Shots from my Stride Show

All photos below of my "Divine Inspiration" pieces are courtesy of Stride Gallery and taken by photographer M.N Hutch.

Adding Galaxies - SHIVA

Shiva's dance of destruction inspires the creation and destruction of the cosmos. I was inspired by hubble images and added them around the dancing figure. Here is how they look all together on the finished piece.

They also look really cool when viewed thru my Chromadepth 3D glasses. Below are 7 close up examples of the various galaxies I painted around Shiva.

Go see the work at Stride, closes this Friday and will never be hung together as a collection again.

Strides website/ information.

Shivas dance of destruction

Shivas skin is painted and the figure is blocked in in the round.... but now needs a head.

You can see the charcoal o the black gesso of where the head needs to be placed. The rear hand still needs to be painted in as well.

 Here is  a closer show to show the shading details added to the figure.

 

I painted in the rear arm.

 Here is a detail of the hand.

This is the first placement of the head and shape but it didn't look right so I had to do it over again.

 I blocked in the major planes of the head and face, this time softening the edges and pointing the chin a bit more.

I added a bit more shadow depth and blocked in the eyes.

I then did a little work on the hair and added in more stars into the cosmos.

RAMA - towards gold and robes

Here is some of the process for finishing my Rama painting currently on exhibition at the Stride Gallery until the end of this month.

 I left off with the painting at the fall of light stage. I must have painted and repainted it 5 times. Learning that its okay to rework and wipe away. The creation of this piece became a very organic process. I also lost my reference material when my laptop had to be reformatted.

I wanted to create darker shadows and more realistic form with this piece than in my previous sacred images. I also wanted the dark skin tone to resemble a rocky statue. I had a picture that I ripped out of a national geographic that had a great stone texture that I used as my inspiration. I added pits and cracks and highlights.

I decided to have Rama pulling back a lightning bolt instead of a traditional arrow.  I taped the shape off and painted it in with leafing resin. It takes at least an hour for it to become tacky and ready to lay leaf. My idea is that I can create crisper shapes when I pull the tape of afterward.

After gently laying down the gold leaf I rubbed it with the back of my knuckles because the brushes I have are a little too rough and tear the gold leaf leaving an undesirable cracked texture. This is the first test I have for doing it this way and it has turned out quite good for being a total noobie. I clear coated the gold leaf afterward to protect it, keep it shiny and to stall any future oxidation that might occur.

I drew out half of the bow shape onto a large sheet of paper so that I could have a symmetrical bow. I cut out the sheet and used it as a placement guide. I followed the paper guide with masking tape and gently cut it out to match using my matte knife where necessary.

I figure out an appropriate angle to place the top part of the bow and then laid down the masking in the same manner as on the lower half. Afterward, I placed the guilding glue or size and waited until it became tacky to the touch.

Here is the gold leaf applied to the inner shape. You can see the bits that are loose over the masking tape as they have nothing to adhere to. I gently brush them away and try to salvage as many pieces as I can leaving the rest to fall to the floor like rice at a wedding.

I removed the tape, cleaned up the edges and applied the protective coating over top of the gold. It shines brilliantly and beautifully. far better than any gold paint ever could. I like the implied line of the bow string and decided not to paint it in at all.

The next stage as time consuming. Since I had no plan or reference I had to improvise a flowing robe in white paint. I used a slightly translucent white and scrubbed it to give it a silky appearance. Beneath each foot I decided to have him stand on the robe as if it is helping him to float in the red void. I left some of the robe at the point of construction lines to give it a lyrical feel and to reveal some of the steps in creating it.

I gave him a helmet with the fabric coming from the top of it. I decided not to paint it with shadows which would give it solidity and weight. Instead it is more like an outline or X-ray style. I did not paint in the gems or add any gold so that the simple color palette would not be disturbed.

Here is a shot of the full piece in the studio before heading to the gallery space for hanging.

Here is a current active link to the Gallery page for more info and a great article about the work:

http://www.stride.ab.ca/main.html

Check it out before it is to late!

EASTERN PROMISES - FFWD article

Eastern promises

Artist finds creative salvation in Vedic deities
Published November 1, 2012  by Zoltan Varadi in Visual Arts

DETAILS

Divine Inspiration by Brian Batista
Stride Gallery
Friday, October 26 - Friday, November 30

More in: Visual Arts

As he tells it, Brian Batista has been an artist for over 30 years; he just hasn’t had much work to show for it. He says he knew he wanted to paint since he was five, but due to the interceding diversions of school and work, he’s just now holding his second solo show.

While Batista graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2001 and was lucky enough to get a job straight out of the gate as Emmedia’s production co-ordinator — a role he held for eight years — the resulting 16-hour days didn’t leave much time to hit the canvas.

So, he walked away from it all.

“When you work in artist-run centres, you’re working for the artist — and I wanted to be the artist again,” he says. “I was like, okay, I’ve had enough, because I needed some growth.... I tried to redefine myself.... Everyone knew me as the video guy. And there was a huge falling out period — I felt lost for about six months. I wasn’t the video guy. I didn’t have those jobs anymore. In your 30s that’s a lot scarier.”

Thankfully, Batista had no less than a pantheon of deities to guide the way; while he maintains he’s “close to being an atheist,” he was attracted to the iconography of Tibetan Buddhism on an aesthetic if not spiritual level. Saying he wasn’t quite sure of his own style, he researched figures in museums from New York to Los Angeles, Toronto to Calgary.

“What really interests me is that it’s all about the human condition,” he says. “Also, I’m super-literal, and [in Tibetan art] every object has a meaning and tells a story. I don’t really understand abstract art, and classical, figurative art is a little too obvious. I like symbols, motifs and iconography, but I still want to do figurative work.”

So Batista ventured forth with his first major series of works, fairly faithful (if a little brighter colour-scheme wise) representations of these deities, even going so far as to teach himself the sacred geometry that the Tibetans used in determining scale, proportions and positioning of their subjects.

“The Tibetan stuff is relationships to everything else — if one leg is up the other has to be down, if one leg is pointed this way, the other has to be pointed that way,” explains Batista. “It creates a balance, somehow, using those shapes and that math.”

For his current exhibition at Stride — Divine Inspiration — Batista reached even further back in time, looking to the Vedic deities of Hinduism which later informed the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon. However, this time around Batista allowed himself more representational leeway — while elephant-headed Ganesh comes across pretty much how you’d expect, the goddess Lakshmi appears with dreadlocks and holds a banjo, and the traditionally male Shiva is rendered in female form (fun fact — his model was Carisa Hendrix, local Guinness record-holding fire eater and last week’s subject of this publication’s Your Face Here).

Also, while the colourful images certainly pop out of the frames on their own accord, the effect is further emphasized with a pair of Chromatech 3D glasses, which are available at the gallery.

Batista downplays this visual twist, though — he says the paintings stand on their own without the effect — he just wanted to try it out after being introduced to the technique at a rave and then realizing he had already painted colours — much like a printmaker — in the order needed to produce a 3D image.

Indeed, it seems to be part and parcel of a journey of both serious (he’s also studied classical Florentine figurative painting) and playful exploration as he discovers what it is to be a working artist.

Batista admits he’s still finding his way, which is why having a place to show his work is of such importance.

“[Calgary artist Chris Cran] came up to my paintings and pointed out some things that just opened my eyes,” says Batista of the kind of dialogue facilitated by the opening of Divine Inspiration. “And that’s what I wanted, because I’m trying to get somewhere and I don’t know where that is.”

FFWD article link here:http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/arts/visual-arts/eastern-promises-9971/

---

What in Samhain?

Here is the Link to the essay below by Mark Allard about my show. 

/EXHIBITION TEXT

BATISTA’S DIVINE INSPIRATION: AN INVITATION TO THE OTHER SIDE /MARK ALLARD

Creating divine icons can be a meritorious act that nourishes the spirit and brings about the existence of deities and good luck. Calgary artist Brian Batista tests the possibility of sublime experience in art. His work, DIVINE INSPIRATION, blends sacred geometry with historical references to re-imagine traditional images and cleverly conceptualize contemporary life in terms of Vedic deities and sublime mystical revelation.

The development of Vedic deities was a fusion of ideas from invading Aryan tribes - from the region of Iran, and the indigenous people of northern India. The Aryan herdsmen were less interested in rural deities and stressed the adoration of natural phenomena. The sun (Surya) and fire (Agni) were personifications of divinity. As A. A. MacDonnell describes, "true gods of Veda are glorified human beings, inspired with human motives and passions. Born like men, but immortal."1

Deities from the succeeding RigVedic era were less secure, gaining or losing prestige, and new ones emerged, replacing those that had become obsolete. Indra was considered the almighty powerful God and became Prajapati, the creator and preserver of the universe, and would be identified with Brahma in the post Vedic period. The new Vedic deities would influence Buddhism, eastern mysticism, and future religious thought generally.

DIVINE INSPIRATION began with Batista choosing models to represent various Vedic deities. He photographs them in traditional poses and then translates the photographs on canvas using Vedic mathematics. His images are rendered differently from the one-dimensional flat Tibetan style by Batista’s use of a more Western Renaissance style. They bear bright, abstract colors and deeply representational forms and shadows. Established traditions are maintained where figures hold ritual implements to signify specific identities and narratives.

Vedic deities are very often male, but Batista intentionally confuses representations of gender to achieve a visceral effect. He hopes “to transcend representational art by creating a mystical experience” and “shake a person to their core.” He wants to “delight the eyes and ignite imaginations, with the intention of inspiring beauty, reverence, and curiosity.” Gender confusion is Batista’s springboard for achieving these goals, as is Batista’s use of chromo-depth, a technique wherein the colors are coded by depth. With the use of special glasses, the two-dimensional images become multidimensional, causing the paintings themselves to come alive.

The pieces in DIVINE INSPIRATION are bold and colorful acrylic and oil paintings on canvas, with gold and silver throughout. The largest one measures 5ft x 8ft though they all seem to be grandiose. They are hung high on the gallery walls so that viewers must look up to find their eyes. When contact is made the image meets the viewer’s gaze with a sparkle of reflective metallic elements, but only the most perceptive viewer will notice this secret message. Bright colors, textures, and patterns add depth and broaden perspective, fusing traditional Eastern iconography with contemporary Western influences. Batista intends the fusion to initiate an immediate embodied response of awe and wonder, as one might imagine the original deities did.

How we imagine ourselves has much to do with how we imagine divinity. DIVINE INSPIRATION invites us across divides between here and there and now and then. The viewer may find him- or herself on the other side of conventional and historical standards, experiencing new heights in modern spirituality. In the company of Batista’s images, one discovers, or is reminded, that spirituality can come from within. These paintings remind us that limited, skewed, and biased views of divinity affect our ability to experience ourselves as full bearers of the divine image. DIVINE INSPIRATION celebrates our potential and offers a profoundly contemporary reinvention of sublime Vedic and mystical revelation.

1 Arthur A. McDonnell, Vedic Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banersidass Publishers PVT. LTD., 2002, first edition 1898) page

2. In-person interview between Allard and Batista in the artist’s studio, September 22, 2012, Calgary, Alberta.

3. Also from September 22, 2012 interview, as above.

/WRITER BIO

/MARK ALLARD describes himself as a “guerrilla journalist,” referencing his time with the Zapatistas in Mexico, paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, and a three-month sojourn into off-the-radar Ethiopia. His first novel, Regressions, was released in October 2012.

KALI - Goddess of Time and Change

If you read yesterday's post you are probably licking your chops to see what developed next....

After much pondering I took a big leap. I knew I wanted the green skull to be engulfed in flames and I knew I wanted to add a dancing ribbon around the figure. After some soul searching and plenty of gazing at the piece I decided to do a graduated ribbon of partial flame.

Painting the flames/ribbons takes a lot longer than I usually expect. I work right on the Canvas so there tends to be a lot of wiping away and repainting to get it the way I like. I used a series of bold colours right out of the tube as the base blending dark cadmium to cad yellows to green.

I painted the flames to come out the the green skull and have some of the flame overlap the leg, this should create a pretty cool illusion when viewed thru the 3D glasses!

I continue to block in the light cadmium red bone structures, which end out looking like a neon orange once painted. The blend of the red to orange ribbon can be seen here and some of the internal ribbon shapes unfolding are beginning to be developed.

I began to rub in a dark brown around the edges of the camera to help punch it up further.

I go back into the skull with a dark green, Viridian right out of the tube, to punch it up further and give it more shape.

I then painted a silhouette of a king cobra in pure ivory black being held above the silver bowl in Kali's outstretched and foreshortened grip.

I blocked in some of Kali's hair.

And then put in softer lighter high lights. I did some work on the silver foil weapons and added some drips of blood as well as the tongue that is sticking out of the mouth.

I outlined and rubbed in the silver weapons with a Bob ross Mountain mix. I also added in details on the ribbons, painted in some blood drips and a heart in the bowl, etc. This shot is to give a general idea about how the entire piece has developed from figure to ribbon.

This detail shows some of the undulating folds of the ribbon and how I use various outlines and the middle dark ribbon. I really like how the translucency of the ribbon over the femur turned out.

KALI continues....

The show is up and the opening was successful beyond what I expected, so I'm going to go back a month plus and start posting more of the process of creating the pieces.

Go back in time to see how the project began and developed to this point, here!

 It begins with painting this green skull triumphantly shelf underneath Kali's big black foot.

The painting sat like this on a background, I had to rework some areas before moving onto the next steps.

 I outlined the figure with a purple I made in acrylic to help hash out the figure amongst the flat black gesso used to fill her in.

 I used masking tape to define the weapons and bowl.

 I created the shape partially in paper and then used it as a guide to mask out the area.

 Then came the new fun skill I experimented with, guilding/leafing. I applied the size and waited the recommended hour plus for it to become tacky to the touch.

 The leaf is super thin and light, the slightest breeze can cost a lot of silver. I gently leafed it in, it only sticks to the guilding resin. I gently burnish it with the back of my fingers.

 I pulled off the tape to reveal the shape of the weapon remaining in silver. I also used a light cadmium hue oil paint directly on the surface to place in some leg bones.

 I worked in the ribs and arm and placed the knee. I left the studio in the wee hours of the morning happy with the progress at this stage of the game.