The Mountain Won’t Know My Name

Yesterday, I drove across the Province of British Columbia. A trip literally from the shoreline of Georgia Straight to the Great Divide at the Alberta border, and then I continued to Calgary. It took 13+ hours for the journey including stops for fuel, road coffee and a bowl of chilli.

Darkness at the beginning and darkness at the end brought definition to full grey tones of a day filled with slush, compact snow and clouds of dirty road spray on the windshield. Only once did the sky open, allowing sunshine to touch the earth as a breathless whisper of light at the summit of Rogers Pass.

The moment seems so very paintable. But painting isn’t possible. There is nowhere to park: nowhere to open the paint box. Not enough time either.

The alternative is to stop to take a photo. A quick shot with my phone camera as I stand beside the car. “Click”, and at once the moment spoils: I get back into my car just as a large truck passes spraying a monsoon over everything.

The grandeur, simply the grandeur, makes the camera image: snow white brilliance with blue sky showcasing magnificence. Dazzling.
Don’t know if the mountain has a name. Certainly, the mountain won’t know my name. Simply a connection during a flash of sunshine.

Busy Energy

A busy street?

Do you feel “busy” in this scene? Well, maybe not so much as the space seems rather tranquil by urban standards: a solitary taxi is waiting for a traffic signal to change. Bicyclists are waiting too. It is a Sunday morning perhaps with an opportunity to read a newspaper with a coffee in a cafe around the corner.

In suggesting “busy”  my reference is more about energies to explore. It isn’t simply crossing the street as a taxi waits: I watch how the street moves toward me as the buildings endure what has transpired for decades. I touch the trees to connect with life that compels growth from the concrete. I wonder what the windows have seen.  There are very busy energies here and the canvas will want a story told. I sense what this will be but I’m open and will listen with my heart.

We are each different in how we see and how we connect with things. Another artist will approach this location in a different way. It is so cool how this happens.

To be the artist of this scene, what would your focus be?

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Jim Pescott is a contemporary artist who lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta, Canada: his work exhibits internationally.

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Not Ever Been There

I’ve been somewhere recently but I’ve not ever been there.

You’ve done this, right? Places in your thoughts like a vacation spot you dream about or maybe a new place to live that sounds wonderful. You have an image based on something but it isn’t based you having been there. Where have you been but you’ve not ever been there?

For me, as I work on a canvas, I’m often taken to see a place but I’ve never been there. I paint lots from real sources, real places, but there are options and eventually there is interpretation. It is something like looking at a black and white picture in a book and not knowing what the real colours are or what exisits beyond any edge of the image: with this, creativity awakens.

So I’ve been there but not ever been there. Every new canvas is so exciting.

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Jim Pescott lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is an international contemporary artist: he recently exhibited in the Salon 2011 held by the Societe Nationale des Beaux-art in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre. http://www.jimpescott.com   http://facebook.com/jimpescottpaintingsindots

If You Step On A Crack . . .

Remember the children’s rhyme about sidewalks, “If you step on a crack . . .”?

Recently, I overheard two youngsters share about stepping on shadows to see if the tree would howl. They were walking on a snowy trail under a bright sunny midday sky. Each shadow they approached was a gleeful opportunity to test what they knew must be true.

Did they really hear the tree howl?

This Calgary artist has painted many winter landscapes filled with light and shadows but I’ve never heard the trees howl. But next time I’m out painting in Fish Creek Provincial Park I will listen closely just to be sure.

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist who lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. To contact Jim directly about his paintings, or a project you think about, please phone 403-870-0591 or email him at paintwithdots@shaw.ca His website is http://www.jimpescott.com

Cafe Painting

The photo is a painting in process. It is about eighty percent done but I never really know until I get that point with a painting. The canvas is resting against the lid of a wooden paint box that serves as an easel. In this photo I’m not painting in my studio: the setting is the London Fog Cafe in Calgary, Alberta.

Painting at this cafe is a tradition in a random way as I try to be there once a week but it never happens on the same day of the week and then some weeks I’m not in town. Seems all about going wth the flow as best as I can tell.

About ten years ago, the then owner of London Fog Cafe asked me to display my paintings on the walls for a month. It actually turned out to be my first show ever and I sold seven paintings during the 30 days. The rest as the say is history: last December I had work at the Carrousel du Louvre, in Paris.

I still display paintings at London Fog Cafe (see third photo of cafe images). This Calgary artist has known four London Fog owners over the years: the current owners, Pat and Len make some great soup and sandwiches. And I personally love the butterscotch cookies!

If you are in Calgary, and close by, I hope you can drop by the London Fog Cafe. Catching me there is always possible but not for sure.

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To contact Jim Pescott call him direct at 403-870-0591 or email paintwithdots@shaw.ca

http://www.jimpescott.com

Calgary Artist in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre

I’m soon travelling to Paris where I’m a Canadian delegate at an international art exhibition of paintings and sculpture: the prestigious Salon 2011 de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA).

“Antarctica Shoreline” is a juried selection by the SNBA to be displayed at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France, from December 7th to December 11th. Needless to say I’m honoured to be a delegate and very pleased the SNBA jury chose a work from the Antarctica series.

 

Following the exhibition in Paris, I travel to Florence, Italy, with paintings for another international exhibition: “Symphony of Colors” from December 10th to 17th. This too feels an honour.

www.jimpescott.com

“Antarctica Shoreline”

Hostile, simply not habitable: “harsh” in itself being an understatement. Yet so prescious to the earth and to life. This coastline seems like no other I’ve ever  witnessed. When I first saw this place I was lost for words at the spectre of imagining how one, as a single human, might fathom the mere existance of such ice and vastness. Then, within it all, as I gazed out through the blue clear air toward these dense frozen sculptures, elements of attachment slowly seeped into my being as though I was existing with them.

“Antarctic Shoreline” is a real place on the coast of the Antarctica Peninsula. I’ve been there and I’ve seen it ( during the summer season). This is a snapshot really: the ice constantly changes in sync with glacial flows. At times the metamorphosis is stark as vast sections break away and plunge into the ocean.

“Antartica Shoreline” will be exhibited in Paris, France, in December 2011 at the Salon SNBA 2011 (Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts)to be held in the Carrousel du Louvre.

Winter’s Blessing

“Winter’s Blessing” happens as the tide turns slowly toward the magic breaths of Spring. It starts when the winter sunrise happens a little earlier than it did the week before. There is now a little more warmth in the first beacon of sunlight that touches us.

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“Concert In Blue”

In Antarctica you sense the earth is consolidating into a hugely quiet place of beginnings. Sequestered. Motionless. Colossal too, like a vision of endless skyline skyscrapers, yet immense hush,  like someone pulled the plug on the traffic. Then watching the landscape you listen with all your being to see the music. “Concert in Blue” found me this way. Gentle at first but then deeply connective and wildly compelling before relinquishing to the winds.

“Concert in Blue”  shares a glimpse of Antarctica and for me the emotions of seeing it.  The canvas is 30″x40″

“Shady Street Downtown”

The air always seems cleaner downtown when its cold. At least this is how it seems to me. Not sure why. Maybe it is because the shadows are more blue on a clear day in colder temperatures. Then again I’m not sure why. This is just how it seems to me.

As a landscape painter there”s a lot to take in as I walk around. For example, I’m always watching how shadows change the colour of things. Bright, unobstructed sunlight does this too. And I very much enjoy how shadows reach out from their source compared to how sunlight simply spreads as it gains strength. In painting “Shady Street Downtown” the shadows are winning at this point in the day: the sunlight could only seep through a very few locations across the pavement.

Of course this is not how it ended. As the day moved on the sunlight gained strength and the shadows receded as the colours to evolve. This, of course, would be another painting.