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exhibition

Summer festivals

by janice on June 8, 2011

The summer art festival season has begun. My first show this year was the Orleans Art Festival in the east end of Ottawa. Lovely show, extremely well organized and a pleasure to participate in. Along with 28 artists inside the Shenkman Centre, there were artisans, food venders and a stage for music and drama outside along the closed off streets and inside in the theatre itself. It was a treat not to have to set up a gazebo and grids!

Next weekend I will be participating in the Clothesline Art Sale at Christ Church Anglican in Bells Corners in Ottawa. This is just a one day event and we are hoping for sunny weather. The venue is in their lovely garden behind the church in the ‘gully’. We have the Bohemian Kitchen coming to provide snacks and light lunches and a line-up of musicians to entertain us all.

Later in July I will be a part of the Urbanart show in Minto Park in downtown Ottawa. This is a one day show on July 23 with over 60 artist participating. The theme is art with an urban flair. It should be fun!

So come out and support your local artists. There are lots of talented people to discover and its a great way to enjoy summer.

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OMMA at the Britannia Gallery

by janice on April 4, 2011

I will be participating in a juried show at the Britannia Gallery in Ottawa from April 5th to May 1st. The title of the show is ‘Alphabet Soup’ with all artwork required to include some sort of lettering to qualify. This artists’ group exhibits locally on a consistent basis with interesting and creative themed shows. Many of the members are well represented on the local art scene in Ottawa.

Come and see how each entrant has interpreted the alphabetic theme.

I will be showing my most recent textile work ‘Is this the future of language?’ I wrote about the process I used to create this piece in my last blog post entitled SMS textile diptych. For the show I have joined the two canvases together to create one easier to hang piece. After some deliberation I chose the arrangement below.

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BMO Financial Group Shadow Box Event, photographing artwork

by janice on January 19, 2011

The above image is from the Shadow Box exhibition website.

This February I am participating in the Shadow Box exhibition at the Textile Museum of Canada for the first time. Follow this link www.tmcshadowbox.com to find out all the details about this fun show. An image of each entry is listed under the artist’s name.

For my entry I adapted one of my small folk art pieces to fit into the wooden shadow box form that every participant is given. I painted the frame with a base coat and then added interference paints to give it a ‘Bollywood’ glow. Then I applied fabric about half the width of the outer edges to give it more depth. I added fabric to the inner sides of the frame to give a sort of soft upholstered effect. Then I added a wider border around the image and embellished it with more beads. I wanted to achieve a jewel box effect. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph my work before I mailed it off and the flash has washed out the image on the website.

Here is an older image of ‘My Pony Moon’ before it was inserted into the shadow box for this exhibition. I reduced the noise level in the photo because the sparkle from the sheer fabric a the top of the image created unpleasant glare. But it is still not a perfect photo and the result is lost detail. Photographing anything with shine is a challenge particularly if a flash is used as in the case if the shadowbox image. A tripod and some diffused lighting may have helped or just no flash at all.

As an experiment I have photographed another textile image in my home…with flash and without flash…to see the difference. I used my 35mm lens and a tripod with all four images.

The first image below was taken with the flash on. The flash adds unwanted sparkle to the felt and dulls the colours. The image also has a flattened look to it.

This second image was taken without the flash and the fabrics and colours are much more natural looking in appearance. The image appears more 3-dimensional as well. I used a wide aperture… F1.8… for lots of light.

I then tried a few other combinations using one of the built-in scene modes…adding a flash diffuser to the camera and simply turning off the flash on the camera. Neither of these options produced as nice an image as setting the aperture priority to F1.8.

The third image was taken with a flash diffuser added to the camera. There is still unwanted sparkle in the felt and the focus seems uneven.

The fourth image was taken with the flash turned off on the camera. No sparkle in the felt but the focus isn’t as sharp as it should be and the image is somewhat flat and dull.

These examples illustrate the difficulties and challenges when photographing any artwork. A good tripod and a little experimentation with lighting can make or break the outcome of the final image.

One final adjustment to the image is to check that the colours are true to the original. My camera was set to auto white balance and it did a pretty good job with all the colours except the bright pink. It is a little too orange in tone, so in Photoshop I replaced the pink with an adjusted pink tone closer to the original. Now the image is a decent representation of the original artwork.

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Solo show at NFAL Gallery

by janice on May 1, 2009

Yesterday I spent a few hours hanging my solo show at the NFAL Gallery in Ottawa. After a little rearrangement of pieces by a friend it all came together, finally after weeks of preparation. Phew! Now I can attack my weedy gardens.

I have also set up my own website using Homestead, an easy to set up system with templates and simple point and click instructions. I will see how I like it over the next few months. I am still learning how to use it so it is a bit messy. I need to spend some time cleaning it up and adding more pages for pastels and other work.

My web address is janicesaunders.homestead.com

The NFAL show is a collection of my recent textile and pastel work. It is unified by similar warm gold, orange tones and black accents.

These small fibre works are done in the folk art style using fabrics, felt and beads. Each one is inspired by a proverb or common saying. They are meant to be fun and whimsical.

Welcome to my crazy little house!

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come. Chinese proverb

There are more examples on my website.

I have also included some larger quilted wall hangings that are crib size.

And some new mixed media framed textile pieces of the buildings and stormy sky images in a city. Very abstract.

Cityscape 1, clouds

The pastels include 3 figurative works and one landscape. I have used the Mi-tientes paper and board as well as a handmade paper I cannot remember the name of that has a very sandpapery tooth.

The NFAL Gallery is located in the Nepean Creative Arts Centre (Unit 11), 35 Stafford Rd. Bells Corners, around the corner from Bells Corners’ Wallacks store. This space, provided by the City of Ottawa and established in 2002, is dedicated to artist members of the Nepean Fine Arts League, allowing them to exhibit their work on a monthly rotational basis. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday: 8:30am to 9:30pm; Saturday 8:30am to 4:30pm; and Sunday 9:30am to 3:30pm. The telephone number is 613-596-5783.

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Winter Pottery and Art Sale

by janice on November 24, 2008

A big thanks to everyone who dropped by my booth a the Nepean Sportsplex Winter Art and Pottery Sale this past weekend! This was my first time running a booth and it was lots of fun!

If anything caught your eye or you missed the sale I am posting photos of my work here. I still don’t have my web site up and running but it will happen- soon I hope.

These textile pieces are done in a traditional quilt format as I am trying to get way from framing my textile pieces. The glass tends to dull the colours of the fabric and these wall hangings have dramatic impact! The batik fabrics are an African pattern with gold that really glows under the lights. Very bold and dramatic! There are square gold beads sewn into the black border around the central pattern. Two loops are sewn at the top of the quilt for easy hanging on regular picture hooks. The hooks will be hidden behind the quilt when it hangs flat against the wall.

African Batik 3.1, 30x39in.