Prudence Heward's Sisters of Rural Quebec

Prudence Heward's, Sisters of Rural Quebec is one of those paintings which captures the imagination.

To begin, its a geometrically designed painting with angles and lines running in the background and through the shapes of her two seated subjects.

Look carefully at the lines and you will see that there isn't much of a defining pattern to them - which in itself suggests thematic dis-coordination.

Lets begin by looking at the two seated girls to see how the artist uses her structural skills to take us to a deeper level of understanding of the work.

There is no sense of unity within the girls. Their bodies are pretty much at right angles from each other - as if they are going their own way. Follow their visual paths, and here again we find a right angle.

The girl wearing the dark dress, is sitting in on a rocking chair, an instrument reserved for older people on country habitant verandahs. Her dress is sober, old womanish, and her face has a scowl. Her rural roots is reinforced by the cross she wears.

The sun shines on the foreground girl's face and the girl in the background has more shading on her face. And, when we really look at the light, the background girl has a shadow behind her. Its a little harder to discern serious shadowing in the foreground girl because of her light coloured dress.

See how the girl in the foreground sits on a plush cushion. Interestingly there appears to be an oversized country fair ribbon on the corner of the cushion. What does this mean? Is this the artist's value statement to endorse the foreground girl?

Note too their facial appearances. The girl on the rocking chair scowls. The foreground girl looks pensive and reflective.

Taken as individual comments they are simply differences to note. But collectively, the two sisters of Rural Quebec present an underlying tension between rural habitant culture and that of emerging Quebec women.

Finally, its important to note that the young woman in the foreground isn't a brassier burning feminist. No way. Her pensive look suggests uncertainty. She dresses as if her heart yearns to break loose from traditional values - but yet, there is a reluctance to get up and take the step forward.

And this is what the picture says to me - that this is a work about social and cultural tensions.

Want me to take it a step further? Take a good, long, hard look at the geometric arrangement in the background. Did you blink? Does it look disturbingly like a swastika?

Not bad. No wonder her 'Sisters of Rural Quebec, is part of the collection in our National Gallery.

Buying Low and Selling High

Tom Thomson: Bing Inlet, Georgian Bay

Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton had good taste.

Long before the Group of Seven came into vogue, the Montrealer assembled a collection of their work, for a relative pittance.

She bought Lawren Harris paintings for as little as $85, A.Y. Jacksons for the same amount and at least one Arthur Lismer painting for the princely sum of $37.50.

They've risen in value.

The $85 painting she bought from Harris in 1947, Lake Superior Sketch XXXIII, is expected to bring $200,000 to $300,000 at the Heffel Auction of Fine Canadian Art tomorrow at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Her $85 Jackson, Coal Miners' Houses, Canmore, Alberta, was purchased four months after the Harris, and has a pre-auction estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. The $37.50 Lismer, Forest Interior, bought in 1949, has an estimate of $20,000 to $25,000.

"She amassed a great collection with a total [cost] of $17,000 to $18,000," marvels David Heffel, who runs the auction house with his brother Robert. "It's in the millions now. It was a great investment."

That's an understatement. Three of the 37 works from the Thornton collection up for auction - Harris' Winter ($600 in 1962) and Arctic Sketch IX ($500 in 1959), and Albert Henry Robinson's St-Urbain ($165 in 1945) - have pre-auction estimates of $300,000 to $500,000.

Thornton died last Oct. 27, aged 93, and her collection has been put up for auction by her estate.

Heffel had met her and said her house had so many works of art, the living and dining rooms were set up like an art gallery, "with a gallery-type peg-board and broad lighting system in the dining room where she would rotate the works." She literally had a cupboard full of Harris paintings between the living and dining rooms, awaiting their turn in the rotation.

Excerpt of an article from the Victoria Times Colonist(May 25, 2010) and reprinted on the Heffel.Com website.
Click here.

Henry Arifin, Watercolourist

Henry Arifin is from Toronto and he enjoys capturing the scenes of his city in waters.

He paints simply in a loose, wet on wet style and he has an excellent sense of composition and understanding of colour.

Henry writes of his style: "What inspires me most is taking a busy, even chaotic, scene, and organising it into a pleasing, simple pattern of values and colors."

Please click here to be taken to Henry's website.

Sotheby's Auction at the ROM Toronto - place your bid

Have you some spare coin to invest in art? Click here to be taken to the Sotheby's catologue to see what is listed for sale at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Go ahead - place your bid on line. Click here.

Included in the catalogue is:
1. a Red Ensign, Ontario School Flag. Its estimated at between $40,000 and $60,000. Canadian. (check your attic first)
2.a few Samuel Clements books
3.Norval Morriseau: 'A Friend'
4.AY Jackson works
5.George Bernard Shaw Letters
5.Henry David Thoreau (signed envelope)
7.Arthur Lismer, Bon Echo Rock.

Emily Carr Work becomes Canada's 4th Most Expensive Painting at Heffel's Auction in Vancouver

Lawren Harris places two out of four in the top four most expensive works in Canada, and Emily Carr moves into fourth place.

Emily Carr
Wind in the Tree Tops..................$2,164,500




Lawren Harris painting sells for $2.4 million.




Bill Reid, Killer Whale: $702,000




Tom Thomson
Small sketch, birches and cedars.......$1.7 m

Arthur Lismer: Sheep's Nose, Bon Echo. 1.1 m.

A few other notable sales

Jean-Paul Lemieux:
oil
"Ti-Gus" ............................$672,750.

Edward John Hughes oils:

"Tanker at Minstrel Island, B.C." .... $380,250
"West Coast near Bamfield".............$222,300


Bertram Charles Binning
Oil
Sea Side Figures.......................$64,350.

Globe and Mail Quote, May 27: "In all, 220 lots yielded a total of $21.8-million, the second highest auction total in Canadian history."


Source: Vancouver Times Colonist, click here.

See also: The Globe and Mail. Please click here.

Heffel Auction Live and Online

For those who check into the Fredericks Artblog during the auction click here to see the live video.

Heffel Art Auction: Today in Vancouver. Lawren Harris and Bill Reid Works on the Block.

Lawren Harris. Bylot Island 1
Anticipated price: $1.5m - $2.5 m.


Bill Reid: Killer Whale estimated value, $600,000 - $800,000

Please click here to be taken to the Heffel.Com

Toronto District Board of Education's Collected Treasure

Tom Thomson

The National Post (May 21, 2010) and the Toronto Sun (May 23, 2010) ran interesting articles on an unlikely art collection. It seems that the Toronto District Board of Education, has been sitting on a hitherto unknown (at least by the public) treasure in art which includes the above work of Tom Thomson, and others by Franklin Carmichael, Emily Carr, Norval Morrisseau, Alex Colville, and Mary Pratt.

Some of the treasures are archeological, such as some contents found beneath Sackville Public School, which came from the home of Thomas Blackburn a fugitive slave.

And, some of the collection is the kind of detritus that are germane to education; eg, old pictures and memorabilia.

Even more interesting to those with an eye for numbers, is that Shelley Falconer, a curator hired by the school board to access the value of the treasure says that it may add up to between $ 7.5 million and $10 million dollars.


Click here to read the National Post article.

Click here to read the story in the Toronto Sun.

Parachute Riggers, by Pareskeva Clark

Paintings such as this one, by Pareskeva Clark, seem almost camp in our urbane and sophistated age.

Not many artists today use art to make political statements. But Paraskeva Clark was from the Soviet Union, and she felt no hesitation about using her paintings to make socio- political comments.

This picture caught my eye, because it shows women at work supporting Canada's war effort.

Paraskeva, zones in on a cramped area within a workshop. Its microscosmic - possibly even a microscosm of the country at war.

Unlike Soviet propaganda art, this does not show a nation of happy workers. When I think of Soviet art, I think of peasants with smiles (they always smile don't they) holding sheathes of grain beneath their arms,labouring cheerfully for the motherland.

But in this picture, the eyes of the second woman in from the bottom tell it all. There is no cheerful unity of the proletariat in this work. This woman is not a happy camper. The look on her face suggests that she isn't pleased about doing big muscle grunt work while her co-worker gets off lightly, snipping away with a pair of scissors in her hand.

Pareskeva knows propaganda art, only too well. But its as if she's caught in betwixt and between. On one hand she knows that Canada needs to inspire people to contribute to the war effort - on the other hand, she portrays human nature for what it is.

Paraskeva Clark, Russian Artist in Canada 1898-1986

Photography: Charles Comfort
Collection of the Library and Archives, National Gallery of Canada

"Who is the artist? Is he not a human being like ourselves, with the added gifts of finer understanding and perception of the realities of life...? Surely. And this being so, those who give their lives, their knowledge and their time to social struggle have the right to expect help from the artist. And I cannot imagine a more inspiring role than that which the artist is asked to play for the defence and advancement of civilisation."
(Paraskeva Clark, New Frontier, April 1937)

Working in Toronto from the early 1930’s, Paraskeva Clark was unique as a Canadian artist in expressing her leftist political leanings on canvas. She became active in the Canadian League against War and Fascism and was a close friend of Norman Bethune (1890-1939).

Paraskeva Plistik grew up in a working-class family in St. Petersburg, Russia. She studied art at the Petrograd Academy at night, while working days in a shoe factory. After the Revolution of 1917, she studied at the Academy from 1918 to 1921, renamed the 'Free Studios” by the Soviet government. Her teacher Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, a follower of Cézanne, influenced her with his theories about the humanist purpose of art. In the fall of 1923, Paraskeva moved to Paris, where several years later, she met Philip Clark a Canadian whom she married in 1931 and moved to Toronto.

Paraskeva Clark brought to the Toronto art scene a consciousness of the structural and formal traditions of French art derived from Paul Cézanne and the Cubists. Her first Canadian paintings were portraits and still-lifes. Clark, however, could not ignore the political and economic crises brought about by the Depression, and the rise of Fascism. By the end of the 1930s, her work, as seen in Petroushka (1937), took on a new direction, as she became increasingly involved in the political issues of the day.

In November 1933, Clark participated in the first exhibition of the Canadian Group of Painters, held at the Art Gallery of Toronto and was elected to full membership in 1936. She continued to exhibit with them until the 1960s. Clark was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Sources:
Cybermuse Gallery click here:

NFB: click here

Rue du Tresor. Quebec City.

Like many Canadians I have a fond love for the charm of Rue du Tresor, in old Quebec City.

Aileen Meagher

Artist: Aileeen Meagher
Painting: Iceberg Finale
Oil on masonite: 59x89cm

picture from the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame

When prowling for art stories from Nova Scotia I chanced upon the name of Aileen Meagher. Aileen's story attracts me for she was an intriquing individual.

Wikepedia writes the following about Aileen:

Aileen Aletha Meagher (November 26, 1910 – August 2, 1987) was a Canadian athlete who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics.
She was born and died in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was also a painter.
In 1936 she was a member of the Canadian relay team which won the bronze medal in the 4×100 metres event with her team mates Dorothy Brookshaw, Mildred Dolson and Hilda Cameron. In the 100 metre competition Meagher was eliminated in the semi-finals.
At the 1934 Empire Games she won the gold medal with the Canadian team in the 220-110-220-110 yards relay contest and the silver medal in the 110-220-110 yards relay competition. In the 220 yards event she won the silver medal. Four years later she was part of the Canadian team she won the silver medal in the 110-220-110 yards relay competition and the bronze medal in the 220-110-220-110 yards relay event. In the 220 yards competition she finished fourth.
In 1935, she was awarded the Velma Springstead Trophy, presented annually to Canada's outstanding female athlete. In 1965, she was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. She is also a member of the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame

.

Not only was she an Olympic Gold winner, but she was also recognized for her art.

The Nova Scotia archives says that Aileen was born in Edmonton, Ab. and that she moved to Halifax with her parents, in her early childhood.

Links:
Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame
Dalhousie Art Gallery

Native Masks

Masks fascinate me. Native masks cut to the chase. They can terrify you, or present images from their pantheon of gods and legends or they can make you laugh. White euro culture isn't much into masks - other then for costume parties or Halloween. But then again in our society we are much more urbane. We wear our masks every day and change them depending on the circumstance.

Check this one out by it was made by native artist Beau Dick, 'Kwakwaka'wakw' a first nation artist from BC. And it was photographed by Rolf Hickson. It can be seen along with other masks on Rolf's site. Please click here.

Today: Opening of Safe Passages and Welcome Harbours: In Recognition of the Centennial of the Canadian Navy, at the Dalhousie, NS Art Gallery

Artist: Richard Jack.
From Lord's Point

Safe Passages and Welcome Harbours:
Works from the Permanent Collection

Curated by Peter Dykhuis

OPENING RECEPTION Thursday 20 May at 8 pm

2010 marks the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Navy. During the spring and summer, Halifax will host a series of commemorative events including: the annual Sea Power and Maritime Security Conference organized by the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies; an international fleet review of visiting, foreign naval ships; and the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo whose program will honour the Navy’s place in Canadian history.

Recognizing Nova Scotia’s complex relationship to the sea and its maritime history, this exhibition of works from the Permanent Collection considers the harbour as a functional contact zone between navigation routes and the ships and boats that call the coves, jetties and wharves “home”.

With works in a variety of media by Jack Bush, Arthur Lismer, Alex Livingston, Aileen Meagher and Marguerite Zwicker, among others, Safe Passages and Welcome Harbours also features representational ship and boat portraits, images of ships at sea in their “work” environment and portrayals of the sea itself as subject matter.

Whether defined by nearby edges of rock and sand or distant horizon lines, the sea is ever-present in these artworks that regard the ocean’s waters as a surface for both nautical transport and poetic contemplation.

Picture and extract from the Dalhousie Art Gallery. Please click here to view the source.

The Great Farini

As I was driving along the highway, a billboard in a field caught my attention. It wasn't the billboard itself, but the notion that the art of advertising by picture and artistic postings has pretty much died.

It was a way of life when I was a kid. Pictures of people such as Laurel and Hardy, Clark Gable and Humphry Bogart peered out at me from behind glass in front of the local movie theatre. They were jammed full of exciting glimpses of the forthcoming drama which could be viewed within.

Not just that but posters were nailed to telephone poles in town, or put in store windows, advertising the arrival of travelling musicians or shows.

The picture of the Great Farini, above, which I found in a Google search was typical of this kind of illustrative art.



For those unfamiliar with the story of William Hunt, I would suggest that you click the links below.

Hunt was a formidable personality in the 19th century. He was equal to Blondin in his tight rope walking across the Niagara Gorge. And, he has quite a list of personal accomplishments. He was the first to be shot from a cannon in a circus event, and the next time you go to a performance in a theatre, and you slide into your seat, thank 'The Great Farini' for inventing the folding theatre seat that made your passage to your seat easier.

Shane Peacock's book, on the life of the Great Farini, reports that late in his life, he was the owner of an art gallery in Toronto, and that he advertised himself as an artist.

Click here to see the Farini article in Wikipedia.
Also, this Wikipedia link.

Queen Victoria the Grand Old Dame

How well I recall the times when I have stood near the Ontario Legislature and seen this statue of Queen Victoria.

There is something about grand old statues like this. They are public statements of the esteem we hold for important people. Why is it that statue making has become an almost dead art?

Whenever I stand beneath such a great statue as this, I feel a sense of awe.
For one thing such statues are huge, and they almost always sit atop a concrete pedestal. And when I stand below them and look up their subject is greater than life, and I feel very small.

But its more then just a physical thing. Huge statues of important historical figures, remind us of our place in the scheme of things. It has to do with power.
Victoria represents in this case, institutional power. The power of the long gone Empire. The power of government and history and military might and tradition. The whole nine yards.

And this statue of Victoria also represents the respect which the builders of the Ontario Parilaiment buildings had for their Queen. It was a statement that they belonged and were part of an imperial system. As it was said, "The sun never sets on the British Empire," and Victoria - the Great White Mother, looks down on her children of the world and all is well.

I wonder if we have stopped building great statues because of a shift in our cultural perspective. Have we become statues onto ourselves? If such is the case, there should be a great pedestal on University Avenue in Toronto, which has a small staircase up the back for viewers to climb and then to stand atop and look over our little domains? Have we culturally decided that the individual is the sum of the whole? Do we no longer see great political figures in the same way?

But yet, artistically, statues bring a city and parks, grace and nobility.

Ionic Crown, by Anne Hudec, Victoria, BC.

“Ionic Crown” on the cover of Splash 11, May 2010:
New Directions The Best of Watercolor by North Light Books.

What makes a painting paint itself? Why is it that some materialize seemingly effortlessly before an artists’ eyes, while others seem to fight their way to life? This is a question I am sure that many artists have pondered, as I have myself. Is it the artists’ mind-set of that moment? Or perhaps their life experiences and feelings that are evoked more strongly from a particular motif?

Ionic Crown came about with a deadline - self-imposed I might add – to produce three paintings for a Fine Art Show. I can’t say I am particularly fond of working under time pressure – I much prefer to paint by my own intuition and clock. However, this statue had really beckoned to me from the moment I had photographed her, and she magically manifested herself on my watercolour paper. Unlike other paintings, there seemed to be no decision-making in the process: which method to use, in which order, which colours to accentuate or downplay, which edges to leave hard or to soften. It was as if all the planning had already been decided for me. I felt that I was the holder of the brush, while it worked its own magic.

There is something particular about her that speaks to me, and not just the way the shadows caress her beautiful face. It is her attitude that casts her spell. I see her as a pillar of strength – the way I like to see women evolve after having overcome the challenges that they have faced. The evening light representative of the passage of time she has experienced, the cracks and chips the reminders of her struggles. Her eyes are closed, as if she does not look to the outside world for its approval. Everything that she needs she can find within herself, and therefore she appears empowered, confident, compassionate, and at peace with her evolution. It seems rather fitting that this particular statue is a caryatid – an architectural female support column.

Perhaps these feeling and thoughts that she evoked within me were the reason why she developed in such a magical way, which reminded me of the importance of painting what one finds inspirational.

I was absolutely thrilled when I was informed that Ionic Crown would be included amongst so many talented artists in the Splash 11: New Directions, Best of Watercolour book. I was overwhelmed when I was told she had been chosen for the front cover. And I know, when I eventually hold the book in my hands, I will see her quiet strength, and know the feelings she evoked that inspired her creation.

Anne Hudec

The Beaver Hall Group

Lawren P Harris: Monster Forms, 1953.

It not uncommon for like minded artists to group together and draw support from one another on their artistic journey's. While the Group of Seven was advancing its style from its Toronto base, Montreal also had its Beaver Hall Group.

For that matter, Lawren Harris and AY Jackson were cross over artists, who migrated from Montreal to Toronto. The online Cybermuse site, reports that AY Jackson continued to maintain Montreal links after moving to Ontario, through ongoing letters and communication.

The Montreal group were originally students of William Brymner. It was a non structured association of artists who shared studio space in Beaver Hall Square.
It was formed in 1920 and while it had a lifespan of a year and a half its members maintained their relationships through the next two decades.

Included in the group were, Anne Savage, Sarah Robinson, Edwin Holgate, Prudence Heward,Lilias Newton,and Lawren P. Harris.

Its important to clear up any confusion which may arise about Lawren Harris. Lawren P. Harris, is the son of the noteable Group of Seven artist, Lawren S. Harris.

Click here and you will be taken to the Cybermuse reference for this entry.

Don't miss the click on related images tab. It will open for you a page of some of the surprising works of the Beaver Hall group. Click here.

Don Evans, portrait cartoonist extraordinaire

extracted from: Canadian Society of Editorial Cartoonists

Bickerstaff (aka Don Evans) has practiced the caricature trade in Canada for so long, his many admirers call him “a national treasure”. Collections of his work, produced over three decades, are housed in Canada’s National Archives and at the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto. His original drawings are also proudly displayed, framed and mounted, in dozens of private homes around the country.

Click below to see more of Don's work.

You Tube Collection of Group of Seven Paintings with a great musical accompanyment

creator: Brett Sheppard