Category Archives: Blog

AIAP and exhibition Monaco – Japon 2015

In 2014 I joined the A.I.A.P., L’association internationale des artes plastiques auprès de l’U.N.E.S.C.O. With this membership I was invited to join the exhibition 9 ème Rencontre Artistique Monaco – Japon 2015 in February at the auditorium Rainier III in Monaco:

invitation Monaco - Japon

My featured piece in the show was a large framed drawing; “The Fisherman feeds the fish”:

La pêcheuse nourrit les poissons - Encre sur papier - 80 x 106 cm - 1000 €

It was a great opportunity to meet both the other artists of the Association as well as the many artists from Japan who came to participate in the show:

rencontre monaco japon (4)

 

Drawing of the Day – 1st Anniversary

“Smokin’ – En feu”

(version française aprés texte en anglais)

Hello art lovers!

Today, December 6, marks a very special day, as it is one year now since the ‘Drawing of the Day’ was launched. How quickly the time passes, and what a great success it’s been so far!

The Drawing of the Day has been coming out every Monday through Friday, always a new image, rich in poetry and visual pleasure. I describe these as visual poems, or Haiku drawings, done either as simple line drawings, or, at times more complex, with added elements of collage. Over the last year many themes, subjects and characters have emerged, giving the series a sense of continuity, without losing any of the creativity and incredible variety, which has, in fact, only increased.

People have been generous in their comments, and this is something I appreciate, as they will often bring a deeper meaning to the images. The list of subscribers has also grown, and if you are not yet a subscriber, you may not want to miss out any longer. It’s free to join up, and every morning you will receive a notice with a link to the most recent Drawing of the Day. Simply look in the menu for Drawing of the Day here on my web site:

Once you’re in and have had a look around, click on the ‘Subscribe’ button. Follow the simple instructions, and you too will be part of the wonderful world that is ‘Drawing of the Day’, as it enters its second year. If you are already a subscriber, now is the time to tell your friends so they too can enjoy their morning drawing. And don’t forget, all the drawings are for sale; with Christmas coming, it might be a good time to consider one or two drawings as gifts for friends, or even for yourself.

Welcome to the second year of ‘Drawing of the Day’!

Frank Eric Zeidler

Un grand bonjour à vous tous amateurs d’art !

Aujourd’hui, le 6 décembre, est une date spéciale puisqu’elle marque le premier anniversaire du lancement du « Dessin du jour ». Que le temps passe vite ! Je suis surtout heureux de constater le franc succès que ce projet a remporté.

Un nouveau dessin du jour est, comme vous le savez, publié chaque jour du lundi au vendredi. Ces dessins sont non seulement un plaisir pour les yeux mais ils sont également riches en poésie. Je les qualifie même de poèmes visuels, ou de Haïkus sous forme de dessins, exécutés soit d’un simple trait de crayon ou alors de manière plus élaborée avec parfois des éléments de collage.
Parmi les nombreux thèmes, sujets ou personnages qui ont émergé tout au long de cette année, certains ont donné naissance à des séries dont la continuité s’est effectuée tout naturellement, sans pour autant perdre de leur créativité ni de leur incroyable variété, bien au contraire.

Vous avez été nombreux à faire des commentaires et je vous en remercie, car dans bien des cas vous avez donné un sens plus profond aux images. La liste des abonnés ne cesse également de grandir, mais si vous n’en faite pas encore partie, il n’est jamais trop tard pour bien faire ; c’est gratuit et chaque matin, vous recevrez un e-mail avec votre lien direct pour le dessin du jour.
Pour ce faire, cliquez sur « Dessin du jour ». Une fois sur la page, vous pouvez consulter les derniers dessins ainsi que les archives, et vous inscrire en mettant votre adresse e-mail et en cliquant sur le bouton « Suscribe » dans la fenêtre à la droite de l’écran. Et voilà, c’est aussi simple que cela pour devenir abonné alors que le « Dessin du jour » entame sa deuxième année.
Si vous êtes déjà un abonné, n’hésitez pas à en parler à vos amis.
N’oubliez pas que vous pouvez également acheter les dessins, alors en cette période de Noël, pourquoi ne pas vous faire plaisir ou gâter votre famille et vos amis.

Soyez donc les bienvenus à cette deuxième année du dessin du jour !

Frank Eric Zeidler

Expo Marseille

About one month ago, October 13 to be exact, was the date of the reception for my show at the Toursky Theatre in Marseille, France. A great turnout, and good sales, made the entire undertaking worthwhile.

28 pieces under glass, a combination of collages and drawings, made up the bulk of the show. Two large paintings, ‘Primavera’ and ‘When in love’ were hung at opposite ends of the hall, presiding over the space. In addition, 11 more drawings, mounted on cardboard, were on display in the back for the reception only.

We had a lot of help getting the show set up, family and friends all pitched in to do the framing, helped in transportation, getting the show hung, providing refreshments, and so much more. We all had a lot of fun despite the hard work.

The reactions of the people who came were encouraging. As well as being enthusiastic about the works on display, they exhibited a high degree of interest in the work, asking probing questions about the meaning behind various images, and displaying a willingness to discuss mythology and poetry, as well as inquiring about methods and techniques. One had the feeling that the work on display was like a great dinner, the energy was high, and the work was being savored by everyone. All in all, it bodes well for an eventual move to France, as some good contacts came out of all this; a lot of people are impatient to see more of my work. Some large paintings, as well as the remaining works from the show are staying in Marseille and will be available for viewing (for information, contact me) .

I will leave you with some pictures from the opening:

Lobby – Theatre Toursky

Main staircase – myself and the theatre director

View of the installation

Talking with the guests

Enjoying the exhibition

Explaining the meaning behind a piece

Nadine entertains the guests

Enjoying the drawing “Invitation to the forest”

 

 

We are on the eve of our departure for France and my first exhibition in Europe, at the Toursky Theater in Marseille. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, the 13th of October, from 3:00 – 5:00, and the show itself will run through to the 10th of November. Thousands of people pass through the Toursky Theater, so the art is going to get a lot of attention. This is a landmark exhibit for me, being an introduction to the European art world, a chance for all to have a look at the work I am doing, and will be the first in what will be many exhibits in France and throughout Europe.

The exhibition will consist of paintings, drawings and collage, some of which have been prepared especially for the occasion and others taken from a rich inventory of work. See below for a sample of the art that can be seen.

If you are passing through southern France over the next month, be sure to drop in for a look. If anybody you know is planning on being in Marseille at this time, please let them know about my show. You can pass on this notice, plus links to my website, and don’t forget the ‘Drawing of the Day, which will be continuing, even while I’m on holidays.

“The Spirit Alights”

“Nine Inukshuk”

“Love Boat”

“Mother and child”

“Trophy”

“Fishing with light”

“The new family”

“Lady of the marsh”

“The origin of ocean currents”

New sites and archives

Stirred on by our planned move to France at the end of 2013 I have begun to put my older art work on line, both to create an archive of my large and diverse achievements as an artist and to make a selection of my work available for purchase by interested collectors.

The works to be posted will be a carefully chosen selection of the best work available in various media, including oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, and collages, done throughout my career as an exhibiting artist. As well as some old favourites, these archives will contain some surprises of interest to all art lovers. As the various sites become ready I’ll be posting notices letting you know how to get there and providing a little description of what to expect. At this time I have three new related sites ready that I would like to tell you about.

In 1990 I started work on an epic comic book collage / graphic novel that came to be known as: Mr. Manitoba – Secrets in Art

“Mr. Manitoba – Secrets in Art”

Using dialogue and frames cut from old comic books and combined with images from magazines I created a story of an art thief and artist who, having made a Faustian pact with an art dealer, becomes a renowned and successful artist, only to lose his abilities and sink into despair. Struggling to renew himself, Mr. Manitoba makes a comeback, only to be put on trial for his crimes against art. The entire story is a prescient look at originality, copyright, and the money and celebrity driven art world of today.

The entire manuscript, along with an introduction, has now been placed online and may be viewed at:


Once the story of Mr. Manitoba was completed I set out to do a number of paintings based on various pages from the book.

“Just watch this”

These highly detailed oil paintings on canvas, 32”x48”, were meant to immortalize and make presentable for sale images originally created in a medium that may prove fragile and ephemeral. These durable paintings were done over a period of years in the early 1990’s and a large selection of them were shown in the 1993 Artropolis exhibition. The paintings look very impressive in their large scale format and have a compelling contemporary aura. Some of the paintings have since been sold, but the greater portion of the collection has now been put on line and for sale at:


Related to and growing out of the story of Mr. Manitoba is the work I have been doing ever since in comic book collage. Since 1995 I have collaborated with fellow artists David Wilson, Bill Mullan and Neil Parker, along with other artists who have joined us from time to time in a movement known as Eccolage. Continuing in the basic comic book format  we have occasionally branched out into more ambitious projects including the production of a ‘zine which ran for 30 issues, first appearing in 1999, with the last issue released in 2005. Meeting regularly over the past 17 years many hundreds of these collages have been produced. Shown publicly in small exhibits from time to time the best of these collages are now being posted on line at:


The images on this site are being added to constantly, both from the vast archive and from the most recent creation. Bookmark this site, and all the others, as one of your favourites! Just to give you a taste of what to expect, here is a small selection of images:

“Are you a god?”

“More bad news”

“Cool”

Once other new archival sites are established and ready for viewing I’ll post a description and link here and send out a notification. There will be lots of great things coming up. Do tell your friends about these sites, and keep in mind that all this work would make a great addition to your personal art collections.

If you haven’t already started your own art collection, now is the time! Keep in mind that all the pages posted on ‘Eccolage’ are available for CDN$99, the same price as the ‘Drawing of the day’, which you can see right here on this website. If you are not already a subscriber to ‘Drawing of the day’, go to that page and subscribe to receive a notification of every new drawing, Monday through Friday. It’s free! If you have any questions or comments, or if you would like more information on this or any of the sites I’ve mentioned here, be sure to contact me and I’ll be very happy to help you out.

Frank Eric Zeidler

News – 10 May 2012

It is a pleasure to be able to open this first post with the announcement of my upcoming show at the Toursky Theatre  in Marseille, France, later this year, sometime in mid-October, the exact date still to be announced. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there! (Air-fare and accommodation not included) Through the help of family and contacts in France we have been able to set up this show, my first in Europe, and the first step toward entering the European art world.

“The Theatre Toursky in Marseille”

The show itself will be a mix of medium sized (15×22 – 38x56cm) collage and drawing – all works on paper, as well as a handful of large paintings, which we will be having shipped over. I don’t know which ones or how many for sure yet, but one of them is certain to be ‘Primavera’, as this one has been getting a lot of favorable comments from over there and they are excited to have it as part of the show.

“Primavera”

As for this blog, well, of course I’ll be providing news about my art, the occasional look at other artists, some recommendations, links, insights into the art world, maybe a glimpse or two behind the scenes, and of course, lots and lots of images to keep those ravenous eyes of yours sated.

But I am also going to be giving lessons in drawing, real, practical lessons aimed at helping the hesitant beginner unleash the confident artist within and set them out on the road to creativity and self expression.

Take a look at the following drawings. I’ve chosen these so you can see that drawing well is not beyond you:

“Detail from a drawing by Vancouver artist B.C. Binning”

“Landscape by Pierre Bonnard”

“Drawing from Tunis by Auguste Macke”

“Drawing by Albert Marquet”

“Drawing – Henri Matisse”

Follow my drawing lessons, and you won’t end up frustrated, like the poor artist in this drawing by Saul Steinberg:

“Drawing – Saul Steinberg”

So mark this blog as one of your favorites and be sure to drop into this site from time to time for news and features. I will be sending out notices when important postings come up. Don’t hesitate to send links to your friends and anybody you think would be interested in what’s going on here. I welcome all your comments, questions, and suggestions for topics and such. Your feedback will help shape many posts to come.

Talk to you soon!

Frank Zeidler 10 May 2012