Fractured

Fractured (First Day of Spring) Oil on Canvas

Crystal and I are back from my opening reception at the Shurniak Art Gallery in Assinaboia, Sk. We went down on Thursday with 28 of my paintings, arriving around noon.  Bill Shurniak met us and we had a lovely lunch with him and his staff.  Unfortunately he was feeling a bit under the weather, his doctor diagnosing acute bronchitis and probably a touch of this horrible flu that is going around.  Despite that he was the perfect host as usual and made us all quite comfortable and at ease.  After lunch Gail, the general manager of gallery, and Sandra helped Crystal and I get going on hanging the paintings.  Once they saw we getting into the groove of it they left us to our own designs and we managed to hang everything in an appropriate manner.  Hanging a show is an Art in of itself we found out!  Friday afternoon at 3 pm the reception got under way.  My friends Kevin and Michele Ackerman provided wonderful music with compositions for guitar and flute. The music set a wonderful ambience to the whole affair, thanks you two! Good friends Dean and Barb Bauche showed up a tad late but their  presence was greatly appreciated.  We estimate that around 80 people showed up for the lovely reception, which featured a wonderful variety of pastries and refreshments, something that never goes unnoticed by yours truly.  I managed to sample every delicasy at least once.
I am told that my paintings made quite an impression on the public, many people commenting on the colourfulness of the show.  I cannot say enough about the uniqueness of this world class gallery in the middle of the Saskatchewan prairie, Bill Shurniak has accomplished a wonderful thing here and I encourage everyone to make an effort to get down there and visit the gallery.  Thanks Bill for this honour of "hanging out" in your space!

My Guitar Build

Cherry wood blank ready for edge treatment

Purple Martin inlay with shell

Routing done, almost ready for glueing

Body nitrocellulose lacquer wet sanded down flat, ready for polishing

Blue

So, I got it into my head that I wanted to have an electric guitar, but not just any guitar.  It had to be something that I felt played well and that was built well.  Thats a tall order for a first time builder but I can be kind of stubborn at times so I decided that since I couldn't find anything that fit my specs and budget I would build a guitar. This particular guitar is built around a 1962 Stratocaster plan I found on the internet. The body is made of Cherry wood that I've had lying around my shop for 30+ years. The neck and electronics came from a luthier supply house called Stewart McDonald based in the USA. The inlay is based on my love of the bird species called Purple Martin, which hang out at our house for a few months in the summer. I was a bit apprehensive about cutting into the neck for the inlay but I quickly got over it and managed a fair job of it.  The guitar sounds great and is now robbing time from my painting, largely because of the novelty of having it in my studio with the amp.  Besides, I would never be allowed to make that kind of ruckus in the house! The guitar is named Blue.  I am a huge fan of the Blues and am making a study of learning to play it well.  The name is a shortened version of a nickname for my daughters first child, which God willing, will be born this August! I know its a secret Sacha but not many people will hear of it through this blog post anyway and I can't stand secrets of this nature.

Close up of 1962 Fender Stratocaster replica by Darrell Baschak, 2013

Dusting off the Shelf

SOLD

Its been awhile since I've last posted. Xmas season comes with lots of family and friends and little time for other stuff.  That being said I did have time to do some art of another kind, namely building an electric guitar but that is a subject I'll save for another post.  This painting found a home over Christmas in a round about way after laying about in a closet for a number of years.  It is now prominently displayed in a local home by a loving couple and I thank them for that!  I believe I called the painting "Bridge over Bear Creek".  Thanks Dave and Sharron.

Hoar Frost

Here is my attempt at portraying hoar frost, which we have a wonderful abundance of currently. Hopefully I can get outside this weekend and try painting from life, if its not to cold!

Bright Morning

I had the chance to paint outdoors the other day when the temperature was hovering around minus 5 Celcius in Wellington Park.  While down there I spotted what I think was a Sand Piper and a male and female Mallard duck. I think these birds missed the last plane south and hope they can manage through the winter, which hasn't got very cold yet.  I'm considering taking some bread crumbs and such down there to hopefully help them out as they seem to be moving a lot more slowly than usual.

Collaborating

This painting had its beginnings as a collaboration with my painting buddy Dean Bauche at a retreat on Bonnie McNabbs ranch north of the Battlefords last winter.  In the beginning it was pretty grey, which I wanted to explore, but after getting it back from Dean I decided to add some colour.  My morning walks in the frost covered landscape figured prominently in the painting.

First Snow

 I'm having an enormous amount of fun with this particular painting.  It has undergone a number of rather drastic changes over the last couple of weeks and there is getting to be quite a build up of oil paint on the board, which is cool with me.  I am calling it First Snow cause it seems to fit (for now). If I have any regrets at this point it would be that I didn't paint it on a 6 foot wide canvas.  Suppose I could call this a study for a larger painting?

Washerwoman on the Rio Bonito

Its almost been three years now since I went to Honduras to do volunteer work for victims of Hurricane Mitch and I am still feeling the effects of my time down there.  I do know that I came back to Canada with a very different perspective on life in general.  My mother often says "Get off of Grumble corner and onto Thanksgiving Street" and that would be a good way of summing up the overall experience.  We have so much to be thankful for here in Canada, but I also feel that I am thankful for witnessing first hand how what we view as poverty can be a blessing in some ways. What I saw was that the less you have the less complicated your life was and the possibility of happiness was greater. Bare in mind that I am seeing this from the other side of the fence; someone who maybe only eats once a day or maybe even every second day might see things differently. Its a complicated thing to express properly, suffice it to say that stuff doesn't bring you happiness, relationships do. Seeing those wonderful Honduran people washing their clothes in the Rio Bonito surrounded by family laughing and playing really makes you think about things in a different light. This painting has been in my mind for practically three years and finally made it the surface last week and quite accurately expresses my sentiments.  It is currently in Winnipeg for a two day show called The Lives of Women being held at the Arlington Gallery on 618 Arlington Street.  The show happens from November 24-25th between 12 to 6 pm.  If you are from Winnipeg please make a point of visiting, I am sure it will be a great experience.  Proceeds from the show will be going to the Womens Crisis Centre in Osborne Village.  I am happy to be part of it.

The Yellow House (or The Road Home)

I've spoken on other occasions about the difficulty of titling paintings, and this one is no exception.  I like "The Yellow House" although it does speak for itself.  The title "The Road Home also has some appeal as I have walked it on numerous occasions back and forth to our annual Art Retreat in Shellmouth, Mb.  What do you think? I am considering using it for the show piece at an upcoming exhibit at the Shurniak Gallery in Assinaboi, SK.

New en Plien Air

I had a rare opportunity to paint outdoors the other day. The weather was great and it was so beautiful with a heavy coating of hoar frost.  I set myself up beside Wellington Creek and painted to my hearts delight. Hope I have more days like that!

Seeing Red

An experiment using Red paint and found objects around my studio and yard.  Thinking of Matisse.

Autumn Still Life

This painting includes found objects from around my yard and neighborhood which I then set up in a south facing window of my studio to paint.  I enjoy painting from life, reminds me to be humble.

The last Hurrah

I've posted numerous paintings that had their beginnings by my looking out my studio window, and this is another one.  Painted just before the cold weather set in and the wind blew all the leaves away, it also celebrates my continued interest in the Canadian Group of Seven, in particular Tom Thompson.  Hope you like it.