Allison Bullock

"On my Easel"

During the summer, Allison Bullock was working on a series of collages and shares: 

I've always found collage challenging, but these came together nicely. Turn of the century portraits are fascinating; I always find myself wondering about the people in the photos, and then I decided to put those people into unusual situations. The results have been surreal and slightly odd..."

Allison is at Studio #15 on the tour with her mother, Diana Bullock and grandmother, Grace MacPherson. 

Three Generations

On our tour again this year are three generations of one family........ At Diana Bullock's location along with her work in mixed media, Sumi-e [Japanese ink painting]  you will find watercolours by Grace MacPherson, her mother and multi media work by her daughter Allison.

This is the link to the article in  Good Life magazine from earlier this year. Grace turned 90 this past summer, still paints and has many new pieces.

Diana has been also very busy with several different media types

And Allison's work has taken a striking new direction 

Something lurks

Their Studio location is #15 on this years tour. Stop by and say hello!

Art Times 3

Studio Tour artists Grace MacPherson, Diana Bullock and Allison Bullock were the subject of a recent article in Good Life Magazine York Region Edition. For the complete magazine please visit here  and scroll down to the York Region edition at the bottom of the page.

Here is the article

All credits to Good Life Magazine

Picture of artists by Mary Cook 

Images of art (c) the artists

Allison Bullock

Allison Bullock has a section on her website called "On My Easel"
See some of her behind the scene insights ...... and make sure to stop by Studio 15 to see her work as well as her mother Diana and her grandmother Grace.

Artists Participating in Art

As much as artists love to create their own work, they also appreciate the work of others; artists visit galleries, learn in workshops led by other artists and can also participate in art created by others.

The latter is just what happened over the summer in the town of Stouffville.

Artists Linda Duvall and Timeanddesire (Denise St. Marie and Timothy Walker) asked members of the Stouffville community to share their feelings about the town in which they lived. Linda Duvall met with 12 local artists, including 8 Studio Tour artists whom she asked to take her to a location of interest or importance to them within Stouffville.  Videotaping their locations, Linda interviewed each, asking about the location itself as well as what each artist worried about living in Stouffville.

The result was a  lot of video tape that Linda edited into a 35 minute segment, and commemorative pillows with an image of each location that she visited. Why pillows? Linda had taken a trip to the local Care and Share Shoppe and been inspired by the commemorative objects for sale in that store.

On Thursday, Studio Tour artists were on hand for the opening of 'Artists and Agents' at The Latcham Gallery. Here, they stand next to their pillows:

(L to R) Allison Bullock, Ray McNeice, Joan Chalmers and Valerie Ashton

(L to R) Valerie Ashton, John Walmsley, and Margaret Grandison
Sandra Cole Burke and Diana Bullock not pictured

On September 28th The Latcham Gallery will host a panel discussion about this show as part of Culture Days in Ontario. Many of the participating artists will be in attendance as well as Linda Duvall and Timeanddesire.

The Sketchbook Project

Studio Tour artist Allison Bullock recently completed the Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project. With a by-line like 'Creative Interactive Crowd-Sourced Art Projects Since 2006'  the Sketchbook Project sounds interesting, doesn't it? Here's Allison to explain: 
 

I'm not certain when I first became aware of The Sketchbook Project; probably about a year ago, but it wasn't until October 2012 that I decided to sign up.

My sketchbook arrives!

The idea behind this initiative is that there isn’t enough gallery space to allow all artists who would like to show their work the opportunity to do so. Sketchbooks are smaller, more easily stored than large paintings, and much easier to transport. Genius!

As a participant in The Sketchbook Project, I paid $25 to have a sketchbook sent to me and my job was to fill the 32 pages with my art, then send it back to New York to become part of a travelling library of art.

The beginning of a Star Wars collage!

After two weeks of not-very-patient waiting, my sketchbook arrived and I set about filling it. My first task was to decide what medium to use; I usually paint in acrylic or encaustic (wax) neither of which would lend to the nature of a sketchbook. In the 'rules and regulations' sent by the Art House Co-Op, a durable medium that would not cause the pages to stick was recommended.



I decided instead to flex my underused collage muscles. Collage can be beautiful, but like anything in art, it is an acquired skill to know when to stop! Finding balance is difficult and I have often admired those who are able to do so, well. I also decided to use the more traditional graphite pencil as well as pencil crayon, and some really fun art markers that I hadn't had the occasion to use yet.

 As I set about creating art, I was pleasantly surprised how quickly everything came together and as an added bonus, I was pretty happy with the result (artists are notoriously hard on themselves about their own work.)

Have you heard about the bird?

 
The 2013 Sketchbook Project books will actually make a stop in Toronto in the Distillery District. I think I'm most excited to see my sketchbook in this travelling! And the best part is that when the exhibition finishes, my sketchbook will become part of the Brooklyn Art Library in New York.

Acrylic Painting

Allison Bullock paints with both wax (encaustic) and acrylic paint. Today, she shares her process for an abstract acrylic painting. 

"Since I've been involved in many aspects of the arts throughout my life, I've always been interested in how they can interact and influence one another. For many years I've been exploring the idea of visualizing music. Asking myself what contemporary songs look like, sometimes the music itself can inspire a painting, and other times, its the lyrics and how they are sung.

About a year ago I prepared two large canvasses after being inspired by song lyrics. I wanted to play with subtly and decided to include the song lyrics in the painting itself. I wrote the lyrics on the canvas and used gel medium to trace over them, knowing that when the gel medium dried, it would be easy to paint over. 

 
After I'd prepped the two canvasses, I began painting the one pictured above. It turned out well enough, but I wasn't 100% pleased with it, so I didn't feel inspired to paint the second canvas. Putting it away, I just came across it again this past summer and thought I'd give it a go; since it was quite large (24x24) it seemed like the perfect chance to use my new 18" and 20" paintbrushes.

The brushes are natural hair with a wood handle. They're really nice to work with but I didn't anticipate the weight of them! My hand was quite sore after laying down the base colour! The soreness of my hand might also have had something to do with the pace at which I was working; I was going quickly because I wanted to blend the paint while it was wet. Even though its possible to add 'retarder' to the paint to increase the open time, I've never liked it; I find that it changes the texture of the paint too much. 

 Notice in the photo above the words are difficult to see; this is exactly the effect I wanted. I had a good feeling throughout this painting which, as many artists will tell you, is actually very unusual! Many times I have to force myself to finish a painting that I can barely look at because it is not at all what I envisioned. Apparently putting the canvas away for the year brought new perspective!

I can't say where the bubbles came from. There was no mention of them in the lyrics, but I felt compelled to add them and they turned out well. At this point I felt the painting was about 80%  complete; I'd added some texture with the paint, but I wasn't in love with the blank space in the upper left of the canvas. I'd used the last of my base colours on four artist 'trading cards' that I had laying around, and decided instead to stick them in the empty corner. I also added more bubbles!

The two paintings in the series are below and both will be at the Studio Tour!

Loose Electricity

All the Way to the Light

You can see Allison's work (with her mother Diana and grandmother Grace) at Studio #10

Studio Tour Artists work

We are getting closer to the Stouffville Studio Tour; less than two months! If you want to see some of the work that we will be showing...

...stop by the Municipal Offices Town of Whitchurch Stouffville  until the end of September 

Visit the McKay Centre, 197 Main Street Unionville until August 26th to see Allison Bullock and Diana Bullock's work...

Swing by the Kent Ferndale Gallery in Port Perry to see Colin Whitebread's solo show until the end of September

And once again this year For the Love of Jo coffee shop on Main Street, Stouffville will have a preview of the work from the tour's 2D artists. The preview begins August 30th and lasts until the end of October.

The banners will be going on the lamp posts soon; 

watch for them on Main Street, Stouffville!

Encaustic painting

Wendy LaValle is one of two artists on the Tour who paints in  encaustic or hot wax. Allison Bullock also paints in this medium. Here is a sample of each of their works. More can been seen at www.stouffvillestudiotour.com

Wendy LaValle

Allison Bullock

McKay Centre

If your in downtown Unionville stop by the McKay Art Centre 197 Main Street and see Studio Tour artists Diana Bullock, Allison Bullock and their friend June Probert work. Over 60 paintings are on display. Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday 12-5 .... don't miss this event.