As Cliff Mann's year as the Prince George Community Arts Council's artist-in-residence draws to a close, he wanted to show the local public some sort of progression in his work. Having a year of dedicated studio space all his own, access to materials, and inclusion in key artistic events has been a boost to his career, he said, and he wanted to repay the community with a parting gift of 'wow.'
Mann is a watercolour artist, primarily, which is not the typical domain of the subject matter he chose as his send-off exhibition: human nudes. Oils or pencils are the usual tools of the nude trade, because of the precise control of colour and line. Watercolour bleeds out from the brush stroke into the paper it is dragged across. From Mann's brush, that colour expansion is minimal, but it is a subtle trait of the medium. And, he believed, he could manipulate that trait to display the human form in ways the viewers aren't used to seeing.
"It's probably the most common subject matter for art, ever, which is why I'm trying to refresh the subject matter by challenging it with the watercolour medium, which really is a challenge for myself," he said. "You can create nice, soft skin tones but as I've discovered over these last several months, it is really challenging to come out with the correct form. Oils can be used with precision. You see that with the masters of the nude, and I'm working off those masters' works, that spirit, but with watercolour properties. The hard part is capturing that sense of them being alive. You have to work hard to get the transitions and the proportions right. It's a challenge. I've used that word a few times now, but that really is the point."
He usually puts his creative forces towards mountains, buildings, flowers. These are forgiving to the watercolour medium, he said, because the human eye either can't perceive proportional miscues in those images, or the subliminal mind forgives them. But one false move in the painting of a human, he said, and the human eye locks on that mistake like a moth to a streetlight.
The human brain also seizes on the topic of nudity with sexual preconceptions. Perhaps it is a lingering symptom of a more repressed time we haven't fully recovered from, perhaps it is primal urge, but tell someone an art show is focused on the naked body and there is a common reflex to either giggle like an adolescent in a peeler bar or frown like a disapproving puritan. We can't help but assume a carnal undertone even if we haven't seen the paintings.
"If that's what people come away with after seeing the show, then I have not succeeded," Mann said.
Community Arts Council board member Marnie Hamagami was one of the models who agreed to be one of Mann's models. Sexual overtones to Mann's paintings were, she said, a laughable and uninformed notion that need only be seen to be rested.
"I'm the naked hand," she said, then for an extra measure of humour added, "Cliff was professional at all times. He never once asked to slip my sock a little lower to see my feet."
Hamagami said she was proud of the collection, and having known Mann for some time, she saw a progression in his art as a result of getting these figures correct. She also saw a progression in Mann as a person, since he was shy by nature and had to find inner courage to even ask people for the favour of modelling.
"I was very excited for him," she said. "The first piece I saw was an up-close bust and I thought he did such a great job capturing an intimate moment, it instilled a lot of confidence. The lighting, the perspective, the colour choices, all of that told me he had had a great breakthrough. I think this represents a big leap forward for him, and I want people to see that. I'm proud of the Community Arts Council for helping an artist get to that next level through the artist-in-residence program and mostly I'm really proud of Cliff."
"I definitely wanted to push myself, and perhaps bring something fresh to Studio 2880," Mann said. "I'm not sure if there's been a nude show there in the past, but I was pretty certain never with watercolour, so it was going to give Studio 2880 something to work with."
Mann's show is called Bodies Of Water. The exhibition opens on May 14 with an artist's talk and reception at the Studio 2880 Feature Gallery operated by the Community Arts Council (2880 15th Avenue).
