Mary Ann Archibald

A simple approach to primary, secondary and tertiary colours…

Mary Ann Archibald — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:20:53 +0000

A simple approach to primary, secondary and tertiary colours… is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Steppin’ out!

Mary Ann Archibald — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:43:59 +0000

Watercolour sketch.

Steppin’ out! is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Sky in progress

Mary Ann Archibald — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:57:27 +0000

This is an oil painting of a sky (over Grand Pré, near the Land of Evangeline) I’m working on. I’m putting it away for a few weeks (until this layer is dry to the touch) and will hopefully finish it at that time.

The above oil painting is based on a watercolour sketch from my travel book:

Sky in progress is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Feature Artist Show continues to June 30th

Mary Ann Archibald — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:22:17 +0000

Feature Artist Show continues to June 30th is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Another coastal sketch of Nova Scotia in watercolour

Mary Ann Archibald — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:42:57 +0000

This seems to be the week where I’m opening up my watercolour sketchbook to allow you to have a peek. This time, it is another coastal scene of Nova Scotia, from a photograph a friend of mine took, I rarely, rarely work with images other people have taken. And I prefer to paint from life, where possible. For one thing, photos tend to distort the perspective in a scene, but that’s one of the easier things to overcome.

Another coastal sketch of Nova Scotia in watercolour is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Cape Breton coast watercolour sketch

Mary Ann Archibald — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:04:28 +0000

This is a sketch of Cape Breton in my watercolour travel book (carnet de voyage).

Cape Breton coast watercolour sketch is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Antique bottle

Mary Ann Archibald — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:52:02 +0000

Antique Bottle from my watercolour sketch book. Just a doodle.

NFS

Antique bottle is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Fresh strawberry (from the garden today)

Mary Ann Archibald — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:00:33 +0000

Fresh strawberry
Painted from life (just before I ate it)
Watercolour in my sketchbook

NFS

This is a small watercolour painting of one of the 24-or-so strawberries I picked from my garden today. I’ve been growing a type of perpetual strawberry for about three years (Fragoo) and now have a couple of patches to pick from. Delicious!

Fresh strawberry (from the garden today) is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

A practical introduction (or re-introduction) to watercolor

Mary Ann Archibald — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:51:58 +0000

Practical introduction to watercolor I
June 29, 2010 to July 27, 2010
beginner / refresher
$65

This online workshop is designed to cut a clear path for you to express yourself through watercolor. We’ll look at key concepts, techniques and ideas to provide you with your own visual voice that will serve you well as you pursue and deepen your love of art through watercolors.

Who is this workshop suitable for?

Anyone who would like to start painting or return to painting after an absence.
Parents and children looking for something to learn together to enrich their relationship
Young adults looking for ways to express themselves
People who keep a journal and are looking for ways to express themselves visually
Anyone wanting to learn to paint with watercolors
Oil painters or acrylic painters who are looking for a practical sketching tool
People who like to learn new things at their own pace yet with a structure and feedback system that provides guidance that unlocks key concepts
People seeking quality information

Topics we will cover include:

Materials and supports for watercolor paintings
How to create the bones of your painting
Watercolor terms and methods
How to work with transparent colors
Creating a visually interesting painting
How to determine which methods work best for you

What you will achieve in these workshops?

Hands on introduction to the art of watercolor
A solid introduction to watercolor and the tools required to paint with watercolor
Understand what makes watercolor special
A new or enriched visual arts language
Understand key concepts specific to watercolor
Ideas for where to take your painting journey next
An overview of watercolor in an historical context
A certificate of completion
Fun!

Within 24-hours after you register, you’ll receive a list of recommended materials and link to your online classroom. Additionally, I’ll create a private page on my website dedicated to you and your work. This is where you can post your work and I can provide feedback to you here.

Your workshop will include live streaming video, pre-recorded video, demonstrations, digital materials you may read online or print out. Your workshop notes and other auxiliary materials will be posted there on a weekly basis.

I’ll be able to answer your questions during the streaming video (each Tuesday evening) or you can post your questions to me via email or Skype.

Practical introduction to watercolor I
beginner / refresher
$65
June 29, 2010 to July 27, 2010

A practical introduction (or re-introduction) to watercolor is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.

Surf poet

Mary Ann Archibald — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:13:38 +0000

Driving Minnie's Piano

I’m still digitizing my published clips that go back to the early 90s on this site. It will take a while before they are done. In the meantime, I dug up the unedited copy of a story The Chronicle-Herald published a couple of years ago. It is a profile piece on Lesley Choyce, shortly after his memoir “Driving Minnie’s Piano” was published. I loved that book.

Here’s the unedited article (because I can’t find a paper copy to scan):

Just outside the door to Lesley Choyce’s office at Dalhousie University, I can see through a tall, thin sliver of window that he is on his computer.

He is smiling, courteous, offers me a chair and returns to his seat behind his desk. He is wearing belted khaki pants and a denim shirt with a navy t-shirt. His hair is a curly array that frames his face. Beneath the casual attire, there is something that seems wired – a creative circuit, grounded in Halifax, amidst the city’s wildlife, empty spaces, and ocean waves. Perhaps he has managed to tap the hydro power in the waters he surfs and tumbles in.

He plucks book after book off a tidy wall of shelves. About 60 books are authored by him. Some books are skinny, some thick, all of them a testament to process – that thing that drives a creative person to create whatever it is that’s in their heart and mind to do.

A student needs to see him now, an urgent issue, possibly over a grade. He strikes me as the sort of teacher people consider a favourite, the kind that takes time to listen and soothingly explain things. Apologetic, confessional even.

Choyce’s latest book, Driving Minnie’s Piano: Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia is based on true stories that read like bits of song where the line between past and present blurs.

The book begins in Choyce’s childhood and we quickly meet his grandmother Minnie, who wears a floppy straw hat and escapes the mid-day heat on her farm by doing chores (snapping beans and shelling peas) early in the morning. She plays a baby grand piano (piana) and eventually advises Choyce that Nova Scotia sounds wonderful … all that coastline.

“The Minnie book” reminds me of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. In part because the book is a reverie of the natural world through Choyce’s eyes and the book defies easy categorization. Like Pilgrim, it can be read as a collection of short stories or narrated whole.

“I think the world needs more books like that,” Choyce says. “Writers need to take a certain licence to explore things in your life.”

Choyce also cleverly side-steps another categorization in that the book is autobiographical, without being an autobiography. Gnarly. Dude.

One might expect this book to be about Nova Scotia, and many parts of it are set here but the reality is that the stories are bigger than Nova Scotia.

The primary thread that knits Driving Minnie’s Piano together is the concept that the past tags along with us into the present and future, connecting us to a larger time and place. Those threads surface unexpectedly in Choyce’s book, like a displaced seal pup in the middle of a road late at night and weaves the reader comfortably back and forth through time and space, inviting us to journey with the author, from New Jersey to Paris, Tokyo and ultimately home. Weather connects continents through waves. Earthquakes move and split continents. The book is big and little at the same time.

Emotionally, we see how events with Choyce’s family, friends and others shape his view of the world. In the physical sense, the book telescopes the reader over the soft mossy floor of the woods, geographical formations that cover several continents to the piercing sting of crushed ice in a January wave.

The form his book wears is a baby grand piano, a u-haul, a surf board, drumlins, places and people. Interesting and funny people. More forms that wear these matters are skunks and lichen and the soft moss that covers stones, important stones. That is Choyce’s story – or stories.

You don’t need to be a surfer to find that Driving Minnie’s Piano is a satisfying read with insight into the human condition and those things that drives each of us: ” ..whatever it happens to be, you must love the act of doing it. And you have to love the wave, love the words or love the beans. If there ain’t love in it, it’s not gonna snap,” Choyce writes.

By the time our meeting is over and I’ve gathered my things, Choyce is in the common area just outside his office, he’s talking and holding a piece of paper up to a couple of students who have gathered and the surf poet is all business again.

Surf poet is from: Mary Ann Archibald. Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed! CLICK HERE to subscribe to my newsletter to get the fine art and gallery scoop for 2010 as well as recent paintings.