After a month long trip to Japan, Myra was inspired to create these beautiful works of art.
She is a Toronto based artist and currently a member of the Women’s Art Association of Canada.
Myra integrates her own photographic images, along with digital technology and collage materials to create evocative and multi-layered paintings.
Tap on photos to see full images
If you’re in Toronto, the show is on till September 20. Myra will be in the gallery Saturday, September 16. Gallery hours: 11:00 to 5:00. Closed Sunday and Monday.
…having a crazy week ….could only manage one photo
Glass fish by Michelle Atkinson at the Leighton Art Centre in Alberta
If you have any photos of trios that you would like to share just copy my link from this post and paste it into your own post. I will be sure to leave a comment when I get back home.
As I get older I become more and more nostalgic. All kinds of things remind me of my past. Baking bread at the inn reminds me of our first trip to San Francisco where I first tasted sourdough white bread and my box of buttons reminds me of my mom and her button box. I even created a series of paintings called Needle and Thread that brought back memories of my childhood.
It’s been a crazy two weeks and my show will be coming to an end on Saturday, May 13, 2023. I’ve loved every minute of it and thoroughly enjoyed speaking to my family, friends, fellow artists and total strangers who came to see the show. I’m sorry that I missed some of them because I couldn’t be there every day but I tried to get to the gallery if I knew someone was coming for a visit.
As of today, I sold 9 paintings, 81 photo cards and two rock weavings. Love those red dots. Yesterday I added two more paintings to the wall. I had every intention on adding one more painting when I put up the show but I ended up making two more. One is called Crazy Quilt, 8″x10″, framed mixed media and the larger one is called Nothing Goes to Waste, 11″x14″ framed, mixed media.
For some reason I have no photos of me at this show, unlike last year. More importantly though I have lots of photos of the actual room and how the art is displayed. Last week, on Tuesday, my husband and I made our way to the Womens’ Art of Canada building where two galleries are housed. I was in the smaller room, The Ruth Upjohn Gallery and in the larger gallery, Dignam Gallery, the Photography Show was being set up.
The actual hanging procedure of my art went reasonably well. The only thing left to do was have the labels made and placed next to the corresponding piece of art. Unfortunately the making of the labels was a bit more complicated than in previous years so the actual labels didn’t go up until the second day of the show. None the less, everything was ready to go for the opening reception on Saturday.
On the actual day, all my worries of driving there through the city and finding a parking spot were for naught. My neighbour, Mary, came with us and kindly volunteered to help set up the food and wine and serve during the show. She was a huge help.
The actual reception was hugely successful. More than 20 of my friends and family showed up and then the artists from the show next door and their guests made their way into my show throughout the day. The photography show was also part of the Scotia Bank Contact Show which had numerous venues throughout the city so there were a lot of people from the public who also attended the show.
At the end of the day I had sold seven paintings, two rock weavings and over 40 photo cards. The show runs till this Saturday so there may be a few more sales before all is said and done.
While scrolling through my Instagram account I came across a weaver from the UK that weaves on rocks and wood cutoffs. I was intrigued so I made a point of looking for interesting pieces of rock and slate along the beaches that I frequently pass on my walks. This idea came from Sarah Ward Podleszny over at Lark and Bower but I’ve since discovered that there are numerous other artist around the world that do this kind of weaving as well. Here are my first three pieces. I think I could become addicted.
A while back I told you about wanting to honour my past with art that reflected my family’s influence on my Joy of Making. My great great aunt and her family on my mother’s side used to own a very successful business where they made and sold ladies leather gloves in the early 1900s, in Germany. Old photos of my great, great grandparents clearly depicted how important fashion was to them and of course looking one’s best at all times.
My mother taught me how to hand sew, make clothes, embroider and knit. Later in life I worked for a needlecraft company in my spare time and taught other women the art of needle crafting, like cross-stitch and needlepoint and I worked at the community school teaching people how to knit.
The following works are collage and mixed media with some hand stitching or implied hand stitching.
“Stitched With Love”, 8″x10″ matted and framed“A Stitch in Time…”, 11″x14″ matted and framed“Tante Paula, 1910″,11″x14″ matted and framed“Brocade”, 8″x10″ matted and framed
I hate wasting paint. I remember an artist saying that she never threw left over paint away. Instead she took a fresh canvas and applied all the leftover paint to it and then later created a new painting working intuitively.
I had poured so much blue paint onto my palette that I ended up completely covering three small, 6″x6″ canvases and one 12″x12″ canvas. When they dried I decided to experiment on the larger square canvas and play with painting lavender flowers. Before I did that though I did paint the sky for my second 15″x30″ piece.
Once I get going I can’t stop so I kept painting till the lavender piece was finished.
…both Kevin and I have been making art but Kevin has actually finished pieces
The first is a sketch of a rabbit I did back in February but I thought in honour of Easter I would bring it back to show you. The next two are ones that Kevin did on Procreate. The first is his ‘scruffy little fox’ and the second his his Easter Bunny. He wasn’t going to make an Easter drawing but he just couldn’t help himself. I did do some more on my larger piece but I’m not ready to show the progression quite yet.
Mama Cormier 