Sunday Studio Days - Gordon MacDonald & Dusan Postolovic

Welcome back to another Sunday Studio Days blog! 

This week we will be feauturing oil painter Gordon MacDonald and coloured pencil artist Dusan Postolovic!

GORDON MACDONALD

Gordon is known for his incredible sky paintings as well as his old world style of painting on metal surfaces like copper and aluminum. We jokingly call Gordon our "mascot" artist since he has been with the gallery for over 20 years! 

Gordon's studio space

We've seen thousands of paintings come out of Gordon's studio, no two paintings exactly the same! With such a prolific amount of work we asked Gordon how does he make the decision what to paint?  

a collection of supplies Gordon keeps on hand

"There are several ways. I can source the places around the provinces that I love (east of Quebec). I can just paint from my imagination and see what happens. I can also combine both. Sometimes , I just like a specific colour of paint and build a painting around it. These will all put me in my favorite position, to start adding and editing until the paintings take on something better than what I conceived of in the beginning. Sometimes, they are even unrecognizable in the best way. That is the most satisfying." 

A closer look at a work in progress from Gordon and his palette.

We asked Gordon what was the best advice he had ever received... 

"In 1984, a teacher named Andrew Bodor said, " Every day you will have 5 reasons not to paint. They aren't bullshit,  but legitimate reasons such as grocery shopping, appointments, other work.... At the end of the day, you won't have painted. A day can turn into years and you won't paint. You either paint or you don't." It is stark but when I jumped in with both feet in my 30s , painting had to be the first with my life built around it.  As they say in those 12 step groups, "Half measures availed us nothing." This made me paint 1500 paintings."

This is excellent advice for anyone looking for a push to achieve their goals!

Todd taking a nice nap, sprawled out in the middle of Gordon's studio

Spending hours in the studio can be lonely work, thankfully not for Gordon! Gordon has found himself a lovely studio-mate out of a neighbourhood cat! We asked Gordon to share with us a little about his studio companion.

"... a neighbour cat comes over and sleeps in his cat bed under my drawing table. His name is Todd and he's a 23lb orange cat. He will sit by me and wait until I put my brushes down and pat him/chin rubs/noggin squishumz. Then he either goes back to bed or out to lay in the sun, or goes home."

How does Gordon get any work done with this cutie hanging around?!

See our full album of available artwork from Gordon MacDonald HERE!

DUSAN POSTOLOVIC

Dusan is a fantastic coloured pencil artist! His drawing style is so realistic most folks think they're looking at a photograph!

A shot of Dusan's studio space

We asked Dusan what a typical day in his studio looks like... 

"The only constant for any studio day for me is a huge cup of coffee! Much of my artistic process is coming up with cohesive ideas and themes for series of works (as I tend to really like working in series rather than stand alone pieces). So I spend a lot of time planning, writing things out, doing small thumbnail sketches, coming up with ideas on what I want to draw next, then acquiring said thing if its possible, and taking my own reference images. The final piece is often the last part of the creative process!"

 Dusan's sketchbook full of sketches and working ideas

"I am inspired by my own personal history and past, and how popular culture, consumer culture, and every day things play a role in it." 

Says Dusan on how he builds his idea for shows...

Dusan's sketchbook full of art plans

"My mind never stops when it comes to ideas. I write out what I think may be an interesting body of work, do some preliminary work on it, maybe some sketches, and then let the idea sit in a sketchbook for up to a year (or more). If after that year I am still super excited or inspired by the idea or body of work, I know its a good one and start making it happen." 

Some finished coloured pencil drawings by Dusan!

We asked Dusan what has been his favourite and most proud moments in his art career thus far... 

"My most recent show was probably one of my favorite, as it was the first time our son was old enough to understand what he was looking at (many pieces were drawings of his toys) and comment on/get excited about seeing his toys he loved so much as works of art. In terms of proudest moments... probably the very first time I had a piece hang in a real gallery all the way back in 2011."

Look at all those coloured pencils!

 We asked Dusan the best piece of advice he ever received... 

"Don't wait to be "in the mood/inspired" to create art, because some days the "mood/inspiration" may never come. Sometimes, creating art, putting yourself out there, putting shows together etc is a grind - and that's okay! Often starting the art/work creates the mood to keep going."

Interesting to see the similarities between the advice Gordon and Dusan had to share... Seems like it really boils down to staying committed and never giving up! 

A very relaxed Dusan sitting at his drawing table.

Check out our album of available works from Dusan Postolovic HERE!

Thank you as always for reading our blog and supporting our artists!