Newsletter January 2020

Dear friends,

In recent years, during my work on behalf of ER doctors in British Columbia, I made many short-notice trips to Victoria to argue with the Health Ministry and advocate for more staffing in our beleaguered Emergency Rooms. I often left home well before dawn to catch the first morning flight via either helicopter or seaplane. A side benefit of each trip were the spectacular views: aerial views of Galiano and Mayne, Thetis and Salt Spring, with their coastlines straining to interlock; Mount Baker and the mountains of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula; and the light reflecting off the sea in Active Pass and between Saturna, Orca and Sucia Islands. I would make frantic little sketches on scraps of paper and take scores of photos. Similarly, over the years, during trips by ferry to the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island, I captured images from ships’ windows as we moved sedately between the islands, entered and exited the harbours, and passed ships, lighthouses, cliffs and rocks.

For well over a decade, I have been pondering two new series of works based on these voyages: Views from Above and Views from the Ferry in a series titled Islands Paintings II. The first series of new paintings will be shown in Seattle during March, with two previews in the Vancouver area before they leave. You are invited!

View from the Ferry III (Exiting Active Pass – Dawn), 2019, Acrylic on Multimedia Artboard, 8 x 20 inches

INVITATION TO THE PREVIEWS
In advance of the Seattle show, I’m inviting you to join me for a studio preview at our home in New Westminster. Please RSVP for either date so that I can have enough wine, tea/coffee and treats! If those dates don’t work with your busy schedule, email me and let’s set up a date before February 26 see these works before they go south.

Sunday January 26, 2020, 2-5 PM
Sunday February 23, 2020, 2-5 PM

View from Above VI (South over Sucia Island), 2019, Acrylic on Multimedia Artboard, 7 x 18 inches

INVITATION TO THE SEATTLE EXHIBIT
Island Paintings II will be exhibited at Gallery 110 in Seattle’s Pioneer Square during March 2020. I’m still hard at work painting a series of works “Cape Flattery” (& environs): the islands, stacks and islets off the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island. Those works will be added to the website in early February.

Island Paintings II
Gallery 110, 110 Third Avenue S., Seattle WA
March 5 – 28, 2020
Reception: Friday March 6, 2020, 5-7 PM
Closing Party: Saturday March 28, 2020, 2-5 PM

View from Above VIII (South to San Juan Island), 2019, Acrylic on Multimedia Artboard, 7 x 18 inches

Five days left!
The exhibition closes at 5 PM Wednesday, September 25, 2019. Please come visit and bring your friends! I’m attending the show every day, noon-5 PM. Come have a latte and a homemade espresso brownie, and keep me company.

If you cannot see the show in person, all the works are posted here.

Artist’s Talk: “Island Magic: Paintings and Poetry”
Sunday September 22, 2018 from 2-3 PM. Refreshments will be served.

The reception was a great success. Thank you to all who came to the party – it was wonderful to see you! Chef Claire and her staff served delicious finger food. Yukiko Onley captured the convivial atmosphere in her photos. Thank you Yukiko!

Hoping to see you soon, David

ISLAND PAINTINGS – Landscapes of British Columbia

Visual Space Gallery, 3352 Dunbar Street, Vancouver

The show is up! 35 paintings in the Island series were beautifully framed by Graham Warren of Westart and then elegantly arranged on the gallery walls thanks to the expertise of Cole and Moses from Thiessen Art Services.

Please come see the exhibition during its two week run! The exhibition opened Thursday at noon and closes at 5 PM Wednesday September 25, 2019. Please bring friends! If you cannot see the show in person, Mia Johnson of Kits Media has posted all the works here.

You are invited:
Reception: Tomorrow, Saturday, September 14, 2019, 4-7 PM.
Please RSVP if you plan to come. I want to have enough wine and food!

Artist talk: Sunday, September 22, 2019, 2-3 PM.
I will be giving an Artist’s Talk: “Island Magic: Paintings and Poetry”, Sunday September 22, 2018 from 2-3 PM. Refreshments will be served.

A COMMISSION STORY

Good friends commissioned a large (48 x 96 inch) painting of Quadra Island (below) for their winery in Oregon. I worked on these in different locations including my artist friend Ian Penn’s studio and my outdoor covered front patio.

When I agree to do a commission, it is almost always with the following guidelines.
1) I am sent to paint somewhere/somehow different than usual and you indicate what size work you want.
2) I paint three works in that location/size, but without specific instructions regarding what the painting will look like. You are committed to the purchase of one of the three, but at a 30% discount from what a work that size would normally cost.
3) You chose your painting. Shown above is one of my three larger-than-usual finished works. Which would you chose? Come see all three in person.

SEATTLE ART FAIR

As you may remember, Gallery 110 was part of the 2019 Seattle Art Fair, pictured below. We exhibited 13 of our Gallery artist-members in Booth G03. It proved to be a fantastic opportunity for the artists, and for the Gallery, to acquaint Seattle with the wonderful work we exhibit every month.

We got to meet and talk with many interesting people, a number of our works went off to new good homes, and we felt very happy with the whole experience.

I’m looking forward to seeing you and catching up, so please come by my new exhibit at Visual Space this week! Yours, David

SEATTLE ART FAIR

August 2-4, 2019
CenturyLink Field Event Center, Booth G03

Big news! Gallery 110 will be part of the 2019 Seattle Art Fair, with 13 of our members exhibiting in Booth G03. I will be showing twelve paintings from 80+ Views of Mount Baker, shown in Vancouver in September 2018, as well as selected works from 40 and 40+ Views of Mount Baker. In addition, in honor of the opportunity, I’ve painted three new large Mount Baker works. I have a few free VIP passes for anyone who would like to visit the Fair. Get back to me immediately if you are serious about attending! Continue reading →

Angry White Men II is now on display at the Visual Space Gallery.

I invite you all to attend the Artist Talk this Sunday March 24, 2019 , 1-2 PM “Why Paint Angry White Men?” Questions and discussion to follow. Please come.

I’ve had all sorts of responses to this exhibit so far: “Intense”, “Fascinating work” and even “Epic!” (from a passing 11-year-old boy). It is a difficult exhibit, full of colorful paintings with distasteful subject matter, made all the more painful by how closely it reflects the reality of today’s world.

Between the time of an interview with CBC’s North by Northwest on Thursday morning and the airing on Saturday’s radio program, the horrific events in Christchurch New Zealand occurred. I take heart knowing that one brave man pursued the killer and likely saved many more people by doing so. These terrorists are bullies and cowards, wildly and willfully misinformed.

A big thank you to all who came to the reception on Saturday evening. The delicious food was made by Chef Claire. The paintings were framed by Graham Warren of Westart and hung brilliantly by Cole and Moses of Thiessen Art Services. That so many people came and looked and talked and understood made me proud to be a Canadian.

PRESS COVERAGE
Sheryl Mackay of CBC Radio interviewed me for her weekend program North by Northwest. She is wonderfully skilled at this, armed with insightful questions and a warmth that comes through in her voice and demeanor. I hope you will have a chance to listen.

 
I would also like to thank Gabrielle Lynch-Staunton who wrote an article in the BCMJ about my leaving medicine, available here as a PDF

UPCOMING SERIES OF WORK
I’ll be turning to landscape works for the next six months with my series of “Island Paintings” – in particular, paintings of Quadra Island and the Discovery Islands near and beyond Campbell River. I plan to show them mid-September at the Visual Space Gallery on Dunbar in Vancouver. The reception will be on Saturday September 14, 2019. Later next year, I plan to return for one more exploration of Angry White Men – this time focusing more on the truly evil puppet-masters: the trollers, enablers, and distorters of truth.

Angry White Men II – Further Explorations of the Face of Evil
Visual Space Gallery, 3352 Dunbar Street, Vancouver
March 14 – 27, 2019
Noon–5 PM daily

I began the series Angry White Men in late 2016, sparked by the sudden wide-spread enabling of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant violence, and anti-LGBTQ+ hatred that followed the U.S. election, as well as the simultaneous rise of the visible, public fascist demonstrator in both the US and Europe.

In setting out to paint these people and their rage, I sought not to glorify, but to warn – and perhaps – to nudge us to ponder: “why?” and “why now?”.

I decided that, as a white man, it would be presumptuous of me to paint the victims of these angry white men. However, I could legitimately explore “my kind”: the violent white perpetrators and their fury, ignorance and, all too frequently, mental illness and social failure. More importantly, I could also shine a bright light on those successful and intelligent white men who – with cold detachment – work to influence, manipulate and profit from their angry white brethren.

Please come and stand strong, staring them down, refusing to let them win.

Join me at the reception Saturday March 16, 5-7 pm or drop by and visit during the two-week exhibit. I should be there every day noon-5 pm with coffee and cookies.

The evolution of an “Angry White Man” painting
These are multi-layered works. The largest are painted on a type of hardboard: engineered wood made of steam-cooked and pressure-moulded wood fibres in a process patented by William H. Mason (hence “masonite”). The surface is covered with six coats of acrylic gesso. I then create what I think of as a “cave wall” – a thick layer of unevenly tinted white acrylic paint laid on with a pallet knife that when dry has the random texture of a stone wall. On that I paint a finely drawn underpainting. Then layer upon layer of glazes and scumbles, and further glazes. Please see the evolution of a painting by clicking through the thumbnails below.

Exhibition at Visual Space Gallery
September 12 – 25, 2019
Reception Saturday September 14, 5-7 pm

For those who prefer landscapes! I’ve started work on my September exhibition titled Island Paintings. There will be several series of works based on the Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island and the Discovery Islands, in particular Quadra Island, to which I return yearly. Please pencil the date on your calendar now and I look forward to seeing you.

Taking paintings across the border
Although I am an American citizen, and there remains a free-trade agreement between the USA and Canada, getting a few paintings across the border to show in Seattle is a somewhat complicated and interesting process.

Three weeks before the exhibit, I pay a broker to create the paperwork listing painting titles, sizes, prices & weights.

Three days before the exhibit, I drive to the Pacific Truck crossing at 5 a.m. My Honda CRV is officially a “truck” and I have an official ‘Trucker license number’. Huge tractor-trailers are racing to merge into one line and my tiny SUV is crushed between them. My car is very vulnerable but more nimble, and I squeeze into the line.

When it’s my turn, I drive to the window – which is 10 feet above my car roof. I need to stand on tip-toes to hand over my passport and papers. Then I sit and wait while my car inspected, or sometimes x-rayed in a machine inside a covered shed with a 20-foot high roof. It’s always a relief to finally be waved through.

Party & receptions & shows
Thank you for reading this, and a particular thank you to those friends who came to my September receptions in Vancouver and Seattle!

For those who couldn’t make it September in Vancouver or Seattle, please see photos of the reception for 80+ Views of Mount Baker as well as installation views of Angry White Men, and I hope to see you next time.

Seattle brouhaha
September was a tumultuous month for me. I did not expect the backlash against the Angry White Men (AWM) exhibit. I considered there might be a public reaction, but instead it was fellow-artists, gallerists and left-leaning individuals who shocked me by wildly misinterpreting my exhibit in September, and haranguing and threatening the first days of the show.

I am profoundly grateful for what Seattle gallerist Greg Kucera wrote in early September, coming to my defense:

“David Haughton has produced a fine exhibition showing the underbelly of this country. Think of George Grosz’s paintings of the Nazis coming to power in the buildup to WW II Germany. And all manner of other protest art. Depicting them doesn’t glorify these people and their beliefs. It shows us who they are and what they mean to our world. This is the artist’s job.”

Things then settled down, but in the week before the reception on September 22, we heard a concerning rumor that a determined group were calling for a “meeting” to generate further community animosity toward AWM. We were forced to go to the police to lay out the threats that had been made, including threats of firebombing, ripping paintings off the wall and throwing them on the ground. However, in the end, nothing untoward happened; the reception was a great success, attended by friends and patrons as well as by Michael Wooff of the Consulate General of Canada, Seattle and some of his guests.

Nice painting available
Gallery 110 – The Holiday Show
December 6 – 29, 2018
Reception Saturday December 8, 4-7 PM

I took a particularly nice painting from the 80+ Views of Mount Baker series down to Seattle, titled Seattle Dawn – from West Seattle. Come see it at Gallery 110’s Holiday show which opens next week on December 6. You are also warmly invited to the reception on December 8.

Please note the holiday show is different than most shows. Collectors buy the artwork right off the walls and take it home, so come early!

Seattle Dawn – from West Seattle, Acrylic on Multimedia Artboard, 2018. 22 x 30 inches, $2800

I hope you’ll be able to come by and see my show at the Visual Space Gallery on Dunbar: 80+ Views of Mount Baker: Final Homage to Mount Baker. The show has been extended another week, through 5 PM on Wednesday, October 3. The gallery is open every day from noon – 5 PM.

Tomorrow morning (Wednesday September 26, 2018) I’ll be giving an Artist’s Talk: “Hokusai and Me”, at 10-11 AM

In addition to the Artist Talk, I’ll be the Visual Space Gallery from noon – 5 PM Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday each week. Please join me for a latte & banana bread and chocolate-espresso brownies! It would be lovely to see you.

Yukiko Onley will attend the Gallery the other days while I’m down in Seattle at my other show – Angry White Men.

80+ views of Mount Baker: Final Homage to Hokusai
September 13 – October 3, 2018
Visual Space Gallery, 3352 Dunbar Street, Vancouver, BC