Ten artists, ten canvases, and a myriad of ideas are the basis of this local art project. The North Grenville Arts Guild ( NGAG) has reached the half-way point in the Co-operative Canvas Project. As past articles have mentioned, this venture is to initiate a public auction, the proceeds of which will go to support the North Grenville Public Library’s community programs.
The following artists contributed to this canvas: Aleta Karstad, Meredith Luce, Caroline Marshall, Rose David, Barb Buchanan, Lisa Mackinley, and Tammy Keith.
The blank canvas began with Aleta Karstad laying the groundwork for this painting. Aleta is well known in the community for her love of nature.
Meredith Luce was the next artist to add her touches to the work. “I struggled to resist adding realism details to the fiddlehead shapes that Aleta created in the base layer. As I was only the second contributor, I decided to play with texture rather than resorting to my comfort zone of nature illustration and realism. I have a stack of old nautical maps of the region that I have used for collage in a few experimental paintings in my studio. I love the delicate pattern created by the topography and water depth lines. I felt that this heavy paper would provide some dimensions to the painting and would mimic the papery leaves of the ferns,” she said.
As the third artist, Caroline Marshall said the painting, “was clearly a forest floor at the time. So, I painted the blue mushrooms to add to this theme.”
Rose David was the fourth artist to make contributions to the work. “When I received this canvas, I immediately thought of a forest floor. I intensified some of the background and foliage, and then added the leaf and ladybug for something to imply insect life.”
Barb Buchanan described the work as whimsical and decided to put more emphasis on the curly fiddleheads, “by adding lines and dots using “Cerne Relief” to help make them “Pop” – I added a bit more to this afterwards too.”
As the fifth artist, Lisa Mackinley made her contributions to the painting. “I was second to last with this one. Stared at it for a while. It was pretty open to interpretation as it was our one mixed canvases, and yet it still had open space. Honestly, I wanted to keep it’s uniqueness and decided to put a few different paint techniques on. Keeping it different than the rest of our collection. This one too has glow in the dark. But it was the mushrooms on the painting that moved me forward with the altered reality look. Also, I love faces and hadn’t done one yet, so I did.”
Finally, as the last artist to add to the work Tammy Keith said, “When I received this piece, I felt it was already completed and a great job at that. Really, the only thing I felt I could contribute was to finish it with a varnish.”
And so with this, the middle point, the Guild has only five of the original ten left to showcase. Please visit the NGAG Facebook page to see more of this project, and for coming updates on the Auction.
When does the auction open and what is the process?