MANITOWANING—On Saturday, July 13th, several eager artists came to the K.B. Reynolds Mastin Gallery to take part in a portrait workshop led by Barry Solomon Beaver. The event was presented by Debajemujig Theatre Group and took place amidst the ongoing exhibit of Mr. Beaver’s artwork.
Barry Beaver was raised in Wabasca, Alberta. He is a Bigstone Cree Nation visual artist and a graduate of Debajemujig National Arts Theatre program. He is a writer as well as a visual artist, inspired by nature. Drawing and painting have been his passions from an early age, his first mentors being his father and his uncles in Alberta. In his teens, he took every workshop, art class and attended every art talk that was available to him. Even now he continues taking courses to perfect his art. And in his spare time, he shares his knowledge with others.
The soft-spoken art teacher is a man of few words, but he got his point across visually. Without actually showing his students ‘how to’ depict the model before them, he demonstrated proportions and outlines; he spoke of negative space and how to correct misjudged shapes and sizes. He showed how to determine the scale and dimensions of their subject and from there how to proportionately fill in the details. “The details can be put in later,” he instructed, wanting his students to first set down a quick outline.
The portrait workshop needed a model, and an unsuspecting Sandie Cond was chosen to be the subject for the other artists (she thought she was coming to paint). Ms. Cond sat as still as possible for well over an hour, while the other attendees studied her carefully. Mr. Beaver assured her she could get up and move around from time to time, but she was reluctant to do so, for fear she would not replicate the posture she had been holding. So, she remained statuesque in her chair.
All preliminary sketching was done with charcoal. “Keep your lines light,” Mr. Barry advised, “if the charcoal lines are too dark, it will darken your paint.”
The fun began when the paints came out. Mixing colours with the primary paints handed out to each art student brought about some interesting results and much discussion. Some tried to match the colours exactly – the violet of Ms. Cond’s shirt, the colour of her hair. Others chose to interpret the scene in their own way. Each artist’s perspective was different as each looked upon the subject from a different vantage point. Linda Tessier McCarthy chose to capture a head shot, eliminating the rest of the body and simplifying the subject matter, to pleasing results. “You’ve done this before,” said Mr. Barry, admiring her work. She admitted she had, but not in a very long time.
Two nine-year-old girls took part in the portrait workshop, unrelated and unknown to each other, but adding a lively mix to the group. Their unselfconscious approach seemed to free up the other participants to interpret and create with greater confidence. All the while, Barry Beaver went about, adding comments and encouragement.
Before the session ended, the participants were invited to attend the closing reception of Barry Solomon Beaver’s art exhibit at the K.B. Raynolds Mastin Gallery, which takes place on Friday, July 19th at 7:00 pm. In fact, the public is invited to attend the closing reception at the Gallery in Manitowaning, an opportunity for all to become familiar with this artist’s fine work.
by Margery Frisch
