Featured Artist - Shoshana Lock

This week's blog feature is by Shoshana Lock. She is a mixed media, acrylic, oil and ink contemporary artist.

I was born in Bulgaria in the second world war. When the war ended my family moved to Israel, where I graduated from the Technion in Interior Architecture & Design. These early life experiences, training, education and continued experimentation give me not only the emotional background, techniques and tools, but inspiration for the topics that concern and interest me, such as; relationships, the environment, and current world events. I normally start with a very vague idea and let my feelings and mood control my hand. The paintings that follow are some example of how I’ve expressed my feelings on what we are doing to ourselves and the planet.

This is a painting I finished late 2015, which I called " World Self destructing Mankind in Crisis", which I think is very relevant today and reflects my desire for more butterflies, bees, clean rivers, clean air and that we learn live in harmony with ourselves and the planet for our children and grandchildren. This is a painting inspired my concerns for Gaia (Mother Nature) our planet.

Summer is finally here, this is a painting I finished before I left for Israel in May, it's called "Chrysalis", and is about the pupa of life, our bee', butterflies etc. that carry the pollen, without whom our food supply would be very meek.

This is a painting I’ve been working on for the past year, I’ve called it “Social Pressure and Information Overload”. I am reflecting how the constant flow of information and twenty four hour news channels impact our society, especially our youth. This painting is a reminder of how we are social beings, and require connection, family and community. We need to find the right balance between the two.

To learn more about my art, and my inspiration please visit my website: shoshanalock.wix.com/slock   and my facebook page at,  https://www.facebook.com/Shoshana-lock. Look forward to seeing you during the studio tour during the weekend of October 15th and 16th. 

Featured Artist: Ana Wood

This week's featured artist is Ana Wood. She has answered some of our questions about her artistic process.

When I was young I was really interested in arts and crafts. I would spend hours painting by numbers, practicing children's craft kits like weaving, pottery, knitting, sewing. I took many visual art  courses in high school and went on to OCADU for Drawing & Painting and then George Brown College for Digital Art. 

What Inspires you?

Always keenly interested in nature and culture. which emerged from my roots. I am an adopted female Guatemalan raised in Canada. My first home in Canada was surrounded by wondrous trees on mountain like landscapes 15 minutes from the beach of Nanaimo, BC. I moved to the flat farm surrounded town of Newmarket. The contrast of the land and people with my need to find a way to define who I am, culturally, has become an influence on my life. Later it became the basis for my artwork.

Tell us about your chosen medium?

I work mainly in acrylic and watercolour, but am also exploring new mediums and surfaces. For now I work mainly on watercolour paper and canvas, with a few pieces on wood panels. I am also in the midst of perfecting new mediums such as digital painting, stitch work, weaving and pencil. The reason I am practicing various ways of creating imagery is to properly express and explore the world as I know it.  

Can you tell us more about your distinctive style?

What has started to make my work more unique is my exploration into culture, language and nature which has been the stepping stone into my own creation of my own realm. I have over the years tried to develop my own visual language to go with my own narratives of the world based on other mythologies and perspectives of various backgrounds with the incorporation of my surroundings and views. This is a slow process, and I am still at the beginning, as I am planning to make this a life long process to fully explore myself as well as the world. 

Thank you Ana, for sharing so much of yourself and your work. Ana will be participating in this year's studio tour during the weekend of October 15th and 16th.

Featured Artist: Ona Kingdon

Ona Kingdon is an internationally award winning watercolour artist and will be part of the Studio Tour again this year. We hope you enjoy reading her feature.

Over the last few years people have often said to me "Oh Ona, I wish I could peek inside your creative mind to see how you think of your ideas". Well, be prepared for a wild ride! 

Being an artist is not something I can turn off or walk away from at the end of a work day. Ideas bubble up when I least expect them, usually at the oddest of moments and often in the middle of the night! Events, people, objects, music, the written word, and the natural world around me all inspire me to create. Sometimes one of these things might suddenly connect with another inside my mind and an idea for a painting is born.

I love being able to convey a story, capture feelings or create a sensation of energy with my paintbrush.

 I enjoy tapping into all forms of emotion whether positive or negative. Art has such a wonderful way of encouraging people to challenge their own views, to think about controversial subjects or to remember fun happy times. I want to make people laugh, cry, feel comforted, disturbed, sad, happy, or even angry. It doesn’t have to be the same emotion that I feel when painting the piece either. We each have different experiences in this world and it is these that we tap into when viewing art.

Flight of the Imagination

A good book encourages a young child’s imagination 
to spread its wings and fly free

(Transparent Watercolour)

The idea for a painting begins long before the magical first dab of paint touches the paper. I spend almost as much time planning as I do actually painting; exploring the composition and playing around with different ideas.

Midnight Blues

Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can truly appreciate the light.(Transparent Watercolour)

Colour choice is very important to me and helps me to convey the ‘soul’ of a painting. Every colour, or combination of colours, subconsciously conveys emotion. The strong vibrant reds have such power and energy, blues are more calming. A palette of complimentary colours creates excitement, drama, a more modern contemporary feel and an element of fun in a painting. In contrast an analogous colour palette creates a more loving, calm, inviting, classical feel.

Although I usually have a very clear idea in my mind from the onset what I want to create, the painting journey is full of times when I am unsure of how to proceed, times when I need to stop and think, or times when I make a mistake and have to decide whether to live with it and use it, or to find a way to remove it. Never be afraid of making a mistake. Mistakes are an important part of growth and learning. If you play it safe and stay in your comfort zone you will miss the opportunity to discover and grow as an artist. So take risks and explore. Ask your self questions, Let yourself wonder why, or what if, and enjoy the process.

Watercolour is such a delicate and unforgiving medium but the trials during each painting journey often seem to enhance that feeling of accomplishment at the finish line. It is this journey that I love the most about being an artist.

Accelerando

If you fall behind, don’t give up. Rise up against the odds: Go faster; be stronger and be more determined than ever to succeed.

(Transparent Watercolour)

Ona will be at Covernotes Tea and Coffeee House 10268, Yonge Street in Richmond Hill  (October 15th-16th) for the Studio Tour this year. She hopes to see you there.