My sister working as stylist for Electra 2005

I’m about to play the part of the proud sibling, but I can’t help it! Colin Maclean for the Edmonton Sun writes:

Renate Pohl’s setting for the Studio Theatre production of Howard Barker’s Scenes From an Execution is a marvellous creation. It’s a three- level, industrial- strength erector set that, in a play about art, could be a painting itself.

You can read the rest of the rave review, and more details about the production.

After graduating with a gold medal and a BFA in theatre several years ago, and having acted, directed, toiled at an insurance company, worked as a popcorn girl, taught in Japan, and also dabbled with the likes of astrophysics, my brave and beautiful sister recently decided to go back to school to complete a masters in theatre design. She’s now teaching at her university to help finance this dream, and is on the verge of finishing her thesis.

I’ve learned to expect the unexpected from Renate. Last year she sent me a picture of this very large study of a Vermeer. That it was done in set paint was all the more impressive, and I think you’ll have to agree that it’s none too shabby for a first major attempt at painting.

Study of Vermeer’s The Glass of Wine, Set paint on Canvas by Renate Pohl

In between all this, she took time off to visit us and paint Conor’s nursery. Now she’s made plans to go to England later this year, to see what other adventures await. I look foward to hearing all about them!

Conor, Egg Tempera & Ink on Paper; © Jennifer Pohl

My footnote post (which was something of an unintentional mixed media piece) may have worked here, but instead I thought I’d show a page from my new Moleskine.

My husband Douglas Johnston has just turned a life-long hobby into another great blog, a multimedia one called A Study in Sherlock. If you have even a passing interest in mystery, history, literature, or perhaps the best known fictional character of all time, I think I can promise you that this will be a fascinating journey.

[…] It’s my intention that there will be something new every weekday, and occasionally on weekends. That includes original pieces (many of which are written for newcomers to the Canon), photographs, teasers for the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrations, news stories, book reviews, audio snippets, “workshop” projects (such as do-it-yourself reference cards or CDs), radio plays, and featured sites. Most of these entries are selected to offer something for neophytes, but –hopefully– also provide ample occasion for discourse amongst the more experienced.

Dancing with Matisse, Oil on Canvas; © Jennifer Pohl

I have family members working in almost every field of endeavour –medicine, business and theatre, to name but a few– but one of my sweet and smart first cousins, Craig Cutler, is something of an artist. He runs his own thriving business in downtown St. John’s at the Trouble Bound Tattoos studio. I’ve been recently trying to convince him to let me do some studies in his shop, because I have a feeling there’s a painting to be found there. Because of my location, and my rapidly advancing due date, it’s a work that won’t happen overnight, so I thought it made sense to post an earlier piece painted for one of my first shows, Mother Mary, Wicked Women and Other Stories, called “Dancing with Matisse”. It seems to be a good fit for the today’s Illustration Friday.

Dancing with Matisse (detail), Oil on Canvas; © Jennifer Pohl