Saturday, December 31, 2011

Call to Artists: I LOVE YOU


Call to Artists: Paintings, drawings, poets, film, performance, dance, music, sculpture, sculptors... anything and everything. I LOVE YOU. There is not limits. Just want your creativity in excess.

CV artist statement. Send images or samples of your work.

Deadline: January 7th 2012.

Only artists that have been selected will be contacted.


thank you and very best wishes

Patrick John Mills

Friday, December 30, 2011

Paint Paintings... Vincent van Gogh gave me paint. Time to Paint.


This morning I had eggs and toast. Sorry no bacon. I was thinking of Terrilee. Egg sandwich.

My brain is scrabbled. So rather than try creatively come up with new ideas. I decided to look at drawings and make them into paintings. So away I paint. No time to be lazy.

I own and run an art gallery. Many people say to me... OH I wish I could paint and be an artist. I smile. Generally say little. Just be polite. Thank them for visiting the gallery. Talk about the art.

But

To be an artist is not easy. It involves a lot of work. Not just painting paintings. But there is so much work work that has to be done done Sure I love what I do. It is fun. But in a couple of days. Tuesday or Wednesday I have to go poster 800 black and white posters all over the city. I say have to... why. That is the work work that enables me to paint paint.

As a professional artist. Note the word profession. It is a career. I treat it as a job job. Time management is a very important element in my career.

To be a professional artist involves a great deal of work. Inspiration is less. A lot of work is more heavy. I enjoy the event planning. The poster. Interviews.... it is a joy.

But in a few days I will be outside putting up 800 posters all over the city promoting the next months show. I will be writing a press release. Contacting media. Doing marketing. Sending out invites.... basic office work. Respecting this side of my profession has enabled me to painting paintings.

My average work week is: minimum 80 hours, average 100 hours, not uncommon 130 hours.

Over the past 19 years relentless hard work has enabled me to position myself to live my life as an artist. I feel very blessed.

Yesterday I managed to complete three small paintings. Two are listed below.



Fallen. oil on canvas. 10 x 12 inches. Price $400


She is a Flower. oil on canvas. 10 x 12 inches :Price: $400





With it being the end of the Christmas I felt it would be a good idea to share a poem I wrote about Vincent Van Gogh 15 years ago.


Fuck me up

Fuck me up

Treat me bad

then crucify me

and we shall package my pain

and Santa will deliver it

to Vincent for Christmas

it will be wrapped up

ever so tightly and

placed under the tree where children

with rosy cheeks can dance around



Poem written 1996 by Patrick John Mills

Catch the Art Action on this Site

Here's a fabulous site run by Jeff Hamada in Vancouver. There's something for everyone on it! It's amazing what one creative, enterprising person can do. Enjoy!
http://www.booooooom.com/sorted/art/

Thursday, December 29, 2011

I failed to paint a Penis...





The Chair. oil on canvas. 10 x 12 inches. December 2011.


Wake Up - Time to Paint

Ivory black is something you put on your palette.
Black Pepper is something you put on your eggs.
Emerald Green is not Green Eggs and Ham.
Paint. Eat. Drink. Life.

For my birthday Mathieu Laca was so kind and gave me some paint. Well we also had a bet. Who would have an article written about them in the Ottawa Citizen. Mathieu Laca was in many many newspapers and featured in countless magazines. But he lost the bet. We both smiled. As it was a bullshit bet. Just something to smile about.

The tube of paint that Mathieu gave me was Anthraquinone Red by Kama Pigments. I really enjoyed using this paint. It was ground in Walnut Oil. Which is something I normally do not use. The paint has a velvet feel. So I decided to use water color brushes to get a softer wash. I put it as a back ground color. Something new for a change. I used Cobalt Turquoise Deep in The Chair. Those two pigments really compliment each other well.

The Painting is titled: The Chair. I took an up close image of the Chair. After I signed the painting. While standing up near my fish tank in my kitchen. I decided to add little feet shadows on the chair. Last minute sort of thing. Not sure why. But it seemed like a good thing to do.

I worked on this painting for two days. I kept trying to add a penis in the male figure (right hand side). Mathieu Laca did give me some paint as a gift. So I felt a painting with a penis would be a good thing to add. But after three attempts... I failed to include the cock.

This painting relates to a poem I wrote during the Summer of 2011. The poem is untitled.

You build your bubble
head in the clouds

I get angry scream
real loud

You detach, I attack
we get depleted, us gets deleted

No one is to blame
we are equal
and the same

Where is the trust
we keep killing us

these are my words
this is our song

this is our love
gone terribly wrong.


Written by Patrick John Mills

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Eat, Sleep, Shit, Live, breathe, cry, Love, Fuck, dream, Kiss, ART








Since expanding the gallery... my home has become filled with art... everywhere.

Wanting to paint in the warm for the first time in five years. Where do I paint? Do I use the gallery? Do I use the back room (wood burning stove room)? Where do I paint?

I love my kitchen upstairs. So I decided to some of my painting supplies upstairs. I love this space. I have the fish tank. My tea kettle. The heat is nice. The window is large. Inshort... I feel good there. So now I paint at the kitchen table. It is fun.

In the last two days I managed to complete three paintings. The first one was a painting taken from a drawing I completed months ago.

The second painting is a Self Portrait of me sitting in a chair with a father's day blue flower.

The third painting is a Self Portrait of myself while painting outside in a landscape with dead bodies at my feet. The Male figure has a penis. I decided to include a penis for Mathieu Laca. Smile. Balls to the Wall. Why not! I did not have the penis erect. Nor does the penis have sperm / paint blowing across the canvas. But perhaps I will piss on the canvas. Shit on the canvas. Fuck on the Canvas. Live Art. Dream Art. Cry Art. Sleep Art.

Now that my paintings are on the kitchen table... Eat Art is not such a good idea. But this morning I did eat my breakfast in one hand and paint in the other. And before 10 am I had managed to complete my first painting. It is fun.

Mathieu Laca is a painting machine. His level of Self Promotion on Facebook is relentless. Very inspired.

I had a smile when I painted the penis on the canvas. It was fun. Thank you Laca. You have inspired my painting.

live dream art
Patrick



Friday, December 23, 2011

Show Our Love

I wish this said, GIVE or SHARE, and perhaps I'll create one of these over the next few days but a friend who is an early childhood teacher asked for PLAY several months ago and PLAY she shall have.

In reading Robert Genn's consistently well-written bi-weekly newsletter, The Painter's Keys, he spoke of the gifts artists can make, gifts that come from ourselves, from our hands, from the movement of our bodies as we hunker over an easel and crouch to pick up paint-crusted rags, eager to correct  in order to ensure that what we are creating is worthy of the person we have in mind.

Even if what we create isn't perfect, it's from one heart to another and that my friends, is perfection.
Robert Genn wrote:

...it's this time of year when we artists get a chance to show just how strong we are. It's not surprising that most charity fundraisers back their carts up to the Santa Season. When you think of it, we love doing the work--one fine way to help a children's hospital, a dance centre, a small village in Africa, or further research toward a cure for cancer.

Then there are the little gifts we give on our own. I like the unwrapped, offhand ones--perhaps a small painting or drawing given with no clatter on the roof, no cookie crumbs to clean up. I think Santa likes to hear about these little services--and besides, it lessens his load.

More than anything, a gift that happens to be personally crafted by the giver is most likely to be a treasure to the receiver. It seems these days that Santa's up-north workshop, once hands-on and all abuzz with creative elves, has now been transmogrified into a Chinese factory. All the more reason to get out your brushes and chisels. "It is when you give of yourself," said Kahlil Gibran, "that you truly give."

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy, a whole heart, and a free mind." (Pearl S. Buck)

Esoterica: Just being an artist is a big sack of abundance. Our blessings come down the chimney every time we squeeze our paint. A small effort is required to think and start, some fortitude is needed to stay with the vexing parts, some patience to stay and watch the miracle of the magic process, and some final joy to sign your name. It may as well be "S. Claus." Ho ho ho, and by the way, Merry Christmas. "I am so rich that I must give myself away." (Egon Schiele)

You can read the entire article here:

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Vincent van Gogh - (International Award Winning Poem)

Photo taken by Patrick John Mills




Dear Theo (tribute poem to Vincent van Gogh)


Vincent face the sun

hold on to your gun


Can see me?

Can you hear me?


I am a chair

I am a flower

blowin' in the open fields

Sunflower seeds harvesting

inside of me

Raw sienna

Cadmium yellow

and cobalt blue

are the colors I choose

What else can I do?


Vibrating grass

empty canvas

Now there is nothing left

but these cold paintings

these vibrating portraits

and couples walking hand in hand


Dear Brother

Do you understand?

Do you have a light

in this starry night?


(written 1996 - Patrick John Mills

Friday, December 16, 2011

Painting in the Cold


In his twice-weekly newsletter, The Painter's Keys, Robert Genn writes a practical and humourous response to one of his readers queries about art in the great outdoors...when it's cold enough to see your breath and your fingertips turn blue.

Shades of what artists from Patrick John Mills Gallery went through earlier this week.

Here are Robert Genn's comments:

Yesterday, Richard Woods of Sparks, Nevada wrote, "I'm just heading out painting at a location where snow is a good possibility. The forecast calls for a high of 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Painting in cold weather is a pain for me. I see pictures of you working while sitting in snow banks and at high elevations with snow coming down. How do you do it?"

Thanks, Richard. With forethought. The main problems are wind, precipitation, and the temperature of things.

Wind: You may need to sacrifice a really good view to put your back to the wind. I often paint in a folding chair, so an extra chunk of foam on the chair-back is useful. Also, one of those fur-lined helmets with the flaps helps prevent an early loss of ears. Parkas or hoodies tend to interfere with head movements and the business of looking over your shoulder for bears. Fur-lined hiking boots are a must. "There is no bad weather for painting en plein air," says Barbara Jablonski, "only bad painting clothes."

Teach yourself to paint using leather or wool gloves. I used to cut the fingertips off, but it's only necessary if you're doing finicky work. Regular gloves or even mitts can help make your stroke broader and fresher.

Precipitation: Whether straight down or sideways, snow, sleet or rain are fun-spoilers. Wet snow falling and puddling on acrylic or watercolour has only limited creative value. Oil and water, of course, don't mix. "Best Brellas" are simply brilliant on calm, sunny days--but in a gale they can move you and your work a mile down the valley.

Warmth: "Scottish antifreeze" from a small flask is best. Cocoa from a thermos works but is less fun. Some ladies of my acquaintance put chemical warmers called "Heatmax Hot Hands" and "Heatmax Toasti Toes" into needy areas. I like to point out that Scotch taken orally in moderation warms all over.

Some painters report the main benefit of sub-zero painting is the achievement of speed. But there's also a wonderful feeling of smugness that slips over you like a soft woollen blanket. Whether an island unto yourself or together with a gaggle of good companions, you're adrift and apart from a madding world and in soft communion with wonder.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Working outdoors puts you in direct contact with the life force, not just the light and the landscape, but also the vitality of the world." (George Carlson)

Esoterica: Acrylics and watercolours freeze easily and take on an unpleasant granular texture which stays on after they thaw. Keep all your paints, including oils, in a warm part of the car and don't leave them in a car overnight. Liquids like acrylic medium and linseed oil should be near to room temperature for best viscosity. The Russians have pioneered thinning watercolours with vodka. When ice begins to form on the palette it may seem like the time to reconsider chartered accountancy, but really it's just time for the lodge. Tomorrow will be another day.


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