Abstract by Nature March 23-April 16, 2024

I am pleased to announce my part in a group exhibit including Jack Shadbolt, Graham Fowler, Cécile Buysse, and Ronald Brayden Oaks

https://gevik.com/exhibitions/abstract-by-nature/

Gevik Gallery https://gevik.com/

12 Hazleton Ave, Toronto

RISKY BUSINESS

The Process of Risk-Taking as a Creative Process

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho

I have always been fascinated by the notion of ‘Risk’ as it might play out in a creative process. In the sciences, the concept of failure is a natural part of the investigation. If you want to learn how a process works or develop a new one yourself, the precise method demands that you try, fail, and try again. But in the arts, failure is often seen as a dirty word—no one wants to be responsible for a critical or commercial flop. But without taking risks and pushing boundaries, art would remain stagnant, and the creative spirit would be wasted on our fears.

Risk-Taking - Improving through the Creative Process

As an artist, I am very demanding of myself. I see all types of things in my process that I think I could have done better or that I want to challenge myself to do. Setting high standards, high expectations—it’s a very self-critical life. I know I am often my own hardest critic. You practice–it’s a journey. Your first attempts didn’t always pan out exactly how you wanted. It’s a cliché, I know, but it’s not just about the work. It’s also the practice and the journey to get there.

This piece is essentially an exercise in just that. Conceptually, forms embracing the idea of taking a risk, whether it incorporates the use of ‘positive negative' space colour, an option of re-constructing a secondary image, it's all a process of tripping myself up.

Artist: Doug Panton — Title: Risky Business

Size: 22” x28” |. Medium: Analogue Collage

RCA INDUCTION

July 29.2020

Some very good news! Yesterday, I learned that I have been inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA). Thank-you to the RCA committee, President, Robert Tombs and dear friends, Rudolf Bikers, Anita Kunz, Ron Shuebrook, and George Walker, Libby Hague for their support. This is indeed a great honour.

Title: Currents

Medium: Collage — Size: 40” x 60”

Also available as a limited edition print see: https://www.dougpanton.com/roughs

International Collage Art Exhibition

Very happy to be part of this international exhibition

3rd Edition of International Collage Exhibition

September 29th, 2020 – December 31st, 2020

Hosted by Retroavangarda Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

Curator: Anna Klos.  www.retroavangarda.com

1. Attitude ———————— 2. Sanctuary

Playing Around

The notion of ‘playing around’ is an experiment with a chance moment. The very use of this type of mindset is for me its greatest asset. Freedom from design or commitment allows me the opportunity to juxtapose things that would not otherwise happen. When plotting an original idea, it always provides a set of tensions. Its process, along the way, affords opportunities. The way it looks at how it will change through chance. It might be partly emotional and partly calculated but taking the time for the emergence of a new perception through an unplanned moment, albeit a focused and time prepared judgment becomes the ideal playground that provides the possibility of uniqueness. 

WIP for Emergence

This was a monumental piece on many levels. As this was collage treatment the actual implementation took 6 weeks of preparation.

JUST SAYIN?

FUTURE OF CREATIVITY

 For the longest time I have thought about the act of creative ‘Risk-Taking‘ and the use of technology—how it might affect the creative decision-making process? 

The collapse of the stock market in 2008 and the subjugation of the marketplace that followed has likely changed attitudes of risk-taking for a generation. We feel safer if we can predict an outcome. The use of stock illustration as an art form is predefined and sold by genre, style, and subject matter. (more) Illustrators are mindful of the increasing need for their work to be noticed amid the cacophony of content on the web. They must acknowledge that their work will be vying for a disassociated audience’s limited attention in this modern world which has become relentlessly overrun with online advertising, content marketing and the limits of the attention economy. This means attention is a resource, as each user only has so much of it. 

The very act of hiring illustrators to create custom work also ensures avoiding embarrassing mishaps which can occur when companies are noticed displaying the same stock imagery as their online competitors. 

A positive consequence of employing an illustrative artist is that individual companies can present a far more personalized and accessible user experience. This is by far better suited to their specific target market and reaffirms a more authentic presence for potential clientele. Just Saying!

New Process

Analogue>Digital>Analogue

Harvesting a new process pathway. Very Happy with this piece and its final outcome. The art is made from an assemblage of different shapes and forms creating a new whole. The process is still in its infancy but essentially this is an analogue (graphite) to digital (Illustrator/Photoshop/Procreate) then back to analogue (Collage) again.

Working Large

Heavy Haul

Newly framed collage art 85” x 48”, Shadow box. A challenge to transport, back and forth, too big for my SUV (U-Haul required) Framer: Akasha on Carlton Street, only 4 blocks away