Steady Brook -
With winter closing in a Steady Brook artist has switched from oil painting to acrylic paint.
Mark Colbert, originally from St. John's but has made his home in Steady Brook for the last six years, is an art teacher substituting in the Corner Brook, Pasadena area in the junior high and high school grades.
In the summer he paints with oils in the garage while the door is open. With acrylic there aren't as many fumes.
"Where I'm back to acrylic, I'm painting in my house now," Colbert said. "For oil, I can't paint in my house. There's no way for the paint fumes to escape."
Colbert is one of the League of Artists in Western Newfoundland members taking part in the "Heart of Christmas" exhibition which wraps up Monday at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre.
Jackson Pollock is a big influence on the 25-year-old artist and that can be seen in one of the works in the show. It features a red and black background starkly contrasted by dollops of swirling white paint which were dripped on the canvas while it was lying flat. The other piece in the show features earth tones of rust and orange and other colours of fall leaves as a background for a stylized tree with circles of bright colours such as purple, pink and light blue.
"I really enjoy the drips because it allows your emotions to be released on the canvas," Colbert said. "I really enjoy that part.
"There's not wrong way or right way of doing it."
He earned his bachelor of fine arts in 2007 and his education degree in 2008. He enjoys substituting because it gives him time to paint.
Some students he teaches have told him they can't do art because they can't draw. He tells them there are so many other aspects of art than drawing and they need to find what they can do to express themselves.
"Emotions are big in art," he said. "I know a lot of students in class you can tell if they really enjoy their piece. They'll zone out and be involved in their piece, which is great to see. It's a passionate thing."
