Thursday, December 12, 2013

Moving forward... Lot for Sale

Moving Forward.
 
Sometimes walls present themselves. So you have to find ways to continue. 
 
The City of Ottawa forced me to close the gallery... In short... I had too many people coming to the gallery and failed to confine myself to the at home business rules and regulations. 
 

My 18 year relationship / marriage ended six months before the gallery was forced to shut.  So I was dealing with a lot.
 

With losing the gallery... I lost my business and source of income.  I had a 3700 square foot home... that was a big elephant.  Immediately I decided to convert my home in to a duplex.  That way I could afford to stay here and not bleed.  And it would turn this elephant into an investment property.  So later down the road I would increase my number of rental units.  Currently I have 4 rental incomes. 
 
I spent two plus months converting the building into a duplex.  I built a bathroom and a kitchen downstairs where the main gallery space was.. And in two and a half months I managed to rent the downstairs out. 
 
I took a year off to focus on life, love and art.  So I enjoyed painting. Spending time with a beautiful woman (now together for 9 months), did many paintings, and spent quality time with my daughter. I also built her a really nice play house in the back yard. 
 
Once I stabilized my home and heart.  It was time to push forward with my dreams.  Art Gallery... Art Space. 
 
Money... need money to make this dream.
 
The gallery property has a double lot.  If I remove a section of the house. And clear one of the two lots... I can sell the land. So it was time to demolish a large section of the property. 
 
See below images.
 

 
 
 
 
 this was not enjoyable


 
 
 All the electrical was in the old section of the building
 
So all the electrical panels had to be replaced and moved.   


one of the many electrical upgrades
 

I used a few basic tools to cut up and remove the house. 
This took two plus months.
But it save me about twenty thousand dollars to do this work myself rather than hire a company. 







 




If you see the large wood pile in the back of the photo
I put an add on the internet... Free Wood
14 large loads were collected by people.
They used the lumber to burn to heat their homes. 
And it saved me from taking it to the dump... and save me money.


It was a rush to get the project completed before the snow and cold settled in. 
But it all got done and done.






 
 
Once I sell the vacant lot... I will some funds to work with... and find a new location for the gallery.
 
 
 
 
If you know a developer, real estate agent, individual or family that wishes to build their dream home in Hintonburg...... As a PRIZE... I will give YOU (+ plus one guest)
FREE admission to the gallery for LIFE.
VIP membership to the gallery, all the parties, and all the events for free for life.
 
So please help Art. Please help me Dream. 
 
 
LIVE LOVE ART
 
Patrick
 
 
 
one of the gallery openings.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Selling your Art.... Sold Painting

Heart Beat.  oil on canvas. 48 x 72 inches.  Sold
artist - Patrick John Mills 
 
 

Sold - Painting has New home
http://youtu.be/-HE_AMIgG98
video talks about the painting

 
The below are words from the owner of Heart Beat Painting
 

 part of an email from client .......
LOVE is a small word, but it is all I know that could approximate my connection to it...exactly the impact I was dreaming of.
Talking about dreams, parts of it are glowing in my living room in the dark...and this ain't a dream, I'd rather not sleep not to miss a Beat.
*Night

Annie

 
 
The poem was written by the owner of the painting... in her response to the painting
 
 
Titled: Heart Beats
 
My heart beats
eyes screaming
that's all I feel

a magic pill
skin breathing, still
mind whispering

words have no meaning
if I steal
your pain and suffering

is it real
lost souls wondering, but
what is real

time passes by
lower the bar
become substandard

and the sun rises
a hidden blue wall
revival.

poem written by Annie - 2013
 
 
 

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Just In Time Art Show

Untitled by Patrick John Mills

Just in time for people in the market for some tasteful art.

Held today at the Orange Hall on Rosemount Ave. in Ottawa, there was a selection to suit everyone's taste and budget. In fact, budget was not even in the mix as of the hundred-odd pieces available, most were priced under $50 and the majority, $20 to $35.

The idea to do this art sale arose from art journalist, Mike Levin, and his family.








Money made was donated to the H'Art program for developmentally delayed people in an art program at the Bronson Centre.

The Silent Auction items had reserve bids on them but there was no frenzy so it you wanted the painting above by Patrick John Mills valued at $1,800, there was a reserve bid on it of $300 so you could have been very lucky.

My GUITARABESQUE acoustic guitar case below was valued at $700 with a reserve of $200.




Here is an overview of the Hall. Above, from the Silent Auction location on the stage and to the left, from the entrance.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Update on Art Donation

 I have added a picture of Marilyn Monroe from a 1982 cover of LIFE Magazine to the back of the decoupaged guitar case.

"Candy Tree" acrylic on canvas, 11" x 14"
by Florence Hannay
And Florence Hannay has substituted  "Candy Tree" for the canvas mentioned yesterday, "McNabb School.


Front of guitar case.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Donation of Art for Charity Sale

The deadline for donation to the Ottawa Hospice Charity Art Sale is Monday, September 30/13.
If you want to donate a piece, please see below for the criteria and email address.

I  live on a street in downtown Ottawa that runs from one of the main drags. There are at least five people living on this street who are artists and three of us have decided to donate art.

Here is what we are giving:

Guitarabesque "Audrey" 
by Shannon Lee Mannion
Decoupage on antique
guitar case.
McNabb School by Florence Hannay
11" x 14" acrylic on canvas


The Lynx by Stephen Lad Meszaros
18" x 24" framed acrylic on masonite





Call for Submissions: Hospice Care Ottawa

Hospice Care Ottawa is holding its annual fundraising Pop-up Shop at the Residence of the Irish Ambassador on November 15,16,17, 2013. The Organizing Committee is seeking affordable original works of visual art that would retail below $200.00. Artists will receive 50% of the revenue from sales, with 50% going to support Hospice Care. Interested artists are asked to apply by sending representative images of their work to cnymark@rogers.com by September 30, 2013. Selection will be juried in collaboration with Don Monette of Cube Gallery, Ottawa.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Feeling Color - Feeling Red

Feeling Color - Feeling Red

 
The Birth. oil on linen. 48 x 82 inches. 2003. Price: $8000
 

Robin Lynch worked in my gallery as part of her undergraduate internship. It was really a pleasure. Robin shared her incredible dance about love, passion, pain, naked soul, venerability, obsession, lose... She started the dance all in white. Clean. Innocent, Pure. She place a few liters of red tempera paint in a bowl. Robin proceeded to obsessively, tenderly explore her emotions in Red.


After that night I would ask Robin, “What color was she feeling today?”


As a painter her dance in Red helped me develop my relationship to color. In emails we would ask each other what color we were feeling on a particular day.

I am a pretty intense individual. These brief conversations rotated in my mind like a song on repeat. Day dreams. Visions. My dreams became more vivid. I would have waves of blue, wind of white, rays of yellow, falling shades of green in the night.

Sleeping, dreaming, inside my head, in my bed. The large window in my bedroom has no curtains. My bedroom is on the third floor and East facing. In the morning my window is open. I hear the morning start. I hear the birds welcome the break of day. The blue, black dark night dissolves. A spectrum of colors filter into my room. My eyes open the door to my soul. I inhale the palette of light.


My mind paints each color. I focus on where each color settles inside my body. Where is each ray of light marinates in my muscles of my mind and body. I would try to feel white in my mind. Bleach my mind. Mother's milk calming my cortex. Red in my heart. A fire. Warm source of inner heat and passion. The read has a contagious energy. A flame. It would dominate my inner being. It is not uncommon that I would feel like a tree on fire.... burning red. My house would go up in flames of red. It was been difficult to not be over powered and have red completely take over my mind, my heart, my palette, my paintings would be flooded in blood flood waves of red.

My relationship with red is most primary. Each color has a particular significance. And over the past many years I have spent much time thinking about each color and how and why I paint with each pigment.


A special thank you to Robin for inspiring me.

 
Live Love Art
Patrick John Mills
 
 
Heat Beat. oil on canvas. 48 x 72 inches. Summer - Winter 2012. Price: $3800.
 
 
Sunset Soul. Oil on canvas. 48 x 72 inches. 2013. Price: $3600

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Paint is Paint



I have enjoyed my pain equally as much as my pleasure. I have embraced them both with the same openness.

My career is not a career. Life is life. Paint is Paint. The time spent in my studio is pure.

The praise, the sales, the awards, the media...do not change my pigments on my palette. My paint brushes remain the same size.

I can only wear one underwear at a time.

When I sleep my dreams are not blanketed by big houses and fancy cars. When I dream my soul flies like a bird in the big blue open sky.

My feathered mind migrates across boundaries and borders without passports and permission. 

I do not delude myself that I own acres of mother nature... that the ocean can be deposited in my bank about. My life is rented, I am not for sale.   A bird sings, grass grows, rain falls, sunshine sweet sunshine.


Live love Art
Patrick

Friday, May 24, 2013

Solo Show - Patrick John Mills


Richelieu - Vanier Community Centre
Address: 300 White Fathers Ave, Ottawa, ON K1L

Dates: now until June 29th.

All new paintings that have never been shown or seen before.

Live Love Art
Patrick


The Canal. oil on canvas. 38 x 78 inches. March 2nd (Day Two), 2013.
Priced $3000

http://patrickjohnmillsgallery.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-canal-day-two-march-painting.html






 
 
Selected Media Coverage: March Painting Marathon.

CTV News - Regional Contact (Joel Haslem)
 http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=886619&binId=1.810401&playlistPageNum=1


Ottawa Citizen (Arts Section - Peter Simpson)

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/03/08/march-madness-a-painter-works-in-freezing-cold-every-day-for-a-month/


CBC (Alan Neal - All in A Day) - interview on location

http://www.cbc.ca/allinaday/2013/03/14/31-days-on-the-mackenzie-king-bridge-with-patrick-john-mills/



 

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Music and Love Paintings (Love = Love)

 
Love = Love. Oil on canvas. April 20013.

This painting is part of my new series of work. It is inspired by Maxine Hill. Music and Love Series.
 

Photo taken in artist's studio
 
 


close up / detail of painting
 
 

close up / detail of painting



close up / detail of painting
 


close up / detail of painting
 
 

close up / detail of painting
 


close up / detail of painting
 

Music and Love Paintings

Love (sheet). oil on canvas. 40 x 56 inches. April 2013. Price: $2400
 
 
 photo of painting inside studio
 
 

close up / detail of painting
 

close up / detail of painting
 

close up / detail of painting


This painting is part of my new series of work. It is inspired by Maxine Hill. Music and Love Series.