This is a 15-minute interview about my Horizons show at Studio 22 in Kingston and about my artwork in general. It aired on the Queens University radio station, CFRC 101.9 FM, on April 14, 2016. https://youtu.be/zos8pwx8RFA

This is an interview that aired on CKWS TV about my solo show Horizons at Studio 22 in Kingston. The show runs from April 12 to May 15, 2016: CKWS interview

My show at Kingston General Hospital opens today. These are 14 of my newest paintings, mostly produced in a flurry of studio activity this fall, but also including a few from last winter in India. The show is in the Kidd 1 corridor. Just come in the main entrance, past the gift shop, and the gallery wall will be to your left. The exhibit is on until March 4th. All of the work is for sale with 30% of the proceeds going to support the hospital.

Starting to get excited about my upcoming winter show! I’m working on a series of large abstract landscapes for the Kidd 1 corridor at Kingston General Hospital. The show will run for two months starting January 8th. The work will be for sale with 30% of the proceeds going to support the hospital. I’ll post the work on the 2015 portfolio page as it’s ready.

Finally finished renovating my studio yesterday! After weeks of sorting, purging, organizing and repainting, it feels great to have a clean, uncluttered work space. No more negative energy!

September, season of fresh starts! I’m renovating my studio to get ready for a new art project — a major series of paintings, slowly coming together in my mind and soon to hit canvas. Now I need to clear out the old & make way for the new. We had been thinking about hosting a fund-raiser for Help Kids India, an amazing organization which provides pre-schooling to Dalit kids on a shoestring budget. So we’ve decided to hold a Studio Open House with all proceeds from the art sales going to the creche in Kodaikanal where Laura volunteered last fall. Date to be announced soon — first I have to finish renovating!

My Crow series will be featured as one of 3 concurrent exhibits opening at Studio 22. I started this series last fall in India. My studio was the back porch of a 150-year-old stone house. We were at the top of a mountain, 7,000 feet up, at the edge of a steep escarpment. On clear days I could see for miles and miles. The crows would swoop down from the woods behind me and sail out over the valley below. I continued the series after getting back to Canada, adding a few larger paintings as well as some small etchings. For a preview, check out the India 2014-15 page in my portfolio. The show runs from Tuesday, July 21st to Sunday, August 23rd. Please join me for the opening reception on Saturday, July 25th — always a fun, relaxed evening. And if you’re considering a purchase, Studio 22 is offering a gallery-wide discount that day — they will pay the HST.

Please join me on Friday, June 26th at 6 pm as the Stone Heron Gallery on Wolfe Island opens for the season! There will be lots of new work by island artists, including 20 pieces that I painted in India. This is always a fun, relaxed evening.

A bus will be waiting at the Wolfe Island dock to meet the 6 pm ferry from Kingston, and will take people back to the dock in time for the 8:30 ferry home, so you can leave your car on the mainland and walk on.

I’ve recently created a Facebook page for my art. I’ll be using the page to keep you updated on my work in progress, upcoming exhibits, etc. Please check it out:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Debra-Krakow/1567421563545986

We’re home from our 6 months in India and I’ve just posted my new work on the 2014-15 Portfolio page. It’s such a different world there and the excitement about everything we were seeing compelled me to move away from abstracts and delve back into figurative work. We spent 3 months in the mountain town of Kodaikanal, where I set up an outdoor studio. Once we left there I had to travel lighter, so I left my acrylics and canvases behind and went back to watercolours. I took a contemporary approach this time, flattening and simplifying the images with outlines and solid areas of colour.

I’m on sabbatical now, and it’s so great to have more time to paint! I’ve just uploaded my newest work to the 2014 Portfolio page. Take a look and let me know what you think of them. Some of these were done in my studio over the past few months, and others were done last week in a workshop in Haliburton led by one of my favourite artists, Lila Lewis Irving.

I’m really excited about my latest series of mixed-media paintings (see the 2013 page of my portfolio).  They bring together everything I’ve been working on (and playing with!) in the past year — quilting, fabric dyeing, felting, handmade paper, collage, and acrylic paint. They were created in layers, usually starting with collage for texture, then paint, and finally, machine and hand stitching. I was thrilled to discover that with one hand moving the fabric and the other playing with the dials on my sewing machine, I could create wonderfully expressive lines. The final step was to sandwich the painted canvas with interfacing and muslin and machine quilt through the layers. These pieces will be featured in my upcoming solo show at Studio 22 in March.

Lately, I’ve been exploring ways to incorporate textiles into my artwork.  This is a quilted purse I made. I started with acrylic paint on canvas, and then sandwiched the canvas with interfacing and muslin, and machine stitched through the layers.  This purse is featured in the Kingston Rotary Club 2014 calendar, along with the work of 12 other fibre artists. (If you’d like a copy of the calendar, let me know).  With this piece as my inspiration, I’m now working on a series of small mixed media paintings incorporating handmade paper, jute fibers, hand-dyed cheesecloth, machine and hand stitching and various other materials.

This painting began as an abstract and almost stayed that way. But a shape on the left was suggesting the form of a window, and once I went along with that, the clothesline followed. The title, like the painting, is meant to be evocative but somewhat ambiguous.

Here is my most recent large abstract (48 x 36″). I’m working my way up to double that size. Painting a canvas this big is a very physical process; I put the canvas on the floor and work on it from all sides, pouring paint, moving it around with scrapers and 10″ wide brushes, and considering it from all angles.

Abstract in White, Orange & Grey

This is my latest painting. It’s certainly influenced by Rothko, my favourite abstract expressionist, but I feel it has a contemporary edge. I’m happy with it but I’m realizing I need to go bigger. Rothko’s were huge — he said it made the viewer experience the painting rather than look at it as an object outside oneself .

Ah, the lure of freshly primed canvas…

So I’ve prepped some larger canvases, and I’m planning a series of diptychs and triptychs. Having a painting spread over two or three panels adds another dimension, and also solves the logistical problems of storage and transportation of big works.