by Sally Hansen

There is a very simple explanation for Kate Ryckman’s happiness — this young woman is well on her way to achieving her two most important goals. “All my life I wanted to be a mom and an artist,” she tells me, when I pursue the answer to the “Why?” question on her Artist Trading Card.

Ryckman is already an accomplished artist, with her imaginative, light-hearted artwork currently featured at the 3 Yellow Tulips Art Shoppe in Pakenham. She will be participating in the Burnstown “Affair of the Arts” the last weekend of May, and in the West Carleton Art Society Show on Thanksgiving Weekend. The collection of lively and whimsical images on her website at www.kateryckmanart.blogspot.com reflects her love of colour and her passion for creativity. Her fresh treatment of standard subjects — chefs and flowers are among her favourites — captures your attention and curls the corners of your mouth upwards. This is a good thing.

"Kate Ryckman — Creating Her Own Little Masterpieces" »

Posted on April 15, 2008 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

The paint was barely dry on their studio walls when theHumm showed up to welcome and interview the newest participants in the annual Pakenham Maple Run Studio Tour. Pastel artists Guy Cranston and Sharon Fox-Cranston recently relocated from White Rock, just south of Vancouver, to return to the area where Guy’s family has multi-generational roots.

These two accomplished artists are an exciting addition to the wealth of artistic talent living in the Pakenham environs. Both are active members of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and both have had paintings shown in the Federation’s gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver. Sharon’s Lane way near Gordes received an Award of Excellence at the Federation’s “Works on Paper” show last spring, and the same painting was featured on the July/August 2007 cover of “Art Avenue” magazine. Also last August, her Poppies at Les Ferriers received an Honorable Mention at the Pastel Artists of Canada’s 16th Annual Open Juried Exhibition titled “Purely Pastel” on Salt Spring Island. Shortly before leaving White Rock last fall, they held an Open Studio and sold 32 pastel paintings in one weekend.

"Guy Cranston and Sharon Fox-Cranston — A Pastel Duet" »

Posted on April 15, 2008 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Amateur photographers discover very quickly that lighting conditions are the determining factor in our ability to capture worthwhile images. Michael Bowie has spent a lifetime learning how to control and/or work with those conditions to achieve superb results. Today he applies his thirty years of experience as a film photographer and printer to his ongoing mastery of the continuously and rapidly evolving field of digital photography.

Michael and his partner, Janice Bowie, are the owners and staff of LUX Photographic Services Inc. at 11 Lake Ave. W. in Carleton Place. theHumm decided to feature Michael’s photographic expertise after viewing his photography at several exhibits, and after several other featured artists told us that they rely on Michael to reproduce their artwork to their demanding archival standards. Bowie has been providing high quality photographic services since incorporating as LUX in 1983. His trademark is excellence. His slogan is “It’s All About the Light”, and LUX is the Latin word for light.

"Michael Bowie — It’s All About the Light" »

Posted on February 13, 2008 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

theHumm congratulates Perth artist Suzette MacSkimming on the permanent installation of fifteen of her vibrant works at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University. The stunning collection of large mixed-media/monotypes is believed to be one of the largest recent acquisitions of original work of an area artist.

Suzette characterizes Sprott’s purchase as “a courageous act”, fostering hope that Ottawa’s public institutions are becoming more receptive to investing in contemporary regional art. For the artist, the biggest thrill of the public vernissage was the enthusiasm of the faculty members and guests viewing her artworks. “It gave me such a good feeling that my large works had found an appreciative home — I received the most wonderful feedback!”

"Suzette MacSkimming — Art That Works On All Levels" »

Posted on January 14, 2008 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Science reinvents itself, and so did Brian Mantrop. Studying geophysics at Queen’s University in the late 60s, Mantrop abandoned his view of a predictable Newtonian universe and set out on a life journey that continues today. He embraced the counterculture of the era and took a year off to travel in search of the freedoms celebrated by the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. His attempt to return to structured studies only convinced him that he had found his true calling… “an endless search for exotic lands where true Utopia might exist.”

Somewhere along the way his youthful dream became a reality, and for over 30 years Mantrop has used his camera to focus his emotions as he expresses his fascination with life. In 1995 he published a successful book “about love, consciousness and exploring life”. The title is Talking to the Other World — A Journey of the Spirit. In it, his text and his fine art photographs portray his lifelong pursuit for connection to the universal energy of light and love. This pursuit has yielded fascinating images of people and places from his travels around the world — China, India, Sri Lanka, Morocco, England, Ireland, Wales, Tibet, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Canada, and USA. Brian Mantrop has no intention of slowing down. The world is his palette. The universe is his inspiration.

"Brian Mantrop — Sliding into Creative Chaos" »

Posted on December 6, 2007 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

The “fabric of our lives” is a literary metaphor alluding to all the complex layers that comprise a human existence — our bodies, our emotions, our spirituality, the genetic code we inherited, the experiences that shape us, the options we are given and the choices we make. Using subtle tones and a lush palette of textures, Pattie Dolan creates fabric art metaphors. By deconstructing and reconstructing common and found objects on her loom, sometimes incorporating felting and papermaking, Dolan weaves fabric canvases that urge us to step close and reconstruct from our own perspective.

Weft, Warp and Woof

Many of Dolan’s pieces are sculptural. Her main focus is on textures. Works range from small framed papers to large hemp kimonos on steel frames, and a gorgeous white felted coat adorning a 10-foot mannequin. Her pieces merit careful scrutiny. In one piece I discovered long steel nails woven into the hemp body of the fabric. Some pieces have many layers and she often includes other fabrics and lace and handmade paper. Sometimes Dolan incorporates objects found at the race track or in the Pakenham fields surrounding her spectacularly designed and decorated home. Walking the family’s two dogs twice a day provides lots of opportunity to search for unusual and exciting additions to her pieces. Friends donate unusual fabrics, and she has collected exotic fabrics from all over the world.

"Pattie Dolan — Weaving a Rich Life Tapestry" »

Posted on November 14, 2007 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Nature is the sustaining inspiration for countless artists — Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, Georgia O’Keeffe’s calla lilies, Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of Animals”, and Kaija Savinainen Mountain’s bold figurative paintings of sandhill cranes, horses and deer.

Mountain readily acknowledges the strong influence that the pioneering German Expressionist painter, Franz Marc, has had on her work, describing him as “a kindred spirit”. Like Marc, most of Mountain’s art portrays animals in natural settings, and is characterized by bright primary colors. Her paintings, again like Marc’s, are redolent with a profound sense of emotion, rejoicing in the purity of the animal form.

"Kaija Savinainen Mountain — The Uplifting Power of Cranes" »

Posted on October 12, 2007 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Reva Dolgoy

There are three exhibits currently at the Textile Museum in Almonte that would make any curator stand up proudly if one or two were at their museum at one time, but three is an embarrassment of riches!

On the first level there is an exchange called “Patchwork” between Les Quilteuses de L’Herault of France and The Laurentian Quilters’ Guild. This is the first stop in Canada with others in Quebec till next May.

The fifty-two participants shared material, each taking from the eight squares (50 centimetre x 50 centimetre) four from France and four from Canada using at least 6 to explore, with a finished perimeter of 3.2 × 4 meters. Their work is as diverse as the personalities that one would expect from two cultures separated by an ocean. And yet differences appear, as hockey played by girls in the winter, or a Moroccan holiday, the seasons in Langedoc Roussillan before the grape harvest and the north shore of The St.Lawrence in sugaring-off time.

The exhibit has already been seen in France, it is here in Almonte till the 23rd of September and then travels to Quebec and will be at various venues for a year till May 2008.

"Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Exhibits" »

Posted on September 13, 2007 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Coincidence is intriguing, so when Glenn Gangnier asked me if I was familiar with the poetry of e. e. cummings, I knew I would title this artist profile “Wonderful 1 × 1”. Cummings was celebrating a wonderful marriage in his poem of that title. The Gangnier-Ross Pottery Studio celebrates the wonderful results of the marriage of the respective talents of two talented and experienced potters — Glenn Gangnier and Ali Ross. Between them they share over fifty years of creating gorgeous ceramic pottery.

As cummings’ poem testifies, sometimes 1 × 1 can produce a result that is greater than mathematics decrees. The Gangnier x Ross equation delivers a product that benefits from joining complementary interests and skills. In my conversations with them, each spontaneously acknowledged the contribution that the other has made to their creativity since combining artistic forces several years ago.

"Glenn Gangnier and Ali Ross — Wonderful 1 x 1" »

Posted on September 6, 2007 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Labour Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in Canada since the 1880s. The holiday originally marked the printers’ revolt in 1872 in Toronto, where labourers tried to establish a 54-hour work-week. In 2007 most Canadians view the event as the last long weekend of summer, with adults closing up the cottage and kids partying before they head back to school.

In the Valley, many of us celebrate Labour Day Weekend by heading into the beautiful Ontario countryside and enjoying one of the many wonderful artist studio tours designed to bring us closer to nature and our local artists. This year Labour Day Weekend marks the introduction of a new walking studio tour at Sundance Studio, the home and studio(s) of Carmen and Cam Allen, located a few minutes west of Maberly, and about 30 minutes from Perth.

"Carmen and Cam Allen Launch Sundance Studio Tour" »

Posted on August 7, 2007 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

It’s really HOT. Chris Van Zanten is showing me how he creates his gorgeous blown-glass (a.k.a. “hot glass”) art. I’ve arrived at his glassblowing studio in Pakenham at 9:30AM on a sizzling summer day. Chris started work at 4:30AM while it was still cool outside. “Now that I have my own sandbox, I get to choose when I want to play,” he chortles.

If you look up “glassblowing” at Wikipedia.org, the second sentence says, “Glassblowing is a form of art that requires extreme training and an intense level of aptitude.” Just to make sure I fully appreciate the basis for this statement, my interviewee informs me that I will be blowing a piece before I leave. He responds to my obvious panic by reassuring me that he has taught many people, from kids to seniors, how to do so. I am hugely relieved to learn that at no time do Van Zanten’s hands leave the blowpipe on which “my” piece is created, and I leave with an even greater respect for his art.

"Chris Van Zanten — Redefining His Own Sandbox" »

Posted on August 7, 2007 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Artist Shirley Mancino has traveled to Asia nine times since 1991, bringing home more than two hundred of her paintings of the people and places of India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Combining her passion for painting with her passion for travel has proven to be a hugely enjoyable and productive strategy for this adventurous and energetic backpacker from Westport. Shirley is now represented by six galleries in Ontario, and her watercolours and mixed media canvases have taken an impressive array of awards, including the prestigious “Juror’s Award” at the Toronto Watercolour Society in 2000.

Shirley was an “Air Force Brat”, so traveling comes naturally to her. “We moved every two years, but we always came back to Westport to help my mother’s family with their cottage business — it made me very versatile.” So versatile that in the middle of a busy and successful first career in human resource training and development, Shirley decided to study art part time. She complemented her earlier Masters in Adult Education from the University of Toronto with the equivalent of four years at the Ontario College of Art, accomplished over 18 successive winters of night school. She also studied at the Halliburton School of Fine Arts, Seneca & George Brown Colleges, and Belles Artes Institute in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

"Shirley Mancino — Have Brush, Will Travel" »

Posted on June 6, 2007 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Sally Hansen

From the tips of her red hair to her colour-drenched canvases, Linda Blakney exudes energy and passion and vitality. And that’s before you see what she does with cats in her new “Cat Series”. “Some play jazz instruments (I love jazz), and some are like ‘Modigliani women’. I always paint cats like people.”

Blakney is a complex, freedom-loving human being who lives life fully. Her abstract mixed media art reflects her complexity, presenting an aesthetically appealing surface that invites deeper contemplation. On the basis of a two-hour meeting, I left with the same impression of the artist. The more questions I asked, the more I felt I was only scratching the surface of a deeply textured life.

"Linda Lee Blakney — Colour Me Happy" »

Posted on May 10, 2007 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Teresa Mallen marvels at the exquisite intricacy of nature’s floral handiwork, and enjoys every minute spent at her drafting table, creating permanent coloured pencil celebrations of the ephemeral beauty that nature so abundantly bestows.

Until she was in her thirties, Mallen laboured under the false impression that drawing was a natural talent distributed at birth. She always loved visiting art galleries and shows, but her occasional attempts at arts and crafts projects had not revealed her potential as a visual artist. She majored in music in university, married her high school sweetheart, and pursued other interests, until one day she sat down with pencil and paper and discovered she could draw. Today she is an accomplished coloured pencil artist and an art instructor, and happily describes herself as “a poster child for the late bloomer”.

"Teresa Mallen — The Delight is in the Detail" »

Posted on April 13, 2007 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interview by Rob Riendeau

Zalzala: The Pakistan Earthquake is a documentary film about death, destruction, loss, and survival in the face of disaster. This film deals with the aftermath of the most devastating natural disaster in Pakistan’s history, the earthquake of October 8, 2005. Ultimately it is about the resilience of affected people of the Kashmir region. Produced by a team of ambitious film-makers from the Pakenham area, the story of the making of this film is as much of a story as the film itself. theHumm spent some time with Michelle Skanes of Hickory Dickory Documentary Films talking about this remarkable project that she and her husband, Jason Watt, have been working on.

"From Pakenham to Pakistan, Via a Documentary" »

Posted on March 9, 2007 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Sally Hansen

Throughout his postings in the high Arctic and his travels around the world, Jason Watt has used a camera to record and report the incredible diversity of life on earth. His photography is as multi-faceted and as multi-purposed as his travels and his actions. His photography website offers glimpses of life in Tuktoyaktuk, Bolivia, Kashmir, and innumerable places in between.

Not a Still Life

Someone once said “The reason people plan is to make God laugh.” Jason isn’t much of a planner; he just does it. “I’m an adrenaline junkie, but I want to do good,” he tells me, and that is the common thread weaving throughout an exceptionally active life.
It isn’t any easier to pin labels on Jason Watt than it is to pin him down to one location or one job or anything else. Except his wife Michelle Skanes — she’s a constant in his life. She’s his travel partner and a partner in their new undertaking, Hickory Dickory Documentary Films (HDDF). This newest facet of Jason’s artistry and life is covered in more detail in a separate article in this Human Rights issue of theHumm.

"Photographer Jason Watt — What Watt Sees Is What You Get" »

Posted on March 9, 2007 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

As far as he knows, Bob Kerr of Smiths Falls is the only wood sculptor who has carved wooden miniatures of all the waterfowl of the world. That’s 192 pairs of all the known species of ducks, geese and swans from all around the globe. Each one is hand-carved from hard maple wood and hand-painted in acrylic. Each one is a visual delight and a pleasure to pick up and hold.

The collection is the culmination of a thirty-year friendship between Kerr and an American art dealer, collector and fellow bird hunter, Russell Fink. The miniatures are the subject of a gorgeous new art book produced by Fink, beautifully printed in Argentina, and titled Robert G. Kerr – Waterfowl of the World in Miniature.

A Rare Sighting

On Saturday, February 17 from 1–2:30PM, Bob Kerr will be at Read’s Book Shop at 130 Lansdowne Ave., Heritage Walk Plaza, in Carleton Place to sign copies of his new book and to demonstrate and discuss his carving. Examples of his sculptures will be on display at the shop throughout the month. A map is available at the Read’s website, and the phone number is 257–READ (7323).

"Robert G. Kerr — “Waterfowl of the World in Miniature”" »

Posted on January 29, 2007 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Three-year-old boys pose the biggest delight and challenge for studio portrait photographer Robin Andrew. The name of her portrait photography business is “Unposed”, and it underlines her signature approach to capturing people’s stories. Robin gets terrific shots of highly energetic three-year-olds by focusing on them rather than trying to make them pose for her.

It doesn’t hurt that she has done the photography for the Canadian Toy Testing Council for the past three years. She is up on her playthings. When Robin shows me her studio, she reveals her competitive secret. Rudy is a bright green inflated dragon. If the kid doesn’t want to ride Rudy, Robin or the kid’s parents can beguile a smile by mounting this cooperative prop and galloping around the studio.

"Robin Andrew — Unposed and Exposed" »

Posted on January 16, 2007 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

It’s a perfect time of year to replenish our souls with peace and contentment. Susan Mein’s loving paintings of Victorian winter scenes effortlessly transport her viewers back to remembrances of a kinder, gentler time and place. Painting them does the same for Susan.

She blames it on her youth. Susan was born in Toronto as “middle kid” of two first-generation immigrants, but her parents moved the family to Tottenham (about 40 miles northwest of Toronto) when Susan was only four years old. “When I was growing up, life was wonderful. Growing up in my small town you had the warmest, cosiest feeling. There were only about 600 people, and I felt so safe and free.” Susan’s dad ran an auto repair shop, and her mom sold footwear and outerwear to the farming community in a quaint little shop in a quaint little town. As Susan puts it, “If anything happened at school, my mom and the neighbours knew about it before I got home.”

"Susan Mein — Home for the Holidays" »

Posted on December 13, 2006 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Catherine Gutsche’s current series of highly original acrylic and mixed media art was inspired by her curiosity about the enduring male status symbol — the necktie. As a corporate graphic artist and web designer, Gutsche became intrigued by the ritualistic donning of “The Tie” when her male colleagues set out to visit “Head Office”.

Gutsche’s initial curiosity developed into an ongoing investigation into the whole cultural and social significance of this persistent but ever-changing male decoration. The phrase “The tie makes the man,” suggests the importance attributed to this status symbol over the ages. Most historians date the origin of the necktie in the 1660’s during the reign of Louis XIV of France. A regiment of crack Croation mercenaries celebrating their victory over the Turks were presented as heroes to King Louis. The king, known for his fondness for fashion, noticed that the Croatian officers wore brightly colored silk handkerchiefs around their necks. The king was so enthralled that he adopted the neck scarves as a royal insignia and created his own regiment of royal “Cravattes.”

"Catherine Gutsche — Fit To Be Tied" »

Posted on November 8, 2006 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

by Sally Hansen

Susie Osler’s ceramic pottery celebrates her life-long love affair with nature. Both her highly decorated ornamental pieces and her more functional pieces invite the viewer/user to share their creator’s delight at the ingenuity and sensuality of the natural world.

Osler fashions complex ornamental pieces that evoke a sense of wonder and engender curiosity about humanity’s relationship with nature. There is a strong subtext evident in many of her pieces. The stunning flower vase she created after 9/11, replete with pistols, is a striking example. Many of her ornamental pieces explore the themes of excess, of abundance gone a bit too far, of over-ripeness. In some of her works, nature’s fecundity threatens to overwhelm humans, and in others, she suggests that human excess threatens to overwhelm lessons available from the past.

"The Ceramic Wizardry of Osler" »

Posted on October 5, 2006 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

When you step inside the Thoburn Mill in Almonte, you are treated to a visual feast of compelling stone sculptures arranged along the main corridor and leading you downstairs. Your first impulse is to touch them — to run your fingers over the satiny smooth surfaces and lightly explore the rough, craggy textures. Your second impulse is to linger longer to contemplate these silent but emotionally evocative sculptures. They are the work of Deborah Arnold, who shares space in her Millrace Studio at 83 Little Bridge Street with several other sculptors.

"Deborah Arnold — Romancing the Stone" »

Posted on September 11, 2006 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Gazing out from the front cover of the summer edition of “The Hydrant” is an irresistibly winsome dachshund. Kellie Oliphant-Burns of Carleton Place painted this dog portrait chosen by Bark & Fitz to adorn their official publication, covering in-store events and product promotions across eastern Canada. Kellie recently completed an in-store exhibit of her pet painting at the Bark & Fitz Westboro location in Ottawa, and she is scheduled for a repeat performance on September 16 and 17.

theHumm spotted Kellie’s funky pet paintings at a recent art show in Carleton Place, and decided to find out more about this young woman who founded her new art business nine months ago. Kellie’s nickname when she was a little girl growing up in Ste. Anne near Winnipeg was “Doodle Bug”, and “Doodle Dog Pet Paintings” is the name of her new venture. Her life has always been centred around art and animals. She showed me a great photo of herself at two years old with her first dog, Scooter. Today her home and her website are full of photos and portraits of her current dog, Rupert.

"Kellie Oliphant-Burns — Going to the Dogs" »

Posted on August 14, 2006 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Sally Hansen

She blames it on her youth. When Aili (pronounced eye-lee) Kurtis met the Dalai Lama early in her multi-decade spiritual quest for a guru, she asked him, “What is the meaning of life?” He laughed, and told her, “Live a good life”. For Aili, living a good life means painting.

Kurtis has been painting for almost 40 years. At four years old she was told she “had a gift” for art and her ambition is to use that gift to its fullest. The recipient of many prestigious awards, she tells me “I don’t think I have done my best work yet. After years of meditation, I don’t want to think about art; I want to do it.”

"Aili Kurtis — Subliminal Celebration of the Sublime" »

Posted on July 13, 2006 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Sally Hansen

The art of photography is the result of a human process of choices. In no particular order, the person on the shooting end of the camera has to decide on a subject, choose the lighting conditions, arrange the composition, pick between black-and-white or colour, go high-tech (e.g., digital SLR) or low-tech (e.g., pinhole or point-and-shoot film camera), frame the composition, consider focus and depth of field, and with high-tech, tinker with a staggering array of technical options. And that’s just the input side of the equation.

Photographer Susan Fisher follows her intuition. She quite carefully avoids over-analysing her shots. Sometimes she picks up one of her two pinhole cameras. Sometimes she uses her digital Nikon D200. Sometimes she uses her $20 plastic Holga film camera. The results are creative, original, free.
Her favourite subject matter is the human face and form. “I love people. Sometimes I see a person and I just walk up to them and say ‘I’d like to photograph you.’ If they look alarmed, I tell them I’m a member of a photography club (she is) and we’re working on a project (they do).” Susan recently participated with two other members of the Photography Matters Camera Club in an exhibition of portraits of people from Lanark County at Lux Photographic Service Inc. on Lake Avenue in Carleton Place.

"Susan Fisher — Intuitive Images" »

Posted on June 14, 2006 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

When I entered Ann Gruchy’s studio at her home in North Gower, I was immediately attracted to an exquisite, formal, floral watercolour composition displayed high up on a wall covered with paintings of various styles and sizes. A second later I was admiring a large, vibrant, sculpted, mixed-media abstract. As I moved around the spacious, well-lit studio and gallery, I realized with growing surprise that her works cover the full range from beautifully detailed realism to bold, textured abstracts.
Not knowing quite where to begin, I commented on the beauty of the floral watercolour. Gruchy modestly admitted that it was probably the “most complex” composition she has done. She then pointed out that it was a print. Some of her gorgeous watercolours are so popular that she finally yielded to demand and now offers prints of several paintings at the numerous venues where she regularly shows her works.

"Ann Gruchy — Painting Outside the Petals" »

Posted on May 5, 2006 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Five exceptional woodworkers are dedicated to putting Almonte at the top of the list when people think about commissioning an original piece of wooden furniture. Andy Woods has upgraded his “extreme woodworking hobby” in Calabogie into a 5000-square-foot shop space at 65 Mill Street in Almonte where he works full time with four other dedicated furniture designers/builders. Their growing gallery of finely crafted original pieces in the front window of Woods and Company Millworks is proving irresistible to passers-by.

"Andy Woods and Company — Woodworking at its Collective Best" »

Posted on April 11, 2006 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Maybe being born in Cairo, the cradle of one of the world’s greatest ancient civilizations, accounts for Rosemary Kralik’s choice of website names — www.abrushwithimmortality.com. Or maybe it’s because ancient Egyptian art was not intended to create an image of things as they appeared to the eye, but rather to represent the essence of a person or object for eternity.

Kralik specializes in portraiture and figure studies of people and animals, paintings in oils, on linen or other archival supports, drawings in graphite, ink, or other media, and sculptures in clay, bronze, stainless steel, wood or glass. As an artist who works by commission, she flies against the conventional “wisdom” that the public prefers a consistent and readily recognizable artistic style. Instead she capitalizes on her uncanny ability to realize in a painting or sculpture the visions and events that reside only in a patron’s mind or heart. Not only is she an inspired artist, she is a wonderful investigator and interpreter of eternal essence.

"Rosemary Kralik — Renaissance Woman, Artist and Farmer" »

Posted on March 6, 2006 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

by Sally Hansen

Margaret Ferraro’s exuberant paintings practically throb with life. Her canvases are as suffused with vitality as they are with intense hues. Particularly in her figure paintings she exploits her ability to render a vibrant life drawing in under five minutes, capturing the gesture of the model while maintaining her own artistic spontaneity.

For Ferraro, spontaneity is key to her enjoyment of being an artist and to the success of the art she creates. “I always knew I wanted to be an artist. I studied drama at an arts high school in Toronto because I loved playing pretend, and now I’m still doing that in a visual way.”

"Margaret Ferraro — The Art of Spontaneity" »

Posted on February 6, 2006 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Sherry Tompalski describes her painting style as “Psychological Realism — an attempt to capture the psychological experience of another person in paint on canvas.” Looking at her Private Moments series of 16 portraits done in vivid oils, I experience a strong visceral reaction to the emotional power of her faces. The canvases are large and the faces dominating them play havoc with my preconceptions of what people look like. They command attention and evoke response.

"Sherry Tompalski — Reverse Psychiatry" »

Posted on December 1, 2005 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

by Sally Hansen

When art goes beyond surface appeal and fancy detail, it is possible to make contact with the true imaginative forces underneath. Hugh Malcolm’s current “Substrata” series of acrylic paintings seduces the viewer into thinking about what is happening below the surface of his landscapes of familiar Ottawa Valley scenes. “It’s all about energy,” he explained. “When I’m ice fishing, I sit up there and wonder what’s going on beneath me.” That same curiosity inspires his creative muse when he’s paddling on a glass-smooth lake or walking on a leaf-strewn path. Each of his evocative landscapes portrays an abstract extension of what is happening on the surface to reveal what is below.

"Hugh Malcolm — A Stretch of the Imagination" »

Posted on November 1, 2005 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)