I was there!!! Read below what Robert wrote subsequent to this event....


An excess of inspiration
September 11, 2012

Dear Artist,

Pickup point at Tamarack Glen. That's a pile of painters over there. Several nights here we've had a hard time getting to sleep. "I'm too excited!" says my daughter, Sara. Rich environments such as the Bugaboos, a mountain range in Southeastern British Columbia, teem with the sort of stuff many a painter craves. While not all painters are into mountain work, better compositional elements are worth looking for wherever we happen to be. What are those elements? Here are a few:

Strong patterns
Great gradations
Dramatic potential
Monumental subject matter
Foreground substance and echo
Background mystery and majesty
Opportunities for activation and eye control
Opportunities to apply your idiosyncratic style

Mountain variety goes a long way in suggesting "what could be." On the other hand, more limited environments may actually stimulate the imagination. Our small workshop group was talking about Cezanne's many paintings of Mount St. Victoire in Southern France. I once drove slowly around it for three days looking for Cezanne's locations. No matter where I went, the mount was a potato-like hump. And yet, with nicks, fidges and zips, Cezanne had squeezed from it a significant art movement.

On stepping down from our magic carpet--a Bell 212 helicopter that seats 14--the mountain panorama takes us more than a few breathless gulps. "I progress very slowly," said Cezanne, "for nature reveals herself in complex forms." We painters need move very little. It takes a while. "The painter unfolds that which has not been seen." (Paul Cezanne)

Too much inspiration, like too much absinthe, can boggle and confuse. But it is motif-rich environments like the Bugaboos that teach visual discrimination. Surrounded on all sides by sculpted beauty and pattern, we exercise our "telephoto-vision." I like to take a slow 360 degree rotation to contemplate what I really want to look at. These hills are alive with viewfinders held at arm's length.


Best regards,

Robert

PS: "To Nature, one need be neither too scrupulous nor too sincere nor too submissive." (Paul Cezanne)


Esoterica: Liz Wiltzen, one of our workshop instructors, is a masterful advocate of academic truth, aerial perspective, and traditional values. Sara Genn, on the other hand, feels the mountains need not be painted as is, but rather studied with the idea of extracting their power. This power, passed through eyes and hands and transferred to canvas, might be a mere chip of the whole. "What a privilege," she says. We all agree. "Here on the edge of the river," said Cezanne by the Loire, "the motifs are very plentiful, the same subject seen from a different angle gives a subject for study of the highest interest and so varied that I think I could be occupied for months without changing my place, simply bending a little more to the right or left.


New website planned
by Tim Alcock, Denver, Colorado, USA

The Internet is positively abuzz with flashbacks to our Bugaboo workshop, friendships created, hopes realized and inspiration digested – the Twice-Weekly letter included. I'm touching up my works and should be finished shortly – must not 'add excess detail' ....argghh!!... holding back... but it's tough!!

I've been in touch with CMH and have an email listing of all participants. My plan with this is to go out for permission to use their names on the website/blog we intend to create for the Bugaboo Tens. I will do the same for prior year attendees assuming you or CMH can provide me with their contact information. CMH seems to be supportive of the website idea.

I've done some sleuthing on web hosts for the proposed website and formed some initial opinions on the most flexible and best value. I'm prepared to go ahead and set something up this week.

(RG note) Thanks, Tim. Tim was one of our recent heli-painters in the Bugaboos. As you can see he is offering to set up a website "The Bugaboo Tens" for past, current and future participants—free of charge to all Bugaboo painters. I've agreed to finance the project. The site will post photos of folks working in this spectacular location and illustrate their work alongside. The motive is online sales and connectivity for artists. What we need right now are deadly photos with informative cutlines as well as good quality photos of your Bugaboo art. Currently we intend to post all submissions, probably alphabetically by artist's name. Featured home page and connective material will be chosen by Painter's Keys staff. This idea is very much in its initial stages. Tim will probably end up making the site self-loading. Linked to ours and other sites, it will be effective. Please send your Bugaboo material or suggestions directly to Tim at timothy.alcock@gmail.com

'The Book of Awesome'
by Verna Korkie, Canmore, Alberta, Canada

I took half a step off Cloud 9 this afternoon but it is not easy to rejoin our fellow Earthlings. Most of them don't get it! Wasn't that simply Nirvana?! My sincere love, thanks, and good wishes to Robert, Liz and Sara for being the glue in an extraordinary experience in the Bugaboos. There really are no words. As they say, "You had to be there!" Right out of the Book of Awesome! I know Tim Alcock is in touch and actively involved in the website possibilities. I sent him my photos. You guys are really on to something very special with this "beyond a retreat" concept and I hope you will continue to spread such joy in the future.

http://www.canmoreleader.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2892004&archive=true

This year a new option for artists, who are not able to work at home and looking for space has been created in Canmore. Verna Korkie started the first Curves in Canmore in what is now Loosey Goosey Art Studios in 2001. But last year as the fitness studio vacated the space Korkie was left with a space that she “practically couldn’t give away.” Her idea was to use the space to rent as kiosks, or small artists studios. She said that she hopes to get 10 artists renting the space to cover the operating costs in the building. There are now three artists, plus Korkie, that have used the space now for the past several months. Loosey Goosey held an open studio this Saturday. Korkie’s vision is expressed in her choice of the space’s name. “It means laid back, doesn’t follow the rules,” she said. “I just wanted it to be relaxed.”

Patricia Langevin has been the artist with the longest tenure at Loosey Goosey. “It’s been a great space for me,” she said. “I like that it’s an open concept, it’s bright and it’s flexible — I come and go as I please.” Langevin has been painting for about four years and uses the space to continue developing. Her work at home became difficult as the materials she acquired outgrew her space there, and her desire to work in a larger format was unsuited for painting at her 700 square foot apartment, she said.

Jenn Shea also practices her art in the in Panorama Plaza behind the Georgetown Inn. Shea does copper work, two-dimensional sculpture, or wall relief. Calling herself The Magpie Room, Shea has been working with the eye-catching medium for the past four or five years. She once had a place in Elk Run, but has also worked at home and is now happy to have found a space where she can stay for a while, Shea said. “I love scraps,” she said. Her workspace was covered with glittering pieces in Saturday’s afternoon light. She spends her evenings at the art space, but also catches as much of the mid-day sunlight as she can on the weekends as well. “I started texturing metals, putting them on pieces of furniture in my house,” Shea said. “Copper just immediately popped out as a medium where you get such a variety of texture and colour. “Metal is just, industrial, hard, but it’s delicate at the same time, the elements can change it like that.”

Those interested in visiting Loosey Goosey studios can contact Korkie at (403) 675-1141. Canmore Leader

Loosey Goosey Art Studios held an open house Saturday to get the word out to Canmore artists

By Canmore Leader

Posted 1 year ago