Loyal to oil: Artist of the Month at Creek Village Gallery

Artist Wanda Black

Even Black's flora can be quite captivating as demonstrated here in a detail from
 a larger painting (bottom) which invites the viewer to imagine the story beyond the canvas.
 The lush images at top form a tryptic.

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Wanda Black hails from Cambridge Narrows N.B. and moved to Woodstock about eight years ago. Although she always liked drawing ─ “But I had suppressed it for a long time,” she says ─ her career path was in medical laboratory technology. She left that field earlier this year in order to spend more time at home with her child and to pursue her art.

Black was one of the original exhibitors at the O’Toole Gallery in Grafton and is now part of the Creek Village Gallery cooperative where she currently has the honour of being their first “Artist of the Month”. More of her portfolio can be found on Facebook.

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Wanda, you paint almost exclusively with oils at a time when watercolour and acrylic are much more common. How did that come about?
I began with acrylics but then when I started taking art classes with Glenn Priestly (of Fredericton) about nine years ago… it became an oil obsession. Once you commit, you’re invested and I’m still learning how to work with it. The technique for oils is that of the old masters and there is a method to it that seems logical to me. It starts with a drawing and a value study, followed by an under-painting. The color is then applied in layers and glazes. Oils dry more slowly and this helps me to contemplate my next step.

Are you still taking lessons?
I’ve taken a few drawing workshops but we have a group at Priestly’s that has been together for a few years and we’re all loyal to oil. It’s almost a club-like atmosphere and very supportive ─ like-minded people working in similar ways. These sessions helped me get to the point where I could actually sign my work.

You mentioned that, since youth, you have always liked to draw. What was your greatest influence?
In junior high and high school, we had a very committed, fabulous art teacher, Glenna MacDonald. For the size of the community, Cambridge Narrows, what she was able to do was amazing. She could find art supplies, she organized art gallery tours, she could explain classical artists and their styles.

Well you certainly have an interesting style, verging on realism some might say.
I’m trying to achieve a balance between realism and loose-ness. I’m also trying not to interpret everything for the viewers. When it’s all explained, you’re just feeding. But leave enough mystery and they get involved with the painting. Maybe even take themselves into the picture.

The story is an important component then…
Something emotional or sentimental, yes. Perhaps a not-too-obvious detail that might provoke questions or encourages someone to create their own story. I try not to paint something that is merely decorative so I try to have something in a painting that catches a viewer’s attention and might provoke thoughts of a deeper meaning.

I’m trying to achieve a balance between realism and loose-ness.

Your work seems to be divided fairly evenly between portraits and landscapes.
Essentially, everything is a portrait. A tree has character and personality, for instance. Landscapes are certainly more forgiving but a person’s hand, which some feel is a very hard thing to draw, can be much easier if drawn like a landscape.