Blog Posts

Clouds

4/6/2017

"I really don't know clouds at all..." (Joni Mitchell)

“Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all…” Joni Mitchell

As these words go, as reflection of the songwriters look at life, and how things seem a certain way, but in reality are so different. These words echo my heart.

There are seasons in life, there are changing conditions and for all of us these things come about without warning. Then we must process and adjust to meet the challenge. Seems such clinical approach. In reality nothing ever is clinical. Nothing really is predictable. And emotions get in the way. “Something’s lost and something’s gained in living every day”. In the end we don’t really have much control. My life is in Gods hands. Each day I am more and more resolved to this end. I remain in his mercy and care, every day. He provides for me in spite of myself.

I really don’t know clouds at all. I just take each day one minute at a time.

RM

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Reflections

4/3/2017

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Reflections over time

Forest Reflections
available. robsreply@gmail.com to inquire.
www.robertmcaffee.com

I reflect many times in my life the wonderful memories my father gave me growing up. He gave us all of his vacation time and toured us around this great land we call Canada. usually the trip consisted of routes to and from New Brunswick to visit his parents and family, but we interrupted those routes almost every time to wander all over the land in search of yet another beautiful camp site or rock to climb on.

So much learned, so many memories stored away in the data banks of our minds. My paintings are reflections of those reflections. They carry me, and hopefully you to another time and place, right from the place where we sit. That's my job, to transport you.

RM

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The Stockyards Gallery

4/2/2017

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The Stockyards Gallery: Opening Night

A great night at The Stockyards Gallery in Toronto, at 116 Dupont Street in the Junction area. The grand opening of the gallery which featured artists Robert McAffee, and Brigitte Granton. Many notable guests attended including Toronto’s Interior Décor icons Colin & Justin from wnetwork.
Special thanks to Lola Kerecki and the Stockyards Gallery and her amazing team for a great And successful opening night!
See more of Robert McAffee's original works at www.robertmcaffee.com

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The Bees

3/29/2017

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Where are the Bees

What do we do to make a difference? Who are we in this world? Shall I just live selfishly and disregard all others and all things? Why should I give a care about anything but myself?
This seems to be the state of the world as we know it. “Every man for himself” they say. Not only is Venice sinking, The world sinks as we speak. The Trump administration is dismantling the entire American Eco support system as we speak, pollution is rampant pesitcides are killing our precious Bee population,
Those little Bees are responsible for much of what we enjoy every day. From flowers to fruits, vegetables and many other beautiful and essential things.

So what can we do? Maybe a moment to consider the little bees? Next time you go to your grocery store take a moment, stop, consider what has grown and how it wouldn’t have without the Bees. Then take a stroll down the cereal lane. Why Cereal? How does that help Bees? Currently Cheerio’s has a free wildflower seed distribution and you can get some. I suggest you get some. Either from your Cheerios pack or from your favorite seed supplier. Plant some. Anywhere is fine, your backyard, the field, forest or vacant plot of land in the city.

Lets give the Bee population a boost! Lets plant millions of wildflowers and give them a helping hand.

Who is with me?

Cheerios www.Bringbackthebees.ca

Yours truly,
Robert McAffee
www.robertmcaffee.com

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Walking through Memories

3/27/2017

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Walking through Memories.

Walking through memories

As life goes by, and it does very quickly the older I get, the quicker things of childhood we forget.

When I was a child my mother used to take my older sister and I to Woodbridge to swim in the very shallow Humber River. There were many low hanging Weeping willows along the banks of the river and I used to think I was Tarzan swinging from those long branches. I used to also bring my under water goggles to go deep sea diving in that river, which was actually only a few inches deep. I thought I was Jacques Cousteau diving from his ship, The Calypso!

It’s been 50 years since those major childhood expeditions happened in my mind, and for the most part all forgotten.

Today I left Orillia on some business with a gallery there, and headed home the long way. Hwy 11 south and somehow I ended up in Woodbridge. Heading south on Islington I first went for a short nostalgic walk through Boydd Conservation area which rendered memories all by itself. But then thoughts of the Humber River just one mile south of Boydd brought me to a deep stroll down memory lane through deep sea dives and swinging through the trees.

Gone so long ago, but so fresh in my mind and my heart.
A pleasure to bring you along on this hike through my life line of time.

RM

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Who are you?

3/25/2017

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Who Are You?

Who are you?

Artists ask me many times: “How do I develop my own style?”
What a wonderful question and what a wonderful problem! The question can apply to anyone in any career, who are you? My answer is always the same: Who have you become?

As art is a creative process which draws on many experiences, for certain it is shaped over time and is the result many turns. Some turns for the best and some for the worst. In the end who you are is a conglomeration of all of those turns. It wells up within you and desires to come out.

What will you do with that well spring? Sing it? Write about it? Perhaps, as I do, paint it? What will be the channel in which you will release the inner energy?

For me the channel was through my brush. My challenge in life is to present the things in life that I love and make it possible for people who identify with what I feel to have it and enjoy it in their own personal space.

It’s about colour for me. Sometimes it’s about bright colour and other times it’s about dark colours. Either way I use colour to shape the message I present.

My emotional conduit happens through the landscapes I love. Canadian Landscapes, most particularly the Canadian Shield. Together my love for the use of colour and my passion for the land come together to form a message. I must underline that those two elements are also tempered and deeply influenced by my life’s experiences. Jobs, travels, family matters, friends, relationships. These experiences make me who I am and who I am is an emotional being. This emotional being renders colours which come from my mood at the time of painting.

Who am I? I am all of the above. My style of painting is all of the above. In short, I am true to myself and allow my soul to show. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I place my heart on the canvas, I apply it with a brush and colour.

So now, Who are you?

Best regards,
Robert McAffee

Feel free to email me at robsreply@gmail.com or leave your comments here on the blog.

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How to be a successful Artist

12/30/2016

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How to become a successful artist

How to become a successful artist

First of all let me say right out of the gate, success is a measure for which each person has to measure by his own rule. There are many forms of success and artists typically have the most difficult time answering that question in the measure of them selves.

My late uncle Jack Reid used to say, “If you want to know how good an artist is, just ask him”. How true that seems to be. We all have our own usually lofty opinion of our work, which is higher than the opinion of most viewers of our work. Funny how that is, isn’t it? We alone know the hours, weeks, months and years we have had to put into Crafting our skills as painters, song writers, sculptors, etc. We alone have the total sense of the experience that we have gained for the results presently seen in our work. What then is the true measure of success and how do we attain it?

There could be a long discussion had on the subject, Lord knows there has been already in many artist groups as they sip tea and critique each other’s work to death.

For me the important measure of success comes down to ones ability to feel confident about his/her work, and to be able to place in the view of the public, knowing they have done the very best they could possibly have done.
That suggests there has to have been a significant back story behind the artists work. I know there are overnight “success” stories as are present in every walk of life. Pop stars whose lyrics and even music are written for them and conglomerate record firms create overnight sensations. Or a new young artist/painter whose work is embraced by some mega gallery and promoted to the max, creating a “star”, even though the artist has never sold a previous painting in his/her life. Those are always going to be present in this world and we must simply accept that as a fact of life, like it or not.

I am an old school artist. I have been painting since I could hold a brush 50 years ago. For the better part of those years my work was not in any way successful. I neither liked or felt confident showing any of it in public places. What had to happen was a gradual and methodical evolution of my painting style and technic over the entire 50 year period. Even today I am my own worst critic, but I have arrived at a place where the majority of my work, I feel, holds enough merit to put it forward for public viewing and acquisition.

I also feel that on a scale of artists living or dead I am certainly the least of all. No doubt. However, I do feel that my work is worthy of exposure and possibly even ownership by others. The artist is obligated to spend the time and effort each day into painting, creating new work. It is only n this way that one improves and overcomes barriers. An uphill climb which at times seems like a sheer mountains face. I’ve been there many, many times. My uncle Jack Reid used to also say, with every greeting to me, “Keep painting Robert! Keep painting!” That has become my whip, my carrot at the end of the stick. Keep painting, you might eventually like what you have done!

One of my practices is to paint the same painting over and over again, often on the same canvas! Yes, repeating the strokes but each time making it better and better, to my own satisfaction.

Success comes from hard work, and I do say God’s blessing, for which I believe in wholeheartedly.

So I say Keep painting!

RM

Harrington Lake 30"x60" oil on canvas 2016

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Why buy Art?

12/21/2016

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Why Buy Art?

I just can't leave this one alone,
I have to say something before I sleep.

Art is something you behold. When you decide in your heart that it has spoken to you and you would like to acquire it...that's all there is to it. It has done it's job, it has touched someone and connected on a deeper level.

After listening to the point of feeling ill, an interview with an artist who required many questions from the "Respected Arts Journalist" to eventually help the listener to finally understand the point of his art installation, I threw up my hands in amazement! What for? Why do it? Here's my underlying point:

If you need someone to tell you how good it is and that you Should buy it, you probably shouldn't buy it. It's lost on you (and probably most other people).

Buy because you have been reached by it, you have been touched by it, you have received the final connection.

RM
www.robertmcaffee.com

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How to paint

12/19/2016

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How to paint a tree in snow

Dogwood in snow
30"x30" oil on canvas
available at: https://www.facebook.com/ArtWithPanacheGallery/?pnref=lhc

How do I paint a tree in snow?
That is a question I have been asked many times over my years as an artist. A little background for you: I am the nephew of the Canadian artist who was widely respected as Canada's "Master of snow", Jack Reid.

http://www.robertmcaffee.com/dedication-to-jack-reid.html

Jack was a master watercolourist and for forty years was the much sought after and go to artist for instruction on how to paint snow. I was one of those as I spent the first 35 years of my life painting in watercolour. Those watercolour years instilled in me a deep understanding of snow effects such as shadows and colours of snow. For example, one common mistake by beginning artists is to assume that shadows in snow are grey or black. This just isn’t the truth if you stand and look at snow shadows as they actually are.
The colours I see when I study a snow scene are Cobalt, Prussian and French Ultramarine. These colours make up the basic shades of the shadows in snow. The lighter colours that occur beyond the shadows are not white, as one would assume, actually, they are titanium white with a touch, just a touch of Cobalt blue, Paynes Grey or on the much lighter side, just a very slight touch of Azo Yellow deep. Snow is a reflection of the light around and above it. You can even see green shades from the pines and spruce that hang above it.
Then we come to the trees in snow.
Trees are often painted as an after thought. Not much detail is put into them beyond some bark detail and one or two shades of brown. In my foreground trees I like to dab my colours. This is done in short strokes and using many shades and colours that accent dramatically against the snow. Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Azo Red Deep, Quinacridone Rose and even some Azo Yellow deep. These colours are what I affectionately refer to as Compelling colours, rather than Repelling colours. My effort is to render snow with a warm feel rather than a cold feel. In my experience snow paintings are quite polarizing with art lovers, they either hate them or love them, never in the middle. So what I try to do is take the "chill" out of how they appear and make the viewer fell.
In the attached video and at www.robertmcaffee.com you can see examples of how I employ colours into the snow paintings I have rendered over the years.

Have a comment on this blog? leave them in the comment section, I'd love to know your experience and questions. Has this blog been helpful to you? Please share with others.
Visit the Robert McAffee Gallery in Whitby.

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Downfalls Lifes little beauties.

12/15/2016

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Downfalls Lifes beauties in disguise

It's life, isn't it? curve balls, detours, pitfalls?
We get them all the time and we can handle them one of two ways. We can let them get us into a funk and wejust roll around in the mud, or we can learn from them.
In 2009 I was gainfully employed at a major banking institution in Toronto. Lamenting about my seeming inability to be a full time artist. So I dream. But one day all 63 of us in our devision we gathered around by the "Suits". You know the ones, they wear the dark suits and a few of them have bundles of white envelopes in their hands. Then, and you know youre toast when they start with these words: "We want you all to know how valuable you all are to the Bank..."
while the envelopes are being handed out and HR reps are quickly assembling themselves in nearby offices to console the newly dismissed, outsourced, downsized sad faced employees, non of which saw it coming and none of which are remotely ready for retirement, they file one by one like a bunch of hogs being hurded off to the slaughter house.
I was there. I was one of those hogs. For just about 20 seconds. I watched grown men and women all around me crying and some even begging their (now former) bosses to save their jobs. For a few brief seconds I felt it too. My kids, my house, my mortgage, my car, etc, etc. Yes, pretty sobering.
And then it hit me. I had just realized a life long dream. To become a full time artist just became a reality!
It could have been a depressing time, it tried to be from time to time, but I was determined that I would get up each morning as if I were going to work at the bank. I would take my breaks as if I were at the bank and I would work till 5pm daily, just as if.
It's been 9 years. No looking back. Desperate men take desperate measure? Yes, I was doing many crazy things to keep the ship afloat. Mostly I thank God every day for his provision and blessing. I am thankful that he gave me the tools through the course of my life to be best suited to do this art career when the time came. 14 years in retail learning selling and marketing skills, 12 years with the bank learning business and money. Never thought the day would come when I would realize this dream...but dispite the downfalls, it came to fruition.
No looking back! Full steam ahead!

RM

CAREER, BANKING, ART, MONEY, LIFE, HONESTY, FINANCE, ART, CANADIAN, ART, Toronto, Collect art, Group of seven, Art Gallery of Ontario, McMichael Gallery, Kleinburg, Modern art, Contemporary art, impressionism, Monet, Rothko, Tom Thomson, Lawren Harris

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Clouds

"I really don't know clouds at all..." (Joni Mitchell)

Reflections

Reflections over time

The Stockyards Gallery

The Stockyards Gallery: Opening Night

The Bees

Where are the Bees

Walking through Memories

Walking through Memories.

Who are you?

Who Are You?

How to be a successful Artist

How to become a successful artist

Why buy Art?

Why Buy Art?

How to paint

How to paint a tree in snow

Downfalls Lifes little beauties.

Downfalls Lifes beauties in disguise

The Pine Tree Painter.

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