A Portrait of the Visual Arts in Canada

The Melbourne Notch by Frederick Simpson Coburn

2012-01-27T00:00:00.005-05:00

Its time to celebrate the season in art. 'The Melbourne Notch' was painted by FS Coburn in 1928 and was deposited in the National Gallery by the artist, in 1929. Its about 64 x 80 cm in size.

This is the first painting that I have presented on 'The Portrait' by Coburn.

This painting has several noteworthy features. Its a 'big sky' picture but yet the sky is an insignificant part of the work. Aside from a couple of nondescript clouds, nothing much happens there. And that's the point. Because nothing much happens its an artistic throw away. Its purpose is to create atmosphere or mood to the work. I will return to this thought in a moment.

The action of the painting takes place at the bottom. We see a team of horses pulling a driver and a sled with what I imagine is a load of wood and there appears to be a farm in the background.

The farm is an incidental part of the painting. Its a part of the background. Its diminutive in size and its surrounded by trees.

The real action is with the horses, sled, and driver and its wedged into an area of snow, surrounded by shade and woods. When we look at it in this way we see that what happens in this work, is contained in a very small space within the canvas. And that's the point.

This is a painting which makes a statement of power. Or, more precisely, a lack of power. Human life is inconsequential. The immensity of the sky and the amount of space used to express human life tells us that humanity is almost meaningless in the big picture. Mankind operates within an area controlled by the vastness of natural elements.

Coburn was from Melbourne, Quebec so we can conclude by the title this is a painting from the area of his birth. When we look beyond the painting and see that it was done in 1928 and at that time the people of Quebec were caught between such large external forces as WW1 on one hand, and the pending depression on the other. If a painting could make a statement it would be that its an insular world in the Melbourne Notch, but its ok. Mankind is surviving and being pulled through it all, spite of his own small place in the bigger picture of things.

Passing Through by Janis Dyck

2012-01-25T00:00:00.017-05:00

I smell the woodsmoke in the air
up with the smoke there goes my cares
Today I slipped and I fell down
Upon my knees
Upon the ground
It's beautiful to fall this way
To gaze up at the clouds at play
And when I get back on my feet
I'll follow where the wind takes me
Now the smoke curls up into the sky
And mingles with the birds up high
It smells of winters dark and long
And fires that blaze to fuel this song
So take me smoke wherever you go
It's from a true fire that you grow
And from this place I've fallen to
My fire now also burns so true.

Janis Dyck

Janis Dyck, An Artist With a Sense of Universality

2012-01-23T07:23:00.000-05:00

Janis is a mom of two young boys and she lives in Golden. She's been painting since she was in her early teens and she is, by vocation, an art therapist - when work is available. In the meantime, she is a devoted mom of two young boys who gives private painting lessons.

Like many artists, Janis was born with artistic talent but she took it for granted. It wasn't until the birth of her sons that she took the gift of the muse seriously. Janis says that,

"raising two young boy brought a deep sense of creativity and wonder into my life along with a sense of needing to follow my passion to show them that it is possible to follow one's dreams."

What impresses me about Janis, besides her artistic abilities is her sense of creative self understanding.
Janis says that the time and the freedom that she has to paint has given her the opportunity to listen to her inner self, and when she does "the universe responds with many signs and synchronistic occurances." Well said.

I learned from our conversation that she enjoys looking at an empty canvas and letter her art intuitively flow and develop as she goes along. She likes painting landscapes and she occasionally adds a few animals to the mix.

I took an immediate liking to her uniquely impressionistic style and when we discussed it she admitted to being influenced by Georgia O'Keefe, Emily Carr and Ted Harrison.

Like most artists I know, Janis is eager to see her world of art expand into more galleries beyond the region where she lives. She recognizes the universality of art and the need for art in our fractured times.

I would like to keep painting and writing songs and use these mediums as a means of bringing a sense of hope, energy, mystery and connection into the world and to others. I feel the world is in need of these things right now..

A Call For Artists

2012-01-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

General Brock, leading his troops

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812, during which the United States fought British and aboriginal forces in a conflict that helped define Canada as a nation.

First Nations played a major role in this war, helping the British win numerous battles. One of the most pivotal of these was the Battle of Queenston Heights, on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, in which the Six Nations and Native Allies helped the British trounce the Americans.

Now a plan is afoot for a major memorial commemorating their participation, and the committee putting it all together is calling for design proposals, offering artists “a remarkable opportunity to bring the significance of a largely forgotten history to life,” according to a press release.

“The Battle of Queenston Heights is a defining moment in Canada’s emergence as a nation,” the planning committee release said. “Fought as a result of an attempted invasion by American Forces on October 13, 1812, the defending British Army and Canadian Militia were aided by Six Nations and several other First Nations peoples who played a critical role in the shared victory.”

Memorial Working Group co-chairmen Richard Merritt and Tim Johnson have issued a call to artists “to create a memorial that will commemorate the sacrifice and valor of Six Nations and Native Allies who fought in the Battle of Queenston Heights, recognize the cultural, diplomatic, and military contributions of Six Nations and Native Allies in their role as essential participants in the Battle of Queenston Heights, and reawaken the spirit of solidarity among friends and allies who once forged history together,” the group said in the release.

Submissions will be evaluated on artistic merit, content merit, adherence to design criteria, sustainability as a permanent outdoor public art installation, and public appeal. The Request For Proposals also includes

Design guidelines for architecture and aesthetics, visitor experience and interpretive value, the use of symbolism, and integration with the surrounding environment will also be assessed. Those answering the request for proposals must keep in mind that the selection committee will follow very strict, specific guidelines, since the memorial must resonate for generations to come.

A bevy of volunteers serves on the organizing committee. They represent various heritage organizations in Niagara-On-The-Lake, members of the Native community and citizens from various business and civic sectors, the press release said. Parks Canada and the Niagara Parks Commission have also provided “essential participation,” the organizers said, with financial support from Ontario Power Generation providing much-needed assistance as well.

Artists can obtain a copy of the Request For Proposals document by registering at the bidding website BiddinGo.com or through the town website of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This article was extracted from: Indian Country Today Media Network. To view this article in its original context, please click here.

Rob Gonsalves, Surrealist Realist

2012-01-19T00:00:00.005-05:00

Rob Gonsalves (born in 1959 in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian painter of magic realism with a unique perspective and style. He produces original works, limited edition prints and illustrations for his own books.

During his childhood, Gonsalves developed an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By the age of twelve, his awareness of architecture grew as he learned perspective techniques and he began to create his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings.

After an introduction to artists Dalí and Tanguy, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The "Magic Realism" approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions of Escher came to be influences in his future work.

In his post college years, Gonsalves worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe-l'œil murals and theater sets. After an enthusiastic response in 1990 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Gonsalves devoted himself to painting full time.

Although Gonsalves' work is often categorized as surrealistic, it differs because the images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. Ideas are largely generated by the external world and involve recognizable human activities, using carefully planned illusionist devices. Gonsalves injects a sense of magic into realistic scenes. As a result, the term "Magic Realism" describes his work accurately. His work is an attempt to represent human beings' desire to believe the impossible, to be open to possibility.

Numerous individuals around the world, including a United States Senator, as well as corporations and embassies collect Gonsalves' original work and limited edition prints. Rob Gonsalves has exhibited at Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, Decor Atlanta and Las Vegas, Fine Art Forum, as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd., Marcus Ashley Gallery in South Lake Tahoe, Hudson River Art Gallery, Saper Galleries (November 7 to December 31, 2004) and Kaleidoscope Gallery.

In June 2003, Simon & Schuster introduced North America and Canada to "Imagine a Night", Gonsalves' first hardcover book featuring sixteen paintings. Due to the success of "Imagine a Night", Simon & Schuster released a second book, "Imagine a Day", in 2004 for which he won the 2005 Governor General's Award in the Children's Literature - Illustration category. He is also an accomplished guitarist.

His book "Imagine a Place" was released in 2008.

Gonsalves is a founder and member in good standing of the Fellowship of the Gourd and the Arrow.

Gonsalves now has 64 paintings and is working on more. He spends a notable amount of time planning each piece in order to make the transitions flawless and usually finishes about four paintings each year.

To read this article in Wikipedia, please click here.

Metis Beadwork

2012-01-17T00:00:00.001-05:00

This beautiful floral beadwork vest is an example of traditional Metis work.

The Sioux, called them the Flower Beadwork People.

This beadwork was unique to Metis culture and they decorated jackets, leggings, vests and moccasins with it.
To see other example of Metis beadwork, please click here.

Visual Beauty in Old Churches

2012-01-15T00:00:00.024-05:00

Early Canadian Visual Art:

Designed in the neoclassic Palladian style, the Cathedral was modeled after the famous church of St. Martin-in-the-fields in Trafalgar Square, London. King George 3rd, paid of the construction of the Cathedral and provided a folio Bible, communion silverware and large prayer books to be used for worship. The completed building was consecrated on August 28th, 1804 and has served as the focus of Anglican life and the worship in the Diocese of Quebec, ever since.

Excerpt from the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, of Quebec City's website. Please click here.

Fraktur Illumination. Early Mennonite Art.

2012-01-13T00:00:00.004-05:00

If you see a work like this in an old trunk at an auction, don't hold back. Go for it! This is a piece of early Canadian Mennonite art, 1801. Its bookbinding and its called Fraktur art.

The work is part of the collection of the Jordan Historical Museum, of Ontario. Its a tantalizing work with two dead flowers hanging over two birds that sit on a checkered pattern. One bird is larger than the other. The work appears to bear a symbolic meaning.

You can see this work in the Jordan Museum collection by clicking here.

Conservatives pull art from public buildings

2012-01-11T00:00:00.001-05:00

Several Canadian art works have been booted into the storage bin to collect dust.

Ever since the Conservatives came to power in 2006, the number of paintings on display in federal buildings and embassies has dwindled.

According to media reports the government has allowed 3,700 contracts for artworks in federal ministries to expire between 2006 and now.

Sandra Douha writes in Ottawa's Centretown News:

For example, in the lobby of the Lester B. Pearson Building, which is home to the department of foreign affairs, there used to be two paintings on the wall by Alfred Pellan.
The twin paintings represented the east and west landscapes of Canada. They were large, colourful, and eye-catching.The iconic paintings had been on the wall since the building opened its doors in 1973. That all changed in June when Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird ordered the paintings taken down and replaced with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
Baird said he made the decision in respect to the arrival of Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, to Ottawa at the time.There’s nothing wrong with hanging a portrait of the Queen, but there are many copies of her portrait in Canadian embassies.There’s only one copy of these original masterpieces by the Quebec artist – who is considered one of the most important painters of Canada.This decision by Baird is a reflection of what the Conservatives think about art.

To view the complete article, please click here.

Maud Lewis: A World Without Shadows

2012-01-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

Diane Beaudry, Tony Lanzelo,
Starring, Niky Lipman.
10m. NFB.

Set against a background of her paintings and the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, landscapes they depict, this short documentary is a portrait of the life and work of one of Canada's foremost primitive painters, Maud Lewis. Emerging from her youth crippled with arthritis, Lewis escaped into her painting at the age of 30. She had never seen a work of art and had never attended an art class but her paintings captured the simple strength, beauty and happiness of the world she saw - a world without shadows.

Forshaw Day

2012-01-07T00:00:00.002-05:00

I chanced upon the name of Forshaw Day recently and found my search into his artwork interesting.

Day was born in London, England in 1837, and he studied architecture and design in the Royal Dublin Society, in 1857 and he emigrated to Canada in 1862.

Rather then writing all the information about Day, I will let you click here to read it for yourself on Wikipedia.

The picture below, from the National Gallery of Canada, has certain stylistic characteristics which can be seen in his paintings.
His brushwork is carefully executed. He has a delicate touch for small details. His tonal values are generally in the mid range to light range, and his work has a soft rendering of light in the trees. Click on the picture to expand its size.

If you click here, you will see a gallery of 6 rotating pictures in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Paul Kane's 'Man Who Always Rides', and the Noble Savage.

2012-01-05T00:00:00.008-05:00

Paul Kane: 1848-1856
oil on canvas
Royal Ontario Museum

Google had problems with these blog entry pictures.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps Jacques-Louis David, 1801 Oil-on-canvas 260 × 221 cm, 102⅓ × 87.

I was browsing 'the net' looking at Canadian art when I came upon this painting by Paul Kane"The Man Who Always Rides." (The rider's name) It caught my attention because of its highly romanticized representation of the Canadian native. The painting invited an interesting comparison with the painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which was painted by David, about half a century earlier.

The single representation of the subject, on a white horse against the blackened sky and the dramatized subjects gives it a certain similarity. Both of the subjects are given a sense of warrior nobility and both are representative of Romantic art.

The Romantics were high on maximizing emotive power in their works. It was the belief of the time that this gave their paintings artistic authenticity. We see in both paintings, the nobility of man pitted against enormous forces - be it weather or political. In Kane's work we see the rider (often defined in artistic terms as The Noble Savage), on a hill, and looking a little to the left. A group of natives are seen, holding spears and riding horses. They appear to be holding up and meeting a rider who is riding hard towards them. If you look along the horizon to the right we see what appears to be flames. We will never know whether it is a real fire or a metaphorical one. If it is a metaphorical fire, then its easy to interpret Kane painting a people endangered by a pending force. Its pretty unlikely that they would be holding spears if they were riding towards a prairie fire.

Because 'The Man Who Always Rides' was painted before the invention of the camera and it had enormous, historical, iconographic power. It seems, pretty certain that Kane presented his viewers with his view that natives were facing a serious threat from the emerging force of newcomers to their land. If we advance the scene another twenty years and we see CPR tracks stretching like an iron umbilical cord across the country and strangling to death the life of the buffalo and the people of the plains.

A hallmark of Romantic thinking was the rejection of the evils of the industrial world. Was the fire on the horizon of this work the fire from the cultural forge of advancing Euro Canadian society?

William Brymner's 'Bonsecours Church and Market' and the Ephemeral

2012-01-03T00:00:00.006-05:00

William Brymner: Bonsecours Church in Market
painted: 1913
Watercolour on Cardboard
National |Gallery of Canada

My day was made complete when I discovered this work online. Until viewing it, I was unfamiliar with William Brymner's personal history and his art. Because my interest in this blog is primarily focused on my love of painting, I will focus on this work and let you take the extra step and read his abbreviated life story on Wikipedia by clicking here.

I was attracted to Brymner's diffusion of light in this work. It appears to me, that Brymner has employed the drybrushing technique to diffuse his paint on the canvas, and to give it a grainy sensation of scattered light. Let's face it - colour is a frequency of the vibration of light. When we think of it this way and we look carefully at the painting, we can see how this painting vibrates with an undercurrent of natural energy. I find myself thinking of Wordsworth's poem, 'Composed Upon Westminster Bridge':

This City now doth, like a garment, wearThe beauty of the morning; silent, bare,Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky;All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

This sense of vibration can also be seen in the soft edges of buildings. Look at the effect the light plays on the dome. It shimmers. Look at the loosely defined ochre cloud which surrounds the dome, and the misty continuation of light down onto the street.

Lets expand our imaginations here. Mist is both ephemeral and intangible. If you look carefully at this work you will find a blurring between the solid structure of the buildings and the surrounding air, and this carries right through to the undefined people in the foreground.

But there's more. There is an association between what we see and what we feel. Wordsworth nailed it with the words;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

Wordsworth takes us from the external to the internal domain of feelings with the transition being made through glimmering, shimmering light. Brymner takes us on the same journey. Dry brushing, soft edges and even a minimal palette, help him to create misty atmosphere and shimmering, translucent light. All in all its a masterful work.

There's an old saying in art, that its not about the subject as much as its about how the subject is painted. This is a good example of what its all about. On the surface, you won't find a landscape painting much simpler then this in detail. You have a church, some buildings, some suggestions of people, and you have a sky, a street and a few telephone poles. Thats about it.

But taken together with the right technique you get an overall unity and this is what its all about.

Take a look at Wikepedia. Brymner is not all that well known today but his work was well recognized in his day.

I guess my only question about this work is, "How did he ever manage to create such a painting on cardboard?"

The Canadian Group of Painters in the 1930's.

2012-01-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

THE CANADIAN GROUP OF PAINTERS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Painting in British Columbia during the thirties was dominated by the figures of Emily Carr, Fred Varley, and Jock MacDonald. While some younger artists turned to industrial themes in prints and murals, it was the romantic, landscape tradition defined by the Group of Seven that prevailed.

In the late twenties Emily Carr returned to the native subjects of her earlier paintings in strongly modeled, simplified forms. Around 1930 she turned her attention to the forests in a continuing effort to express the energy and movement she experienced in nature. Painting on paper in oils diluted with gasoline, she moved from dense forest interiors to sunlit clearings, to the seashore and finally, to pure skyscapes, expressing an exultant, pantheistic freedom.

In 1937, Carr suffered her first heart attack, the consequence of years of overwork and financial constraint. She began writing short stories and, in the fall of 1938, she had the first of a series of annual solo exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Sales confirmed that she had, at last, achieved acceptance in the West.

For Emily Carr in Victoria the thirties saw the pinnacle of her career. For the Vancouver art scene, however, this decade was less bright. In 1925 the Vancouver School of Decorative & Applied Arts had been established and the following year Fred Varley arrived from Toronto, and Jock Macdonald from Scotland. In 1931 the Vancouver Art Gallery opened its doors, but the Depression soon intervened.

Up to the mid-twenties Varley's reputation had rested primarily on his work as a portrait-painter; yet during his first three years in Vancouver he confined himself almost totally to landscapes in both oil and watercolour. From 1929 he painted a number of sensuous and spiritual studies of his former pupil Vera Weatherbie, both portraits and figures in landscape.

Jock Macdonald came to Vancouver to teach Design and Commercial Advertising. Encouraged by Varley, he started to paint, going on sketching trips in the mountains and the Gulf Islands.

Faced with a sixty percent reduction in their salaries, Varley and Macdonald organized their own school in 1933. The British Columbia College of Arts attempted to unite under one roof painting, theatre, dance and music. However, the College could not compete with the subsidized Vancouver School of Art in the middle of an economic depression, and collapsed after two years.

After the school closure Macdonald and his family lived at Nootka for eighteen months. Working in an environment so determined by the natural elements, he became interested in a spiritual expression beyond mere external representation. The result was a series of semi-abstract paintings he called 'modalities' and defined as "expressions of thought in relation to nature."

Fred Varley, 'forced into the life of a hermit', moved to Lynn Valley in North Vancouver. Desperately poor, he dreamed of returning to England. A portrait commission from the National Gallery enabled him to go east in 1936.

In Ottawa he sold some sketches and taught but when war broke out in 1939, his classes were cancelled and after a year of terrible loneliness and dire poverty, he moved to Montreal.

Source: The National Gallery of Canada website.

please click here

Abstract Art: Monkey Business

2011-12-28T00:00:00.002-05:00

submitted by Mo Bayliss, asst. editor

Jean Paul Lemieux, 'The Country Club'

2011-12-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

Jean Paul Lemieux's works are attracting a lot of attention in Canada's foremost art circles.
His 1910 Revisited hammered home at $2 340 000.00 (premium included) at the most recent Heffel's Auction in Toronto.

This one, 'The Country Club' was brought home at $1 095 000 at Sotheby's most recent sale at Toronto's, Royal Ontario Museum art sale.

To read the article on the CBC's art news page, please click here.

And for the curious - 1910 Revisited, has moved into 8th place in overall value in Canadian art.

The Huron Carol

2011-12-25T00:00:00.010-05:00

May the peace of God go with you.

A Brilliant Art Video by Bret Sheppard (Bshep47)

2011-12-23T00:00:00.003-05:00

This a must see video, publicly posted on by You Tube by an art lover known by Bret Sheppard. (his name is given on the credit of another of his group of seven videos). I like its cinemagraphic effects, its music and for the selection of profiled artists. If you wish to visit Bret's private You Tube channel, please click here.

The Tangled Garden by JEH MacDonald

2011-12-21T00:00:00.005-05:00

You Tube video presented by ngc media

"The Tangled Garden was painted from sketches at MacDonald's place at Thornhill and is essentially a domestic picture as the building in the background which stretched almost the full width of the work, makes clear. There are no figures but one feels that they are somehow implied. The luxurious greenery
in the lower half of the painting, however pulls its spirit in the direction of an almost jungle-like wilderness. The relative flatness of the pictorial space gives the picture a strong feeling of profuseness and rich colour, and a kind of sensual indulgence.

E.R Hunter, MacDonald's first biographer, called these paintings, (The Elements and The Tangled Garden), "The two masterpieces of (his) second period.: Contradictorily enough, they elicited some of the harshest critisism to which he was ever subjected, including stentorian denunciations from the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Daily Star and Saturday Night.................neither the Tangled Garden nor The Elements sold during MacDonald's lifetime."

pg. 33
JEH MacDonald; 'New Views of Canadian Artists',
Bruce Whiteman
Quarry Press, Kingston, On.
c 1952

Inuit Artist Kenojuak as seen through the lens of the National Film Board

2011-12-18T00:00:00.001-05:00

19 minutes
To bookmark the NFB site for future viewing please click here.

The Art of Kenojuak Ashevak. Inuit Visual Artist

2011-12-16T00:00:00.002-05:00

Video uploaded by Canada council, April 6, 2011
Time: 2 minutes 1 second

The Search for Meaning in the Peterborough Petroglyphs

2011-12-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

I know that Native Petroglyphs are perplexing to most non natives. Who knows, maybe they perplex many natives, too.

When I look at them, my euro-cultured, left hemisphere immediately kicks into gear by asking; "What's going on here?" What's the artist saying?

Now, the truth is - I take abstact art for what it is. I know that for most abstract artists, there are no hidden meanings - you just have to take it as you see it.

Then along comes the late Harvard professor, Dr. Berry Fells. For the uninitiated, Fells was one of those unusual archaelogists who thought outside the box. Some would say that he walked all over the box when he interpreted petrography.

If you follow the link below to The British Israelite's website, you will see an expanded version of the Dr. Fells interpretation of the Peterborough petroglyphs which show the unfolded map of the universe. Or, if you click on the picture above, it will enlarge for you to get a closer look at. You will find on the British Israelite site a column written about it in the Ottawa Citizen in 2000.

If you wish to see the map expanded, click here and it will take you to the megaliths website.
Click here to read the Ottawa Citizen article.

And just to throw some gunpowder in the fire, there are those who theorize that some pictoglyphs are representations of vision seen from within vision induced trances.

At the end of the day I am sure that many of our premier native artists are left bemused by our out-there theories.

Patricia Lawton:Working with light and magic

2011-12-12T00:00:00.002-05:00

'I Will Follow You Forever' by Patricia Lawton, of Vernon, BC, is another of her signature works.

It has a rather existential quality about it. That could be because Patricia enjoys painting pictures which tell a story. But, the truth is - the viewer has to engage with her pictures and to contribute something of themselves to them. In this sense there is a dialogue between Patricia and the viewers of her work.

On the surface, we see a girl, and a dog, sitting in a garden. But when we look closely it looks like its frozen in time. The dog sits immobile, looking at a girl whose hair is caught by a gust of wind. The girl's face is turned towards the dog and away from the viewer.

I like the way Patricia works with light. The dog is dark and the girl is light and this combined with her position in front of the dog, makes her the dominant centre of attention.

Patricia, paints the girl ever so gracefully, and ever so simply. There are no superfluous lines, save for those in her blowing hair. Look at the arm which she leans on. There is an absence of muscle tension and shadowing. Look at the the economy of lines on her slacks. This creates a sense of grace. Notice too, how Patricia has outlined parts of the girl in an illuminating mauve line. Altogether, there is a sense of mystery about the girl. There is a sense that the scene is frozen in time and development. I find myself thinking that its all a dream and that she has emerged out of a place of memory and has returned to life.

Patricia is one of the best there is in her artful use of light. When I look at the girls slacks and sweater I see a certain luminescent quality. Notice how the writing on the girl's sweater has the same mauve has the same mauve hue that Patricia uses to outline the girl's white sweater. There's nothing like the blues to make your whites, whiter then white. And, if you want to see the power of lumiscence - look at the shaded area on the girls' hip. Here you see the drama of orange-tan tones, white and a blue blend that absolutely radiates light even though its captured in shade. You are seeing a brilliantly crafted work.

I am drawn too,to the dog's woolly coat with its soft texture carefully defining by its bunches of fur - even into the shadowed areas. And, finally, I like the way she captures highlights and tones of colour in the girls hair in the sunlight.

Although Patricia painted this in acrylic, it has the fluidity of watercolour style. This contributes to the subject's overall simplicity which in turn contributes to the dream like quality of the scene.

Its not hard to see why Patricia Lawton is high on my personal list of favourite artists.

Artist's Comments

My feeling when I studied Rachel and Bella (pooch) was how confident Rachel was around this big dog........ and how happy Bella was to be out in the wind and sunshine with a playmate. After they’d had a good play and run-around, they settled down to letting me take a lot of photos. I happily snapped away and I could feel the ‘joy’ in Bella......... the exuberance and a kind of ‘giddiness’ ......... a desire to break lose and frolic all around the garden again. But she kept herself under ‘excited control’ because I asked her.

These feelings came back to me........ and the feel of the sun on my head and face ........ the summery breeze; all the sensations that I’d originally felt the day of Bella and Rachel posing; 12 years had passed from that day until the day I brought them back to life on my canvas.

Painting Standard Poodles is so very rewarding. Their sleek bodies seem packed with electric energy and they just quiver with happiness. Also their beautiful, sensitive faces project their thoughts and desires........... Just look into their eyes........ If only they could speak.... The intelligence beams forth.

When I paint ‘sunny scenes’ I tend to feel those colours we see behind our closed eyelids on a bright sun-filled day. The yellows, reds, blues and the mauves, oranges and greens that come with overlapping the transparent paints just lend themselves to the feeling of summer. As I go along, the painting dictates to me where it wants to go.

Haida Carver, Gwaii Haanas, British Columbia

2011-12-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

Patricia Lawton, Okanagan Artist.

2011-12-08T00:00:00.011-05:00

Patricia was born and raised in Powell River B.C. She was an orphan from age 3 weeks and was raised by her paternal grandparents who had no interest or understanding of her desire to draw and paint through her growing years. Patricia was fascinated by people, boats, and the ocean, where she spent many hours playing alone and carving small boats from driftwood; and sketching shells and whatever else the sea washed up. She left Powell River at age 17 and married a commercial fisherman, who she accompanied on trips north along the B.C, coast and up to the Queen Charlotte Islands. This whetted her appetite to draw and paint the totems she found in the small fishing villages and also imbued her with a love for our beautiful coastline.

Patricia raised two children in the Vancouver area and married again, to Peter Lawton. She had a career in Commercial Art, having taught herself by studying the Fashion drawings in The New York Times and other large city publications. She was the first person to teach Fashion Illustration in Vancouver, teaching for The Vancouver School of Art..... (now Emily Carr). She also was the Advertising Manager for Saba's Women's Dept. Store in Vancouver, then Shaino's Leather Wear (38 stores across Canada and the USA) and Ford Fair, Guildford, doing all the artwork and copy for newspaper and magazine ads. Patricia worked in the Art Department of the Vancouver Sun for a short time before accepting a teaching position in Bella Bella as art teacher from grades six to twelve.

In 1970, she was accepted as an active member in the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Patricia and Peter moved to Vernon in 1984 where she volunteered at the Topham Brown Art Gallery and accepted (reluctantly) the position as manager of the small gallery for one year only. At this time she founded the Midsummer Eve of the Arts and each year she has gladly donated two original works.

She taught for OUC for twelve years.

From 1986 Patricia has traveled throughout the province's small towns; Bella Bella, Kitimat, Kemano, Prince Rupert, Powell River, MacKenzie, Prince George, Quesnel, Armstrong, Salmon Arm (Summer School of the Arts) and in May 1009 she will be in Revelstoke; giving workshops and having Art Shows in all of these locations.

She has had over 25 solo shows in Vernon alone....... Two for Winter Carnival. Patricia has participated in group shows in Seattle; Vancouver; Calgary; San Diego, Ajijic, Mexico, as well as Vernon, Armstrong and Salmon Arm. Her works have been accepted and published by the Prestigious "San Diego Watercolour Society" as well as the "US National Watercolor Society".

In 1997 Patricia moved temporarily to Ajijic, Mexico where she had one solo show and entered (upon request) a group show of artists from the area and California, etc. She took the top three awards.

She was invited to enter Foss Tugboat's (Seattle) Calendar Contest (entrants on invitation only) and took Honorable Mention the three years she entered. Her paintings were purchased by the company.

Patricia has had articles in Okanagan Life and she won Best Artist of the Okanagan award in 2000. She has been written up in B.C. Women and in The B.C Cattlemen's magazine and is published in the Okanagan's "Artist's in the Sun".

A number of years ago, Patricia knew the Vernon Jubilee Hospital was needing a CAT Scan and she promoted this and held an Art Auction....... Getting much needed publicity from CHBC and CBC radio as well as all the area's newspapers and radio stations........ A committee was formed and the needed one mil. was raised within the year. Patricia sat on the Board of the hospital's foundation for five years.

She became involved in the major fund-raising for Vernon's Transition House. Also is now fund-raising for Vernon's Hospice House and has been working 'non-stop' on paintings for the past two years towards an exhibition in November of 2009.

Patricia has done hundreds of family commissions including portraits of pets, cattle, horses, boats as well as people in the Okanagan, throughout B.C. and Alberta.

After having a solo show in Salmon Arm for the B.C. Cattlemen's Society, she received a commission from the World's Cattlemen Society to paint the five top Charolais cattle to be presented in 2007 to the World's Champion Charolais.

In 2008 Patricia received a request to purchase her Brahma Bull painting from Blackrock Investors in N.Y.C.

She has paintings hanging in Tachibana University in Kyoto, Japan, in corporations and private collections in Australia, the US, Ireland, England, Mexico, Argentina, Japan and Canada.

Patricia has been on the jury committee every May for the "Okanagan Region Secondary School Scholarship Awards" since the awards began.

Patricia belongs to no Art Societies and has never asked for an Art Grant. She is a very private person and hangs in no galleries at this time. She does not have a webpage. She continues to paint daily in her home studio.

Artist's Comments by Doug Mays

2011-12-07T14:13:00.001-05:00

Thank you for your insight. I’m always curious to know what others see in a painting – good, bad or indifferent. Do they see what I see? Do they feel what I feel? What attracts them to this painting over another?

In this particular ‘plein air’ painting, I had the good fortune to have nestled my easel on or near the very spot that J.E.H. MacDonald painted his famous Tangled Garden. I believe this fact alone brings this painting well beyond being a ‘simple’ landscape since I was seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and hearing the sounds of theTangled Garden the same as J.E.H. did almost a century ago.

I’m pleased that you were attracted to and picked out the patch of violet flowers in the bottom left quadrant as your initial landing spot and then you moved on to the splash of sunlight in the background, the soft yellow compliment. Next, I’m sure I painted this more intuitively than consciously, but I completed the triangular pattern (shown above) by allowing the dominant vertical tree trunks to take the viewer back to the muted yellow/green foliage in the right foreground. The bold tree trunks also take on a secondary role by acting as ‘edge block’ or as I like to call them - ‘visual speed bumps’. This technique prevents the viewer’s eye from wandering from the ‘sweet spot’ of the painting.

You are accurate in observing a circular pattern, which was achieved with sufficient edge block and by implying muted, abstract shapes of various value and temperature in the less-important pieces outside the ‘Golden Mean’.

And finally, I would be the last one to suggest that my painting should be even mentioned in the same paragraph as that of JEH’s Tangled Garden. That notwithstanding, what a thrill it is to know that our boots shared the same soil from this Hallowed Ground

Near the Tangled Garden - Hallowed Ground. By Doug Mays

2011-12-06T00:00:00.019-05:00

The more I look at this work, the more intrigued I am by what happens within it. I see a real sense of artistic liberation in this painting.

On the surface it looks like a pretty conventional work. There is an area of trees, and a sunlit area and an area of violet flowers along the bottom left of the painting.

If I asked you to point to its focal point, my guess is that your gaze would fix itself upon the area of violet flowers in the bottom left quadrant. That was my immediate choice. The violet luminescent hues set it apart from the rest of the work.

Fair enough

But, I want you now to take another look at the work. Block out of your mind the area of violet hues in the bottom left, and let your eyes scan over the rest of the work. Squint your eyes. What do you see?

When I gave this work a second look, the sun dappled centre of the painting leaped to my attention and when it did, a different vista of thought opened and I saw the painting from an entirely different perspective.

There is a garland of light, that loops down from the top left quadrant, and touches base with the centrally lit area and it wanders off towards the upper right corner (but not completely finishing its journey). And the centrally lit area, looks like a sunlit pathway through the woods. And, there is a large loosely formed X pattern of light which criss crosses through the sunlit centre.

Convention has it that most artists, use light and lines to direct the eye towards the focal point of their work. But what's happening here? Do you see how there is no relationship between the flowers at the bottom of the work and the rest of the painting. In fact, they even block the path of the eye into the work. Interesting.

If you are willing to discount our immediate choice for the centre of interest, then an entirely different dimension of thought opens and the painting takes new perspective,

All of this takes me to what I consider to be the real strength of this painting. I would suggest to you that everything revolves like a great circle around the centre and that our vision is telescopically pulled into the work. At least that's how I see it.

If we are willing to see ourselves on a journey into this tangled garden where we can magically stroll along a sunlit path surrounded by vegetation -then I suggest to you that the painter has taken us on a journey within himself.

Now - take a look at the title at the top of this critique. This one critique which really interests me to see what the artist has to say about his work.

How High are the Visual Arts in Government Priority?

2011-12-05T00:00:00.004-05:00

The Ottawa Citizen recently ran an interesting article on the National Gallery's search for major corporate sponsor for our National Art Gallery. Its not hard to imagine a national competition for a neat statue for the Gallery to commemorate the shift in direction. A big soft drink can with a straw, which is lit up at night, and can be seen from the Parliament Buildings? Or maybe a nice glossy advertisement filled program?

Please click here to read the article about the National Art Gallery's dilemma.

How Times Have Changed - Mural Art in Montreal

2011-12-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

How's this for a piece of art from Montreal? Can you believe it, but the name of this work is Notre dame de Grace (Our Lady of Grace). How times have changed. That aside, its a pretty remarkable work.

The group of five below are the artists who put it together.

Click here to see a set of pictures which show the evolution of this work.

Thanks to reader, Richard Campeau for putting 'The Portrait' onto this one.

Where Love and Art Meet

2011-12-01T00:00:00.008-05:00

This touching little statue can be found in Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery. There are no details, not even the name of the sculptor. All there is the the single name: Tory.

Tory, who were you? Did you have sisters and brothers? Did you have a special girl friend with whom you played and entrusted secrets? Did your mother or father tuck you into bed at night, and send you off to sleep with a "Now I lay me down to sleep" and a kiss? Did your laughter bring smiles to your parent's hearts and did your carry your lunch pail off to school with their expectations and hopes for your future? Did you have a brother or a sister with whom you played? Do the children on the stone tell us that you had a brother with whom you loved to share the magic of books?

I have so many questions, little Tory, but no answers.

I never knew you, but the love your parents have for you was so perfectly expressed. It will survive the ages as a reminder of how love is so perfectly expressed through art.

This little statue and other works of art can be found by clicking here to be taken to the 'Outdoor Art in Toronto" website. Its a treasure trove.

Appreciation to Mo Bayliss for locating this website for 'The Portrait'.

Doug Mays, Watercolourist

2011-11-29T00:00:00.001-05:00

Born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1947 Doug remembers being told early-on that “being left-handed meant he would likely be creative”. Imagine that, your destiny being determined by which hand you pick up a fork, a pencil or a brush. Really, could one’s lot in life be decided in such
a simple way?

Doug came to realize his love of art in the mid 1950’s, a time when psychology hadn’t quite articulated all of the left brain/right brain theories as we know them today. The supposed left brain & creativity link didn’t matter to Doug; all he knew was that he loved to draw. Looking back, he can’t remember a time that he wasn’t holding a pencil, pen, brush or stick of charcoal in his ‘left’ hand to
create something on paper or canvas.

The youngest of six children (four sisters and one brother) Doug grew up in Stoney Creek on the eastern boundary of Hamilton. It was there in Grade 5 where his passion for art crystallized when he won his first art award, a watercolour that he remembers as if it were yesterday. His interest in art carried on through high school and then on to college where he studied Architectural Technology graduating in 1971. A career, crossroad decision in his late teens led him to decide on a business career rather than one as a commercial artist. It was a decision he would never regret because he was able to return to his art to hone his skill and increase his knowledge throughout the next 30 year business career by enrolling in several life drawing and watercolour workshops in Canada and the U.S.A.

For Doug his art was like an old, loyal, distant friend - always there, awaiting his return. With each successive workshop his focus to develop a uniquely, loose and impressionististic painting style was aided by the encouragement of his instructors and his peers. He later developed a desire to share his talents and the virtues of the watercolour medium with others. Now in his second decade of watercolour instruction Doug has garnered a reputation for being a personable and effective instructor, whose pragmatism and light-hearted approach make all of his workshops fun, enjoyable and entertaining. He feels that his painting style maximizes watercolour's spontaneity and 'expressive freedom' and that his use of bold, vibrant colours is purposely applied to stimulate emotion & pique imagination.

He gets his greatest inspiration from the watercolours of John Singer Sargent, whose colour and compositions epitomize the painting style he wishes to emulate and from the teachings of legendary - Edgar Whitney, whose ability to articulate the importance of the Design Elements and the Principles of Design is a pleasure to follow. Doug feels his success in watercolour can be attributed to 3 aspects – Tools, Process and Attitude. With Tools – “paint with a big brush”; Process – “paint light to dark” and Attitude – “it’s only paper”. He adds the only magic bullet to watercolour proficiency is – practice.

Doug is an elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC), a past President of the Central Ontario Art Association and a member of the Ontario Plein Air Society. Today Doug continues to live in Stoney Creek with his wife Angela. He has two married daughters and 4 grandchildren all living within 30 minutes of his home.

His active schedule finds him travelling throughout Canada and Europe to mentor watercolour students intent on pursuing a looser painting style. When he’s not instructing you find him in his home studio painting a watercolour or an acrylic.

To contact Doug and to see more of his work go to his website please click here.

Toronto's Art Collection

2011-11-27T00:00:00.004-05:00

The Endless Bench
Sculptor: Lea Vivot. A memorial to her son Morris
Sick Children's Hospital
Toronto

I recently read Jenny Yuen's article, in the Toronto Sun, on Toronto's Art Collection. Jenny raised the question - should public money be spent on the city's art collection?

I won't paraphrase the article because that would deny you the pleasure of reading her article and seeing her video. But, I will add that according to her article, the City of Toronto, owns over 200 pieces of art.

Toronto is presently undergoing some pretty tough budget cuts, as they try to clean up the city's debt problems. It goes almost without saying that such things as libraries and art would fall under the public microscope.

While it may make sense to see Toronto run an economically mean machine it seems to me that there is much more then dollars and cents involved. Art is a mirror of a city's cultural civility. It reflects how a people see themselves. An abundance of good public art and memorial statues tells of a people who value the visual arts and its interpretive role.

Please click here to see Jenny's online video report.
Click here to read Jenny's article

The Canadian Press on Today's Heffel Sale

2011-11-24T23:27:00.000-05:00

Via: The Globe and Mail

A Jean Paul Lemieux classic has sold for a record-breaking price at the Heffel Fine Auction House's fall sale.
Bidding for “Nineteen Ten Remembered” reached $2-million, with the purchaser paying $2.34-million in total after adding a buyer's premium.
A Jean Paul Lemieux classic has sold for a record-breaking price at the Heffel Fine Auction House's fall sale. Bidding for “Nineteen Ten Remembered” reached $2-million, with the purchaser paying $2.34-million in total after adding a buyer's premium. The auction house says the painting becomes the most expensive post-war Canadian work, surpassing an untitled Jean-Paul Riopelle that sold for $1,889,000 in 2008. The auction house says the painting becomes the most expensive post-war Canadian work, surpassing an untitled Jean-Paul Riopelle that sold for $1,889,000 in 2008.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Jean Paul Lemieux's Nineteen Ten Remembered Moves into Tenth Place

2011-11-24T21:43:00.000-05:00

Jean Paul Lemieux's, Nineteen Ten Remembered has moved into tenth place in the top Canadian valued

paintings, replacing Tom Thomson's, At Sunset.

Top Sales in Today's Heffel Auction

2011-11-24T21:24:00.002-05:00

Top Sales

Jean Paul Lemieux 1910 |Remembered 2 000 000.00
Jean Paul Lemieux Les Voyageurs 600 000.00
Jean Paul Lemieux Homage a la Toscane 325 000.00
Emily Carr War Canoe Alert Bay 1 500 000.00
James Morrice Regates a St. Malo 450 000.00
Lawren Harris Rocky Mt. Sketch Mt Robson 1 550 000.00
Mark Aurel Fortin Vue de i'ile Ste. Helene 400 000.00

Coming Saturday: Lots of Art Drama on Hefel's "Online Art Auction" from Vancouver

2011-11-24T00:00:00.009-05:00

'Jasper, Alberta', oil on canvas, was painted by John William Beatty. This one and many others go up for auction on Friday, Nov.25th - tomorrow! in an online internet auction.

The auction features 52 Canadian paintings by such well known artists as, John William Beatty, Maurice Cullen, Nicholas Grandmaison, |Sorel Etrog, Barker Fairley, Henriette Fauxteux-Masse, Marc Aurelle Fortin, Lawren Harris, Ted Harrison, Edwin Holgate, A.Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, John Johstone, John Little, William McElcheran, David |Milne, Daphne Odjig, Robert Pilot, Jean-Paul Riopelle, William Roberts,Tony Scherman, Jack Shadbolt, Frederick Varley, William Weston, David Bierk, Emily Carr, Yehouda Chaki, Frederick Coburn, Stanley Cosgrove, and Chris Cran.

The above painting and the description of the online auction and how it works has been extracted from the Heffel Online website.

Live Streaming of Hefel's Auction - Today!

2011-11-24T00:00:00.005-05:00

This is your opportunity to enjoy watching some dynamic paintings going under the gavel. You have to have the latest Windows Media Player,there is a link here for you to download the most recent player. Please click here for instructions on how to see the auction.

The Canadian Wire Services reports:

Jean Paul Lemieux's Nineteen Ten Remembered, considered the artist's most influential piece and among the most recognizable Canadian works of all times.
Seven works by Jean-Paul Riopelle including the stunning Grande fête (Great Feast) that is estimated to fetch between $900,000 and $1.2 million.
Works by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, Tom Thomson and Emily Carr.
Two works by artist Albert Henry Robinson which were recently discovered in a barn by curious owners who 'Googled' the artist's name.
The François Dupré Collection, which once hung proudly at Montreal's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, has been released after being hidden in storage in an Old Montreal bank vault for 24 years.

Here's the Big One At Heffel's Auction Tomorrow

2011-11-23T14:12:00.006-05:00

Jean Paul Lemieux's , 'Nineteen Ten Remembered'
Sold For $2 Million

as art historian François-Marc Gagnon pointed out in an interview and in a short essay he wrote for the Heffel catalogue. Lemieux wanted to be known as a painter of the “north,” not as a painter of a certain locale, and was exhilarated by the recognition he won in Moscow and Prague when his paintings were exhibited there in 1974. It proved to Lemieux that his art was universal, Gagnon said.

To read the complete article, from the Montreal Gazette, please click here.

Top Ten Canadian Paintings in Financial Value

2011-11-23T00:00:00.002-05:00

1. Paul Kane Scene in the Northwest $5,062,500
2. Lawren Harris The Old Stump $3,510,000
3. Lawren Harris Pine Tree and Red House, Winter $2,875,000
4. Lawren Harris Houses, St. Patrick St. $2,808,000
5. Lawren Harris Bylot Island $2,808,000
6. Tom Thomson Early Spring, Canoe Lake $2,749,000
7. Lawren Harris Baffin Island $2,427,500
8. Emily Carr Wind in the Tree Tops $2,164,500
9. Lawren Harris Nerke, Greenland $2,072,500
10. Tom Thomson Trees at Sunset $1,957,500
Source: Heffel
Please Click here

Heffel's Art Auction Week

2011-11-22T19:56:00.001-05:00

Thursday, Nov. 24th
Heffel Canadian Auction House
Canadian Post War and Contemporary Art
7pm Eastern Time
Park Hyatt Hotel, Queen's Park Ballroom
Toronto.

Got your Christmas Wish List ready. This sale is loaded with treats for every serious art lover.
To see the collection, please click here.

Top Ten Canadian Artists Based on Sales

2011-11-22T01:21:00.001-05:00

Lawren Harris $85,208,576
Jean-Paul Riopelle $76,651,109
AY Jackson $38,424,789
Emily Carr $37.234,789
Tom Thomson $35,742,045
Cornellus Kreighoff $26.212,395
David Milne $20,323,592
AJ Casson $18,824,512
JEH MacDonald $14,992,484
EJ Hugh $13,863,398

Source: Heffel Art Auction House.

Please click here.

Rob Sacchetto - an Artist who Has Found his Place in the World of Zombies

2011-11-21T00:00:00.002-05:00

I've heard of portrait artists, landscape artists, still life artists, floral artists, nature artists.......but Zombie Artists? If this is a new one for you, then its time for you to meet Rob Sacchetto.

Rob was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario and is a lifelong artist and is for the most part, self taught. When it comes down to it, I cannot really imagine Rob graduating from an art college with a specialist degree in drawing and painting Zombies.

Rob says that he came to Zombieism, through the regular art route; production work, portraiture, commissioned work and eventually - he found himself working on several versions of his own comic book. (which is going into production next year). Rob is single and he laughingly says that his default setting for life is to draw, draw, draw - and while doing so, figure out other ways to make a living with pencils.

Rob writes that he started an online service in 2006,in which he handed paint people as the living dead, called Zombie Portraits. People would send him a J-peg of themselves or a loved one and he would illustrate them as zombies using traditional means with no computer photo-shopping involved.

The customer then received a high res J-peg and has the original mailed to them.

Get this - he has so far, zombified over 2000 people all over the world!

As if that wasn't enough, it led to him starting the Zombie Daily, a blog where he posts a new original zombie drawing or painting every day! This site was started in 2008 and so far there are over 900 posts and counting. Not just that, Rob updates it with new content on a daily basis.

The formation of Zombie Daily led the publishing company Ulysses press to offer Rob two book deals, one for, "The Zombie Handbook:How to Identify the Living Dead and Survive the Coming Zombie Apocalypse", and for his next book, "Zombiewood:The Celebrity Dead Exposed".

Not only that, but his Zombie Portrait service also caught the attention of noted zombie author Jonathan Maberry, which led him to include me as a named character in his book "Rot and Ruin".

Rob also created the chase card illustrations for that book and his follow-up "Dust and Decay",and he is featured in the documentary "Zombiemania" and provided the morphing zombie portrait drawings for himself and the other noted zombie experts who were interviewed, including George Romero, Tom Savini, Max Brooks and Greg Nicotero.

And talk about an expanding business. Get this. His zombie art has been licensed for use on everything from puzzles to skateboard decks and many other products.

Rob invites readers to peruse his zombiedaily.com and zombiepotraits.com websites and be prepared to face your fears!

Alfred Hitchock by Robert Sacchetto

2011-11-18T00:00:00.001-05:00

When Oliver Cromwell's portrait was painted he made his famous quote; " Paint me warts and all".
I can't help but wonder, if Alfred Hitchcock made the same comment.

But, all that aside this picture has an intriguing story to tell. Artist Robert Sacchetto sent this picture to 'The Portrait' a few hours after being interviewed by CBC's Rita Celli. Robert revealled that he painted it for Rue Morgue's tribute to Alfred Hitchcock issue.

Please click here to visit the Rue Morgue magazine's website.
And for good measure, click here to visit Robert Sacchetto's website.
To hear Rob's interview, please click here.

Bill Tomlinson on Figurative Drawing

2011-11-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

This picture seems to me to point the way to where I would like to take my work generally, whether in charcoal, pastel, or paint.

I’m interested in the tension between the medium on the one hand -- in this case charcoal and pastel on paper -- and the representational image on the other; so here the fading of the image into mere paper on the right side, or the seemingly capricious patch of red at the bottom, or the minimal treatment of the feet in contrast with the more developed arm and slip; all emphasize the tension between the kneeling figure and the colours, textures and lines that give her form. It’s as if this figure might dissolve at any moment into its constituent elements, and that, to me, is a fascinating and effective metaphor for a corresponding tension between being and non-being, our central spiritual issue as mature human beings.

Having said all that, I have to add simply that I love arrangements of lines, colours, textures and so on for their own expressive sake, and would spend time looking at them and making them even if they didn’t (as they often don’t in wonderful pieces by other artists) add up to a recognizable representation of something.

To view Bill's website, please click here.

Harley Brown, Portrait Artist Supreme

2011-11-13T00:00:00.005-05:00

May We Never Forget the Price that Was Paid

2011-11-11T08:00:00.002-05:00

Vimy Ridge, painted by Stephen Snider.
The Canadian Legion magazine

Dear old Governor,This is Good Friday, and I am spending the day girding myself for action. For our Easter Sunday, with peace on earth and good will towards men, I take part in the greatest battle in Canada’s history and perhaps in the history of the world. So this is to say farewell in case I go down.

This letter was written by Lieutenant Gregory Clark to his father, before going into battle at Vimy Ridge.

At three minutes past zero hour, Clark rose from the trench, shouting, “Come on, boys,” even though most of his words were lost in the cacophony of explosions. His platoon followed his lead, along with dozens of others within sight, and hundreds of others along the ridge.

To see this article by Tim Cook, and Stephen's painting. Please click here to be taken to March 1st, 2007 issue of the Legion Magazine.

To view more of Stephen's works please click here to be taken to his website.

Lest We Forget

2011-11-11T00:00:00.002-05:00

Ottawa's War Memorial - and All in the Family Sculptors

2011-11-10T09:12:00.002-05:00

Vernon March of Farnborough, Kent, in England, was selected for his concept of "the Great Response of Canada" represented by twenty-two members of the main forces in uniform passing through a granite arch under the guidance of allegorical figures of Peace and Freedom. Delayed for many years by problems of site selection and preparation, as well as by the death of the sculptor (his six brothers and one sister completed the work), the memorial was not officially dedicated until 1939, less than four months before the start of World War II.

from: We Will Remember, War Memorials in Canada. World Wide Web Site.

To read the complete text and to see other pictures of Canada's War Memorial, please click here.

Artist Shirley Bear Recipient of The Order of Canada

2011-11-08T00:00:00.012-05:00

Announced today, Shirley Bear is one of 50 new recipients of the Order of Canada. Her educational, artistic, and activist work has been instrumental in progressive arts circles in the country, so this is well-deserved and a long time coming.

Shirley Bear is an artist, writer and First Nation elder. Born on the Tobique First Nation, she has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States and in Europe.

She has curated numerous exhibitions related to First Nations issues and was the recipient of the Excellence in the Arts Award from the New Brunswick Arts Board in 2002.

While living in British Columbia for 10 years, she served as cultural advisor to the British Columbia Institute of Technology, First Nations education advisor at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design and resident elder for First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia.

The picture and above text was extracted from the Centre for Innovation and Culture in the Arts in Canada. To read the above on their website and to see Shirley's bio, at Thomson Rivers University, please click here.

Photo by Chris Wattie/Reuters News, extracted from ca.news/yahoo.com. Please click here.

Another turn in the Boys of Malvern Memorial Statue Story.

2011-11-07T22:23:00.000-05:00

Emmanuel Hahn would likely turn over in his grave if possible. The recent news of his Boys of Malvern memorial statue, took a new twist today when a former student, named Jim McKnight stepped forward and confessed to having vandalized the statue, over 40 years ago.

McKnight was a 17 year old youth at the time. He is a United Church Minister now. When McKnight heard the recent stories of the desecration of the memorial he decided to go public with the hope that his story would provide an important lesson for the most recent youths who trivialized the statue with tape.

McKnight told of a Malvern teacher meeting with him after he committed the act, and explaining its importance. The teacher's brothers name was on the statue - for he had given his life as one of the Boys of Malvern.

Picture: Emmanuel Otto Hahn
Wikipedia.
Article News Source: CBC, 'The National'. November 10.2011

Emmanuel Hahn's Malvern Statue is Vandalized - Another Episode in the Boys of Malvern Story

2011-11-07T16:41:00.011-05:00

McKnight was a 17 year old youth at the time. He is a United Church Minister now. When McKnight heard the recent stories of the desecration of the memorial he decided to go public with the hope that his story would provide an important lesson for the most recent youths who trivialized the statue with tape.

McKnight told of a Malvern teacher meeting with him after he committed the act, and explaining its importance. The teacher's brothers name was on the statue - for he had given his life as one of the Boys of Malvern.

Picture: Emmanuel Otto Hahn

Wikipedia.

Article News Source: CBC, 'The National'. November 10.2011

Hardly a day passed before Malvern Collegiate's statue has been vandalized - again. For what its worth, the event was captured on a CTV surveillance video.

I am unable to separate the event from the feelings of love and respect which surrounded its creation, to immortalize the Boys of Malvern who gave their lives in WW1.

The desecration of memorials, be they created by formidable artists, or not - is at best, a profoundly anti social action.

To see the CTV news article, please click here.

CTV Toronto - Surveillance video captures Toronto war memorial vandals - CTV News

Edited photo taken by the Toronto School Board

Emmanuel Hahn's statue at Malvern Collegiate, Repaired.

2011-11-07T00:00:00.009-05:00

Strange how it goes. I was watching the news on television the other night, and the commentator focused on the unveiling of the Malvern Collegiate Cenotaph in Toronto. The cenotaph has a long history in Malvern Collegiate, and it was regretable but many years ago vandals ruined its raised arm. As the camera panned over the people who attended the unveiling, I was stunned by the serious gaffe. At no time, did the item give credit to the sculptor whose work was featured.

I sighed with disapointment. It seems to me that sculptors get the short end of the art stick. People take their works for granted and more often then not the creator's name is metaphorically buried in anonymity beneath the work.

I felt a sense of relief when I found the CBC's article on this event on their website, for the creator Emmanuel Hahn was acknowledged.

The cenotaph lists the names of the boys of Malvern who fought and died in The Great War.

They were very young
They laughed and they cried
They fought and they died
Not for king, queen, or flag
But for each other
They were the Boys of Malvern.

The CBC article is a good one, for it tells of the love of a community for the statue. Malvern area families have lived through the generations in the Beaches community in Toronto and the story tells of Arnie Williamson, rallying the community to have the statue repaired.

Please click here to be taken to the CBC article, and to see how Emmanuel Hahn's artwork has impacted your lifestyle - check your pocket change. Hahn designed the Caribou on our quarters and the Bluenose schooner on our dimes.

1922 Unveiling of the Statue

The Michael Audaine Collection in the Vancouver Art Gallery

2011-11-04T00:00:00.002-04:00

Emily Carr
War Canoes, Alert Bay, 1912.
oil on canvas

I was listening to The Current, on CBC Radio this morning and heard a delightful interview between Michael Audaine. It was a spellbinding interview. Michael Audaine has spent his adult l and Jim Browne. Audfeime, as a private art collector and his interview told the story of a man who has lived a life of commitment to collecting West Coast art. Audaine said that he is really excited about West Coast Art and he cannot say enough about Emily Carr. He says that her star is still rising and that if she had painted in Paris with Gaugin she would enjoy the same kind of international recognition. He also went on to say that he talks to his Native Masks, many of which were worn by native shaman. He tells them such things as,"You are almost home now and have returned tot he West Coast, where you belong."

The role of private collectors in the art world has always been essential to both artists and museums. Private collections are formed in a variety of ways, yet some achieve particular distinction for their depth, breadth and quality. The works assembled by Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa over the last two decades form one of the most important private holdings of work by First Nations and non-First Nations British Columbia artists. The Audains have created a collection that allows a particularly rich history of the art of British Columbia to be told.

Beginning with the powerful ceremonial objects of the First Nations peoples, Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection traces the important strands of artistic production in the province right up to the present day. The co-curators have selected some 170 works from the Audain’s personal collection, as well as past works they have donated for the Gallery’s permanent collection. It features their particularly strong collection of the work of British Columbia’s most distinguished painter, Emily Carr, while presenting work by other prominent Canadian Modernists, including Lawren Harris, Frederick Horsman Varley and B.C. Binning. Their holdings of historical west coast indigenous art are complemented by a significant group of contemporary First Nations works, a number of which have been newly commissioned by the Audains. The photo-based art of the region has also received their careful attention, and they have been generous donors of works by Jeff Wall and Scott McFarland to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Finally, the exhibition includes another major area of focus—Mexican Modernism—representing the most significant collection of this art in Canada, with works by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siquieros and Rufino Tamayo. The works presented—the first extensive survey of the collection—provide an overview of its richness and strengths.

Michael Audain has said that “living with art has been one of the great joys of my life.” These works attest to the wide range of his interests and deep commitment to the province and its history. Although was not formed with the intent of showing it to others, the strengths of their collection make it one of the most distinctive in the country.

To visit the Vancouver Art Gallery and read this article about the Audaine Exhibition, please click here.
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Ian Thom, senior curator-historical, and Grant Arnold, Audain Curator of British Columbia Art.

Arthur Lismer Captures the Drama of War at Sea

2011-11-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

Minesweepers, Halifax
Arthur Lismer
CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM–AN19710261-0342

From: War Art, Arthur Lismer
Written by: Jennifer Morse
The Legion Magazine.
July 1, 2004.
Source: Click here

Prior to becoming famous as a founding member of the Group of Seven, Arthur Lismer sharpened his painting skills in Halifax during the last years of World War I. He had a brilliant summer palette, and produced oil paintings that perfectly captured sunny days on the Atlantic coast. Sparkling blues complement the zigzagging camouflage on troop carriers, while lemon and Naples yellow coat the sky. His lively paintings celebrate the ships—also known as “dazzle” ships—as they carry troops to and from the busy port.

Tom Thomson in London, England

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

Thomson 'The Jack Pine' 1916-1917

Here it is - Toronto Star, art critic contributes a video he has made of the opening of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson at Dolwich Gallery. It begins with showing a Thomson painting being packed and it follows it across the Atlantic to the Dolwich Gallery where it is uncrated and hung on display. Its a must see video art story for Canadian art lovers.

Please click here to view the video in the Toronto Star online.

Meet Bill Tomlinson - Figure Artist.

2011-10-28T00:00:00.003-04:00

I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Tomlinson at Liz Dinkel’s studio in Belleville, Ontario, where he takes part in a life drawing group. One afternoon during coffee break, we became engaged in conversation, and when I told him about ‘The Portrait’ and about me being a watercolourist, he told me that he has a friend named Clive Powsey and that I should check out his website. What a small world, for Clive is not only one of our featured blog artists, but I have also long admired Clive’s remarkable skill as a painter.

Bill lives in the area known as the Oak Hills, which is north of the city of Belleville, after having grown up in Toronto.

Like many artists, Bill has always had a relationship with the muse. “I've been an artist all my life. Essentially, that's just who we are. As for visual arts specifically, I remember doing a lot of drawing when I was a boy, and moving into oil painting when I was about 12, painting landscapes and women." (Some things never change!)”

Bill followed up his university education by spending several years in Japan where he studied calligraphy, and by later attending the Ontario College of Art, in Toronto. He followed his graduation from OCA with a long and rewarding career in teaching Now that he has retired, he has returned to his love of drawing and painting. While he now works in charcoal figurative drawing he has plans on returning to painting in another year or so.

Although Bill loves art he has recently discovered a newer and greater love. Will married in 2,000 and has a 5 year old boy who Is the centre of his life.

Asked about “eureka” moments in his development as an artist he says; “I remember an incident when I was in university and taking one of my evening painting courses. I got up in the morning and rushed into the room where I'd been painting the night before. I'd been working on a portrait of my girlfriend, and was thrilled to see that I really had managed to paint the golden light of a lamp on her hair, and to see the effect it produced with the blue of her dress. That was an important moment for me.”

Less important, perhaps, but more entertaining, Bill recalls with a chuckle a much earlier incident in 6th grade when he drew hula girls on the back of his hand, and he wiggled his fingers and made their hips and grass skirts swing; much to the delight of his classmates and to the chagrin of his teacher.

Its pretty safe to say that most artists have a niche or a media which turns them on. Bill loves drawing the human figure, either nude or clothed. He abandoned painting recently to “hone up” on his skill of drawing the human form.

Bill speaks with fondness and love for art when he says: “Art has brought me year after year (drawing after drawing, painting after painting) of experiences both frustrating and rewarding. Outside of the actual creation of art, my study of it has been wonderfully rewarding. For example, I remember visiting the drawing cabinets of the Louvre, and holding in my hands an original drawing by Andrea del Sarto, one of the great draughtsmen of the Renaissance. The lines that flowed over and described the figure were like music on paper and I was completely captivated by it. Three months later, during a rainstorm in Florence, I took shelter in a little shop/museum of marquetry where I browsed while waiting for the rain to stop. On my way out, I happened to glance up, and there was my reading boy in a fresco above the door. I felt a thrill of connection that I have never forgotten, not just with my earlier experience, but with del Sarto himself. I still have the sketchbook copy of the drawing I made that day at the Louvre.”

All of which takes me back to my first conversation with Bill. Bill and Clive shared accommodations when they both studied art in Florence. Small world, isn't it?

Bill’s work can be seen on his website by clicking here.

Stormy Weather by Frederick Varley

2011-10-25T00:00:00.001-04:00

Stormy Weather by Frederick Varley is one of the works on display in the Dulwich exposition of Canadian art in London, England. I was reading an article from the web, about the showing when I came across this picture and a comment by Dulwich Gallery's co-creator, Ian Desjardin. Desjardin called it the "most definitive" of the Group of Seven works. Click here.

My interest was immediately stoked by his words, so I took a close look at the work. My immediate response was, "What planet have I been living on? Why was I not familiar with this work?" Its nothing short of stunning. The flow, the colours, the grand sweep of the picture takes my breath away.

The Dulwich Gallery writes this about the showing, on their website:

Above all elements Canadian, these are painters who knew how to handle paint and colour, and how to turn a small sketch executed on the spot into a high-pitched studio masterpiece." - Brian Sewell, The Evening StandardIn the early twentieth century in Toronto, Canada, the first stirrings of a new movement of painting were being felt. A group of artists started to engage with the awesome Canadian wilderness, a landscape previously considered too wild and untamed to inspire ‘true’ art. Tom Thomson paved the way for this artistic collective, the Group of Seven, and their works have become revered in Canada. This exhibition will reintroduce their stunning impressions of the Canadian landscape to the British public for the first time since the 1920s

To check out the Dulwich Gallery's site please click here.

Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven Touches Down in London

2011-10-23T13:37:00.001-04:00

The West Wind

by Tom Thomson

The Canadian Media is buzzing today about the arrival of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven in England. And, its a huge collection.

Roy McGregor of the Toronto Star writes:

There are 123 paintings on loan from such institutions as the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian art collection and such private collectors as David Thomson. They include works by Thomson, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Fred Varley, Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, Franklin Carmichael and Frank Johnston. Three of the Group – Lismer, Varley and MacDonald – were born in England, which may explain some of the interest, yet the clear star of the show is Thomson, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1917, three years before the Group was formed.

A collection of that size is nothing to sneeze about.

The Jack Pine
by Tom Thomson

The showing from my viewpoint is long overdue and its good to see that it will be moving on to Norway and to the Netherlands.

As a Canadian who has travelled in the UK it doesn't take long to realize how Canada is indeed a big country with a lot of unknown space - particularly in the minds of most of the English. And, any Canadian who has travelled in England, will nod their heads in understanding when I write that you are instantly overtaken by the fact that Canadians are taken for Americans. Canadians, for the most part have to accept that this goes with the turf with living between two countries who are big players on the world stage.

But, all that aside, the time is long overdue and welcomed for Canadian art to be recognized in England.

Please click here to read Rob McGregor's article in The Star.

2011-10-20T09:17:00.010-04:00

'Point Atkinson Lighthouse of West Vancouver'' is a delightful Donald Flather work. First and foremost, before I begin this critique, its important to know that Donald was employed outside the arts, as a teacher, throughout his life. So, we find within Flather's website gallery, a wide variety of works from different stages of his development.

By way of background, Donald was known to have been a friend of Lawren Harris's and he enjoyed an association with 'The Group of Seven', which has led many to identify him with the group - an identity which has similarly been given to the late Kenneth Gordon of Winnipeg; an artist who was also a lifelong teacher.

Point Atkinson Lighthouse, straddles the boundaries of impressionism. On one hand it has the realistic qualities of a Kodak photograph with its strong reds and blues, and its accurate representation of the lighthouse with the keeper's home and cabin. But that's pretty much where it ends.

From what I have seen in looking through the Donald Flather Gallery, he was influenced by the impressionists. And, its how Flather's impressionism takes us where he wants us to go.

There are two levels to this work. There is a level of idyllic beauty where the sea has a certain simplicity and organization in the way its waves line themselves up along the shore and the colour of the rocks reveals the artist's fine sense of colour interpretation.

The strength of this work is borne out of its contrast. While we have simplicity, and lovely colours and an idyllic scene on one hand - Donald artfully gives us a deeper side. Take a second to study the rocks around the lighthouse. Look at the rocks between the house and the lighthouse. The rocks take on a physical quality. they have the look of muscle with cords of veins and tendons beneath the surface and this gives the viewer a sense of underlying brute power.

Further examination shows us trees which are permanently bowed by the power of a single direction wind, and rocks which have been eroded by millennia of pounding waves.

Please click here to view more of Donald Flather's paintings.

The Secret Life of Donald Flather

2011-10-17T00:00:00.001-04:00

Written by Daniel Wood

Beauitful BC Magazine,

Spring, 1999

As David Flather, then 28, stood in the doorway of his grandparents' Vancouver home four years ago, he was struck by a sense of erieness. His grandmother, Grace, had just died. His grandfather, Donald Flather, had passed away in 1990. Together with his aunt and uncle, David was there to begin the task of emptying the cluttered home of 54 years of occupancy. His grandfather had been a Vancouver school teacher and packrat of the first magnitude. His grandmother had rebuffed every effort to clean the house after her husband's death. She wanted nothing moved, believing her husband was still there, still inhabiting the place. And in a strange way, she was right.

The livingroom walls were covered with Donald Flather's paintings --- large, abstracted landscapes that had a familiarity David couldn't quite define. A half-dozen more paintings were stacked --- like a firescreen --- in front of the fireplace. In the hall, in the diningroom, in the bedrooms, every wall held more of his grandfather's artwork. When he pushed open the door to the upstairs studio, where David on occasion had watched his grandfather paint, he paused and asked himself: Where do I put my feet? Dozens of large, framed landscape paintings stood on edge, filling the room from wall to wall. They leaned against each other and against the room's shelving where hundreds of slide trays, jammed with Flather's travel photos, were stacked among the musty collection of art books. In the corner by the north window stood Flather's easel. For the first time David could recall, it held no painting. When he'd been a boy, he'd stand near the easel watching his grandfather: bald, portly, wearing a smock against the splatter of paint, intensely immersed in his art. "His strokes were flowing and certain," David says today. "He knew where the brush was going to go the moment it hit the painting."

His uncle, Barrie Flather, a Surrey, B.C. doctor, joined David. There were, he informed his nephew, hundreds of more paintings in the basement. They were everywhere. It was incredible. It was also a dilemma. The house was being cleared out, its contents dispersed. Donald Flather was a completely unknown artist, a modest man who eschewed self-promotion or publicity. If he'd sold more than three paintings in his lifetime, they didn't know about it. He never discussed his hobby and seldom bothered to show his work to his family even. He often simply finished a landscape and stored it in the basement darkness. Yet, the paintings seemed too beautiful to destroy. What to do? Was there a market for them? Would a gallery be interested? And where did Flather fit in to the development of Canadian art in the West? Overwhelmed by the number of paintings and inspired by their similarity to those of the Canadian Group of Seven, David decided to rescue the imperiled collection.

Flather was born in London, England in 1903 and immigrated as a child with his parents, members of the pioneering Barr Colony movement, initially to the Canadian prairies, then to an orchard on B.C.'s Shuswap Lake where his lifelong fascination with nature was cultivated. In the 1920s, his family moved to Vancouver to operate a greenhouse. He met his wife, Grace, a home economics student, at teacher training college and in 1927 he began teaching secondary biology and science in Vancouver. The couple had three sons. Barrie recalls that as a child the family went on endless nature trips, collecting --- in his words --- "all sorts of pondlife." The family house on East Boulevard in Vancouver's upscale Kerrisdale district gradually filled with Donald Flather's disorderly collection of animal bones, microscope slides of amoeba, roadkills, fossils, rocks, mushrooms, and shells, the volume of specimens gradually overwhelming Grace's fierce penchant for order.

Barrie remembers his father in his upstairs studio, his slide projector on, a landscape from a recent trip on the portable screen, and him in deep concentration as he reworked the projected image onto Masonite. Barrie could see that his father took painterly liberties with reality, distorting the scene in a slightly surreal way. At the time, the early 40's, the names that were occasionally heard around the house; Lawren Harris, Fred Varley, W.P. Weston, Emily Carr, Jack Shadbolt, A.Y. Jackson - didn't mean a thing to him. They were people his father knew through his work as secretary-treasurer of the Federation of Canadian Artists. At that time, Barrie had never heard of the Group of Seven.

While the European and American art world had gone through a dramatic transformation in the two decades on either side of 1900, Canada had remained stuck in an colonial back eddy, its painters churning out landscapes-by-formula: realistic, romantic, grandiose, and dull. Art, the prevailing view held, was meant to be morally uplifting. In 1920, a fraternity of seven young artists from central Canada opened a show in Toronto that challenged the conventions. Influenced by French impressionism, cubism, Art Nouveau, and a northern mysticism from Scandinavia, the Group of Seven announced that they were dedicated to producing a truly made-in-Canada art form, unhindered by the insipid landscape traditions of the British academy style. For a while they painted Ontario, but soon grew restless with the limits imposed by the low relief of the Canadian Shield. By 1928, four of the Group of Seven were making annual summer pilgrimages to British Columbia. A fifth member, Fred Varley, moved to Lynn Valley in North Vancouver in 1926 and began teaching art. They were drawn westward by the province's extraordinary scenery, dominated by verticality, clouds, the rhythmic repetition of ridges, huge rainforest trees, and dying native coastal villages.

Lawren Harris, Canada's most influential artist, first brought his ideas to B.C. in 1924 when he began his regular, summer painting trips to the Rockies. (He moved permanently to Vancouver in 1940.) Like several other members of the Group, Harris was deeply affected by Theosophy, a turn-of-the-century mystical belief which held that spirituality was present in all things. The massive, glaciated mountains of B.C. dwarfed the human intruder, confirming his view that the land itself was divine. His paintings- with the landscape whittled down to the bone - became metaphors for archetypal truths. Peaks became abstract triangles, symbolic of paradise. Clouds become emblematic, flying saucer-like ovals. Light shafts equalled transcendence. A burnt tree stump represented death and redemption. In his paintings, the land was elemental: the place where nature and spirit met.

His influence on artists in B.C., was enormous. He told a frustrated Emily Carr in 1927 she should not- despite years of rejection -give up. She didn't put down her brush until shortly before her death in 1945. He affected W.P. Weston, the best-known B.C. landscape painter and art teacher of his time, who learned to simplify the overwhelming complexity of the province's terrain. He argued passionately with a young Jack Shadbolt who felt Harris's symbolic religiosity was too geometric, too pat. Shadbolt, in defiance, began painting exploded natural forms. Harris organized music evenings in his home in Vancouver's Kitsilano district. He led regular horseback and hiking trips to sketch in the Coast Mountains around the city.

It was into this milieu that Donald Flather, an untrained, hobbyist painter, stepped with his 1941 offer to help Harris found the Federation of Canadian Artists. He became the nascent organization's secretary-treasurer. At that time, there was in Vancouver - and in Victoria - not one commercial gallery showing contemporary art. British Columbia was a resource-exporting province, predominately blue-collar, proud of its starched, British heritage and smug in its parochialism. The artsy 'Lotus Land' moniker lay 30 years in the future. Serious painters like Victoria's Emily Carr lived in poverty. (Jack Shadbolt recalls Carr holding up two of her landscapes to him, saying, "You can have either one for $15." He demurred and spent his money on an artbook instead. He enjoys the irony that had he bought one of Carr's oil paintings then, he'd have realized a 500,000 percent profit today.)

Flather's landscape paintings, showing the influence of Harris, Carr, and Weston, soon began appearing in the annual, juried exhibits of B.C. artists at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In the shows' catalogues from the 40s his name appears just above Harris, Lawren. The catalogues list the prices - all under $100 - of paintings by Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Toni Onley, Jock Macdonald, and Arthur Erickson, each unknown then and each famous a generation later. Flather's work was inexplicably unpriced, as if he wasn't interested in selling his landscapes. By about 1950 -for some unknown reason - Flather stopped exhibiting completely.

What Flather's paintings show is the same gradual shift from realism to impressionism that occured among the Group of Seven a generation earlier. Like Varley, his brushstrokes become thick and textured. His trees evolve into feathery, Carr-like flames. Without buying into Harris's mystical Theosophy - Flather was, after all, a science teacher and a dedicated member of Kerrisdale's Ryerson United Church - he begins reducing landforms to abstractions. Dead snags are burnt-out candles. Talus slopes are inverted pyramids. Like Harris, he revelled in painting blue shadows on snow and the coruscations of light on moving water. His storm clouds -like Weston's - are transformed into malevolent cocoons.

But in the art world of the late 40s and early 50s, the tectonic plates of convention were shifting. The landscape painters, the impressionists, the figurative artists all soon found themselves on the wrong side of the faultline that lay between them and modern art trends. Realism was out. Abstract expressionism was in. Flather - like Shadbolt - tried his hand at complete expressionism at that time, but his surreal paintings, without any horizon, become groundless, colourful patterns that reveal nothing of the artist's deeper feelings.

It may be that it was so ingrained in Flather's unassuming - even reticent - nature that he simply couldn't express himself artistically other than by imitating styles explored earlier by those who challenged convention. He was not an innovator. So, for over 40 years, he'd retreat several times a week to his upstairs studio and quietly paint, either landscapes drawn from photographs of recent travels or flowers taken from his garden. If friends or relatives came by, he'd offer them a painting. He gave away about 100. Other than that, he was tight-lipped about his work and artist friends. Says Barrie of his father: "Painting was his escape. He painted all the time and never talked about it. He was an enigma. He spoke through his art: it was his emotional outlet. He revealed himself through his paintings."

Flather's next-door neighbour for 47 years, well-known dance teacher, Kay Armstrong, remembers him not for his painting at all, but for his seemingly boundless creative energy. She could hear him playing the organ in his livingroom... or sometimes the violin. She knew he had an elaborate pottery workshop in his basement with wheel and kiln for making ceramics. She could see the handmade birdhouses he hung in his backyard to attract songbirds. Sometimes in the early morning he'd stand on his porch whistling and sometimes she'd she him prowling outdoors with his camera taking pictures of dew on spiderwebs.

But his most visible hobby was gardening. Around his castle-like, stucco house - with brick fretwork framing the windows and a weathervane-topped turret above the front door --- Flather publicly pursued his horticultural obsession with the same enthusiasm he pursued his painting in private. His backyard was filled with chrysanthemums and fruit trees. He was proud of the apple tree on which he'd grafted branches producing 35 different species of apples. Clemantis and wisteria grew upward on trellises - over the house's eaves and electric wires. Across the street - he'd secretly drilled a water pipe under East Boulevard - he planted a garden on the abandoned B.C. Electric right-of-way. There, he grew household vegetables and bizarre flowers in such an abundance that Armstrong grew accustomed to his gift of fresh produce on her doorstep. Grace Flather put the vegetables up in meticulously labelled Mason jars. Armstrong didn't know that Donald Flather was preserving the flowers, too: in dozens of Georgia O'Keefe-style paintings.

Says Armstrong of her neighbour of almost a half century: "You wouldn't have had any sense he was an artist. He never talked about his paintings - never. You'd see them. The place was bulging - BULGING! - with them, but he didn't talk about them. They were, I guess, a personal thing to him, his babies."

After his retirement in 1968, he had even more time to explore the land that he - like his Group of Seven predecessors -wanted to define in paint. Sometimes, he'd head in his camperized GM pickup to his Crispair Farm on Shuswap Lake near Celista, B.C. to photograph and sketch and tend the orchard there. Sometimes, Flather and his wife would set off across country, collecting scenes for possible future reference. The Maritimes, Ontario, the Prairies, Northwest Territories, Baffin Island... Donald Flather took thousands of photographs and his wife took extraordinary - and useless - notes recording every single purchase (and the price) of every item bought along the way.

But Flather's great love was British Columbia. In dozens of road trips and hundreds of hikes into the province's backcountry, he saw it all. As his paintings testify, he had a special affinity the yellowing, autumn aspens and willows of the Chilcotin, the high lakes and peaks of the Rockies, the dead snags and pines along Howe Sound, the snow-covered terrain of the northern Okanagan, and the dramatic spire of Black Tusk near Whistler. He tended often toward the overtly romantic, toward Art Nouveau-style natural patterns, toward cliches. He paints an innocent doe in a field and tiny snowdrifts caught in the bare branches of red osier dogwood. He paints sunsets. He paints flowering plants
wherever he went.

When he died of cancer in 1990, five of his landscapes were hung at the funeral service in Ryerson United Church. Most of those in attendance had absolutely no idea Flather painted.

David Flather and his uncle Barrie decided the long-hidden collection of artwork deserved recognition and removed 318 paintings from the Kerrisdale house for storage after Grace's death. Except for a dozen currently on display in two B.C. art galleries, the rest are stacked - along with Flather's thousands of slides - under blue plastic tarps in a warehouse. On the back of each painting, in the same bold print he used on school chalkboards, Flather has succinctly recorded the artwork's history. When Flather's slide images are compared to the resulting paintings, it's clear what artistic liberties he took with reality. It is also clear whose art styles he tried to emulate.

His spare, almost stark 'Sunset Beyond the Sunshine Coast' (Autumn, 1979) shows a view westward past Howe Sound's Anvil Island. An unnatural dagger of wind-driven clouds, the emblematic silhouetted ridges, the coppery sky and water reflections are so Lawren Harris it would be easy to confuse the two painters' works. 'Aspens in the Early Spring' (Loon Lake) is an ominous grey-green landscape of swirling, feathery trees and reeds which mimick Emily Carr at her most surreal. 'Pulpit Rock' (Entrance into the canyon of the South Nahanni River) shows a brooding, Northwest Territories landscape that bears in style a great similarity to the paintings of W.P. Weston. Often, the warehouse paintings appear unsigned. But in close inspection, the name D.M. Flather is seen, concealed amid swirls in the lower right-hand corner.

Expert opinions of those who have seen photos of the paintings today are varied. Charlie Hill, curator of Canadian art at Ottawa's National Gallery, feels Flather is like many other good amateur artists in the country. Jack Shadbolt admires Flather's fortitude in painting.

Vancouver art dealer, Robert Heffel, knows of only one example of an artist who was discovered posthumously. His name was Vincent Van Gogh. For many artists, however --- W.P. Weston and Emily Carr come to his mind --- significant fame and sales occur only after the painters have died. "He's good," Heffel says as he inspects photos of Flather's paintings. "He's an amateur, but I wouldn't call his paintings amateurish." He considers it possible that Flather, too, could be recognized after his death. After all, W.P. Weston's work went into critical limbo for a half century. But at one of Heffel's recent annual art auctions, a 1932 Weston landscape called 'Jotunheim', showing identical brown, roiling clouds to Flather's 1972 'Pulpit Rock' painting, sold for $71,500.

Whether Flather's reputation as an artist will survive the criticism that comes with showings, whether the paintings sell, whether they come to form a missing piece in the province's cultural history is, to Heffel, less important than Donald Flather did what he did. He painted for over 50 years, totally unrecognized, every week, every month, every year. That he appeared to conceal the paintings from scrutiny makes his dedication more bizarre. "He was trying to express the beauty he saw," says Heffel today. "He painted just for the love of painting. From that point of view, that's a good story. It's neat."

On Kerrisdale's East Boulevard today, Flather's curbside ginko tree still sends out green shoots from its base each spring. His lilacs still bloom along the deserted train line nearby. His clemantis turns pink each summer and his apple trees produce fruit each fall. The place where his old, clandestine pipe passes under the boulevard's grassy median on its way to the illegal garden across the street --- still tended by the Armstrongs --- is deep green year-round from a subterranean seep. It is sort of like Flather's lifetime of paintings --- hidden from sight, quiet, fecund, and hinting at the resilence of dreams.

reprinted with the permission of David Flather

To view this article and visit the gallery and see other information about Donald Falther, please click here.

Port Carling visitors discover 'the wall'

2011-10-15T00:00:00.005-04:00

The Portrait has presented a few murals from across Canada, but this one in Port Carling, Ontario is exceptional. If you click on the picture, you can enlarge it a bit to catch the drama of what is really happening. Failing that, please check the article written by John Goddard which appeared in the Toronto Star this summer. Its quite a story!

TheStar Port Carling visitors discover 'the wall'

John Newman Draws from his Art to Fight Back

2011-10-13T00:00:00.005-04:00

I had the pleasure of listening to Mary Hynes on the CBC's Tapestry today. (October 2nd, 2011). She presented the story of John Holmes, a lifelong artist, who was struck down by a stroke. John fought back by learning to draw with his left hand.

Please click here to be taken to John's Facebook page.
Please click here to be taken to Mary Hyne's CBC, Tapestry webpage, where you can listen to John's story.

What's in a Picture? Looking at Sir John

2011-10-11T00:00:00.001-04:00

We find in this, picture, Sir John A Macdonald, an aging leader. He has the rumpled look of his age. His jacket is loose, wrinkled and suggestive of homespun. He looks like he just stood from behind his desk, and hadn't taken the time to tighten his vest. His posture is somewhat slumped and he holds what appears to be a pair of spectacles as if he is about to make a point in conversation.

When I look at his face I see a benign, paternal appearance - suitable for a man who has been called the Father of the Canadian Federation.

Its said that pictures are worth a thousand words. Think of that famous picture taken by Josef Karsh, of Winston Churchill. Karsh set his camera up, looked through the lens, stepped to one side, then reached out and snatched Churchill's cigar out of his hand. The British Bulldog leaned forward in his chair and glared. Karsh snapped and one of the most famous pictures of Churchill became history.

But what has this unknown photographer told us about Sir John? To answer that I suggest that you take a look at the street names found in the centre of Ontario towns and cities. Macdonald's name is noticeably absent. And if that isn't enough, take a walk through Gananoque Cemetery, in Kingston and you will find a pretty ordinary grave. You won't find Macdonald resting beneath a ton of marble and a heavy statue. All of which suggests that Canadians weren't fully aware at the time of the importance that Macdonald played in birthing our newly formed country.

I found this portrait on the Government of Canada's site, 'The Canadian Heritage Information Network'. They in turn accredit the national archives as its source. Please click here.

AJ Casson Group of Seven Artist from the CBC Archives

2011-10-09T00:00:00.013-04:00

AJ Casson was a member of the Group of Seven. The video you can see, if you click on the link below is from the CBC archives. Its a good story of a man of dignity and character, who gives up his art to become the caregiver for his wife who is suffering from Alzhiemer's disease.

picture from Wikipedia
To view the video please click here.

David Alexander - where art and social consciousness meet.

2011-10-07T00:00:00.065-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of looking over a selection of David Alexander's paintings. It seemed somehow appropriate that David should follow Greg Freedman on The Portrait, for in some respects the works of both artists provide social comments on life.

David's paintings are soul searching. They are a social examination of the effects of the oil industry on human life and on our earth.

It is one thing for me to critique landscape paintings. But my experience and observations of art fail me when I look at David's social commentary. But, that being said, there is a common denominator which runs through the selection of works David has provided.

For one thing, the pictures are direct, simple and uncluttered. David cuts to the chase. His works take us from the citadel of nature, where trees (an ancient life symbol), rise above and look over a great pit in the earth where we presume oil is extracted.

David takes us on a journey from the oil pit to the Exxon Valdez. The ship is a black and red, obese, bulk carrier of unrefined oil. The colouring is significant for in psychological terms, black and red are colours of violence.

He takes us from there to what appears to be a black, tower, garden ornament which is topped off with a globe. There is a wrenching contradiction between its ornamental design and its purpose. David calls this 'The Apotheosis of Oil'. There can be no mistake that it is shaped like a black oil tower, capped off with a glass light globe. The title Apotheosis tells us that David sees that society has elevated oil to a divine level.

When I look at these works, I find myself in the end look at his Titan which has a face of a child. David sums it up when he says: "I wanted to show the Titan as an enigmatic symbol that was also a paradox, a primeval force of nature wearing a youthful mask."

David expresses it well, for the paradox is that we are dependent upon the oil industry While oil gives us fuel to drive our cars and provide us with the lifestyle we know, it also takes from the earth we depend upon for life itself..

Well done David. Where would we be without artists with a social conscience to interpret the lives we live.

Meet David Alexander - An Expressionistic artist.

2011-10-05T00:00:00.009-04:00

I had the pleasure of meeting David Alexander, on a sunny afternoon, in Gallery Plus, in Belleville, Ontario. I was immediately taken by his unassuming, soft spoken manner and by the painting he had with him at the time.

David is a recently retired teacher from high school and the continuing education fields. He is married and has no children and has been a member of the collective gallery 121, in Belleville for over ten years.

David has been affiliated with a variety of art organizations over the years. On the local scene he has been associated with the ArtPlus Gallery and he is a member of the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Quinte Arts Council. He has also had associations with a couple of Toronto galleries and he is an alumnus of the Ontario College of Art. His works have been shown at Artisans du Monde in Montreal, and in other locations in Ontario.

David first realized that he had artistic talent when his friend's father, introduced him to oil painting. His enthusiasm helped him persevere through the learning curve until he learned how to paint.

David says that he was never discouraged even though he met many cautionary roadblocks thad made him realize that a career in art would be challenging and financially unrewarding.

When he looks back over his life he sees how it has been enriched by his experiences in art. David says that has he has been influenced by the work of such artists as Rosenquist, Anselm Keifer, Edward Munch, Rene Magritte, Van Gogh, Kathy Kollwitz, and Puvis de Chavannes.

David is presently working on a series of paintings, drawings and sculptures based on environmental and social commentary themes. Stylistically, he is an expressionist who enjoys communicating his love of life through his work.

Count Berthold Von Imhoff, Prairie Painter, revisited

2011-10-03T00:00:00.001-04:00

Join 'The Portrait' today, to listen to CBC personality, the late, Peter Czowski, interviewing advertising executive Ray Penner, on the art and life of Count Berthold Von Imhoff.

Question: Was Von Berthold, a real count and if he was, why was he crawling around on top of scaffolds in small town churches?

Count Berthold Von Imhoff, a German immigrant to St. Walburg, Saskatchewan painted exquisite religious mural sand frescoes in churches across the province from 1913 to 1939. He transformed sparse walls and ceilings into works of art. Most of the time he didn't charge the poor parishes for his expensive materials or labour. In this CBC radio interview, Imhoff enthusiast Ray Penner, discusses how Imoff made the prairie churches of Saskatchewan his masterpiece.

Broadcast Date: November 19, 1991

Please click here to listen to the interview.

Back from the Past: Kenneth Gordon's Hay Stacks

2011-10-01T00:00:00.002-04:00

Readers of 'The Portrait', may recall my critique of Kenneth Gordon's 'Hay Stacks', from January 2010.

This is the first time that I have recycled a painting but I am presenting it to round off my autumn harvest theme.

Kenneth Gordon's work sits comfortably alongside the painting of Paraskeva Clark and Carl Schaefer.

Its interesting to compare how he treated the same subject with the others.

Paraskeva Clark

Carl Shaefer

Toronto Artist Rediscovers Art Following a Stroke

2011-09-29T08:33:00.001-04:00

Toronto Star staff writer, Debra Black tells of Toronto artist John Newman who suffered from a debilitating stroke and discovered that he was unable to use his right hand. Black began reworking his left-right wiring system and changed to become skilled in drawing using his left hand.

To read this article, please click here.

The art of rewiring a brain - Arts, Entertainment - Toronto.com

Beaver Hall Revisited

2011-09-29T00:00:00.001-04:00

Ah, they were feisty women painters, and they called themselves the Beaver Hall Gang. Well, Beaver Hall Group, actually, Beaver Hall Hill being a street in downtown Montreal where they had a studio at #305 during the 1920s. Most had studed at a local Art Association school that became the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where William Brymner taught them to go with modern art, and they did.

Extracted from The Dali House. To visit the complete article, please click here.

Fields, Normamby Township, 1936 by Carl Schaefer

2011-09-27T00:00:00.002-04:00

Carl Shaefer is accredited with painting this work in 1936 - the same year that Paraskeva Clark painted her wheat field. While similar in subject, they both have profound differences.

Shaefer's wheat field takes place on a much more level playing field and unlike Paraskeva, his field sits comfortably within its environment and it repeats itself into the horizon. Paraskeva's work had a defined statement that the crop had dominion over those who farmed it.

Notice how Shaefer gives man dominion over the land. The barn sits near the centre, along the horizon, and the rows of wheat run towards it like rays of the sun. Shaefer also has a clunkier style which gives his work the suggestion that the woodlots are subject to the design and control of human hands. Also, Paraskeva's trees and wooded areas are much greener than Shaefer's. The colour of the wheat field is picked up by the surrounding trees and woodlots.

Its interesting to see, how his blanket of wheat is stitched by fence lines into a sort of pastoral unity. And, if we look at this in a social context, it reflects a somewhat homogenous society where people share common attitudes and belief systems.

And the Winner of HMS Terror is.........................

2011-09-25T00:00:00.006-04:00

The article below posed the question, "Who was the unknown Canadian purchaser of HMS Terror?" It was sold at an art auction in the UK. I suggested one option that the painting might have been purchased by a branch of the Canadian Forces. (It would have looked pretty good hanging in the Officer's Club on University Avenue, in Toronto)

Well, dear readers - the cat is out of the bag and the winner of HMS Terror is:

The Canadian Museum of Civilization

The Montreal Gazette reports that Dan Morrison, a specialist in Arctic archaelogy at Canada's main history museum says, that HMS Terror was a "Ship of enormous historical significance for Canada."

To read this article, please click here.

Where's The Terror gone? - re presented from Sept. 20th

2011-09-24T00:00:00.002-04:00

This blog entry was re-presented, since the picture overlapped its borders. The answer to the querie it poses, will, be posted tomorrow.

How is this for a watercolour? The painter was 19th century English artist and explorer Sir George Back. Back, commanded the HMS Terror in 1836, and we can presume that this scene depicted the Terror, in the Canadian Arctic.

Randy Boswell of the Vancouver Sun writes:

HMS Terror and its sister ship, HMS Erebus, have been in the news this summer because of a Parks Canada-led search for the wrecks of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition.
The two vessels, then under the command of Royal Navy commander John Franklin, became locked in sea ice and were abandoned near King William Island in the late 1840s, eventually slipping beneath the waves in unknown location.

Apparently, the painting recently sold for $60,000 in a public auction in England to an unnamed Canadian Institution. Interestingly, Back's descendants didn't even know of the existence of the work.

Its a pretty dramatic watercolour work. Its painted in a minimal palette and the struggle between the hot and cold colours parallells the dramatic struggle taking place it in the work.

The mystery behind the purchase lies in the fact that the "Canadian Institution" which bought it, remains unidentified.

Ok. Ladies and Gentlemen its time to place your bets? Who is the phantom purchaser?
Hmm. The National Gallery of Canada. (Not likely for they have no need for secrecy). How about, The Royal Canadian Navy? (Possibly, for they wouldn't want to advertise public money being spent in this way). Hey, it might look pretty good hanging on the wall of the Officer's Club on University Avenue, in Toronto.

To read Randy's column, please click here

William Barker, Canada's Most Decorated Serviceman is Formally Recognized in Toronto

2011-09-23T07:31:00.022-04:00

Billy Barker. the forgotten WW1 flying ace was honoured yesterday in Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Wikipedia reports that Barker was the most decorated serviceman in the history of Canada and in the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Please click here.

Reports tell of Barker's only lost sortee came when he was attacked by 15 German aircraft. He managed to shoot down 4 of the enemy craft, before escaping after being wounded. It was his only lost battle.

The story of Barker, sliding into relative anonymity is, in some respects, an archetypal Canadian story. Radio reports today tell of Barker's interment in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto being attended by about 50,000 people and a fly past. . But, yet in a few short years he became all but a memory.

Barker is accredited to being the initiator of the Toronto Island Airport and he served as the first president of the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey team. He and Billy Bishop created Canada's first airline and he flew the first commercial flight into the States, from Canada.

The media leaped to life today with an abundance of reports which can be readily found by search engine.

The picture at the top left in this posting, appears to be of a statue of him, found in his birthplace of Dauphin, Manitoba. Please click here. I find myself like many artists wanting to know who the sculptor is and if he/she was appropriately recognized. Any reader response to this query would be appreciated.

To see the unveiling of the Toronto memorial, which was appropriately veiled with a parachute hanging over it. please click here .

The video is presented by the Toronto Sun and is accompanied with article written by Jenny Yuen.

A Canadian Sunset by Greg Freedman

2011-09-21T00:00:00.010-04:00

A Canadian Sunset, by Greg Freedman seems like a good way to illustrate the waning of our summer season.

There is a simple, directness about this work. We see a flock of Canadian Geese, flying over a large city. We see the sky, hills in the background and inlets of water. While it may seem that that is about it, there is much more to it – much more.

This is a sense of change at play here. The city below, either has its lights turned on and is preparing for night – or it will soon turn them off as a new day begins. The geese are flying over an alien environment – either towards the south where they will winter, or towards the north where they will summer.

There is a lot of contrast in this work, and this heightens its sense of drama. Seven geese over a large city. There is the play between dark and light, night and day, and the simple beauty of nature over the city below. Greg’s minimal palette emphasizes the contrast. The broader the variety of colour – the more our visual sense is distracted. I also like the way Greg uses his complimentary oranges and purples to maximize the dramatic power of colour. It makes the picture leap into life and demand our attention.

Greg paints the geese from the dark, shaded side. When you look under the geese you see the city spread out in a blanket of light. Interestingly, we see the geese, but we don’t see any people. We see indicators of human life, but we don't see life itself.

This is a work of freedom. The geese dominate the canvas. They dominate humanity, and they dominate the sky. The even fly over the city. On a natural progression we see nature surviving and carrying on irregardless of what mankind does. They do what they have always done. They are answering, their inbred, genetic, call of life. They are flying towards the light of life.

The viewer cannot help but feel the respect which Greg has for the power of nature. His seven geese let it be known that no matter what empires we build, no matter how big our tumorous cities may be, in the end, nature can crap on it all and still survive.

Greg’s scores big points for this work. If you wish to see more of Greg’s paintings please click here or here to visit his websites.

Captain Greg Freedman - West Coast Artist

2011-09-19T09:38:00.002-04:00

Joseph Gregory Freedman was born in Los Angeles in 1950. In
1970 he moved to Vancouver and started working for Seaspan, a Vancouver based tugboat company. Inspired by the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, Freedman taught himself to paint and, for thirty
years the waterfront and the easel divided his attention then,
in 2001, he retired from Vancouver’s SeaBus commuter
ferries and finally took-up painting as his full-time career.
Vancouver Sun columnist, Denny Boyd, referred to
Freedman as “The West Coast’s answer to Alex Colville.” But artist/educator, Gordon Smith, insists “Freedman doesn’t follow fashion, he doesn’t copy anybody. That’s very special in
Canadian art today.”In a feature article in NUVO magazine entitled; Celebrate the Salt -- Paintings by JG Freedman, author and CBC personality, Jurgen Gothe wrote, ‘... there is a strong
specialness in all he paints, a strong and clear-eyed vision that glows with bright primary colours, sharp lines, high definition and after all that has been digested by the (mind’s) eye, a surge of emotion that makes you wonder, What? Why? What next? Where is he going with this?’ In 2010, Freedman’s painting, “Shortening Up” won the prestigious Port Award at the American Society of Marine Artists 17th Annual Maritime Art Exhibit at the Coos Art Museum in Oregon. To see more of Greg's work please click here to visit his website.

A Muskoka Farm. Frederick Stanley Haines

2011-09-17T00:00:00.005-04:00

National Gallery of Canada
Artist: Frederick Stanely Haines

Here's the kind of painting that captures my imagination. I like its composition, colour and atmosphere. Its the kind of painting that I would love to hang on my living room wall. Failing that, I'm pretty glad that its in our national collection in Ottawa.

This is the kind of painting that art teachers value to teach their students about the power of complimentary colours and composition. Check out the sky and background hills, and see how Haines advanced his blues forward, into the roof and walls of the barns, and then to the foreground haystacks where they vanish into the wisp of a transluscent surface. It sure makes the yellow stand out, doesn't it?

But that's only the beginning. See how the haystacks partition the painting. The focus takes place in the nicely composed barnyard. Its here where the action takes place as the two horses head toward the safety of the barn. Not just that but in an area further restricted by a repeated leaning pole, and an errant cast shadow. The movement of the horses into the barn, serves notice that a storm is on the way.

Sometimes its the little things that bump a painting up from being a good work to being a great one.
Look carefully within the barn and you will a secondary wall of hay in the mow.

Its no wonder that I would love to have this one in my collection.

Frederick Stanley Haines - a Remarkable Life. as Artist, Teacher, and Community Leader

2011-09-16T12:11:00.002-04:00

Source: Meaford Museum website

Author: Gita Marie Kitawka

It is certainly true and unfortunate that in our culture we tend to undervalue artists unless they have been heavily promoted or commercially built up as celebrities.

We rather quickly forget the lives and achievements of most of our predecessors even when they had been recognized and honoured during their lifetimes. Perhaps that is why it is ever more gratifying to re-discover the life well lived and the rich enduring legacy left by Frederick S. Haines, a most accomplished, prolific and versatile artist, equally good at portraits, figure painting (gold medal from Acadamie Royale des Beaux Arts in Antwerp), landscapes and his beloved animals. As if that weren't enough, he also proved himself to be a most able educator, mentor, and administrator. Haines was the president of the Ontario Society of Artists, a founding member of the Canadian Painters in Watercolour, a founding member of Canadian Society of Etchers and Printers, the curator of the art gallery of Ontario and a well loved and most respected principal of the Ontario College of Art. At a young age he was accepted as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and later became its president and by resigning from that "creaky venerable institution", he obtained a moral victory that led to the rewriting of its constitution.

As the commissioner of Fine Arts for the Canadian National Exhibition, Haines educated Ontarioans by introducing the paintings of Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Matisse and provided the first Canadian glimpse of Danish and Scandanavian modern design. He travelled extensively for the CNE and brought the first large show of Mexican and Southwestern Arts and Crafts to Toronto. His association with the CNE lasted from 1920 to 1951. Under Haines direction, and guidance in 1929 eight huge murals were painted for and then installed in the Dome of the Arts, Crafts and Hobbies buildings at the CNE. Even though these paintings suffered greatly through neglect and abuse over the years, restorers have worked hard to redress the deterioration. Today the Haine's murals are permanently displayed in the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE and it is well worth the trip to see them. Haines was a contemporary and friend of The Group of Seven and was instrumental in convincing his first cousin Franklin Carmichael (from Orillia) to pursue the arts professionally, a most precarious profession to choose in those times. Not something the parents would approve of without much trepidation, yet Haines was able to assuage Frank's parents fears of the moral and financial hazards of the big city.

As a more established and successful colleague of the Group of Seven, he invited Carmichael and some other members of the group to teach at the OCA, much to the benefit of its students. He was instrumental in tremendously increasing student enrollment, introducing new courses of study, and establishing a much wider participation of artists in the community by promoting advertising and industrial design.

One cannot help but speculate how Haine's life in early Meaford shaped him to become such an able artist, educator, and administrator, who made a real contribution to Canadian life and culture. It appears that Meaford was a vibrant, expanding and optimistic town in Fred's youth. The railway had just recently connected the town to Toronto, and it boasted five hotels, many taverns and a lively social life. Fred was born into an artistically inclined family. His father, George Haines, was known to have participated in the local theatre. A cooper by trade he also enjoyed playing cricket, and had other hobbies. His mother, Martha Jane, came from a large, religious, family. When her father, one of the founders of Christ Church Anglican and one of its first wardens, died, a stained glass window in his memory: "James Smith - family of ten."

Fred attended the newly built, Meaford High School and upon graduation and passing entrance exams he left for Toronto at the age of seventeen to enroll in the Central Ontario School of Art. (Later to become OCA). He was able to support himself by painting portraits and was proud to claim that from then on he could make a living by art alone. Haines married Bertha Morehouse in 1900 and was father of Dorthy (Hoover) who became the librarian at OCA and has written with love and admiration of her father.

The 50th anniversary of his death has aroused renewed interest in arts circles and especially in the town of Meaford. There, under the leadership of, Pamela Woolner, curator of the Meaford Museum, a small group of volunteers have been gathering regularly to work in a Commemorative Exhibit of Haine's work which is to open September 10th to September 30th in the galleries of Meaford Museum, Meaford Hall and Georgian Bay Secondary School. 10am and 4pm daily. One show will be a permanent collection of paintings generously donated by Haines to the Georgian Bay Secondary School in 1958 and paintings on loan, from major public and private galleries as well as from private collections.

To visit the website please click here.

Technical Issues

2011-09-15T11:12:00.001-04:00

Todays postihng about Fredierick Haines, has been removed due to technical problems.
I will rework it and strive to have it posted again within the next couple of days.
/fw

Sunset in the Strait of Canso by J. Franklin Wright

2011-09-13T00:00:00.002-04:00

J. Franklin Wright live on in the hearts of Port Haweksbury residents on Cape Breton Island, N.S.

This painting by him gives us good reason to see why.

When I look at the sunset work above, I find myself wondering what the media is. My guess is that this is a watercolour.

There is a sense of timelessness about this work. The work has a minimalistic quality to it.
There is the sky, the sea, the hills in the background and the boats. Take a look at it without the boats. Ninety percent of the picture lacks detail save for the softest inference of waves.
The result is an almost surreal, dreamlike quality.

Note too how the white of ferry boat, and the sails, share the same tonal values and hues as the sky, background, and sea. Here is where art and psychology overlap. Each of the elements become inter-related and depend upon the other.

Sky, water, and boats share an equal sense of belonging. People are equally home on the sea or on the land.

The power of this work, for me, lies in the effective atmosphere which Wright was able to create. Time is suspended and it has an existential quality about it. The only thing that seems to matter is my own relationship to the work. There are no other distractions. Is it a scene from a dream or from an image I would like to see? Reality is blurred and I find myself hanging in the mystical glow of a timeless sunset.

Downtoeartart.ca gives this explanation of the work:

"Down to Earth Art, and Mr. Wright have produced these canvas giclées from an original in a series of Cape Breton sunsets. The view is looking from Ship Harbour towards the Canso Causeway with the tour boat “The J. Franklin Wright”, which operates out of Port Hawkesbury and is owned by the Langley family, cruising through the Strait with all on board enjoying one of the areas famous sunsets. True to Mr. Wright’s unequalled mastery of the ability to actually produce light with brush and paints; the glazes used in this stunning painting cause the radiance from the sunset to illuminate in the evening...."

Apologies on behalf of The Portrait

2011-09-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

for incorrectly identifying the above picture Mailigne Lake, Jasper Park painted by Lawren Harris and attributed to Lionel Lemoine Fitzgerald.

The posting was made on October 11, 2010. The incorrect painting has since been removed from the blog entry.

Appreciation is extended to the anonymous reader for identifying this error and contributing to its correction.

J Franklin Wright, Port Haweksbury, NS, artist.

2011-09-11T00:00:00.001-04:00

J. FRANKLIN WRIGHT Renowned marine artist The Town of Port Hawkesbury
Bluenose II in the Strait - J.Franklin Wright

One of the most sought after artists in Canada, continues to become more popular with each painting and edition released.”
(Canada Today, Canadian High Commission, London, June 1991)

PORT HAWKESBURY boasts several prominent native sons and daughters, and among those is marine artist J. Franklin Wright, who has developed a mastery of marine composition. Drawn by the timeless nature and mystery of the ships and the sea, Wright’s work reflects the strong influence of the shipping environment that still plies its trade in the Strait of Canso, beside which his home town is located. Many of Wright’s marine fullmasted paintings have been released as limited edition prints and medals of distinction for their quality.Wright’s work has been shown extensively throughout Canada,
has exhibited internationally at the Annual Mystic Invitational, Mystic Conn.; the Jacob Javitz Centre, NewYork, New York; the Royal Society of Marine Artists, London, England; the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London, England. He is a member of the International Society of Marine Painters in Florida.
Wright is the only Canadian included in the influential marine volume, 20th Century British Marine
Painting by Denys Brook-Hart. A book featuring the mastery of Wright’s work and titled The Marine Art of J. Franklin Wright features many of the historic vessels that have earned Franklin Wright international acclaim. The Town of Port Hawkesbury has honoured this great marine artist by
naming the town’s exhibition space in the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre the J. Franklin Wright Gallery, and offered exhibits of regional artists throughout the year. It’s worth a visit.

From:
The Sunset Side of Cape Breton, 2009.
Please click here.

Watercolour and Economic Necessity

2011-09-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Interviewee: Carl Schaefer

Interviewer: Charles Hill

Interview Date: 11-12 October 1973

Transcriber: Lexitech International

Transcription Date: 31 March 2008

Transcription Editors: Nina Berkhout, Marcia Rodriguez, Charles Hill, Cyndie Campbell, Amanda Graham and Marie-Louise Labelle

Archival Reference: Canadian Painting in the Thirties Exhibition Records, National Gallery of Canada Fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives

SCHAEFER: With the advent of 1930s’ economic conditions, and this will fit in I think very well with you, of the whole idea of the thirties. Why? No money. We were on our uppers. God, it was awful. We couldn’t afford oil paint. What did we do? We find another medium. We do a lot of drawings, drawings. I couldn’t afford a dollar and fifty cents for a tube of cadmium yellow. I couldn’t do it. But I could afford twenty-five and thirty-five cents for a pretty good sheet of handmade watercolour paper. And a small tube, this big, an inch and half, which I could buy for, say, thirty cents. This was the difference: twenty-five and thirty cents against a dollar and a half, against a dollar seventy-five or perhaps two dollars. Canvas, stretchers, and so—which—this will come in with you, and I think you can dovetail this in, the advent of the Watercolour Society. The Watercolour Society was formed. Charter granted in 1935 or so; I became a chartered member at that time.\

HILL: Wasn’t the Water Colour Society really formed by Carmichael and Casson in ’26?

SCHAEFER: Oh yes. Yeah. Pardon? In ’26?

HILL: In ’26.

SCHAEFER: That’s right, but you see, they were the forerunners.

HILL: Right.

SCHAEFER: See, like Owen Staples, and C.W. Jefferys, and people like that.

HILL: But then the Water Colour Society did take on a far greater importance—

SCHAEFER: Oh yes. In the thirties it was no holds barred.

HILL: Right

NGC collection. Interview with Carl Schaeffer

The Wheat Field, 1936 by Paraskeva Clark

2011-09-07T09:40:00.000-04:00

I'm in a harvest mood.

A collection of wheat fields would be incomplete without this painting by Paraskeva Clark from the National Gallery. I love the sweep of this work. It spreads out before us like a golden blanket with the rest of the world surrounding the field.

Take a good look at the trees and buildings. They are bunched up, as if they aren't entitled to the same amount of space.

Its a hugely economic statement. This is Canada's Golden Apple and it dominates the lives of much of our population. The field is elevated and prominent. Its importance has dominion over the life which creates it.

To view the Wheat Field in the National Gallery collection, please click here.

Tom Thomson - A Sensitive Arty Kind of Guy?

2011-09-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

How's this for a photo of the dapper, young, Tom Thomson. He has that look of a pretty confident guy, hasn't he? His hands are in his pockets and he has a relaxed slouch.

Check out the picture below. There stands our Tom with his pipe clenched between his teeth, proudly displaying his morning catch.

I picked up a book today while I was waiting in my naturopath's office. It reset my image of Tom.
But, then again what would you expect from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader; 'Plunges Into Canada.'.

As I flipped the pages Tom's name jumped out to greet me. Now, what could be so funny about Tom?

The editor of the book, focused on the year of 1904 when Tom worked as an engraver in Seattle, Wa., in the USA. According to Uncle John, Tom fell head over heels in love with Alice Elinor Lambert. Uncle John writes:

"Alice Elinor Lambert was an American high school senior who later went on to fame as a writer of romantic novels. However, she clearly wasn't very familiar with romance in 1904, when Tom got down on bended knee, declared his love and presented her with an engagement ring. He expected a loving response. Instead, she giggled. Ever the sensitive artistic type, Thomson not only fled the room, but - he left Seattle entirely, never to return."

Well, take it for what its worth. It was after all, found in a bathroom reader. But, our Tom - a sensitive arty type? Who would ever think it?

Source: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, 'Plunges into Canada'.
Published by: The Bathroom Reader's Institute
Printed in USA
ISBN: 978-1-60710-100-0 (pbk)
c2010
Pg: 128

The Wheat Field by Carl Schaefer

2011-09-06T00:00:00.007-04:00

Carl Schaeffer, The Wheat Field, Hanover On. 1936.

I pulled this work out of the National Gallery of Canada's collection. (click here) As the day progressed I found myself journeying into an interesting interview with artist Carl Schaefer who studied at the Ontario College of Art. He began painting in the 1930's. His interview is peppered with comments and quotes made by Group of Seven artists - many of whom taught at the Ontario College of Art. If you have an hour or so, and are a student of Canadian art, you will undoubtedly find it a good read. Please click here.

Here is a second Wheat Field, Hanover by Schaefer. This one was painted in 1938 and was posted on The Art History Archives. Please click here.

The Wheat Field was also painted by Paraskeva Clarke. I will put her work up as a point of comparison one day.

Caravaggio and the National Gallery of Canada

2011-09-04T09:15:00.000-04:00

Extracted from Vernissage: Magazine of the National Gallery of Canada
Volume 13.

Plunging necklines, scarlet hues, lusty gazes - this is only part of the world, that Caravaggio presents to viewers, for his world is also imbued with touching, deep passionate, devotion. The complex personalities that he depicted in his fictional yet dangerously real world could not help but arouse the curiosity of his contemporaries and create an unprecedented following among artists and collectors. The exhibition Caravaggio and his Followers in Rome, is one in a long line of events celebrating the fascination of countless artists who measured themselves against the virtuosity of the painter from Lombardy.

Extracted from Carvaggaio's Shadow. Nelda Damanio, Sr. Project Manager, NGC, published in Vernissage.of the National Gallery of Canada

While I am an art magazine junkie, I have to confess that I had no knowledge of Vernissage - The Magazine of the National Gallery of Canada. I picked it up in Chapters, Oshawa the other day and was surprised to discover its existence, particularly since I had just returned from viewing the Caravaggio showing.

If by chance you are in the dark about this publication, as was I, then here's the story.

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