Blog June 25, 2010

IT’S FINALLY OUT!

“ARTISTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA” volume 1, published by Leighdon Studio Gallery is out in the stores and selling! I’m honoured to be one of the 36 artists featured in this handsomely bound book with a biography and beautiful reproductions of work by each of the artists. Please contact www.leighdon,ca or me at endabardell@telus.net for a copy or check your local book stores. It’s really a lovely book!

The one day MID-MAIN ART FAIR on Sunday June 13, was a huge success! 

It was a lot of work but well worth it! From selecting the fine artists, planning, and preparing the promotion in all the local newspapers to setting up and spending the day chatting with folks coming through, and selling some of my work, was a real treat.    

I met new contacts and clients from my past endeavours such as my former store Enda B. on west 10^th Avenue and Royal LePage Real Estate.

Chatting with all the people who came through was very fulfilling. Painting in the studio can sometimes be lonely, since I have been dealing with the public in my past careers.  

So, now I have booked the HERITAGE HALL on Main and 15^th Avenue, Vancouver, again for next year, Sunday June 12, 2011!

Thursday night’s opening of “Septessence” a group exhibition (until June 13) of 7 artists at the prestigious Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery on Granville Island, Vancouver, was a huge success! There was lots of laughter, guests spilling out the door, and sales.

Great fun!

Now that this exhibition is under way, I’m in the midst of preparing for another exciting event MID-MAIN ART FAIR at the HERITAGE HALL, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver, on Sunday June 13 from 11 AM to 6 PM.

It is an event which I’m launching with 15 other established successful artists to bring art to the public who may otherwise by shy about investing in art. This is an opportunity for people to chat with the artists, get to know the process of their art and possible buy an original work of fine art for their home.

I’m really proud to have such a talented group involved in this Art Fair.

Please read LUCY HYSLOP'S article in AT HOME section, in Friday June4, Vancouver Sun

Today I packed up my 2 abstract paintings, “QUADRANGLE” and “RELIEF” for the “ESTONIAN ARTISTS IN EXILE” exhibition which will be held at KUMU, the National Museum of Estonia, in Tallinn. I have the honour of being invited to participate in this very special exhibition of 50 Estonian artists from all over the world living outside Estonia. 

There are only 2 artists’ works from Vancouver. The other is ENN ERISALU, now deceased, whose work is also in the permanent collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. 

So, I’m really the only Estonian artist from Vancouver attending the opening reception in September.

There were huge emotions involved in this process of packing up these paintings which were painted in 1968 and 1969. My mind wandered back in time when handling the canvasses, which I had stretched and framed myself. 

One of the frames was a bit battered from being moved so much and stored badly. I repainted it with black Gesso. “RELIEF” was framed with a metal kitchen counter moulding for some reason.

I looked at my old signature bearing a different surname, Bratt,  which I could no longer identify with.

The years on the back of the paintings took me back to my hectic daily life with children, outside work and my studio space in the basement of the house in Lynn Valley, North Vancouver.

The craziness of that time is what catapulted me into painting the images I painted; “hard edge abstract”, which now have been sought out by the curators of the National Museum of a small country which sang its way to freedom from Soviet occupation in 1991.

I thought about being amongst all the other Estonian Artists in exile and their lives and how they happen to be where they are today. Each one of us has a story. People often tell me that I should write a book.  I’m quite sure that all the other artists’ friends tell them the same thing.

My abstract paintings, which represent a metaphysical method of working out the concrete, are going “back home”.

It is the ultimate honour to be in KUMU, the National Museum of the country of my birth, Eesti!

UPHEAVAL

One of my watercolour paintings titled ‘UPHEAVAL” is in the “Highlight on Jewish Holidays” exhibition at the Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41^st Avenue, Vancouver from May 12 – June 2.

So how does an Estonian Gentile end up this show?

When I was in Prague a couple of years ago, one of the most impressive sights in Prague was the Old Jewish cemetery in Josefov, the former Jewish ghetto. This cemetery, the oldest in Europe, was used from 1439 to 1787.

There are more than 100,000 Jews buried in this small plot, the graves being layered 12 deep in some places. The 12,000 tombstones are crowded together, some on top of one another with almost no grass between them.

This was one of the sights that really moved me and left an indelible impression. When I examined the tombstones closer, taking many photographs of this upheaval; the tombstones at various angles, began taking on personalities, as if they were real live people begging for help in being uprighted. It was difficult to tear myself away from this strong magnetic spell upon my departure for some unexplainable reason.

When I arrived back home in Vancouver, I had to paint what I remembered and felt from that amazing experience which was “upheaval”. Hence the title “UPHEAVAL.

The completed watercolour painting sat in my drawer, waiting to be shown somewhere, until heard about the “call for artists” for “Highlight on Jewish Holidays” at the Jewish Community Centre.

My painting at last had found a place to viewed! Then there was the challenge of finding a suitable prayer to go with it. This turned out to be a really a wonderful experience, learning about the various Jewish holidays and customs. 

I’m really excited about my exhibition “COMMON GROUND” at LEIGHDON STUDIO GALLERY, 190 West 3^rd Avenue, (between Cambie and Main), Vancouver, opening reception Friday May 7 at 6PM, May 4 - May 29. Gallery hours are 10 AM – 2PM, Tuesday to Saturday www.leighdon.ca. This show consists of 24 acrylic paintings of landscapes around of Vancouver and vicinity on which I have been working since last fall. It will be great to see all of them beautifully displayed in this spacious gallery which promotes British Columbia artists! Hope to see you at the opening!

With all that’s going on, writing the long version of my biography for the ESTONIAN ARTISTS IN EXILE exhibition at the KUMU National Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia, I am also involved in many other upcoming local events.

One is the SHED ROW SPRING ART CLASSIC at “Fields& Flowers Farm Store”, 900 232^nd street in the tranquil country side of Langley, British Columbia.

This exciting event takes place on Saturday and Sunday April 17 and 18 from 11 AM until 4:30 PM.

I’m really looking forward to showing and selling my paintings and new greeting cards of some of my paintings and demonstrating! Hope to see some old and new friends there!

Enda

 Right now I feel very fortunate to have a network of Estonian friends and relatives with whom to speak and write emails in my Mother tongue. This is immensely beneficial for my upcoming trip to the “Estonian Artists in Exile” to which I have the honour of being invited. The exhibition opens in Tallinn, Eesti in September, travelling to Tartu in spring of 2011.

 Since my parents and most of their friends have passed away, it is not easy to find Estonian speaking people in the small Estonian community here in Vancouver. I find that my “kitchen” Estonian is unsophisticated in a more cultured environment.

 The Estonian language is quite poetic. The words can be juxtaposed in almost any order in a sentence and still come out meaning almost the same. 

I have an English version of visual poetry with paintings and letters on www.latatara.org , an online exhibition out of New York. The invitation came from a long time Estonian friend, Helgi Leesmet, who keeps me posted on art events from time to time. I’m also thankful to all the other Estonian connections in Vancouver, Toronto and Estonia for keeping me up to date on current cultural events.

Right now I’m painting grasses, brush, autumn trees and waterways. I have an enormous collection of reference photos from which I get ideas to paint. (I carry my camera with me wherever I go, just in case something inspires me).

Most of my recent Acrylic paintings are on 18 x 24” canvas. That seems to be the right fit for the landscapes.

The painting goes something like this:

I select a photo or two, make compositional adjustments on my computer, do a little black and white thumbnail sketch in my sketch book to establish values (light and dark), followed by a rough (very rough) sketch on the canvas with chalk.

But first the canvas is primed with 2 coats of a mixture of exterior latex, Acrylic paint and Gesso. When this is dry, I paint the canvas with an “under paint” in a mid value. This enables me to go darker or lighter, painting the darks first followed by the lights.

So, here I am, enthusiastically painting away, listening to mostly Mozart until I get to more than three quarters of the way through, and then, BOOM, I get stuck!

This is when I place the painting upside down for a few days on the “viewing easel” until I see what to do to complete it.

The next crucial moment is when to quit as it’s so easy to keep going back to fix things.