my friends have begun calling me a hermit.

It’ a huge relief to know the largest and most challenging paintings are done. It’s now time to concentrate on finishing a series of 8 paintings measuring 3 feet by 3 feet and a series of 24 small monotypes on paper. There’s still lots to do but at least the pressure in my chest has subsided.

Creating a site-specific solo exhibition has been a major undertaking over the past two years, but it’s finally coming down the home stretch. Things are starting to get exciting.

Lots of you have been asking when and where this show will be. Here’s a screen shot of the Art Gallery of Windsor’s online listing. It’s too tiny to read on this page. Just click here and you’ll be taken to the page where you can view it easily.  Scroll down for the Curator Mandy Salter’s comments explaining what my work is about. The Blue painting is called “Blue Horizon” and measures 4 feet by 4 feet.

There will definitely be an opening reception, so STAY TUNED  for your invitation.

Art Gallery of Windsor

My paintings were hung and lit beautifully. It’s always such a treat to see my “babies” displayed with such care. They never look as good in my studio.

I was especially blown away by the way she hung a 30 piece collection of framed 8″ x 8″ miniatures. People were immediately drawn to this wall to have a closer look. Even the Director of the Naples Museum of Art came and was seriously interested in this installation.

We had a wonderful turnout. Dede had done a great job with promotion. A lot of people I know have homes in the Naples area. In addition to about 100 guests and press, there were about 50 of my own friends, clients, relatives and contacts. I was overwhelmed that some even flew down from Canada for the Opening.

One of my friends who is an amateur photographer took 160 photos throughout the evening. How thoughtful of her to do that for me. It’s such fun to go through them now because the night went by in a blur. Stay tuned because I’ll be posting more of them when my website gets updated.

We work in totally different ways which gives us a fresh perspective toward each others’ work. She paints primarily in oil and I paint primarily in acrylic. Her subject is primarily flowers handled in a mostly subdued color range. My subject is abstract landscape with a process-driven focus on color. Here’s one of her newest paintings called “Ballade”.

Ballade by Janice Mason Steeves

Her paintings appear to require endless hours of painting, yet she paints quickly in burst of intense, focused energy. My paintings appear to be painted quickly, yet they have countless layers and sometimes take a month to finish. Here’s one of my recent paintings called “Green Horizon”.

Green Horizon by Shirley Williams

In spite of our work being so vastly different, Jan and I have much in common because we speak the same aesthetic language, have similar career challenges and suffer similar bouts of insecurity about our work. Over the years we’ve been there for each other to celebrate the victories and soothe the disappointments of each others’ careers. What a blessing it is to have her as a friend because as artists it sometimes feels like no one can really relate to the intricacies of what we do or why.

On Friday, Jan stayed overnight with me on her way to a workshop in Wisconsin. It was the first time she’d been to my studio in Windsor. Mostly I visit her on my trips to Toronto and we keep up with each other through looooog detailed emails and phone calls.

What a treat to see her and as always, we talked and talked and talked. Sharing such a close, trusting bond with another artist is truly a rare gift, one that I treasure daily.

Joe Fig is a Brooklyn based artist who creates miniature dioramas based on the day-to-day lives of professional painters. Ten years ago he began interviewing and photographing top New York painters in their studios. This book collects 24 amazing artist interviews and intimate photos of their work spaces.

Some of the artists are practically household names such as Ross Bleckner, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, April Gornick, and Philip Pearlstein. Many others are highly successful, but new to me. It’s been a wonderful revelation with every interview to go online and research each artist’s work.

In every interview he asked the same series of 18 questions. These questions cover fascinating territory such as how do they organize their studios? Do they live where they work? What’s their daily routine? What music do they listen to? What paints and tools do they use? Do they use assistants? How do they come up with titles?

These interviews make you feel like you’ve sat down for a very personal chat right in the artist’s studio. What a rare glimpse into their daily working lives.

What is most apparent is they all work every day, in a highly focused way. You might think the higher profile artists would be out doing more glamorous things all the time. But art doesn’t get made by itself. Many mention they tend to work long days and must force themselves to go out into the world.

Most of them spend the first few hours of the day dealing with the business issues, email and phone calls. Then they get to work painting. This is the same routine I’ve always maintained as well. Once the business stuff is taken care of, I can shift focus and go into the painting mode without any nagging “to do’s”.

The most surprising thing to me was the fact that most do not have assistant around them all the time. They simply have someone come in occasionally to clean up, stretch canvas and pack shipments.

Being an artist, no matter how successful or famous, is ultimately about being alone in honest conversation with your canvas.

I’ve been getting a lot of new paintings finished for my museum show this coming December, along with all the canvas stretching and preparing that goes with it. New updates to my website were just added with new paintings and events. I also revised my Artist Statement which tells a little more about where the ideas for my work come from.

And out of the blue, on January 4th, I was invited to have a solo show in Naples, Florida at Sweet Art Gallery. So I’ve been busy packing art and preparing to have it shipped.

This opportunity came about as if by magic really. New Years day, as always, I sat and thought about what I want to accomplish this year. In addition to creating a strong body of work for my museum show at Art Gallery of Windsor in December,  I decided I’d like to research and find a reputable gallery  in Florida to represent me so I could have a winter studio somewhere warm. I’ve always loved the Naples / Fort Meyers area so decided to focus on that.

On January 2nd, my husband was talking to his brother who lives in Orlando. My brother-in-law is in the roofing business and  has never really shown much interest in art. He  “accidentally” discovered on New Years day that his best customer’s wife owns a successful contemporary gallery in Naples. He showed her my website and  she was immediately interested.

Dede Sweet (don’t you just love her name) of the Sweet Art Gallery, phoned the following Monday and after a very comfortable chat she offered me a solo show for a month with the opening March 26th. If you’re anywhere near Naples on that day, be sure to come to the Opening Reception between 6 - 9 pm. More information can be found on my website under Upcoming Events.

How magical is that? My New Year goal - more than accomplished - the very next day !!! I still find it rather hard to believe.

I recently finished reading the 650 page Pulitzer Prize winning “de Kooning - An American Master” by Mark Stevens.  Brilliantly written, this book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in how an artist thinks. It’s one of those books I want to read again.

De Kooning was indeed a tortured soul who lived a long twisted life of struggle and pain. But he managed to transmute that pain into beautifully powerful works of art by persistently facing the canvas every single day no matter what others thought of him or his work. That dedicated discipline eventually made him one of the masters of 20th century art. Truly inspiring.

To be honest, there really aren’t many great artist biographies out there. How can anyone really know and write about what goes on in the mind of an artist. Most of the work is done alone. The conversation takes place with the canvas or other materials. The energy of the artist’s thoughts are transferred to the artwork. And it’s the artwork itself most books focus on.

The de Kooning book left me hungry for more. I just started reading “Matisse - The Life” by Hilary Spurling which was the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year in 2005. It’s a good book also, but not one of those you “just can’t put down” as the de Kooning book was.

Here’s a quote I found striking from Matisse’s writings of about 1902, which is just as relevant today. It’s about the role of the artist and what it means to have truly original ideas.

“What you have to do is look at what you wish to express long enough and with enough attention to discover an aspect of it that has never been seen or described by anyone before. There is something unexplored in everything, because we have grown used to letting our eyes be conditioned by the memory of what others have thought before us about whatever we are looking at……………..  That is the way in which you will become original.“

It struck me this idea could be applied to any endeavor really - artist, architect, scientist, teacher, parent, blog writer etc …….. What would happen if everyone tried to approach everything with fresh, inquisitive eyes that didn’t feed into other people’s expectations? If nothing else, new ways of seeing would fundamentally renew and alter our approach to being and doing.

A radical idea perhaps ……………….. After all how many true “originals” can the world absorb? Food for thought……………….

So much to do and so little time………………..

My show at Artspeak Gallery closed last Sunday. I was quite pleased that both the Windsor Star and Le Rempart (French language) newspapers interviewed me and wrote good reviews. The turnout at the Friday reception was awesome in spite of pouring rain. Over the course of the evening about 150 people came and went and another 100 or so dropped by the next day at my “Artist in Attendance”.

Artspeak Gallery Reception

I think the good press helped create a bit of curious buzz. To my great  delight, 19 encaustics were sold at the show. And one person came to my studio the next day looking for a large canvas for the dining room in the new home she’s building. She fell in love with this 36″ x 60″ Red Colorscape and snapped it up right away.

Red Colorscape ID #C-0906 (36" x 60" copyright 2009)

This past week has gone by in a blur. Monday and Tuesday was spent reorganizing after the show and delivering paintings to clients.

Then Wednesday morning I drove the 300 miles to Toronto for my annual pilgrimage to  the Toronto International Art Fair to overload my senses and eyeballs with world class art, see artist friends, network with dealers and just soak up the excitement.  I was also able to meet with my dealer, Leonardo Gallery in Yorkville to plan what I’ll showing for an upcoming 4-person Winter show there.

Tomorrow morning, it’s back into the studio - energized and eager to tackle new paintings.

Labour-intensive procedure produces art

By Ted Shaw, The Windsor Star October 8, 2009

Artist Shirley Williams poses with some of her Intimate Wax exhibition at the Artspeak Gallery.
The work displays Williams’ talents in the medium of encaustic wax on wood.
Photograph by: Scott Webster, The Windsor Star

A form of painting used in ancient Egyptian tombs has captured the imagination of Windsor artist Shirley Williams.

All of the works in Williams’ exhibit, Intimate Wax, at Artspeak Gallery, 1942 Wyandotte St. E., through Oct. 17 are composed of encaustic wax.

The combination of various waxes and varnish is heated, then allowed to cool to a hard, textured finish. The result is a durable and beautiful work of art that can be touched and even buffed clean with a cotton cloth.

The long-lasting qualities of encaustic, said Williams, are what appealed to the Egyptians when they painted tomb walls. The substance is resistant to heat and cold, and its vivid colours will never fade or peel.

Encaustic is not a new medium to Williams — she has used it for other exhibits in Windsor. But it is rarely used by artists.

“It takes hours to produce the wax,” she said. “And it can be very frustrating to use.”

Williams mixes up batches of the material in the shape of hockey pucks. During the creative process, she melts the pucks on a hot-plate, then applies it to a wood surface.

Wood must be used because the wax would crack on canvas or paper. After she applies the wax, she again heats it with a blow-torch or heat gun to create a bond between the wood and wax.

“Otherwise,” she said, “everything is lost in a puddle of muddy wax.”

Once the bonding is complete, Williams can apply more layers or carve out portions to manipuate the image.

All the material, she said, is archival and impervious to light. Her paintings in other media are on large canvases, but because encaustic starts to dry as soon as it is applied, she had to work on much smaller surfaces.

Williams has been a professional artist in Windsor since 1989, after spending several years as a documentary producer in Toronto. She has exhibited widely, from Toronto to New York and Dallas.

In 2006, Williams was commissioned to paint the cover for the Windsor Symphony Orchestra’s 2006-07 season program. The large canvas in her Colourscape series was later auctioned off at a WSO fundraiser.

In December 2010, Williams will have a solo show at the Art Gallery of Windsor.

An opening reception for Intimate Wax will be held tonight at Artspeak Gallery, beginning at 7 p.m. Williams will also be on hand at the gallery Saturday, noon-4 p.m. For more information about Williams and the exhibit, call 519-252-6855.

"intimate Wax" Artspeak Gallery

What a devilishly complex jigsaw puzzle of a job it was to hang 45 small pieces. It took about 2 hours just to decide on the flow of which paintings should be grouped together and in what order.

And then the next challenge became hanging each individual piece so they would line up correctly but not look like a boring straight line of squares. Uneven walls and floors added to the challenge so everything needed to be measured  countless times. Thank goodness for levels and  pencil marks. Then of course lighting had to be adjusted, posters put up and all the rest of it.

Finally after 7 hours of back and forth, the job was finally done and everyone was pleased.

The following 3 pieces have already been sold. And today I met with a writer and photographer from the Windsor Star newspaper who will be doing a review of the show. Thankfully, from their enthusiastic comments, it sounds like it will be a positive review.

The Public Reception will be this Friday from 7 - 10 pm and we’ve already had over 100 RSVP’s. I’m praying the weather will co-operate so people can spill outside in comfort.

SOLD "Orange Horizon" 5" x 5" (c) 2008

SOLD "Green Colorscape" 12" x 12" (c) 2008

SOLD "Yellow Colorscape" 12" x 12" (c) 2007

It’s been a busy busy summer, painting large canvases for my museum show next year, presenting a few lectures, and preparing for my upcoming encaustic exhibition. For the show which opens next week, there was a grant application to prepare, 45 small pieces to float-frame, and the usual preparation of invitations, posters, mailing lists etc.

In the middle of the flurry of non-stop motion, I even managed to squeeze in 16 days exploring Panama in Central America and 6 days visiting my parents in New Brunswick on Canada’s east coast.

My solo show “Intimate Wax” of 45 small encaustics on wood, opens in Windsor, Ontario, Canada this Sunday, Oct 4 at the Artspeak Gallery until Oct 17, 2009.

ARTSPEAK GALLERY

1942 Wyandotte Street East, Windsor 519-252-6855

PUBLIC RECEPTION:  Oct 9     7 - 10 pm

ALSO IN ATTENDANCE:  Oct 10    12 - 4 pm

I was thrilled to be invited to show these small encaustic pieces for 3 reasons.

1. They were all finished during the past 2 years and have not been publicly exhibited yet. Listening to people’s comments and questions during a show always teaches me something about my own work and inspires me to move forward.

2.  Although I’ve been very busy with exhibitions in Toronto and Dallas over the past several years, this is the first exhibition I’ve had locally since 2004. It will be wonderful to connect with friends and collectors who have shown me so much support at a local level during my career.

3.  The invitation to exhibit came from the  Arts Council of Windsor Region.  Through their support and  the formal recommendation by the Art Gallery of Windsor I was awarded a very generous Exhibition Assistance Grant by the Ontario Arts Council to pay for framing, invitations, posters and other marketing. I feel very grateful to have these expenses covered and most honored to have been selected.