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 readingThe 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 readingMario 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 readingIneffable Art, Transcendent Sculpture" »

Posted on December 1, 2009 12:00 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 readingDawn 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 readingJan 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 readingWayne 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 readingRuth 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 readingAmélia Ah You - Uniquely You" »

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

by Sally Hansen

Cathy Law cannot get enough of her high fibre diet. When she isn’t sewing she is designing or drawing or teaching or photographing or collaborating or thinking up her next big fibre art project. Since her retirement from a rewarding and demanding career as a special education teacher in Kanata, she and her husband Terry have turned their new home near Perth into the perfect venue for her to pursue her creative passion.

As you enter the living room, two beautiful tapestries quietly announce her extraordinary mastery of fibre art. One depicts a traditional quilted medieval theme; the other is a striking tribute to her mother, who died of cancer on Cathy’s birthday thirteen years ago. The contemporary portrait is beautiful in more than appearance. The work was a collaboration with several of her fellow fibre artists, and represents many of the things that make her passionate about her flexible medium. “The possibilities are endless,” she assures me. “You can go anywhere from traditional quilting to experimenting with mixed media and painting on fabric. There are no limits to the ways you can play with texture and colour and form.”

Continue readingCatharina Breedyk-Law - A High Fibre Diet" »

Posted on May 9, 2009 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Their medium is not the message. Jane and Bob Christie excel at creating flowing, fluid works of art from cold, lifeless metal wire. Jane designs and creates wonderful wire jewellery; Bob designs and creates whimsical wire sculptures. They share a studio in their rustic log cabin on the shore of the Ottawa River in MacLaren’s Landing not far from Fitzroy Harbour, and thoroughly enjoy working companionably but independently to their individual muses.

The Christies share many artistic and other interests, but they certainly aren’t cookie cut-outs of each other. Born in Montreal, Jane moved to Arnprior when she was four. She remembers spending many mesmerizing childhood hours accompanying her father, a professional forester, on nature walks. Her dad was an encyclopaedia of knowledge, teaching her how to identify plants and trees, and to discern the wonderful array of natural beauty that was concealed all around her. She spent countless hours exploring and collecting in her own backyard. Stones and insects were her favourites, and they feature prominently in her wirework jewellery today.

Continue readingJane and Bob - The Twisted Christies" »

Posted on May 9, 2009 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

As soon as I was seated in front of a cozy fire in Patrick Kavanagh’s home in Lake Park on the edge of Mississippi Lake near Carleton Place, he brought out his family photograph album. In it was one of the most captivating portraits I have ever seen. It looked like a painting by Norman Rockwell for the cover of “Saturday Evening Post,” even though it was black and white. The amazing thing about it was that I knew that the boy in the photo had red hair. It was a candid photograph of Patrick. And yes, he had red hair.

Patrick traces his own interest in photography back to his childhood days in England when his father, the late Patrick Desmond Kavanagh, was taking those family portraits. The family moved to Saskatoon when Patrick was nine, and moved again to Dunrobin in 1970. Patrick has studied marine navigation, journalism and electronics. At the age of 22 he thumbed his way from Ireland to Istanbul, carrying only a knapsack, a tent and a sleeping bag. “Those six months were the best education I ever got. It really taught me common sense. I learned to listen to my gut, trust myself, and to be comfortable in my own skin.” His biggest regret is that he did not have a camera with him.

Continue readingPatrick Kavanagh - A Photographic Memory" »

Posted on February 1, 2009 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

In grade three Doris Wionzek won a prize at the Beachburg Fall Fair (near Pembroke) for her sample of hand lettering. In 2005 Almonte calligrapher Doris Wionzek was chosen by the Canadian Heraldic Authority to inscribe the legal text on the Letters Patent of the Personal Coat of Arms of the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada. Wionzek was chosen from a long list of calligraphers registered with the Authority.

Her selection was a singular honour since the Governor General is the authority empowered “to exercise or provide for the exercise of all powers and authorities lawfully belonging to Us as Queen of Canada in respect of the granting of armorial bearings in Canada”. An image of the Letters Patent granting armorial bearings to Michaëlle Jean is available here.

Continue readingDoris Wionzek: "C" is for Calligraphy" »

Posted on January 1, 2009 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

“Abandoned as an infant, Jamie Brick was taken in and raised by a pack of wild medieval rabbits. This unusual upbringing reflects in this artist’s eyes as he sculpts stone, wood and mixed media into creatures from a world that lies just left of centre.” This is how sculptor and lifecast artist Jamie Brick introduces himself on his artist’s website at www.jamiebrick.com. When I asked him where the rabbits had come from, he told me he had been thinking about Tarzan being raised by apes in the jungle, and…

When he and his wife, Annette, attended a conference on professional development for artists at Queen’s University, they found themselves in annoyed disagreement with the lecturer’s emphatic insistence on the importance of a carefully crafted, formal Artist’s Statement. It was clear that in this authority’s opinion, Jamie’s whimsical and slightly disconcerting humour was not only ill-advised; it could severely compromise his chances of commercial success. Imagine the couple’s delight when another attendee interjected that perhaps the most delightful and memorable statement she had ever read had been by an artist claiming to be raised by medieval rabbits!

Continue readingThe Hare-Raising Tale of Artist Jamie Brick" »

Posted on December 1, 2008 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Some people have trouble figuring out what they want to be when they grow up — even after they reach retirement. Saskia Praamsma, on the other hand, found her niche early in life and is quite contented doing what she loves. “I love clay,” she responds enthusiastically when I ask her why she is a potter.

Praamsma particularly enjoys hand-building unique sculptural pieces, decorating them with textures and stains. “On a wheel, you get round pieces. I’m more interested in form.” She forms her stoneware creations into all kinds of novel shapes, from elongated footed vessels and vases with headpieces to whimsical animals. Her pottery is eclectic, reflecting the wide range of life experiences that have shaped her as a person.

Continue readingSaskia Praamsma - Feats of Clay" »

Posted on October 1, 2008 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Christine and Eric Brackenbury’s lives and artistic pursuits are as multifaceted as the precious gems that adorn the unique jewellery they create. Both are visual artists as well as exceptionally gifted jewellers. Christine has had several exhibitions of her paintings during the past year, and Eric is about to have his first exhibits of his photography this month in Almonte.

Their principal artistic passion is their goldsmithing and jewellery design partnership. Both are certified, apprenticeship-trained professional goldsmiths; Christine trained in Canada, Eric in London, England. We are all surprised when they calculate their answer to my question about how long they have been designing and executing one-of-a-kind pieces in gold and silver. The couple bring a combined expertise of nearly eight decades to their challenging and demanding art.

Continue readingThe Multifaceted Brackenburys" »

Posted on September 11, 2008 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

How sweet it is when we finally find what we’ve been searching for our whole lives. It’s not surprising that Loretta Bluher-Moore didn’t know that she wanted to be a hooker. It isn’t something that immediately springs to mind, even when you know you love fabric art. Almost every town of any respectable size offers resources for knitters, quilters, crocheters, cross-stitchers and other aficionados of textile arts. Although she had tried all of these, it took a chance encounter with a scarce rug hooking kit purchased in New Hampshire to get Loretta started down her true path to artistic fulfillment.

Loretta’s face lit up like a golfer who’s just shot a hole-in-one when she described the night she attended her first rug hooking class thirteen years ago. She vividly remembers the hour of torture she endured as her Montreal instructor Tony Latham initiated the class in the history of traditional rug hooking (as opposed to latch hooking) before letting them touch a piece of wool. “My students are hooking within the first ten minutes!” she assures me. She credits Latham with teaching her how to dye wool, and apologizes in retrospect for “dyeing his entire kitchen” in the process. Loretta loves creating exactly the right hues to execute her original designs. “When you can control the colours, it opens up so many possibilities!”

Continue readingLoretta Bluher-Moore — Hooked On Hooking" »

Posted on August 4, 2008 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

For the second month in a row, art lovers in the Ottawa Valley area owe a debt of gratitude to the borderless Internet. Ten years ago adventurous American photographer Don DeGroat and Canadian software consultant Pat DuBreuil started an online “conversation” that eventually led to the creation of the “3 Yellow Tulips Art Shoppe” now enjoyed by residents and visitors to Pakenham. It is a fascinating story, and the memory of my uproarious interview with these two warm, witty community assets will bring a smile to my face for a long time.

“Do you know what her first words were to me when I got off the plane in Syracuse to meet her face-to-face for the first time?” Don asks me. “She said, ‘Do you have any money on you?’” And he laughs so hard he almost falls off his chair. Pat earnestly explains that in her excitement to pick up her new friend to drive him back to Ottawa, she hadn’t obtained any US currency and was hoping he could get them out of the parking lot. They are the perfect foils for each other. She is older and taller and describes herself as a “very rational person; everything I do is logical”. He is shorter and greyer and appraises you with an inscrutable demeanour and then catches you completely off-guard with his out-of-left-field humour.

Continue readingPat DuBreuil and Don DeGroat — LightWisps Fine Art Photography" »

Posted on July 14, 2008 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

“It feels really good to make somebody smile — to make them forget their troubles.” Artist Stuart Davison smiles a lot. In addition to enjoying the appreciative smiles his paintings evoke from visitors to the home studio he shares with his artist wife Stephanie, Stuart feels truly fortunate. He has forged a new life for himself in Canada that suits him perfectly.

A little over four years ago Stuart was suffering the verbal slings and arrows of outraged farmers who were totally exasperated with delays in receiving essential parts for their agricultural equipment. Stuart had no control over how long it would take to move the required part from some warehouse on the other side of Europe. He knew that he was reaching the end of his tolerance for being sworn at, regardless of the creativity and skill with which the invectives were being applied. Besides, the bad vibes were interfering with his painting.

Continue readingStuart Davison — Art as Antidote" »

Posted on June 9, 2008 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Being energized by a nonagenarian is particularly inspiring. I drank recently at the well of 91-year-old Juan Geuer’s indefatigable energy and enthusiasm for life, and came away refreshed with renewed appreciation for our planet and our human existence on it.

This is Geuer’s passion and his talent. It is why he is an artist, and it informs all his work. At 91 he is in the process of creating two more works of art to draw our attention to the wonders of the natural world. His genius is that he uses his knowledge of science to create art that bridges the unfortunate dichotomy that persists in many people’s minds between art and science.

Continue readingJuan Geuer — Art is Fuzzy!" »

Posted on May 15, 2008 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Continue readingKate Ryckman — Creating Her Own Little Masterpieces" »

Posted on April 15, 2008 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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.

Continue readingGuy 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.

Continue readingMichael 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!”

Continue readingSuzette 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.

Continue readingBrian 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.

Continue readingPattie 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.

Continue readingKaija 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.

Continue readingMississippi 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.

Continue readingGlenn 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.

Continue readingCarmen 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.

Continue readingChris 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.

Continue readingShirley 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.

Continue readingLinda 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”.

Continue readingTeresa 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.

Continue readingFrom 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.

Continue readingPhotographer 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).

Continue readingRobert 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.

Continue readingRobin 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.”

Continue readingSusan 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.”

Continue readingCatherine 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.

Continue readingThe 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.

Continue readingDeborah 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.

Continue readingKellie 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.”

Continue readingAili 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.

Continue readingSusan 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.

Continue readingAnn 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.

Continue readingAndy 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.

Continue readingRosemary 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.”

Continue readingMargaret 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.

Continue readingSherry 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.

Continue readingHugh Malcolm — A Stretch of the Imagination" »

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