by Sally Hansen

Elisabeth Thomson sees the world differently. She observes with an eye for drama. When she looks at the outline of a tree against the sky, she sees bold shapes and angular outlines. Despite her name, her art reflects a much greater influence by the Surrealists than by the Renaissance Masters of the Elizabethan era. She paints stark, dynamic images using vibrant colours, frequently choosing blues and reds.

Thomson is creative, artistically fearless and utterly undeterred by well-meaning gallery owners who advise her to "pick a style and stick to it." Instead, the best word to describe her artistic style is eclectic. Some of her canvases evoke images of landscapes by The Group of Seven; some are highly geometrical; others are semi-abstract. Like Salvador Dali, she is completely comfortable letting her subconscious guide her as she reconstructs images that appear in her dreams. Unlike Dali, she is gifted with a gentler, more recognizable world in which to dream.

Continue reading "The Drama of Elisabethan Art" »

Posted on January 1, 2010 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"PHOTODICTION is the careful selection of specific elements to include in a picture's composition, using these to express various themes and views of the world around me."
This is the definition of the neologism that Mario Cerroni invented for the identity of his photography website.

Judging from the comments posted by visitors to that website, his photographic compositions eloquently express his ability to extract extraordinary beauty and serenity from the world around him. His selective views of both natural and human-made scenes excel at revealing pattern, texture, rhythm and the beauty in the commonplace that is so easily overlooked.

One composition, in particular, convinced me that this photographer does indeed have a special gift for discerning the aesthetic possibilities of a familiar sight. On his website gallery I was drawn to a quietly sober photo in black and white titled "Evening Reflection." I was mildly chagrined to learn that it was a striking capture of a scene that I have personally witnessed many times without once appreciating its potential as a powerful image.

Discovering and revealing that potential is a key component of Cerroni's passion for photography. One of his favourite images is a shot of two bare trees in a winter field. He had passed that field hundreds of times, and one day he saw in it the striking composition he captured. "The world around us presents an endless medley of rhythms and patterns. Sometimes I am able to tune into one of them with my camera. When I transform a common scene into a well-executed photo, I like to think that I am revealing the beauty of the commonplace."

Continue reading "Mario Cerroni - Photo(ad)diction" »

Posted on December 3, 2009 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Like the hero of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem, Mark Garvock has "large and sinewy hands; and the muscles of his brawny arms are strong as iron bands." His shoulders are impressive. Unlike Longfellow's hero, Garvock does his blacksmithing indoors in an immense, labyrinthine building that probably contains more tools than your local Canadian Tire store. His fulltime smithing business, Fall River Forge, is located a few hundred feet away from his home at 258 Mackay Line Road in Fallbrook, about 15 minutes north of Perth off Route 511.

Continue reading " Mark Garvock - "The Village Blacksmith" of Fall River" »

Posted on December 3, 2009 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

"Ineffable" is defined as "beyond expression in words; unspeakable." "Transcendence" is "the state of being beyond the range of normal perception." Russell Baron's sculptures are his unique and exquisite visual expressions of the range of human emotions, taken beyond the range of normal perception.

Baron considers art his native tongue. "It is how I express myself," he tells me. His sculptures are eloquent testaments to his deeply reflective nature. They are also complex, multi-layered, intricate, profound and sometimes abstruse. Like most serious art, his is capable of being enjoyed on many different levels.

For the past ten years Baron has worked as a freelance professional sculptor, executing
commissions for religious organizations and private collectors in Canada, the US, and Europe. In February of 2008, his Way of the Cross, comprising fourteen cold-cast bronze images of the Stations of the Cross, was installed in the Chapel of the Réné Goupil Jesuit Community (the Province Infirmary) in Pickering. Three of the Stations are shown on their website at . The images clearly illustrate Baron's gift for depicting emotion through gesture and expression, the result of his interest in sociology and psychology.

Baron works primarily with bronze and terra cotta -- "primal earth materials that embody the four primordial elements in the sculptural process. It links me to the ancestors... working with these materials binds me to a living heritage of ritual, function and beauty for beauty's sake."

Continue reading "Ineffable Art, Transcendent Sculpture" »

Posted on December 1, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Steve Scanlon

A lot of books are conceived by asking the question "what if". I suspect that David Mulholland has taken the same concept and applied it to his latest novel, Duel.

His newest work explores the duel between Robert Lyon and John Wilson that took place in the town of Perth on June 13, 1833. We all know why men fight - love or money top the list - but "what if" this famous duel was fought for different reasons? "What if" a report surfaced many years later that had been written fifty years after the fact and documented the exact cause and its ultimate effect? "What if" this report tells a different tale from the one considered historically relevant? "What if" the two principals were mere puppets in a twisted turn of events?

Continue reading "David Mulholland's "Duel"" »

Posted on September 17, 2009 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Fifteen years ago Dawn and Mark Burnham moved to the small town of Maberly west of Perth to indulge their artistic muses in a peaceful rural setting on the bank of the Tay River. Since then Mark has become a wood carver and furniture maker, and Dawn has become a full-time potter and ceramicist.

Dawn Burnham creates beautiful glazed bowls and other functional table dishes. She also delights in constructing hand-built clay sculptures designed to decorate your home or garden. All her pieces are original and one-of-a-kind. Along the way she developed a unique eleven-step process that resulted in her recent participation in the renowned1001 Pots Exhibition in Val-David, Québec. She participates annually with Mark in the Labour Day Weekend Sundance Studio Tour in Maberly.

Continue reading "Dawn and Mark Burnham - Sensuous Bowls and "Dr. Seuss" Furniture" »

Posted on September 17, 2009 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

The Derry Studio is suffused with the golden warmth of nodding sunflowers beaming down from canvases of all sizes. Jan Gilbert admits, a shade ruefully, that she has become known locally as "the sunflower painter" since she embraced her painting fulltime a few years ago. "I like yellow," she laughs.

She likes red and blue and every other colour of the rainbow too, as evidenced by her vivid acrylics celebrating the rural beauty that surrounds her country studio. Particularly striking is an Ashton landscape featuring a riot of wildflowers in the foreground. Another, aptly named "Dancing Tulips," evinces her wonderful freedom with colour. That freedom illuminates her portrayals of all the seasons. It is especially striking in her winter landscapes where she finds warmth in the glow of the sunset on frozen Ontario fields. Her snowy "Crooked Fence" is lush with deep, rich earth tones against the intense blues, violets, indigos and fuchsias of an evening sky and snowy shadows.

Continue reading "Jan Gilbert - Celebrating the Beauty of Imperfection" »

Posted on September 17, 2009 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

When Wayne Williams retired as principal of Almonte High School five years ago, he had no intention of turning the family living room into an art gallery. Instead he first wrote a novel that had been nagging at him for many years. As a former drama instructor and amateur actor, he assumed he would get involved in amateur theatre. But first he decided to try his hand at painting and signed up for a beginner's watercolour course at Wallacks. The paintings currently on display at Perth Gallery and throughout his home in Perth are delightful evidence that he found his creative métier.

"Painting is the reason I can't wait to get up in the morning," he tells me. If the exuberant watercolours on the walls weren't proof enough of his statement, the broad smile on his face certainly was. And yes, his watercolours are exuberant. They positively glow with life. That glow is probably a reflection of the excitement and satisfaction Williams feels as he explores the range of creative possibilities the world of watercolour has opened to him.

Continue reading "Wayne Williams' Exuberant Watercolours" »

Posted on September 17, 2009 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Discovering digital photography was a real eye-opener for Ruth Stenson. Most artists enjoy what they do. Ruth Stenson is ecstatic. When her full-time care-giving responsibilities suddenly evaporated with the deaths of her beloved parents in 2005, Ruth's husband sent her off to Newfoundland for a well-deserved holiday. He also gave her a little Canon point-and-shoot digital camera and a manual.

"I hate to sound corny," she tells me, "but somehow I found myself." Stenson had never felt a requirement for "alone" time until she shut out all the distractions and totally focused on the moment through the viewfinder of a digital camera. As the daughter of a United Church minister, wife and homemaker, mother of five kids, merchandising and training manager for Sobey's, and eventual caretaker of two declining parents, personal time just hadn't been a need that made it to the top of the hierarchy.

Continue reading "Ruth Stenson - Photo Gratification" »

Posted on September 15, 2009 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Accomplished Pakenham painter Amélia Ah You has come a long way. Born to Chinese parents in the Portuguese controlled colony of Mozambique, she grew up with Chinese fairy tales and mythological stories, African drums, Indian chai and Portuguese cuisine. In school, she studied traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, and learned about western religion and Portuguese explorers. By the time she got to Pakenham she spoke fluent English and Portuguese, as well as basic Cantonese, Spanish and French.

Today she lives with her husband, their dog, and a few farm animals on a beautiful, secluded hobby farm surrounded by a vast, geologically diverse landscape in Pakenham Township. The stern Canadian Shield guards their backs, a meandering stream leads into the distance, gently rolling fields, a marshy swamp and wooded areas bring wildlife to their front door.

Continue reading "Amélia Ah You - Uniquely You" »

Posted on May 9, 2009 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)