The Story Behind the Painting – Page 6

21Aug 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Final week to see I AM CANADIAN !

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

Hi All! It is the final week to see I am Canadian at the Edge Gallery in Calgary's historic Inglewood neighbourhood. Make sure you check out all the fantastic work on display, and remember, it IS for sale! Gallery hours are 10 - 5:30 Tuesday through Friday and 10 - 5:00 on Saturdays. Below I am posting my artist statement with images of the pieces in the show: [caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="241"] Finding a Dance Partner16 x 20 O/C[/caption] [caption id="attachment_223" align="aligncenter" width="240"] Salvation16 x 20 O/C[/caption] [caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="242"] The New Homeland16 x 20 O/C[/caption] [caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="242"] A Level Playing Field16 x 20 O/C[/caption] [caption id="attachment_226" align="aligncenter" width="241"] Spirit Wrestlers16 x 20 O/C[/caption] [caption id="attachment_227" align="aligncenter" width="236"] Land of Fairytale Abundance16 x 20 O/C[/caption] [caption id="attachment_228"…

24Feb 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

The New Homeland

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_131" align="aligncenter" width="242"] The New Homeland16 x 20 O/Cby Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] The New Homeland is one of the latest paintings in my Western Series, which you can see here. The New Homeland is based on a Canadian immigration poster advertising settlement to the Canadian West (Manitoba and west). There is a very specific type of immigrant that seems to be advertised for in this promotion. Young, healthy, family and agriculture oriented, and of a very specific ethnic background. However, though this campaign from between the world wars was looking for a specific image of the Canadian immigrant to build a new homeland, there were a great variety of countries that contributed immigrants to the building and development of Canada. So I decided to set the poster against a background…

18Feb 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Salvation

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_130" align="aligncenter" width="243"] Salvation16x20 O/Cby Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Salvation is one of the latest paintings in my Western Series, which you can see here. Salvation is based on a Sifton era (1896-1905) Canadian immigration poster. The image depicts an angelic harvest figure which appears as though in a dream, showing the plenty and prosperity that could be had for the immigrant who braved the ocean voyage, the cold, isolation, and the breaking of the land, to uproot families and make a one way journey to Canada. Many of these immigrants would have spent generations never straying farther than 50 miles from home. I had to wonder what the conditions were like where they were coming from in order to make that sort of leap of faith.

17Feb 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Finding A Dance Partner

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="239"] Finding a Dance Partner16 x 20 O/Cby Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Finding A Dance Partner is one of the newest paintings in my Western Series, which you can see here. This painting references an immigration poster advertising the charms of Canada to potential immigrants during the early years of the 20th century. Particularly, in this case, potential single female immigrants. During this time in Britain their was a great deal of discussion about the problem of the extra female population, for whom world conflicts had reduced the number of eligible mates. At the same time there was an imbalance (in the other direction) in the ratio of male to female immigrants to Canada. The idea of immigrating for better marital prospects, which the image seems to suggest is…

27Jan 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Cowboy Coffee

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_116" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cowboy CoffeeO/C 9 x 12Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Cowboy Coffee is a painting from my Western series. You can see more here. Painted on a bandana background, it refers to Cowboy culture prior to the invention of barb wire fencing, which led to the fencing off of range land and permanently changed ranching culture in North America. Previously ranching operations ranged freely across much on north america, with herds intermingling. The job of Cowboy was crucial and harsh. Rounding up and herding, sorting and branding cattle on the open range; cowboys lived with the cattle for the season, eating, sleeping and working on the range in makeshift and improvised settings. The text of this painting, Free Range Coffee, playfully alludes to both this reality, and to the current…

23Jan 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Wall Flowers

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_113" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wallflowersby Debbie.lee MiszaniecAcrylic on Canvas24 x 48[/caption] Wallflowers is part of my Landscape series. Completed in 2015, it serves a very special role: It is an idyllic image of a perfect day at Fish Creek Provincial Park in Calgary Alberta Canada. What's more, it is an encyclopedic painting depicting a range of attractive wildflowers which have been declared invasive species, because their hardiness and vigorous growth habits endanger bio diversity in natural areas by pushing out native plant species. This is a problem because animals and insects who rely on those native plant species as food sources may be adversely affected by their displacement. I created this piece in cooperation with the Friends of Fish Creek Park, as an aesthetic intervention and educational tool. The idea is…

20Jan 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Pancake Breakfast

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_109" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pancake Breakfast 9 x 12 O/C by Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Pancake Breakfast, from my western series, is a fairly straight forward piece. Growing up in Calgary Alberta, one of my favourite traditions of our annual (July) city wide Stampede celebrations are the free pancake breakfasts. For ten days, rich or poor, young or old, if you can line up on a sunny summer morning you can have a great breakfast, and entertainment, and possibly swag, all free of charge. Breakfasts happen all across the city every day during Stampede. Put on by community groups, churches, corporations, politicians, dentists, you name it, they are a great expression of community inclusion and caring. Even if you can't afford to go to the Stampede grounds more than once, or at…

16Jan 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Dime Novels 1903 & 1907

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_95" align="aligncenter" width="222"] Dime Novel 1903 12 x 16 O/C Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] [caption id="attachment_96" align="aligncenter" width="227"] Dime Novel 1907 12 x 16 O/C Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] The Dime Novel Paintings are part of my Western Series, which you can see here. They are still life paintings referencing the covers of early 20th century Western themed weekly fiction publications. The West lives as much in the imagination, in hyperbolic stories of legendary skill and courage, as it does in historical fact. We are much nearer to the source of the legends than earlier stories of medieval knights or Greek heroes. We even have photography, which can show us the real faces of some of our legendary figures, should they actually have any base in reality. Yet this vision of the west…

13Jan 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Following Legends

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Following Legends 20 x 28 O/CDebbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Hi there again, and happy Friday the 13th! Hopefully you all ate your Lucky Charms cereal this morning, and don't have any work to do under tall ladders or anything. Following Legends is the second of two paintings thinking about female western legend Annie Oakley. The legend of Annie Oakley forms the backdrop, the wall paper, to the life of the little girl from Wild Roses (last week). The little girl grows up and perhaps becomes one of the flag bearers at the Calgary Stampede, our equivalent to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. And so "the show goes on", and "on with the show" as the text at the top of the painting mentions. You can see more of…

09Jan 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Getting the New Western Gallery on to the Website

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting, Working Artist

I have just added a new western art gallery to my website. Included in the gallery is the painting featured in my last post, and I will be talking about some of the others more in depth as we go along. The images are not super high quality yet, the captions are short, and the design does not line up with the other galleries either, but it is there. Adding it required changes to all of the other pages, and will also require further changes, but one could spend all week on updating and never get into the studio! The other side of my new years resolution is spending the afternoon in the studio, so what it is really about is achieving balance between office and studio so I am neither binging…

Category: The Story Behind the Painting