Monday, June 10, 2013

Doors Open Toronto May 2013


Doors Open Toronto 2013

 

This year on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May , the weather in Toronto was perfect , right in the middle of the gardens  bloom .

                                                   "Asymptote" Series by Bianka Guna ©Bianka Guna 2013
We had many visitors and a festive atmosphere in The Distillery District Toronto during the Doors Open 2013 event.

While my studio was open , I decided to show the last series of my work" Asymptote" Series, acrylic on stretched canvas , a variety of pieces that I painted for the past 10 months.

The idea behind these came to me while I was experimenting with various paints and acrylic mediums.

I played the game of shiny versus matte, metallic paints versus traditional, dark values against neon accents.
I also kept a minimal number of shapes, giving the mica flakes the stage, all flashy and glitzy.

The sizes of the pieces varied from small ( 10"x10") to medium (30"x40") and big ( 50"x90"). The images were built in single or diptychs, triptychs and poliptychs.

The colour palette was set on dark blues and mossy green backgrounds , deep purples and rich burgundies.

They were created by glazing layers of transparent Golden Fluid paint, some took 15-20 layers .

Most of the visitors reacted well  in front of them, very positive notes were written in my guest book and many students, artist friends family members and patrons came through.
                           Visitors of my Studio in The Distillery District Toronto ©Bianka Guna 2013

I met new clients , new students and newspaper  writers who wrote positive articles about my work in the past.All in all a great experience that I am going to definitely repeat next year !

Thank you all for your support, my faithful supporters, I cannot do it without you !

            "Asymptote 100" Acrylic on Canvas by Bianka Guna ©Bianka Guna 2013

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The 10% at TAP 2013


The 10% at The Artists’s Project 2013

Every year I visit The Toronto Artist’s Project Exhibit downtown  Toronto and last week the show had a few good surprises in stock for me.
 

 Here are the 10% artists that shone through in 2013 :

1.       Drawing

Leandro Garcia Piementel    www.leandrogp.com

        Katie Kehoe                             www.katiekehoe.com


 

2.       Painting

Oil  



Anya Droug   www.anyadroug.com

 

 

Watercolour

Warren Hoyano   http://www.warrenhoyano.com/

 

Acrylic




Ann Marie Higgins www.annmariehiggins.com

Leanne Lang           www.leanelangpaintings.com

Rachel Vanderzwet  www.rachelvanderzwet.com

Peter Colbert           www.petercolbert.com

Ivan Alifan               www.ivanalifan.com

 

 

 

Encaustic


 

Digital (tablet)


 

 

3.       Glass and Ceramics

Lauren Blakey   www.laurenblakey.com

Steven Tippin   www.steventippin.com


 

4.       Photography

 

Ian Busher www.ianbusher.com

 

 

5.       Installation

 

Andrea Kott  www.anmade.ca

 

 

6.       Sculpture


Matthew Gardiner (paper sculpture) http://www.oribotics.net/

 

 

7.       Textile


 

The visit was even more pleasant because I did it with artists friends, thank you Tanya and Marcos, for a great afternoon with the arts  !

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Opening for "Out of Bounds" Non Objective Group Exhibition at Etobicoke Civic Centre Art Gallery


Opening for "Out of Bounds" a Non- Objective Exhibition Jan 27th 2013 Etobicoke Civic  Centre Art Gallery

 

After months of preparations ( painting, visiting with curators, photographing, e- mailing, phone calls making, shlepping ...) the big day came: The  Grand Opening for " Out of Bounds"  the first exclusively non- objective group exhibition at the Etobicoke Art Centre , Sunday January 27th 2013, 2-4 pm.

The artists group is impressive, on top of it,the Canadian abstract matron , Lila Lewis Irving , a powerhouse of an artist and my beloved art teacher, the one who recommended my work to the gallery curator Thelma Amos for this show. I am stepping on cloud ten, not just to be in the show but to be with her by my side, how generous is she??

The high artillery of Ontario abstraction is including also Vallery Mokrytzki a painter for more than 60 years, Zora Buchanan a painter for more than 50 years and Susan Collacott painting for more than 40 years .

Painting for less than 35 years puts me in the "second " wave of this show, with artists  Inna Puchala , Bill Philipovich and Julita Wolanska. I share good company, all of them great non- objective painters.

I am all smiles and told my husband to look at my face, that this is the image of pure happiness, he laughs. I am thankful for all he is doing to help me being here, supporting my love for art and believing in me. He is going to wait patiently for three hours , inside the gallery and outside ,with his cigar, as usual.

My mom stoic support is with me too, she took good care of me , then of my kids and when needed she took care of my home, while I was away learning , painting, traveling with my shows,... taking the art world by storm. Love clouds are blurring my eyes when   I am thinking  of her  in these moments.

A long list of supporters are in my mind today, my beautiful daughter who taught me to use photo shop a few years ago, who made invites for me for the past 15 years and corrected every statement or CV , as English is my third mother language, after Romanian and Hebrew . And deep  engraved in my mind  is my son who came to my shows and brought me "corporate "clients from his work.

Then here they are all coming to my mind : the wonderful teachers, artists friends, my art students, curators and art writers, art groups volunteers and supporters , art directors and coordinators from different periods of time , from different countries and on almost all the continents.

 I feel gratitude for  to all the private and corporate clients who purchased my works, and made it possible for me to buy more materials and rent a studio, the many groups of friends and supporters who continued to grow in numbers and who are constantly coming to my show openings , snow or rain or hot weather.

All these wonderful people who crossed paths with me, who  are art lovers, and are my backbone and my rock, I need all of them, and some are here today:)

 I am looking around and I am smiling happily as the works on the walls are wonderful, the food is great, the name tags burst with beautiful fresh roses, the catalogues and invites are  in good taste and Thelma Amos , Denise Dickin, and Peter Code from the Etobicoke Art Gallery  Gallery took good care of everything to perfection.
 
                                  "Asymptote 112" by Bianka Guna ,Acrylic on Two Canvases(Diptych), 30"x60"
 

Rare days like these are a reminder ,that life is worth living, art struggles are worth fighting and from time to time the stars are all aligned !!!! Thank you Universe!!!!!

 

 

 

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Beware of The "Too Normal" Pitfall


Beware of The "Too Normal " Pitfall

 

As the years are passing, the more we paint the more we try to be " careless" and let our  gut dictate what we  paint. After that  at the reevaluation point ,we  deliberately let some " ugly" parts in the picture, trying to avoid the "pretty, too normal" pitfall.

 
Sol Lewitt said it best:

" Try to do some BAD work - the worst you can think  of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell- you are not responsible for the world- you are only responsible for your work - so DO IT " ( Letter from Sol  Lewitt to Eva Hesse)

 

It is not easy, especially for people of good taste , like artists, who can be put off by small details other people cannot even notice. It is even harder for persons with equal left and right brain impulses, like some of us . We are big suckers for order and pretty.

But alas when we change your approach, or try different techniques or  a new way experimenting with different materials, our works are looking unrefined, even "ugly" at first , but we  have to give them time to grow on us.

 

We simply cannot continue on a path of creating all " easy", " beautiful" things just because we  can, or because people like them and eventually buy them. It is suffocating to do the same old tricks, getting applause but really getting nowhere close to original , serious art.

Many artists fall into the mistake of reminding crafters, artisans, creators  of lesser work, just to please the mob and make a buck or two.

 We should not take the easy path, and my advice to my students is to be aware of the “too normal” pitfall.

Powerful, utterly original artwork has to have a bit of ugly and has to disturb, and that in order  to balance an outstanding  colour palette choice, a wonderful resolved  design and revolutionary  textures.

Good Luck!!
 
 
Nebulae” by Bianka Guna Acrylic on Canvas (30”x40”) ©Bianka Guna 2013