The Painted Narrative

Take To The Water With Gallery 133 In Toronto's Design District

Buoyancy, oil on canvas, 36x60

  A canoe may have been her vehicle, but it’s the artist’s brush that transports you to the beauty of the riverbank in Gallery 133’s new collection of large paintings.

 Grand enough to fill any art lovers heart with joy, the work promises to turn the heads of visitors to the gallery. Located in Toronto’s Castlefield Design District, where art collectors and designers alike go to find must-have treasures, the gallery boasts a friendly and well-informed staff.

 The collection: Views from my Canoe, created by artist Laura den Hertog captures the essence of peaceful days spent on the water, exploring otherwise inaccessible areas. Done in oils, den Hertog’s masterful use of subtle pigments and watercolor-like translucency adds to the work’s atmosphere of tranquility. Dividing her time between the outdoors and the studio, the artist translates the grandeur of the Canadian landscape onto canvas.

 Spring 2013 heralds the arrival den Hertog’s work to Gallery 133, but there’s plenty of time for Toronto’s art collectors to view the paintings in this on going display.

Gallery 133

1260 Castlefield Avenue, Toronto ON M6B 1G3 416.504.6099

Email: info@gallery133.com 

Website: www.gallery133.com 

Hours: Monday to Friday 9:30 – 5:30, Saturday 10:00 – 5:00, Sunday 12:00 – 5:00

An Open Heart

An Open Heart, oil on canvas, 16x20

  There is a small farm close to my home that is a smidgen of its former size due to encroaching suburbia. The family has retained one large long field that is now flanked by a highway on one side and tightly packed houses on the other. It is a constant reminder of what the area was when I was a child, like a small beacon for our rural roots.

  There is no easy way on to the property without risking life and limb to traffic or cutting through someones yard but perseverance revealed a small cul-de-sac with nothing but grass and scrub brush between road and field. I picked my way carefully along the edge of the field, careful not to disturb the young soy crop until I could follow along the deep creek with its wetland grasses. I stopped in the shade to admire a lovely group of trees in the hedgerow and the most astonishing thing happened. From that particular spot, there were no houses, nor other evidence of modern life in my view. In that moment, the noise faded away and I was aware of the sound of moving water, a small bird hopping in the branches behind me and the smell of good soil underfoot.

  Like Alice through the rabbit hole, I found myself in another world. I felt my chest open up, my shoulders relax and I am not ashamed to say that tears sprang to my eyes at the sweetness of it.  I wanted to spin that moment out to last a lifetime.

  Painting the scene allowed me to relive that moment and ponder working with an open heart and those elusive magic moments.

May you find magic in your life.

Cheers,

Laura

PS: An Open Heart is available through The Avenue Gallery in Victoria, BC, Canada

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I'd like to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

I thank you for following along in my adventures in art this past year,

I am looking forward to another year of creating.

My work hanging in the "Grand Salon" at

 The Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art

in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Cheers!

Laura

Realistic Visions

Turning the Cheese, 36x24

Realistic Visions

an exhibit of 5 representational artists at The Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art

in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

November 2-30, 2012

I am very pleased to announce that a selection of my works will be included in this exhibit that celebrates exceptional draftsmanship, use of color, composition, and a diversity in representational style and subject matter.

The show is hosted by The Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art in beautiful New Hope, PA, an area long known for it's fine art gallery scene and local talent.

Several of my paintings will be on exhibit, including landscapes, figurative and still life works.

A total of five artists will be included in the month long exhibit. They will be attending the public cocktail reception Saturday afternoon (November 3rd) from 2-5pm. One of the artists will be doing a demo/workshop with a live model.

Meadow's Channel, 16 x 20

Details on the show can be found at:

The Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art

Burgeoning...

Burgeoning...

Burgeoning, oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches
Available through The Avenue Gallery

The rural landscape is a testament to the hand of mankind.

Nature may not grow in straight rows, but it does provide the soil, sun, water and

the mysterious force that turns seed to burgeoning plants. We work hand in hand with

these forces, a part of the magic.

Food for thought and food for the plate.

Cheers,

Laura

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Waiting for a shooting star

Waiting for a shooting star, 20x16

August nights often herald shooting stars. So on a night when this celestial display was predicted to peak, I made my way down to the river to gain a clear view of the sky and get away from the ambient light cast by civilization.

  I was picking my way carefully through the dark of the woods, only looking up once I was at the rivers edge. Laid out before me was a scene so beautiful, I knew I would have to paint it. The last of the days light was hovering at the horizon of a clear sky and reflected in perfectly still water. Not even the frogs were hopping to disturb the mirror surface.

  I was gobsmacked*

  Once the last of the light was gone, I settled down to catch some stars. Managed to put three in my pocket to bring home but the image that stayed with me was still water at the rivers edge.

Cheers,

Laura

*Gobsmacked combines the northern English and Scottish slang term gob, mouth, with the verb smack. It suggests the speaker is utterly astonished or astounded. It’s much stronger than just being surprised; it’s used for something that leaves you speechless, or otherwise stops you dead in your tracks.

Spreading my wings and heading West

Divergence, one of the many works at the gallery.

  It's always exciting when a gallery asks to represent my work, but when it's in an area I've been longing to show in, and as high caliber as The Avenue Gallery in Victoria, BC, Canada...well an artist can literally do the dance of joy.

  So it's with great enthusiasm that I announce my inclusion in this fine gallery in the West. The Avenue Gallery is in Victoria, BC an area well known for it's local beauty and fine artists. My work will be keeping company with canvases from some of the best talent out there. The gallery shows the works of Renato Muccillo, Catherine Moffat, Brent Lynch and Deborah Tilby and even another den Hertog!  That would be my cousin Michael whom I have met only once when we were small children and who's work I adore. Michael den Hertog makes abstract work that I find totally engaging and mysterious.

Michael den Hertog, Bits and Pieces ll

 The staff at the gallery are enthusiastic and well informed, add that to the great location and a well appointed, inviting atmosphere and you really can't go wrong!

You can view the collection of my work on the gallery's website:

The Avenue Gallery

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Twisted Cheese and Fresh Bread accepted into Laumeister Fine Art Competition

Twisted Cheese and Fresh Bread

DATES: August 11 - September 23, 2012
Artists from around the country have been juried into this fourth annual fine art competition by Scott Christensen. $7,000 in awards will be given and the representational artwork will be on view and for sale at the Center through the fall.

I wrote an article about this painting when I completed it and you can read it here:

Article: Twisted Cheese & Fresh Bread, a new painting and a recipe.

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Dancing to the Tune of the Universe

Dancing to the Tune of the Universe, 36x24

Dancing to the Tune of the Universe

During a recent conversation with fellow artists I confessed to dancing alone in my studio before and during painting. It seems I am not alone in this practice...there's a picture for you! Artists all over the world cranking up the volume and rocking out while painting. Puts a whole new spin on the idea of artists putting their hearts into the work. Cardio-art...it's the latest thing doncha know.

Ariane Goodwin (more on her below) commented that it may be a primal urge, this moving the body while creating. She noted that everything in the universe is actually in constant motion. Stillness is an illusion.

So today while working on a large cloud painting, which is essentially an attempt to capture something that constantly changes, I was musing about this constant motion idea and realized that although I was moving my body to the music and moving the paint onto the canvas, I was creating something that would be inert...or was I? At a molecular level, my painting is also vibrating, doing it's own little dance, just like the vapourous models I used and everything else in the universe.

The whole day felt very organic and I felt more connected than ever to the flow. Today the muse was a dancing fool with a lesson to teach about inspiration, movement and connectedness. All this because of one great conversation in the Blue Stocking Art Salon.

If you are a woman artist (sorry guys) and you'd like to join in a conversation with like minded others, I invite you to check out The Blue Stocking Art Salon. The salon is a bi-weekly discussion about art, artists, and how we handle the challenges and qualities this focus gives to our lives.
 It's hosted by artist Lori Wolfson and Ariane Goodwin the creator of the smArtist career blog, host of the smArtist telesummit (professional development conference for visual artists), writer of books and artist coach. 

May the muse push you into action.
Cheers
Laura

(PS: the painting "Dancing to the Tune of the Universe" will be available through The Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art, in New Hope PA, USA)

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Life as a Soap Bubble

Focus, oil on canvas, 18x36x1.5

  Everyone knows the joy of soap bubbles. They tantalise us with their ever changing colors lighting the encapsulated world floating by.
  The magic act of a soap bubble happens because it is made of a film of soap and water which reflects light on both sides of the film. This inner and outer light creates a color prism stretched into a sphere and in constant motion as gravity pulls on the water.
  Like a soap bubble, we have an inner and outer world. We fill our inner world with emotion and thoughts as we move around in the outer world. Each affects the other creating a skin we call self. We can shift our focus between this duality, shedding light on both sides and creating our own personal iridescent bubble.
  May your bubble be filled with light.

Cheers,

Laura

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