It’s almost February, mornings are getting lighter and winter courses are now underway. France and I have been working on a book about my plein-air painting last Summer. We’re publishing in March and folk on Instagram may have noticed a few plein-air related posts – https://www.instagram.com/davidkearn1/. Whilst out walking during these colder months we’ve been tarrying at some of my summer painting spots, remembering and feeling the change in our landscape. Would Spring be the same without Winter!
AI and Art
In a recent class we had an invigorating discussion about the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on art. AI tools seem to be everywhere these days: in all creative industries, pushing boundaries of plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property, as in this sample article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/12/australian-artists-accuse-popular-ai-imaging-app-of-stealing-content-call-for-stricter-copyright-laws?
They are so good that I did no better than 50/50 in choosing real from AI images in this recent article: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jan/14/art-experts-try-to-spot-ai-works-dall-e-stable-diffusion Afterwards, I realized that I had been responding to my personal aesthetic preferences rather than the realness of the images – they all fooled me.
The impact of AI on our lives in general may well be in it’s infancy and as the ethics of all of this works it’s way out, I do hope that we are not driving out something precious:
“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.” – René Magritte
Workshops and Courses starting this Month
5 week courses via Zoom:
Driven to Abstraction
Thursday, 09h30 – 11h30, 23 Feb to 30 Mar (5 Sessions)
Drawing and Painting Expressive Portraits
Thursday, 13h00 – 15h00, 23 Feb to 30 Mar (5 Sessions)
Registration includes:
- Access to a full 2-hour video recording;
- Access to on-line class materials for one year;
- Coursework reviews and questions answered, either live or by email following the session.
Details and register on the website: https://www.breakabrush.com/workshops/ or send us an email france@davidkearn.com
Weekend Workshop at the at the Ottawa School of Art, Shenkman Centre, Orléans
North and South – Emily Carr and Georgia O’Keeffe 11/02/2023 – 12/02/2023
(2 days)
Register with the Ottawa School of Art: https://artottawa.ca Tel. (613) 580-2765
Susan Guirey-Pierce – Faces of the Tablelands
A series of five paintings In the display windows at the Ottawa School of Art, 35 George Street – Feb 15th to March 1st.
“As I approached The Tablelands, I was overcome by a sense of awe, overwhelmed by the majesty of the landscape unfolding before me.” Susan Guirey-Pierce
Purple Shadows
Many watercolourists actively eschew greys for their shadows, injecting purple instead. This works in all media, it’s just that watercolourists in particular seem to embrace the practice. There’s a lot of colour in shadow and because purples are naturally dark anyway – some blues too – in they can go. Take a look at pretty well any John Singer Sargent watercolour – he certainly did this!
Break-a-Brush!
David & France
“Watercolour is a controlled emergency” John Singer Sargent