What’s the Big Idea? – Page 3 – One Life Fine Art Blog

22Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: Thought & Feeling

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

Thought & Feeling, 12"x12" O/C, $750 CAD unframed Our pear is back in Thought & Feeling, torn between Sisyphus and Dionysus again. Early on with this painting I wanted to shift the deep red tone I had started with to a lighter warm pink, creating a feeling of nostalgia in the painting. I saw it as sort of a companion to the longing in the earlier painting I posted about, I Only See You. that painting was about unfulfilled longing, whereas Thought & Feeling is about the power of fond recollections over the intent to follow a reasoned course of action or desire for changes.

15Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: Idealized Figures

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

Idealized Figures, 8"x10" O/C, $450 Unframed Meet Idealized Figures, one of the newest paintings in my series exploring the relationship between a little pink pear and a cake plate of jelly doughnuts. I was working on correcting and straightening some of the lines in the painting, when it occurred to me that this is what we do in life too; with our diet practices we attempt to correct nature and idealize our own forms. With this insight I decided to emphasize my correction lines in the painting.

08Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Project Announcement! Earthly Delights – 10 Still Life Paintings in Places

Earthly Delights, Events & Announcements, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?

Preliminary Drawings, & me on location taking reference photos. I’m on location here taking reference photos at Reader Rock Gardens in Calgary for my new project, Earthly Delights - 10 Paintings of Food in Places, funded by an individual artist project grant from Calgary Arts Development. As some of you know from reading earlier posts about the development of my Cravings series, I (intentionally) lost more than a third of my body mass in the last decade. Despite the many health benefits, there are other physical and psychological results of this journey which continue to make maintaining a healthy weight a challenge. Earthly Delights is about exploring that journey through the genre of still life painting. This project juxtaposes the still life within places to speak to the dilemmas presented by our…

01Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

I Painted A Serene Lake Scene On My Garage Door!

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

Sawmill Lake, 8'x16', exterior mural on wood garage door, 2022. Early this summer I painted this exterior mural on the new garage door my husband built and installed last year. It was his idea to do a mural on what looked like a big blank canvas to both of us, and with that sort of faith in my abilities, how could I decline the opportunity right? The image we chose was from a recent visit to the lake country around my husbands childhood home. This was a small local swim and camping spot walking distance from his home. You can see our grown up kids in the picture, but I opted not to include any figures in the painting. Neighbourhood response was so positive to this mural that I have…

18Aug 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Recent Reads: The Rhetoric of Perspective

Book Reviews, What's the Big Idea?

The Rhetoric of Perspective: Realism and Illusionism in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Still-Life Painting - Hanneke Grootenboer Warning, do not think this is a light Sunday read! So this book is a dense one, with a lot of reinterpretation of language to draw connections between disparate writings of art historians and philosophers. However, as I've been fascinated with the 17th century Flemish still life painter Clara Peeters, and it had a picture of a dutch still life painting on the cover, I had to commit to read this book fully. I over-ran my renewals at the library on this one but I made it. Essentially she goes through many convoluted arguments to prove that painting is a form of thought. Well duh, I thought, ask any artist and you will get that…

11Aug 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Recent Reads: The Pop Object

Book Reviews, What's the Big Idea?

The Pop Object: The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art - John Wilmerding This is a book produced by the curator for an eponymous exhibition at Acquavella Galleries. As such it is a big beautiful glossy refutation of the perception of still life painting as a skill building exercise or a safe way to explore new techniques. Of course there is text here, but the focus is really on the pictures, which makes it a relatively easy read compared to more theory based books. The book starts by exploring an apparent art historical blindspot in the analysis of the Pop Art movement: the legacy of still life art and its influences on or in Pop art. Chapter one covers the origins of the still life genre and documents the parting…

04Aug 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Collaborating with Kitchen Feminism: Not Enough Cubicles Here

Covid-19 Art, Events & Announcements, Introduction, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

Starting from the observations of writers that women's roles have been in some ways rolled back to the expectations of an earlier era due to the effects of pandemic lockdowns and school closures, the Kitchen Feminism project asked a diverse group of women to reflect on the ways they perceived their own lives to have been sent back in time by the pandemic: Mom I need this space for my zoom meeting! From the Kitchen Feminism Project, courtesy producer Dawn Van de Schoot, photographer Shannon Smith and stylists Nicole Does Makeup. Below are sketches of some of my ideas for this collaborative project which brings the individual stories of women’s experiences of Covid-19 to life in a series of photographs and short videos produced by Dawn van de Schoot. My…

29Jul 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New painting: Set In Stone

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

Set In Stone, 24" x 18", O/C, CAN$ 1600 Finally completed after 3 months on the easel, give a warm welcome to Set In Stone. As part of my Cravings series exploring food obsession, Set in Stone features returning characters Pink Pear and the Jelly Doughnuts. While I Only See You focused on the exclusive relationship between Pink Pear and Jelly Doughnut, this painting also features an art history guest appearance by the OG stone cold mama of the paleo world, the Venus of Willendorf, reigning atop her divan of doughnuts. Containing Desire, 10" x 8" O/C CAN$ 495 framed Following on Containing Desire (above), which addressed the futility of trying to contain the seductive influence of our favourite foods, I introduced the idea of the deep biological or evolutionary basis for…

21Jul 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Abstract Art Canada Interview

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

The Artist painting the artist. Abstract Art Canada is a uniquely supportive online art gallery promoting the work of Canadian artists who work with abstraction. Founded by and for Canadian artists, I am happy to be working with them to share the Fun Money series. Recently they asked if they could interview me about my work. Of course I said yes! https://abstractartcanada.com/in-conversation-with-debbielee-miszaniec/ Aimee Coles recently interviewed me about my work for Abstract Art Canada’s Blog. Follow the link to read the article. Current Work In The Gallery: Decorative 18"x18"Peacock 18"x18"Up Flow 18"x18"Down Flow 18"x18"Guilty Pleasures 18"x18"Wiggle 2 8"x8"Wiggle 1 8"x8"Pop 6"x6"Works from the Fun Money, Currents Series available to purchase from Abstract Art Canada Online

14Jul 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: I Only See You

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

I Only See You, 9" x 12", O/C, CAN$550 I recently finished I Only See You, a new oil painting in my Cravings series of still life paintings exploring food obsession. I Only See You focuses on the exclusionary relationship between Pink Pear and Jelly Doughnut as Sisyphus' warnings of the doomed nature of the task fade into the background. My inspiration for keeping the composition relatively spare in this painting came, as per Tempting Fruit, from the background colour of Terre Vert and white that I initially laid down. I loved the way colour gave an empty pining feel to the composition, so I chose to emphasize that. I loved working with this soft complementary colour scheme so much, I think I will be using that again at some…

Category: What’s the Big Idea?