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 June 8, 2012 6-8pm
Location TBA
The Friday Night Demo Series showcases professional artists and offers opportunity to learn while watching them paint. With a question & answer session after each demo, it's a fantastic way to gain insight into how artists create. Whether you paint or not, wine, cheese and art are the perfect way to enjoy a Friday evening.
Register early by calling 403.258.3500
$19 {wine & nosh included}
I never really intended to make art a career it just keeps happening. Maybe its living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and being surrounded by the spectacular landscape. Maybe it's that my mom was always in the kitchen painting wicker baskets of bright fruit with Chianti wine bottles, or may it was all the doodles and drawings that adorned each and every page of my math book. but some how, art has now become my career.
Since my childhood, drawing and painting have always played an important role in my life. A big part of me never really left kindergarten. I still live for the "Hey Mom, look what I made!" I think exhibiting in galleries is just a bit of an extension of that. And today, besides being an artist, I co-own "Swinton's Art Supply and Instruction", an art school where, for over 16 years, my staff and I have taught the wonders of "Hey Mom!" to inspired new artists of all age. Operating Alberta's largest privately owned art facility has taught me more about art than I thought imaginable.
How do you describe my art? That's like trying to hit a moving target. Just when I think its going one direction the ever-elusive leopard slips away and changes its spots. Slathering thick viscid paint on a freshly unwrapped canvas is sensual and visceral. For me it's always been more about the doing, than the end product. It's like being at a live concert. The energy that comes from the doing is a highly powerful thing. I tend to get bored easily so I will flit from subject to subject. As J. R. Tolkien said, "not all that wander are lost". No matter what the subject, it's always the same, the most amount of information with the least amount of brushstrokes.
Canada couldn't be a better place to live. But for me as an artist, the close proximity of the prairies, foothills and mountains of Alberta makes my home province a never-ending dream. I've been lucky, and have painted in many countries, but to me there is still nothing more beautiful than a cold beer and a hot Calgary summer sunset.
Art is not a living; it's living the art.
© 2011, Doug Swinton
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