When:  Saturday, Dec. 15, 10am-5pm
Where: 260 Carlaw ave., Unit 106

Posters are on site to help you find your way.

The Studio includes:

• Kyle Stewart
• Kelly Grace
• Gosia
• Greg Shegler
• Shaun Downey

It was an interesting turn of events that led me to paint the way I do.  All my young years and throughout university I planned to be a figurative painter.  When my school years were finished, I continued the search to find out exactly what sort of figurative artist I was.  Nothing I did really satisfied me or felt like my “voice”.  So when I was struck by the work of Antoni Gaudi during a trip to Barcelona, it was then that I decided to try something completely different from what I was used to.  I decided to set aside the human form and try a rather abstract nature inspired composition.  To my surprise, the painting I had just finished ended up being what I thought was my best up to that point.  So then I approached the next canvas in the same way.  Again, I loved what I saw.  It felt honest and natural.  From that point on I explored and developed a way of painting that felt entirely “my voice”, and yet it was so far removed from everything I thought I would be as an artist.  I stopped painting people entirely and, instead, conjured up new worlds based on my thoughts and memories of nature.

The one that started it all.

Although the human form was gone from my painting, it was never far from my thoughts.  Most of the works that I looked to for inspiration were paintings and photographs of people.  I’ve always loved a great figurative composition that involved some sort of narrative.  I would observe the colour and movement within their images and apply some of those elements to my organic abstract “landscapes”.  My only connection to rendering people was from the occasional life-drawing session I would attend.

So, as time passed, I continued to refine my painting style.  It’s only natural that, when one works long enough at something, they develop their skills and confidence.  My work matured and the complexity of my colours and compositions grew.  But over the last few years, the thought of returning to some kind of figurative work grew stronger in my mind.  I was uncertain, though, about just how I wanted to approach this subject.  Would I paint the figure with the same abstract style that I had spent years developing on my canvasses?    I decided that I first needed to do some people studies.  After all it was now 2011, and it had been a decade or more since the last time I painted a person.  I knew I would need to dust off a few cobwebs.  So, I used myself as my first subject; just a head study to get the ball rolling.  I thought the result was alright.  Perhaps a few issues with proportion and colour, but it was a start.  My girlfriend became the next test subject.  Again, some colour issues with the flesh, but it was progress, and better, I think, than any person I had painted back in my school days.  A portrait of my friend Keri came next.  I decided to make it a more complex painting, with lots of fabrics and textures.  In it she is standing in front of one of my landscape paintings that has been covered up with cardboard.  It was a sort of nod to the past and a look to the future.  I still felt the need to improve my rendering of flesh tones, but decided it was time to start placing people into the strange worlds that I was known for.

Portrait Studies #1 and #2

Portrait #3, Keri

The first such work was “Tending the Garden”.  I decided on a narrative approach, something that I had always enjoyed in the work of other artists I admired.  The story it tells is somewhat ambiguous; a girl with a gas can, standing in a field with car doors sticking out of the ground.  For reasons that I have a hard time explaining I’ve been thinking a lot about automotive images, along with ideas on transportation and fuel.  I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am an environmentalist.  It’s more about the relationship or balance between industry and nature.  At any rate, I liked the painting a lot.  I loved the composition, colour, and mood.  I felt that it was a good start to some new ideas.

Tending the Garden

Well, it was around this time that I decided I needed a new place to work.  I had been living and working in the same place all these years.  That’s a lot of time alone, and conversations with yourself can get a little tedious.  So, in October of 2011, Shaun Downey, Kelly Grace, Gosia, and myself, all moved our work into a wonderful studio space in Toronto’s east end.  Not only are they great friends and talented artists, they also work in the world of representational and figurative subjects.  I knew I would benefit from their company, and I have.  Not only does the company of others serve as a great motivator to work, but it also balances nicely with my new exploration into compositions that contain figurative and other representational elements.

Our Hive

Next came a large-scale painting that included my organic style of landscape, along with some airplanes, rendered in a much more realist manner (“Flight Path”).  I felt very good about this painting and really enjoyed the balance of the two styles.  Then there was another painting of a girl with a gas can (“In Equal Measure”), but this time the world she stood in was much more abstract and more in line with the other “landscapes” I had done.

“Flight Path” and “In Equal Measure”

So now some new ideas are floating around in my head that further explore the placement of people in my strange worlds.  But I decided I wanted to do at least one more portrait; but really make an effort to develop those flesh tones that I questioned in the previous works.  So, this month I used my friend Shannon as a subject.  This time around I really felt that I achieved the results I was looking for in figurative painting.  Interestingly, I also included a bit of elongation in the figure.  Last year I started teaching a couple of illustration/life-drawing courses to students in the School of Fashion at Ryerson University.  It would appear as though this has had some influence on how I rendered Shannon in this painting.

Portrait #4, Shannon

Well, now that I have finished this portrait, I feel a new found confidence for painting people.  I look forward to the new works that I will be starting soon… paintings that really focus on the figure as they interact with the unique environments that I have developed over the years.

Stay tuned…

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Come check out my latest paintings at The Artist Project.

Show Info:
Thursday, March 3: 7PM – 10PM (Opening Night Party)
Friday, March 4: 12AM – 9PM
Saturday, March 5: 11AM – 9PM
Sunday March 6: 11AM – 6PM

Show Location:
Queen Elizabeth Building
180 Princes’ Blvd., Exhibition Place
Toronto, Ontario

For more info visit:  www.theartistprojecttoronto.com

If you ever visited my site in the past, then you probably noticed that things have changed around here recently.  As much as I enjoyed the previous design, I decided that my website would benefit from being more streamlined.  The changes allow me to have easier control over content.  I am now able to provide more timely news and artwork updates for all you visitors.  Work is still being done to finalize the new look; hopefully it will all be completed soon.  Big thanks to my buddy Kevin Element for making this happen, and for putting up with my constant questions and requests.  If any of you detect a problem with the functionality of the site, please don’t hesitate to inform me about it.  I hope you enjoy your visit.

Thanks… Kyle