A local artist and Orillia parks and recreation instructor recently started a new painting composition exercise in three dimensions.
“It’s a new concept that occurred during COVID,” explained Mike Howell. “I was in my basement trying to paint a six-season year and realized I couldn’t do it on a flat board and needed something else.”
Howell decided a cube would be the best tool for painting the passage of time. Then he created a half-cube with wood that featured properties of a hidden inside and outside of a painting.
“I was teaching a class on the elements in the fall, and I knew most of the people in the class, so I gave them a cube and a half-cube to try,” he said. “They liked the idea and did some remarkable work with it.”
Howell then started an art movements program in Orillia based around cubes and half-cubes. Early next week, he will take the 11 cubes and five half-cubes he has painted during the pandemic, as well as about 25 from other artists, and will put them on display at the Orillia Opera House.
“We are going to hang the cubes in the studio theatre, the half-cubes in the market room, and we will have regular flat paintings in the green room,” he said. “It’s a multi-stage exercise at the opera house.”
The first show gives artists an opportunity to receive feedback from the public on the unique concept.
“I’m reasonably confident,” he said. “I’ve called various galleries and they have never heard about this before. As far as I know, nobody has ever thought to do three-dimensional painting on cubes and half-cubes.”
The event takes place June 13 and June 14 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Attendees will also be invited to try their hand at solving some large Jackson Pollock puzzles. Admission to the event is free.
“We are trying to jump-start the art scene in Orillia,” Howell says. “A lot of people have been flattened by COVID, which is why I sort of invented (in) this idea of working with three dimensions.”
Some of the cubes and half-cubes on display next week are truly “astonishing,” he says, adding it’s something that needs to be seen to be believed.
“We hope you will come to the show,” he said. “It’s well worth seeing and, hopefully, it will do something for Orillia in terms of art.”
