Rick Janson Art Studio

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind over the last month, travelling to the East Coast, participating in a self-portrait show at the Leslie Grove Gallery (where I finished third in the competition), responding to further call for entries and getting back into the studio.

It feels like I have done little over the summer, but reflecting back, since May I have worked on five pieces, including the aforementioned self-portrait. In addition, I have been working with former journalist and educator Kelly Toughill on a portrait that has so far involved two face-to-face sessions and two oil sketches, one of which she is using for her new website showcasing her fiction writing. So far the beta site looks great, and am delighted to see my preliminary portrait of her there. The two oil sketches I did of her were done on board, something I haven’t experienced since art school. I would be interested in trying more.

Part of travels included two nights in Ottawa in order to see the Helen McNicoll (1879-1915) show at the National Gallery of Canada. While many Canadian artists have been grouped under the impressionist umbrella, I believe her work best exhibits the principals of the group, much of it painted en plein air in France and the UK. In the past she has been exhibited with the work of Mary Cassatt, the similarities more than a little obvious. Sadly her career was cut short, passing away at age 35 from diabetes complications. One can see a giant leap forward in her work in her last two years of her life, leaving us to wonder what could have been had she lived longer. As a result there are only about 300 of her paintings in existence, making them much sought after by collectors. In this show, the gallery juxtaposes McNicoll’s work with her companion, Mary Heister Reid, for whom we can see different treatments of the same vistas. On the day we were there, additional interest was paid to The Bean Harvest, which had been the subject of a 2024 episode of the BBC’s Fake or Fortune. The painting had been purchased for about 2,000 pounds at a auction in the UK by artist David Taylor. At the time authentication was incomplete and the painting was listed as “in the style of Helen McNicoll.” The BBC travelled to Canada to research the providence while the painting underwent extensive scientific analysis. The show left little doubt that it was a McNicoll original. Canadian billionaire Pierre Lassonde was reported to have offered 300,000 pounds for the painting, but the owner had opted instead to put it up for auction by Southebys. That turned out to be an expensive mistake by Taylor given the painting sold under the hammer for 174,000 pounds. Who was the lucky bidder? Lassonde again. Lassonde told the interviewers that he intended to one day donate his Helen McNicoll collection to a public gallery. A large number of Lassonde’s McNicoll paintings were in this Ottawa show.

The August deadline for submitting my self-portrait meant having to put aside most of everything else I was working on at the time. With that painting complete and my travels concluded, I was able to focus on four other paintings I had been working on over the summer. Returning to them also meant that I could go back to working in a rotation again, a method I much prefer to simply banging away on a single image over a length of time.

The first one of the four to be finished (that is always qualified given my penchant for putting paintings back on the easel again) is an image I did of Seville, Spain. We spent about four hours in the city, taking a day excursion from where we had been staying in Portugal in 2024. It didn’t take long to realize that we didn’t have enough time to do everything we wanted in Seville. We did walk along the river and into the city, where we visited the remains of Christopher Columbus in the enormous Gothic cathedral, had lunch in a small bistro, and took a cruise along the river before it was time to return to Albufeira.

I knew when I photographed this scene that it would be a painting. I liked both the dappled light, the contrast with the construction barriers with the formality of the building, and the tourists scrambling along in front of it. The building itself was unusual, the windows all different in design. I’ve been Spain a few times and look forward to returning again.

So what’s next? I need to print some new promotional postcards, very few remaining after the Leslie Grove show last month. I didn’t initially have a website when I printed these, at one point running them through my inkjet to add the site address to the backside. This time the website will make the front. I also need to think about putting something newer on the front — the last cards contained a painting from Mexico that I had done in 2009. I like that painting a lot, but its time for something a bit more recent.

Meanwhile the call for entries are coming fast and furious. It’s time to pay attention and line up the next show on the calendar. Don’t forget, I still have limited copies of my Monograph book available — click here for more information. And as usual, please visit my gallery page if you want to look at art without all the talking points. Take care!