San Antonio Open Studios Tour
Each year thousands of art lovers roam the streets of the San Antonio area of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for the Open Studios Tour. The organizers also throw an opening reception for artists and the public two nights before the weekend tours and usually expect 200-300 visitors to attend, More than 600 turned up this year, draining the wine supply half way through the party. Bob`s studio was turned into a pop-up gallery for the weekend event, using coat hangers, giant paper clips and binder twine for his hanging systems. Three times as many visitors came through Bob`s temporary gallery, resulting in some nice sales to new fans.
Working in San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is again home for the next few months.
Judy has crossed into the "dark side" of the clay arts as she moves from functional pottery to clay sculpture. She is now working with Adria Calaresu and Alberto at their BarroCo Clay Studio in the San Antonio district of the world-famous central highlands art city. Bob's studio is in the same district and has produced several new mixed media pieces since they arrived in San Miguel the first week of January. He is planning to work with a couple of local printmakers in re-energizing his mono print making. Bob has also been accepted into the annual San Antonio Open Studio tour in late February, a group of 59 artists working in the San Antonio district of San Miguel.
Judy begins work on her new clay pieces
Bob, left, works with Richard Webb of the Black Cat Printmaking Studio, San Miguel de Allende. Richard has a gorgeous screen printing studio. as well as a small performance stage for impromtu performances when his blues band buddies come by.
Autumn in the Valley Below ....
Several strong storms have cleared a lot of the color from Annapolis Valley trees but the quality and quantity of vibrant Fall color is still solid along the protected base of the North Mountain.
Intro workshops and DIY presses .....
It's that time of year again when I do a workshop on introductory level printmaking at Acadia University. This year we've spread the sessions across three intensive weekends, as well as adding a section on DIY options for home-made presses. The students will be building a small 18"x18" hydraulic bottle jack press based on a simple design I use for my own studio. Great for woodblock and collagraph printing. After Judy and I return from Mexico in late March, we plan to offer more printmaking workshops up at the North Mountain studios..
These are examples of the 48"x48" rust prints that I make with my very large, home-made hydraulic press. These and other extra large rust prints will often hang in my studio for days, weeks or months, before a potential image jumps out at me. I then decide how I will treat the abstracted textures with mixed media.. Check out the "About" section which contains better photos and step-by-step explanations regarding my unique rust prints.
Our Family Reunion at Last .....
This a special photo for our Hainstock family. For the first time since the passing of our parents, Jim and Sally Hainstock, all four of their kids, their spouses, grand kids and great grand kids, got together for a week of reunion. We found cottages on a remote lake in Manitoba's Whiteshell region and simply enjoyed a far-flung family coming together from all parts of Canada and the world.
The reunion pictured above also triggered a publishing project which finally came off the presses this past summer, "Two Boats For Canada". The 120 pages and more than 550 photographs tell the stories of the families of our Mom and Dad. Those two journeys began in England in the early 1800s, ending in southern Manitoba where Jim and Sally met and married. Almost half of the family members pictured above are experienced writers, editors, photographers, artist/designers and researchers. What a team!!
The sixth edition of The New Landscapes series of books was printed in early 2016. The seventh edition is due in 2017 and will provide an update on the series that numbers more than 850 individual pieces over 18 years. The book is a complimentary companion for anyone buying larger pieces in the series.
Exhibits, exhibits, exhibits .....
Wall poster for a two-artist exhibition at Peer Gallery in Lunenburg.
Wall poster for Bob's solo exhibition at Winnipeg's Wayne Arthur Gallery in Winnipeg's St. Boniface area.
Wall poster for Bob's solo exhibition at Harvest Gallery in Wolfville, NS
Small poster for Bob's exhibition at Art Sales & Rental Gallery at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Newspaper feature ....
Small press clipping from a full-page feature on Bob's new directions for his new Landscapes series. The articles appeared in the Halifax Chronicle Herald art section.
Meg and Stephen have just installed an intaglio press in their Winnipeg printmaking studio. Both are biologists by day, and printmakers by night and weekend, with several very successful joint exhibitions to their credit. The press was one of several presses originally built for Bob, by Kentville, machinist Glen Doherty at his Heritage Machining shop.
Twin brothers exhibit their valleys ....
in 2014, Bob and twin brother, Clay, held a unique two-person exhibition in Winnipeg featuring their different styles and views of local landscape. At the time Clay lived and painted in Neepawa, but has since moved to BC's Okanagan Valley.
Several years ago, Bob & Judy celebrated their 40th anniversary with son, Ryan, and daughter, Meg. Ryan is a journalism grad who worked in newspapers for a while but went back to university to earn graduate degrees in Education. Meg started with a fine arts degree but also went back to get a graduate degree, this time in Biology. ..