Letting..

Go!

That's the title of this free-fall aqua painting by Phyllis, complete with horizontal string lines and beautiful blue gradation.

This is a versatile work that could also be displayed horizontally for a different look!

Letting Go
P. Serota

The..

original mango painting! Much softer than the experimental one seen below, yet still bold.

Image: "Large Mangoes", Phyllis Serota

Some..

more groovy fruit!

Here's a peak at another fab Serota piece. In this she's experimenting with texture, colour and shape, and the result is still life with a twist.

Composition and colour use, superb as always.

Nice job, Phyllis!

"Small Mangoes" by P. Serota

Phyllis..

Serota is a fabulous Victoria-based artist. Currently writing her memoirs, Serota is deserving of a wider audience for her work. Using flat-plane perspective, bright colours and soft brushwork, she creates modernist paintings with matters of subject like still-life imagery and scenarios from her personal life. Her work is in the vein of pros like Matisse, Chagall and Picasso, but never without her own special twist.

We were lucky enough to take a recent fruitful trip to Phyllis's abode, where we acquired some stellar pieces. Shown here is a wide and luxurious acrylic on canvas that boasts a mix of hard and velvet-like textures. It would be fabulous featured in a dining or living room of any design genre.

Image: P. Serota, "Plums"
Foreground: Ceramics by Wayne Ngan

We're in..

this season's issue of Boulevard magazine! Writer Alicia Gordaneer - daughter of admired Victoria painter Jim Gordaneer - has written a great article on the ins and outs of purchasing art as gifts and the do's and don'ts of starting an art collection.

Check it out online at http://www.victoriaboulevard.com/

The time..

to hesitate is through! Our graphic designer Andy Graffiti has many talents. Among them is a penchant for producing funky and innovative clocks, like the one shown here. Mercurio will be featuring these neat functional sculpture throughout the Christmas season.

Tick tock!

Mutual appreciation..

Here's Miles Lowry's favourite Ken Faulks work currently in the gallery. This piece works very well at distance, where you get action happening in the water. One of Ken's best, and most challenging, yet.

Rocks & Surf, Sunset Point
12 x 16"

Brand..

new winter jewellery from Stuart Duncan is starting to trickle into the shop. Stuart is amazing at creating one of a kind intricate pieces, wearable all year round.

Great for gifts and more to come!

Notable..

quotables!

Here's a lovely little quote from an article by Brian Grison on our recent exhibition in the latest issue of Galleries West:

"This little exhibition at Mercurio Gallery offers collectors, curators, connoisseurs and students of painting and art history an intimate insight into modernist practice among the few serious artists residing in Victoria a generation or so after Emily Carr's important and still controversial contributions to visual culture in this city."

Thanks Brian!

To see the article online, visit
http://www.gallerieswest.ca/Departments/ExhibitionReviews/6-108172.html

Photo: Untitled, Margaret Peterson

Inter..

View!

This marks the beginning of a new feature on the blog, a series of “5 questions” with local artists and figures in the Victoria arts community.

Our first artist is one of our favourites: local plein air hero Ken Faulks!

MG: Hi Ken, thanks for doing this!

KF: No problem.

MG: How do you think the hard times you've been through have affected your work?

KF: I don't look at having had next to no money, or having spent 5 years sleeping in my van 'hard times'.
It was all good. It was a choice to paint and that's what I did. I let other things slide down the priority list in order to do so.
It was a good time for the most part.
Not much money isn't a problem if one keeps their hamster wheel small.
With a really low overhead, I was able to make it all happen.

MG: If money were no object, would you still keep your graphic design company?

KF: I may still do some illustration and design, but if I did, it' wouldn't be much... maybe a bit of non-profit/volunteer stuff.
I'm sure the focus would be my own work for the most part.

MG: How do your goals as a graphic designer differ from your goals as painter?

KF: Illustration and graphic design are all about achieving someone else's agenda, ideas and goals.
As a painter, the agenda is my own, and therefore the focus is to fulfill my own goals.

MG: What importance does painting with the plein-air group hold for you?

KF: I like the people.... the camaraderie. It's a great gang of people who all enjoy painting outside.

MG: I find you use fairly bold colours. Can you tell me something about your process when making colour choices?

KF: I guess I use bold colours at times. With my non-representational work, I use stronger colours on a more regular basis.
With the plein air work, I tend to go after the 'local colour'... the colour I find in the subject I’m standing in front of.
In general, I don't consider these paintings having strong colour, but I do try to achieve a strong sense of the colour that was in front of me while I was painting.

MG: Thanks Ken!

KF: My pleasure, anytime.

New..

work by Ken Faulks!

Ken's recently been up in lovely Tofino painting away.. Here's a sneak peak at one of the pieces he'll be bringing down to the gallery this afternoon!

This weekend we're having an impromptu mini show featuring Ken's latest work. They'll be cream puffs and refreshments too!

Image: Ken Faulks, Surf and Surfers, 8x10

A little..

gem by Colin Graham, RCA (1915-2010), new to the gallery!

Here's a quote from Colin during his time as Director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (1951-'73), about artist Maxwell Bates:

"The remarkable achievements of these six or so years have scarcely been seen in the rest of Canada. For this reason The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has chosen to organize as one of its 1966 centenary projects a retrospective exhibition stressing this period which will subsequently travel to other Canadian centres."

Mercurio is currently showing works by Colin Graham, as well as Max Bates and other Limners members as part of our ongoing house collection.

Excerpt: Colin Graham, "Maxwell Bates" (Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1966).