2010 Reflections - Solo Exhibition

A big HUGE, maybe the BIGGEST highlight of 2010 for me was my first full scale solo exhibition of Paper Paintings at Maitland Art Center (MAC) outside Orlando, FL. Exquisite Harmony was well attended by the community thanks to the marketing efforts of Gloria Capozzi at MAC.

Richard Colvin, the curator at MAC, was amazing in his encouragement as I spent the year preparing the show in the theme of "Music," something a little different for me. Not only did Richard offer me the opportunity to exhibit, but he attended the United Arts of Central Florida grant application review meeting in my stead.

Many thanks to United Arts of Central Florida for giving me a Professional Development Grant (my second from them) which helped in part to fund Exquisite Harmony.

Many thanks to the entire staff of the Maitland Art Center for all their amazing efforts in making the show and coordinating collage workshop a success. Heather Corino in the gift shop has sold many Flashbags™ and other unique Paper Painting gift items.

Maitland Art and History Association

Today was the first day of my Paper Paintings workshop at Maitland Art Center. I have five terrific students from diverse backgrounds. We enjoyed this morning discussing the technique I used to create the work in my current exhibit, Exquisite Harmony which is up through Sunday the 24th of this month. (if you have not seen it, this weekend is the time to go).

After lunch we brought out our fluid acrylics and hand-painted several different types of papers for collage and the apple lesson, which we will start on tomorrow morning.

Much thanks to Gloria Capozzi for popping in and taking the photos, an entire album is available on my Facebook Fan Page.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the students will create tomorrow!

Stay tuned.

Exquisite Harmony Heads to the Museum

Today the Exquisite Harmony show that has been a year in the making, was delivered to the Maitland Art Center. I'm very excited about the completion of this project. Yesterday my son helped me put bumper feet on 40+ cradled birch panels and carry them out of the studio and into the house, on their way to the van for the trip down I-4 this morning.

After we moved the work into the house, we cleaned the studio! We vacuumed up a lot of bugs and dust that had taken up residency while the work was piled up. We cleared floor space and shelf space and there was so much room that even the dogs did not know what to make of it.

Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that a good portion of the work sells, so we don't have to bring it back in!

Show Runs September 10 - October 24
Opening Reception is September 10 6-8pm
Maitland Art Center
231 West Packwood Ave
Maitland, FL 32751
407-539-2181

Music to my Eyes Under-Painting

©2010 St.Hilaire Nelson

I have under-painted the flamenco dancer (yet to be titled) and I am experimenting with applying opposite color. This means, where it is green, I will add red paper, where it is purple I will add yellow paper, and where it is orange I will ad blue paper. My plan is to leave a little bit of the under-painted color showing through between collage pieces, allowing that opposite color to visually vibrate with the collage papers.

We'll see how it goes!

Music to My Eyes

initial sketch, pencil on birch gallery boxed panel 

For those of you who have been following my work for Exquisite Harmony, my solo exhibition at Maitland Art Center, this is the final piece that I am working on for the show. Delivery date is September 5. I have been adding hanging hardware  and labeling the pieces as I go along, so there will be no final rush to prepare works for the gallery the night before. I have also been creating the art cards and have typeset the Bruce Adolphe poems to go along with the 13 Carnival of the Animals collages.

I wanted to include dancers as representatives of music from the beginning, but I saved her for the end. I'll be listening to flamenco music on Pandora as I create this piece. I might even have to eat some Latin food to help me get into the rhythm of things!

Once again, I'll be looking for a title for her when she is complete, as I have nothing in mind at the moment. I just have always loved the color and intensity of these dancers and their costumes.

She is started in my typical process,  a pencil sketch on birch gallery boxed panel primed with Liquitex clear gesso. I prefer a Faber Castell 9000 series pencil, as it has some varnish mixed in with the graphite and tends to smear less when I apply the clear gesso over the top of the sketch. Experience has brought me to the point of sketching directly on unprimed wood, and then priming over both sketch and panel before creating my acrylic under-painting.

Typically I had been working on un-cradeled panel which I framed in barn wood hand-made by my frame maker in Kentucky. For this show, I decided to use the gallery boxed panel so as to keep the look clean and contemporary. I felt that this would lend itself to the variety of subject matter that makes up this  body of work.

So, be thinking of a title as we go through the process of this final installment to Exquisite Harmony, on display at the Maitland Art Center in Maitland, FL from September 10-October 24.

Carnival Complete

The Mule | 24x20 | collage on panel | ©St.Hilaire Nelson

The Carnival of the Animals inspired series is completed with the addition of varnish to this collage of a mule. My son and I made some hand-painted papers at the kitchen table this week to be sure I had all the dark brown I needed for this horse/donkey. The kangaroo piece yielded me plenty of golden brown weeks before.

I am quite happy with the fun little horse barn in the back and all the patterning in the face of the mule. When searching for reference photos of mules vs. donkeys online, I was not sure which was which! Still not.

Below is the Bruce Adolphe poem written for this particular movement of Saint-Saën's musical suite, I plan to include all of the poems with all of the collages at the Maitland Art Center solo exhibition Exquisite Harmony.

Now mules are only half a horse
The other half is donkey.
The tunes they sing are therefore coarse
Though some are kind of funky.
The mule is dumb but sure of foot
And makes a great companion.
Especially when they are put
On the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Anyone ever ride the mules at the edge of the Canyon?

Music Collages

©St.Hilaire Nelson

Carnival of the Animals is musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Saint-Saëns. It was composed in 1886 while Saint-Saëns was vacationing in a small Austrian village. It was originally scored for a chamber group of flute/piccolo, clarinet, two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, but it is usually performed today with a full orchestra of strings.

Saint-Saëns, concerned that the piece was too frivolous and likely to harm his reputation as a serious composer, supressed performances of it and only allowed one movelent, Le cygne (The Swan) to be published in his lifetime. Only small private performances were given for close friends.

Saint-Saëns did include a provision which allowed the suite to be published after his death, and it has since become one of his most popular works. It is a favorite of music teachers and young children.

As the title suggests, the work follows a zoological program and progresses from the first movement, Intruduction et marche royale du lion, through portraits of elephants and donkeys to a finale reprising many of the earlier motifs. Several of the movements are of humorous intent.

I was sitting in orchestra rehearsal one night thinking about representing music through visual art when all of a sudden it came to me. Carnival of the Animals would make a great collage series! We had been rehearsing the music for months in preparation for our spring concert, but it took a while to hit me.

There are some wonderfully whimsical poems written by Bruce Adolphe which I will display with each piece of art from each movement of the suite. They will help to tie in the humorous music with the whimsical collage art.