Ribbon-Cutting on August 26th

After painting a wide swath of over 60 large murals across Canada over the past 30+ years, Canadian artist/author Michael R. Gaudet's latest mural (of monumental proportions) has been installed just outside the Village of Young, SK.

"Forever YOUNG" is twenty feet high and eighty feet long, mounted ten feet above the ground on a huge steel frame that is engineered to withstand gale-force winds. The mural is claimed to be the "World's Largest Free-Standing Mural".

This stunning photo shows the massive scale of "forever YOUNG" as the panels are installed.

Gaudet says, "I always use professional-quality artist's acrylics for my paintings and murals. These paints are considerably more expensive than exterior latex, however they are the superior product for murals. I usually shy away from painting directly on an existing wall, because a mural is only as good as the surface it is painted on. Instead, I use a specially engineered painting panel that gets installed on the wall. In the case of the Young project, we opted to build a structure on which to install my mural."

"I will begin a mural project by collaborating with the stakeholders in order to come up with an authorized design. Once this happens, the rough sketches are upgraded to a scale drawing that is suitable to be replicated as a limited edition print. The print can then be marketed in order to raise funds for the mural. This is a formula for success."

The mural "forever YOUNG" faces the busy #2 highway just south of Young, SK.

The "forever YOUNG" mural features thirty-one images in a "montage" style design. All of these scenes and people are recognizable. They are sourced from the Young history book and also from private photograph collections from the community. In the coming days, a "legend" will appear on the left-hand side of the mural. This legend will feature an outline of every aspect of the mural that will have a number designating its meaning. Below this will be a list of all the pictures that will allow viewers to identify all of the images.

"This huge mural was very challenging to paint," continues the artist. "Not only was it a lot of physical work, at one-thousand six-hundred square feet, but the images themselves were very detailed and rigorous painting. My technique calls for about fifteen glazes over the entire surface, so in all, the painting entailed about twenty-four thousand square feet of application to finish. That's a lot."

Plans are underway to celebrate the completion of the "forever YOUNG" mural with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 26th, 2017. Everyone is invited to attend. Come out to lend your support to this astonishing accomplishment, inspired by the never-quit attitude of the planning committee. 

About the Artist/Author:

Taking a pause for the cause while working on the "forever YOUNG" mural.

Please visit www.mrgaudet.com to read more and to purchase a copy of "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality".

Book 2 Getting Closer to Publication

This is a widget. Click through to read my latest "Kickstarter" update.


About the Artist:

Huge Mural to be Mounted in Young, SK. Summer of '17.

After waiting for about 4 years, it would appear that the Village of Young is ready to mount my giant ( 20' x 80' qualifies as giant wouldn't you agree?) mural this summer of 2017.

I met with a couple of committee members last night and they were making encouraging noises. When I was driving by this morning on my way to dialysis in Saskatoon,

I decided to pull over and make this quick video to show you how really massive the frame is. It allows for the mural itself to be mounted 10 feet off the ground.

View of the partial mural while being painted at the Young Arena. The mural is 20' by 80', so with a 17' high ceiling, I had to  paint it in 2 sections. Do the math.

I was careful to carefully document the "Work-in-Progress" of the "forever YOUNG" mural, as it was the largest mural to date that I ever created.

Selfie...

What a lot of painting! With something this HUGE, there is going to be a LOT of heavy physical work. So. I paused during a typically busy day to take a selfie with the mural as a backdrop.

About the Artist/Author:

To read more, please visit www.mrgaudet.com

A Visceral, Mystical Painting Experience to Share

Yesterday morning, I was working on the manuscript for my 2nd book in my Trilogy Writing Project called "A Work in Progress: The Life my Brother Saved" and the chapters that described the "Visceral, Mystical Painting Experience" aka "Vision" was in my cross-hairs. The writing projects back to the year 1992.

It is a very emotional chapter, as it describes the hands-on approach that my dearly departed blood-brother Douglas Severight took during the painting process. Not to give too much away, however it can be said that this was an experience like no other in my long painting career!

I felt the powerful energy that Douglas poured into the painting, as he hovered over my hand as I worked, imparting a current of energy into my brushes.

The end result looked like this:

After many joyous days of painting "under the influence" of Medicine Man Douglas Severight, we had created this!

The "Vision" painting went on to earn a fair bit of notoriety, as it was replicated to become a fund-raising mechanism for a "Community-Building" project. This project aimed to bring together the various cultural groups of the area (Eastern Saskatchewan in 1991) with an emphasis on sharing the wisdom of the 1st Nations Elders. By and large it was very successful, as you will read in my upcoming book "A Work in Progress: The Life my Brother Saved" , scheduled to be released in the spring/summer of 2017.


L-R: The late writer Joan Elyofson-Cadham, myself, CTV host Elizabeth Popowich, and Douglas Severight with the "Vision" painting shortly after its completion. (1991)

These images will appear inside the pages of Book 2, just wait and see.

About the author:

To read more about my writing and artwork, please visit www.mrgaudet.com You can purchase Book 1 of my trilogy writing project called "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" at this link. Join the worldwide community who have read this book!

Nostalgic Painting (from "down on the farm")

Now, after the brief departure to SHARE some GOOD NEWS for PLANET EARTH, how about getting back to GaudetArt?

Here is a recent painting... created in 2017...that recreates a "nostalgic" image that hearkens back to circa 1950. My wife Sharon showed me this photo that pictures her nervously holding the family rooster, named "Chico", in her outstretched hand.

"Chico" was so heavy that Sharon's grandmother can be seen stage right...helping bear the weight.

"Chico" was too heavy for Sharon to hold up on her own, so her grandmother can be observed helping her. Or at least, her hand protrudes into the picture frame from the right.

I enjoyed painting this whimsical image, based on the vintage black and white photo furnished by Sharon. I think her mom gave this, among others, to her. Or possibly, Sharon raided the family photo album. I'll have to ask her about that.

About the Artist: 

Thrilled to finally hold the 1st Proof Copies of "Dancing comwith Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" in my hands. Click on this link to purchase your copy today in your choice of 3 formats.

Homage to the Humble Bumble-Bee

With all the buzz in our global media about the near and present dangers facing the ubiquitous bumblebee, I thought it was a fitting tribute to portray one of these magnificent creatures in a work of art. Fittingly, my Facebook feed popped up a painting this morning from 2012 called "Homage to the Humble Bumble-Bee".  Take a look:

"Homage to the Humble Bumble-Bee" painted in 2012.

This painting was posted on my Facebook feed just after I finished it and it created quite a buzz! In fact, the very same day, it was snapped up by a dear old friend in Nova Scotia. I quite like the vivid colors of the flower that are nicely offset by the soft focus, imaginary background. But the star of the image is the humble bumble-bee, one of my favorite of Mother Nature's creations.

About the Artist/Author:

Posing with Daniel Bushman of the Watrous/Manitou Newspaper with my book and banner "Dancing with Rejection"

Will You Love My Book?

A Candid Video that Explains Purpose of SGEU Murals

Yesterday a friend of mine visited our gallery and requested that I explain the "plan" regarding the two murals commissioned by Saskatchewan Government Employees' Union (SGEU) here in my home province. She then proceeded to catch my response on her video camera.





To reiterate, once the two murals are finished, they will be permanently housed at the new SGEU HQ in Regina, and will be photographed with a large format digital camera. The original images will then be enlarged 200% to be pressed into service as highway billboards across the province. A design firm based in Vancouver will be charged with the task of computer generating a slogan and the SGEU logo, to be superimposed over my artwork. As you can imagine, this is all very exciting for me, because my artwork will potentially be viewed by millions of eyeballs in such a high-traffic public setting.

1st SGEU Mural Coming Along Nicely

After several more days of concentrated painting, the first of two murals commissioned by the good folks at Saskatchewan Government Employees' Union (SGEU) is coming along nicely.

Now that this mural is up and running, my painting instincts are kicking

This has been a very enjoyable painting process, with a certain amount of flexibility that has allowed me to stretch my creative muscles. I'm finding that my instincts and experience in mural-painting are holding me in good stead as work progresses. With a project of this magnitude, it is important to remember the end-game. These murals will be digitally captured with large format cameras once I pronounce them "finished". The resulting photographs will be enlarged 200% to create highway billboards throughout the province of Saskatchewan. Bearing this rather astonishing fact in mind, my artwork needs to be sensitive to the context. 

You can see that after a few more good days of painting productivity, the images are emerging as quite vivid.

The rendering of the thematic figures needs to be therefore a bit exaggerated, or put another way, the details must be on the "theatrical" side, with very pronounced features. It would not be appropriate, considering the fact that the observers of the highway billboard replications will be whizzing by at highway speed, to be overly subtle with the "visual fingerprints" of the design.

My "Pride of Ownership" rings true with the Saskatchewan-based 

So, it should not surprise you, dear reader, that my approach to this visual spectacle is to paint in a muscular style. I am sure it will be very interesting to see the effect of these massive photographs based on my original artwork. I'm already wrestling with the concept that every brush stroke will ultimately be enlarged to twice its natural size! 

Please stay tuned, I will be updating this project on a regular basis as work continues.

Please visit my website www.mrgaudet.com for more samples of my artwork and to read about my upcoming book, called "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality".

Painting a Witchy Woman

Portrait painting is by far the most challenging genre, in my opinion.

When painting a landscape, who would ever know if a tree looks "right"? My point being, the other genres are, in most cases, more forgiving and plastic. Portraiture on the other hand must exhibit a certain precision, finesse and a convincing "realism" that cannot be faked or fudged.

Now, I'm referring to the realistic portrait here. I make it a point to push beyond mere realism to drill into the "feeling" or "spirit" of the model. For me, while it is challenging to evoke the physical resemblance of my model, it is even more so to tease out the personality...so that when you enter a room with the painting, there is a sense of the person there with you.

I decided to post some of the pivotal steps that were taken to create this portrait, but by no means the fourteen or so distinct steps aka "glazes" that I would usually paint.

Instead of presenting what could be perceived as a "how-to" guide to portrait painting, with this post I will plunge ahead with highlights, both to save myself time and also, to alleviate the delayed gratification that comes along with too much information.

I was assured by the subject that she was very pleased, excited in fact, with the work-in-progress. I appreciated this, as it is not always easy to tell, from my somewhat myopic view of the canvas on my easel, how it really looked.

The above photo shows the portrait very close to completion. I instinctively feel that it still needs to be pushed, pulled and massaged a bit more before I will be completely satisfied. In this case, I was asked to include the subject's "spirit animals", her astrological sign and an amethyst element. You can see these aspects coming out of the dark spaces, invented and incorporated into the overall composition.

This is a portrait-painting encounter of the fourth kind...working and re-working the paints to elicit the old soul of my dear friend...who self-identifies as a Wicca Spirit and is a practicing white witch and light-worker. It was the least I could do, after our magical healing sessions. I still tingle just thinking about it.

Extraordinary Beam of Light Captured

Talk about being in the right time, right place. I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I was at Sacred Heart in Saskatoon one day when a powerful beam of sunlight washed across the face of my mural. Thankfully, I had my camera handy. The play of light only lasted a few seconds, so I had to move fast.

It was one of those moments when I was grateful to have my camera.

I do remember feeling transfixed by that lovely beam of light, especially since it accentuated the design so perfectly. Try as I might, with humble paints and brushes, to achieve the illusion of light and dark, there is nothing quite so vivid as the natural stream of sunbeams. They really bring the vision to life, don't you think?

Images for Consideration Re: Dancing with Rejection

Dad, taken sometime in 1962. He is such a handsome guy, with classic good looks. Or it could be, I'm a bit biased.

I think this picture of my dad in Paris was taken before he was married. So, late 1940's.

My dad, Robert Gaudet, was an aircraft engineer in the Royal Canadian Air Force back in the late fifties. He is shown here demonstrating an engine at The Canadian Nat'l Exhibition in Toronto.

Robert and Shirley Gaudet (my dad and mom) on their wedding day. circa 1953. They look so young, innocent and in love.

Five of us kids...only one missing is Cheryl. circa 1963. L-R: Steve, Angela, Doug, Susan and me.

"Shribner Shunt" initiated as emergency surgery to allow life-saving dialysis therapy, Toronto, 1979.

My neighbor on dialysis at Sunnybrooke Medical Center in Toronto, 1979.

Drawing of my Dad circa 1960, drawn in 1979 as self-administered "Art Therapy" whilst in the dialysis chair.

In 1979, at age 19, I designed and painted "Recovery 1", as a invocation for my own health. This mural was my visceral response to a Near-Death Experience, as I was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Failure. A scant fifteen years prior to this, ESRF was a death sentence.

Homage to fallen hero painted on December 9th, 1980. His "last act" was to sign an album cover for a fan. — with John Lennon.

At age twenty-one, firing up a third of the "Trinity" mural at St. Mary's Basilica in Halifax.

With Shirley Gaudet and the Archbishop of Halifax James Hayes after the official unveiling of "Trinity 1981" at St. Mary's Basilica, Halifax, N.S.

Holding the "triangular" formatted version of the "Trinity" circa 1981.

"Painting within a painting", recreates "fly on the wall" view of angel model with her mock-planet.

My gift to all my fellow humans, "Earth Angel" is for everyone.

Ignatius "Iggy" Kennedy has been in and out of this, the third dimension in his extraterrestrial travels...Who knows, with the "dove" pressed to his heart?

"Decisive" portrait, 1984.

Presented by Iggy...unidentifiable metal alloy that has left scientists baffled. Because of its vaguely bird-like shape, Iggy dubbed it the "Dove".

Self-Portrait, from Open Studio, Montreal. 1982. (Age 23.)

Where does you eye settle first, on the puppet, or the puppeteer? Painted in Halifax, 1982.

"Montreal Jazz Festival"...a "painting with a back-beat", an immersive study of the vibrant street culture of Montreal in the early-eighties.

What lies on the other side of the looming archways? Let's send an emissary in to find out. He will report back to us.

Homage to Newfoundland Artwork

Every New Year's day, I try to do activities that will "cast a mold" for the remaining 364 days. With this in mind, this January first I decided to dust off a fairly ambitious painting project that I'd started a year or so ago.

For some reason...I guess I got busy with other things...I set the acrylics on panel painting called "I Love Newfoundland" aside last year. Now though, I was happy to pick up where I left off to tease in those touchy finishing details.

I Love Newfoundland

 Now this artwork is available in a wide range of sizes and mediums as an archival quality fine art reproduction at my Fine Art America Platform.

Cool New Fine Art America App

After  enjoying membership with Fine Art America for about three years, this amazing artist-driven firm has come up with yet another valuable contribution to my marketing tool chest.

Now, for the first time ever, FAA has created the opportunity for you to purchase Museum-Quality (acid-free inks and paper for extreme fidelity and longevity) Prints directly from the artist's website and blog! How cool is that?

When you click on any of the images below, a complete array of options will pop up with your shopping cart. Easy, fun and affordable.

Right Hand(some) Portraits

Here's your opportunity to participate in the alluring and intoxicating world of Art Collection. Hot off the press, this little series of four paintings explore the dynamic tension of  "hand gestures" and their attendant symbolic potency. What, you may wonder, is the meaning derived from common hand gestures in different quarters, under varying circumstances and in disparate locales?

Love and Peace...isn't that what it's all about?
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

"Hitch-hiker's best friend, meaning 'pick me up, I'm such a positive person.' "
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

"Is it OK to do this?"
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

"Thinking it is bullsh*t...in a manner of speaking."
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

You can purchase any one of these original paintings immediately via Paypal c/o mrgaudet@gmail.com