Vicky McFarland – Friday Night Guest – February 19, 2021

(Submitted by Marilyn Walsh)

Vicki McFarland began her presentation with short videos of artists who influenced her work:  Bassmi Ibrahim, Paul Jenkins and very importantly Bette Ridgeway.  You can access these through YouTube.

She talks about “pouring emotion on to large canvases”.  

Her demonstration started with a canvas covered with large splashes of dry blue and black paint. She works other times wet on wet. To ensure the correct line, she weighted her unframed canvas with pieces of wood to allow the paint to pour off into a waste bucket. Vicky poured from a plastic cup white paint mixed with silver metallic paint, mediums and varnish in large swooping motions. Later she rinsed the ends of the paint with water and shimmered that across the surface. To add fine detail she added lines using a paint filled syringe.

She has stopped sealing her painting due to the toxic effects of spraying high gloss varnish both for her own health and for the environment. Now that she has moved to the country, living beside a lake, using well water and a septic system, Vicky has become diligent about protecting the environment. She separates the acrylic paint from the waste water by adding lime and aluminum sulphate.  

She spoke about the importance of keeping your website up to date.