery in Squamish on Pemberton Avenue.
I brought 5 paintings that they selected to exhibit. The paintings are going to be there for a few months. Also you can see there Mena martini, lori Bagneres and Therese Joseph's paintings.

This a very nice gallery, with paintings of course, but also jewellery, pottery and other beautiful objects. If you have a chance to go around the area,  go, this is worth the detour.

Here are 3 of my paintings from the Freedom Series.

...and 2 from the West Coast Series.

Back into the studio after a wonderful time.....

After a long period without painting, enjoying the freeness of summer, visiting family, friends, recharging the batteries and relaxing in beautiful places, I was anxious to go back to my studio and start painting again. I felt a little bit rusty at first, but after a week of painting intensively, I was on track, feeling good again.

Here is some of my work that I have done over the last few weeks. I have continued this series still using the automatic drawing start - it`s called ``Freedom``. I express the joyfulness of life that happens in the warm summer days!

Next time, I will show you my new project, a very large painting an canvas that I just started...(150x300cm!!, 5ft by 10ft!!)

Installation des peintures à Soleure en Suisse juillet 2011

Here I am, back to Vancouver, after a wonderful trip to Switzerland and Soleure in particular.

I went to Soleure to package my 61 paintings in plastic cover, label them and most of all meet Mr Peter Lukas, the organisator of the event. He was very kind and very organized, as good swiss german people are, with all the material ready and a large table to work on. Nicole a friend, Tamara my dautgther and Mark my husband, were there to assist me. It was very nice and enjoyable to work with them. It was quiet a assembly line, but in about 2 hours we were done. Mr Peter Lukas invited me to bring a larger painting as well which was a bonus for me and I appreciate very much the opportunity.

After that, we went for a ``business lunch`` in the old town of Soleure. Beautiful lunch along the Aar river, the food was also artisticly presented, the whole experience was enjoyable. Soleure is apparently, the nicest baroque town in Switzerland, located on the Aar river and among lots of historical buildings has a Cathedrale dated of 1773.

All in all, I am very happy I went to Soleure. Of course I am also looking forward to the Opening on the 10th of November when I will be back to gread my family and friends.

Here are some of the paintings that you will be able to see there and if you would like to see more please go on my website to see all them. nsartists.ca/catherinefields

Hello everyone,

I wanted to keep you informed on my progress for my show this fall in Soleure CH. I guess now you must know what CH stands for??? Switzerland of course (and it’s a Trivial Pursuit question too...)

I finished my 60 paintings and ordered the wrapping and stickers that I will need to wrap them with when I get to Soleure in July, where the show will take place in November, starting on November 11th and last until January 6th 2012.

It's been a very enriching and learning experience to work towards a specific goal and to paint so many paintings with the same technique. I had a special mandate with four different categories of prices and therefore four different sizes. I also had to do 40 paintings minimum, 10 of each category and all quite small, which is for me a bit of a challenge, since I rather paint big. The sizes vary from 8x8 inches for the smallest to 24x24 inches for the largest. I had to find a way to achieve that and I was in a mood to paint large at the time rather than small. So, I decided to paint on large pieces of velum paper, that I bring from the State. I cut them in small parts and glue them on the canvases. By doing that I also had the feeling of loose and free movement even though I had small canvases at the end.

That's how my title for the series was found - `Liberté` or `Freedom` in English. I gave them that title because I was free to do what I wanted, staying with the same technique, and also because I wanted to give the feeling of freedom in having spontaneous and free stokes.

Since I have so many paintings I thought that the best way for you to see my work is to go on my website and click on the Kunst Supermarkt Series and have a look.

I hope that you will enjoy seeing it. If you have any comments or questions please do so or ask me, I will try my best to answer them.

Here is a few samples of the paintings the rest will be on my website:http://nsartists.ca/catherinefields


Catherine