The Night Tree
top : The Night Tree (red books)I've been staring at these trees for weeks, they were two of the first things that I began that were "new" for the show (scroll all the way down to February 28th entry, don't bother) and got moved to the side, I'd tried a couple of different approaches with them in regards to figures and tones, but was never happy.
I think what I arrived at over the past couple of days works quite well in regards to the shape and layout. I was complaining about how frustrated I was, "They are just two 12 x 12's side by side! Twelve x Twelve it's what I do!" and was getting quite fumed about the whole thing, but we got to this point and now I can briefly exhale and finish the three/ four other pieces I need to get done for the hang at the Cameron on Sunday.
with relief,
A.Shay Hahn
The White RowboatAs always come to the Cameron House on Sunday, May 2nd from 5-8 pm for the Opening Reception of "Come On Pilgrim" with musical entertainment by the Ron Leary Band. Advance purchases are reccomended.
A.Shay Hahn
The White Rowboat II(will post some thoughts here once I finish the companion piece, White Rowboat I)
Andrew Shay Hahn
An Angel for the Carpenters, 12 x 24 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed
Selene, Woman with Lanterns IIFor advanced purchases or other questions holler into this tin can.
A.Shay Hahn
Girls Carrying Birdhouses, Lots of work to finish this week, several more posts coming your way, it is a beastly Sunday outdoors today so I will be inside, dry and waving brushes around like a madman.
Over on Facebook the Second Sunday challenge is under way and I'll be reporting on it either this evening (after 8pm) or tomorrow AM. As always I reccomend buying in advance if there is something that you like, no gurantees it will be there when the show is hung. Really, holler at me if there is something you want and you can pick it up this week.
A.Shay Hahn
Lady with an Axe (blonde hair)Here are some comments about the "Lady with an Axe" that I collected on facebook, along with one that addresses both her and her hair colour.
IA
They appeal to our ideals of beauty and horror at the same time?
Wed at 8:36am ·
TB
in my case, i loooove chopping kindling because i feel powerful and productive: these women are the spirit of that.
Wed at 8:41am
DVM
there's a certain sense of empowerment behind women wielding tools, and that whole lizzy borden took and axe thing.... most of your fans are sick and twisted like you!
Wed at 11:57am ·
SM
What am I? Friggin Camille Paglia over here?
Wed at 12:01pm ·
DVM
no SM, you just enjoy being intimidated by powerful/crazy women....thus the industry you work in!
Wed at 12:10pm ·
SM
that 'splains it!
Wed at 12:16pm ·
AL
Are the positive responses from men or women?
Wed at 1:05pm ·
Andrew Shay Hahn
the majority are from women, some men have commented how cool they think they are, but it's mostly women who are fans.
Wed at 1:14pm ·
SR
it's the bum.
Wed at 5:01pm ·
AV
I like that they wield axes but you still call them "ladies!" Probably wise.
S. E -this one. I like her black dress, it makes it a moodier piece to me than the girl in the white dress.Curious - you seem to paint a lot of blondes - stylistic choice or materials to hand? Just curious
Yesterday at 5:57am ·
Andrew Shay Hahn
I was just discussing that with someone (it will be on the blog soon) the choice of hair is simply what works best against the sky. The blonde hair pops more against this darker blue, black, brown background.
Yesterday at 6:00am ·
S.E -this is good to know. I am mollified. thanks baby!
thoughts ?
A.Shay Hahn
Lady with an Axe, Man with a Hammer (black shorts), Man with a Hammer (white shirt),Sorry it's been so quiet around here, I've been building frames, sanding, staining and varathaning them for days and of course finishing up a ton of work, the studio is a complete and total mess. And I feel that I am becoming a bit too bogged down in this show and have very little to say. Luckily playwright Tara Beagan sent me a message and got me excited about thinking again, here for your enjoyment is our conversation in two parts.
"Hi Andrew,
i wondered something... and please know that i'm not making any insinuations or calculating to make accusations at all. i'd love to hear thoughts from an artist whose principal pursuit isn't theatre.
i noticed your Lady With Axes (pardon, i can't now recall the exact title. pretty sad for a so-called-writer) and love her, but then realized the thing that made me paint our christmas tree angel's hair dark brown when i was nine: all of the angels on the tree were whiter looking than me (i'm a fairly fair halfbreed) and so i couldn't really feel like they were there for me to cherish.
this may seem nuts, but i wondered at whether you ever paint people whose complexions or colouring is off-Caucasian. i understand that we offer the world those things we know and that speak to us, and that the shadings and palette employed when painting non-aryan folk might make a difference to the overall tone of your images... what are your thoughts on this?
tomson highway believes anyone should be cast in his plays - doesn't care if the actor is non-native and playing native. i don't agree with him, though i understand his point of view to some extent. similarly, i get irked when theatres fill their "native" or "ethnic" quota by programming stories written by a member of dominant society (usually white guys). but then, here i am wondering whether you ever paint more pigmented folk.thoughts?
i'm not on the attack, i swear. i have a bit of a reputation for that, but i'm honestly not seeking prey - i just wonder what your thoughts might be as a visual artist.looking forward to checking out your latest in person.
warm regards and much respect,tarab"
Tara Beagan is a Canadian playwright, her last play "the Woods" is part of Theatrefront's four play cycle, "the Mill".
continue to next post, to do this, scroll down.
Deep Sea Diver with Banjo, Deep Sea Diver with Accordion, Deep Sea Diver with Moon,NOTE: I'm printing the final half of this conversation first since, if you scroll on these things you'll miss certain points. The introduction will be in the above post. This is my reply to Tara with a little follow up.
"Hey Tara, it's a great question, and one I've thought about quite a bit in the past couple of years as I sit alone in the studio.
Colour is incredibly important in my work, but it's the simplicity of the colour that is important. I use only about five colours when I work, I use, white, black, prussian blue, raw sienna and burnt umber ( a little bit of yellow ochre) and if it needs it (like the tip of an axe) a red highlight. This choice is something that has evolved over time. If you flash through an album of my paintings you see the same colours occuring in different densities and mixtures over and over again.I worry about the colour of my "subjects" hair more than anything, it's what looks best against the sky and how it contrasts with the ground, waves, wheat, rocks etc.
The majority of my figures have hair that ranges from brown to black, and then I add a highlight to it. If the sky is more grey than blue, chances are the figures hair will be blonde. It's the compliment of the colours that make these decisions and really nothing else. I have varied shades of skin tones but yes, the figures are predominently caucasian, I have painted other races in my work, but I don't feel it's representative of me, I'm sure that if the image needed a figure of a different colour/race to be used, that is what I'd do without a second thought.
Thematically the colour of a subject, plays no role in my work, it's colourblind casting in 2D, I just paint a heck of a lot of white people.
I'm not sure if this is a complete answer, but I would enjoy continuing this discussion here.
A.S.H
Tara Beagan replies
"Incredibly interesting. thank you! i'll chew on this, with relish. it's beautiful to hear you speak (write) of your colours. makes me wonder what the writerly equivalent is. "
(And then we just started joking around about how I do descriminate against birds as crows are cooler than pigeons.)
As always the Opening for, "Come On Pilgrim" at the Cameron House is Sunday, May 2nd from 5-8 pm with the Ron Leary Band.
A.S.H
Prometheus III
The Tall Girl at the Beach 
The Moon 
THE SUNDAY CHALLENGE IS HERE!!!!!Who has the better disguise ? Bird Disguised as Cat (Left) OR Cat Disguised as Bird (Right) to Vote, tag yourself on the side that should win.Results to be posted TONIGHT!thanks to Ian Philp and Meghan Thompson for suggestions
If you go to the links section located over there at the right of this blog and down a bit you can go and visit the sweet little sister of the mad craft shoppe, "the alphabet shoppe" that's where the nice paintings are displayed, and you can read all about this really cool new style.
The Two Lovers
Here's the wikipedia entry, you can watch the NFB short if you scroll to the end of the post, I was going to write here about my love of this classic bit of Canadiana, but I just have way too much to do, I'd even composed some nice things to say about the passing of Kate McGarrigle, such a wonderful talent. It was her death that inspired the series of paintings, "Waiting for the Lake to Freeze/ Thaw" as I'd incorrectly thought that they'd written a song called, "the Skating Song" but it was actually called, "The Swimming Song"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Log_Driver's_Waltz
A.Shay Hahn
The Dog Who Got Drunk and Thought He Was A LionHow do I want the show to look ? This is something that I think about alot, last year at the Cameron it was just clean lines of 20 x 20 canvases, pretty standard looking stuff, a little closer together than a gallery would have hung them, but I wanted the "field" pieces to be set in a continuous line. If that means anything to you, or if you remember what "Silver" looked like.
This year I want to get the vibe of an English sitting room so I am going to group the pieces very deliberately, a 12 x 24 along the bottom with two 16 x 20 pieces above it, followed by a large piece etc. etc. I did have a sketch for this but I'd have to scan it for you and I don't have the time for that today. I get to hang with me Ma and have lunch which I'm looking forward to, we'll hit up Bau-Xi and Bau-Xi photo for sure, maybe eat at the AGO or get some of that Gastronomystery at The Village Idiot, or just run to Baldwin Str.
This painting is one of those great titles that just rolls around in your head for years until you get around to it and here it is, yes gentlemen we've all been there, biting off more than we can chew, barking more than our bite. (Yes, the back leg on the hound looks a bit odd, but I have since fixed it.).
Anyways, if there is anything that you want, buy it now, as always there are no gurantees that it will be at the show, I run this life without Arts Grants, every penny goes right back into my work to keep me painting. You might think it's crazy, but it seems to be working.
all the best, thanks for listening
A.Shay Hahn
The Boy Who Played the Banjo
Cup of Deep Sea Divers IIProbably one of the stranger things that I've done that got an incredible response, the first sold the day it was put up, which does happen alot with the singular, quirky experiments that I do, it's always funny and rewarding that people get it.
A.Shay Hahn
Canadian Girl at the Breakwater IIA.Shay Hahn
The Boy Who Played the Trumpet, The Girl Who Played the Drum, The Boy Who Played the DrumThese pieces fall into that special category of "Stuff I never got around to doing", I have done these sketches at least three times over in moleskines and sketchbooks and kept doing other work before I'd get around to them. I wanted to expand on the world of "The Boy Who Loved the Water", the child in the life jacket who keeps reappearing in my work over the years, I wanted to take the sense of the larger world around the small child and expand on it somehow, finally deciding that now was the time to do it.
I was showing my process to my girlfriend, deconstructing how I spend my evenings doing notes and sketches, starting with what to do immediately in the morning, then some notes on how to hang the show, then some reminders on things to touch up and then sketching, at the end of the session there is usually one good idea, six bad ones and two very funny doodles, well these kept being moved back as I found new ideas in those sessions, but last week I wrote a list of work I'd like to do and hadn't gotten around to and "The Last Band" was pretty much at the top of that list, so here they are. I am also working on a 20 x 20 sized version of "the Boy Who Played the Drum" which I hope to finish today/tomorrow.
Waiting for the Lake to Freeze IV
