Pouring Down Rain

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….not the best day to visit the McMichael Art Gallery

You might think that visiting an art gallery when it’s raining ‘cats and dogs’ is the best time to visit an art gallery. Not so, at least not when you go to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg. The gallery is situated on 100 acres of beautiful conservation land which you can explore through a network of paths and trails. One of the first things we noticed, even in the pouring rain, was the intoxicating scent of the trees that surround the gallery and line the pathways throughout the grounds.

After we had made plans to go to the gallery with A and J, my husband realized that this was also the weekend of the Binder Twine Festival in Kleinburg. Normally you can’t get near the place during the festival but because of the rain we were able to drive straight onto the McMichael property.

The gallery was featuring two of my favourite photographers, Ansel Adams and Edward Burtynsky.

http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/4cm/4cm227.jpg

http://www.modto.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Edward-Burtynsky-Oil-Spill_4_oil_skimming_boat_near_ground_zero_gulf_of_mexico_2010_lg-e1284764201203.jpg

As in most galleries, I couldn’t photograph the actual works of these great photographers so I found a couple of pictures from the internet to share with you. Both these examples were at the show.

The gallery itself looks like a chalet set among the trees and as you walk in you are greeted by a large, high ceiling and very open lobby. On the far wall, large glass windows that go from the floor to the ceiling look over the thickly wooded conservation area. Tables and chairs welcome visitors to sit and relax while they contemplate whether to start their tour on the upper level where the featured artists are or stay on the main level to view the large permanent collection of the Group of Seven.

The gallery also houses beautiful Aboriginal and Inuit art on both levels.

On our way out and back to the parking lot we passed a couple of the sculptures that line the paths throughout the grounds and we stopped briefly at Tom Thomson’s Cabin which had been relocated to Kleinburg. The building originally came from the grounds of the Studio Building in Rosedale, Toronto where the Group of Seven worked from. Tom Thomson couldn’t afford the rent in the main building so he rented the refurbished workmen’s shed for $1.00 a month.

For more information about the McMichael Canadian Art Collection you can click here.

Four Days Down

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….and I’m still standing

I started writing this yesterday and I finished the whole piece when I pushed the save button for the last time. I had just added my tags and when I went to preview the post I discovered that an hours worth of work wasn’t there. Oddly enough the tags were there but all the photos and links had disappeared. I tried every thing to find the missing work but to no avail. I have no idea what I did but I was too tired to rewrite the piece so I went to bed hoping the the work would show up the next day. Unfortunately it didn’t so here I am rewriting the post again.

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School started on Tuesday and four classrooms in our school had been converted into temporary kindergarten classes. A flood earlier in the summer delayed the construction on our new kindergarten addition. The workers were pulled from our job site to repair the damage that occurred in other schools. Needless to say, opening day was far from a normal day.

As I suspected the library was one of the classes affected. Two of the four kindergarten classes have since been able to move into their new spaces but the class in the library wasn’t one of them. In fact it will probably be another six days before the other two classes can move into their new homes.

So it’s art on a cart, which I’m used to anyway but now I also have to do library in a box as I travel from room to room. The staff is anxious to start using the library but I’m not able to unpack my books or rearrange the furniture for at least anther week. It’s a maze of boxes and book stands.

The kids have been great. They look forward to art classes and every class has greeted me with cheers and hugs. I started each class reading the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

This is a wonderful book about making your mark in life. Vashti, the main character in the book insists that she can’t draw and her teacher encourages her to put a mark on her blank paper and see where it takes her.

From here I introduced Wassily Kandinsky’s Study of Concentric Circles. Kandinsky never intended to sell his study of circles. He merely wanted to experiment with colour theory and see how colours looked when they were painted side by side. Little did he know that this would become an important piece of work in the art world.

I’ve used this lesson with every class so far. This was one of my very first art lessons when I first started teaching my own art over 14 years ago. This time around I added a new twist to the assignment with the older students. I will share the results with you later next week when they finish the project.

Yesterday I was asked to give an art lesson to the JK/SK class. I came across a wonderful blog, Prek+K Sharing, that focuses on lessons for very young children and lo and behold I found an art lesson using Kandinsky’s Concentric Circles. I decided to use crayons with the junior students and let the seniors use the watercolours. I’m glad I did. The difference in abilities between the 3/4 year olds and the 5 year olds was quite amazing. All in all I was very pleased with the outcome.

From Red to Green

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….after two years of looking at this piece of art work I finally changed it

I knew when I started this piece that it wasn’t turning out the way I had hoped. Yesterday I finally pulled out the few paints I had with me at the cottage, set up the easel and went to work to “fix it”. I went to the opposite end of the colour wheel and started to cover the red with greens, blue greens and blues.

When I paint I don’t always have an image in mind. I just go where the colours take me. I am so much happier with this new piece. I’ve signed it and am declaring it finished.

My Summer Art Projects

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……in Ireland and at the cottage

I try to gather my art supplies together in the summer and make a concerted effort to practise my drawing skills, something that I feel I’m very inadequate at. I know it would be better to draw a little bit everyday but between reading and life in general it seems to fall by the wayside, especially when I start back at school.

On our trip to Ireland I purchased a small sketch pad and a black gel pen and put them to use on our train trip to Westport. We had a table between us, which made it very easy for sketching. I attempted to sketch some of the landscape that we passed and I even tried to do a portrait of my husband. Any of you who know him or have seen pictures of him can quickly assess that my attempt doesn’t look that much like him. Of course he wasn’t being particularly cooperative when he knew what I was doing.

The one thing that I really enjoy doing is Zentangle art. As the name implies it is very relaxing and the process is very satisfying. Our trip inspired me to include images and words of Ireland in the Zentangle that I did on the train.

Earlier in June I discovered a great website through Art Expectations, hosted by Carla Sonheim. She offers on-line workshops and I purchased her Gelli Plate Printmaking course,Carla Sonheim. Luckily you can access the videos anytime and as often as you need once you’ve purchased a class. With June being as busy as it was I didn’t get to trying this method until a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some of the prints that I made. I’m not sure that any of them are worthy of framing but the whole idea behind gelli printing is creating a large number of prints at one time and then deciding which you like. You can always go back later and add more detail or use the prints as background for another art project. I chose to do the later with one of the prints. I wondered what a circular Zentangle would look like on a printed background.

During our trip to Westport, Ireland I was completely impressed by the wonderful hospitality that our bed and breakfast hosts showered upon us. Both my husband and I felt that they went above and beyond to make our stay enjoyable and for that reason I wanted to do something special for them. For that reason I created a Zentangle in honour of the Elephant Guest House, Westport, Clew Bay and Croagh Patrick. If you look closely you can see that I have written little messages throughout the circle and included images of some of the sights in Westport.

I’m hoping to frame the piece with a mat but I haven’t decided if I should use a round mat or a square one. I made a temporary paper mat to see which I preferred and took photos of both. Do you have a preference?

I only have a couple of days left at the cottage before I return home so I’m trying to create a few more drawings. I have a large painting here that I’ve never finished, so maybe I’ll pull out my paints and add some more detail to the canvas. But before I do that I want to go for a swim. The only problem with reading and painting here at the cottage is that it gets in the way of my physical activity. I’m feeling a little bit guilty about that and am actually looking forward to our walks when I get home.

Drop me a line in the comment box and let me know how you think I should frame my round Zentangle. I’d like to mail it to Westport as a gift to our hosts.

Installation Art Along the Shores of Lake Ontario

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..Inuksuit made with 21st century rubble

Colonel Sam Smith Park, on the shores of Lake Ontario, at the south end of Etobicoke was recently extended into the lake with landfill. It is one of Toronto’s newest and largest waterfront parks. Much of the park was created in front of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital and the RL Clark Filtration Plant. The waterfront lakefill area is mainly naturalized with grasses, shrubs and small trees. The shoreline is a combination of rocky headlands, cobble beaches and protected wetland. This blends further north into the mature trees and mowed lawns of the former hospital grounds and now the site for Humber College.

This is the park that Frances, my husband and I walked through every day (when I’m not at the cottage or away). This morning on our usual walk to the point I noticed that there were more pieces of installation art that someone has created, using the bricks and rubble from the landfill along the shoreline.

The sculptures were intended to look like inuksuit, a native stone landmark or cairn built and used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America.

An inuksuk was originally built as a travel marker for camps, hunting grounds, food caches and sometimes burial grounds. For more information about the inuksuk, check the Wikipedia site, here.

Highlights of My Trip to Ireland

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….my most memorable moments

Time Spent With the Irish Cousins

Checking out Dublin With Our Son

Meeting Our Son’s Beautiful Girlfriend

Our Trip to Westport

Our Day at Howth

The Museums, Art Galleries and Beautiful Gardens

Spending Time With My Wonderful Husband

….and Finally, Finding a Good Cup of ‘Coffee’ in Ireland (something we had a hard time finding 9 years ago)

The Next Picasso?

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….my grade 2s,3s and 4s loved this project

Even though we only have less than one week of school left, my students really wanted to finish their Picasso portraits. I love all of them. They are all so different and so very colourful. The ones that were started two weeks ago were painted with acrylic paint and the ones that were started only a few day s ago were completed with coloured sharpies.

An Almost Perfect Day

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..until our guest speaker didn’t show up

Today was the day I was most stressed about. Since January I’ve been running a school wide book club, featuring children’s books written by Canadian authors. The club was open to all students in grades three to five. Initially over 80 students joined the club.

The program is called the Forest of Reading and there are books for all age groups from Kindergarten to high school and beyond. Each age category is named after a tree commonly found in Canada. The primary books are classified as Blue Spruce books, grade 3 to 6 are Silver Birch and the French books are named Tamarack and Poplar.

Every year new authors and books are featured and at the end of April students from all over Ontario vote for their favourite book in one category. There’s a big culminating event in Toronto that students are encouraged to attend to meet the authors and find out who the winners are. It’s like the Oscars of children’s books. A couple of years ago the entire school went downtown to attend this event. It was outside and it was a very cool day and because it took place right next to the lake it was even colder. There were thousands of children there and there were line-ups for everything.

Last year we decided as a staff to host our own special event with the students at our school. It was such a successful day that we wanted to do it again. Unfortunately with the political climate in all our schools this year it almost didn’t happen at all. Earlier in the school year the parents purchased the books for us and I really wanted to proceed with the program. Luckily enough teachers were willing to help out and be expert readers so the program started in earnest in January.

In order to participate in the year end celebration for the Forest of Reading the students had to read enough books to reach a goal of 10 credits. I’m happy to say that 34 boys and girls reached and surpassed the goal. One of my students read 38 books.

Today the successful participants were pulled from class and enjoyed two specially designed workshops. In one session the children worked with a professional actor and did drama activities around one of the books that was featured this year. In the second workshop they learned how to make an accordion book which they could personalize and take away with them. For lunch, we treated them to pizza, juice and popsicles.

After lunch I had arranged for one of the Forest of Reading authors to come to the school and speak to the boys and girls. We were all very excited about this special visit. Unfortunately this was the one feature of the day that did not take place. Our guest of honour had mixed up his dates and thought he was coming to the school tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m not at school so we arranged to do the presentation on Monday morning, so not all was lost.

At the end of the day my colleague and pottery teacher was excited to show me how her Father’s Day gift activity turned out. These wonderful clay trophies mounted on bits of scrap marble were created by D’s grade 1/2 class. I think they’re amazing. What Dad wouldn’t love these works of art?

Free University Courses

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. just signed up for a 7 week course in art

Like I’m not busy enough as it is, I signed up for an intense course yesterday that involves reading, taking quizzes and painting. I’ve already done all the reading for last week and taken the quiz but I haven’t started the painting. It’s due tomorrow night. I still have to run a 5k tomorrow morning and I have to finish my report cards.

One of the problems is that the course started last week so I’m already a week behind. When I get this first painting assignment done I’ll be caught up. I’m actually very excited about doing this. The program is called Coursera and it offers hundreds of free courses that are taught by certified professors from dozens of universities, worldwide. Check out the courses here.

What did I learn this week? Well the program is designed for beginning artists so the basics taught this last week were a good refresher lesson for me. This week the focus is on Fantasy art and I learned a lot about Independent Fantasists, such as Rousseau and Chagall, Dadaism, Automatism and Abstract Expressionism. I was also introduced to some Fantasists that I was not familiar with, such as Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray.

Man Ray http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Man_Ray_1934.jpg

Marcel Duchamp http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Marcel_Duchamp_01.jpg/128px-Marcel_Duchamp_01.jpg

Giorgio de Chirico http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Giorgio_de_Chirico_%28portrait%29.jpg

My assignment this week is to come up with my own Fantasy painting using any medium and technique I’m comfortable with. I also have to create an artist statement. Wish me luck. Well I’d better get to those report cards. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Cheers!

Still Waiting to be Fired

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..my pottery that is

At my pottery class tonight I trimmed the bowl that I made two weeks ago. I did the trimming on the wheel. It was fun shaving off the excess clay and making the footing for my bowl. It probably doesn’t look much different.

The new project that I worked on was a tall vase. I rolled out a slab and rolled it around the a tube and then attached a bottom and decorated it with stamps. Now it sits and waits to be fired along with all my other projects.

My berry bowl and it’s saucer wait for their first firing and my plate and jar have been fired once and are now glazed and wait for the final firing. I’m most anxious to see how the glazed pieces will look.