There is a fall show every year that I love to visit. Every piece of art is being sold by the artist, and this year, I could talk to over 36 artists if I wanted. I don't love every item, thankfully, but I do love a lot, and I have had an amazing time talking to some fascinating people, all while being filled with pride that my daughter chose to be a volunteer this year, and was running around with other kids her age, giving out maps and helping artists with whatever they needed.
My two favorite artists here this weekend, reflected in the two most represented in my home, are
Susanne Strater and
Helena Scheffer.
I associate Susanne with a pastel periwinkle that creeps into her shadows and margins in many pieces. Her work never ceases to amaze me in its exquisite beauty, and she surprises me by often changing inspirations and media. Her rooftops of Luxembourg can come in almost monochromatic greys and browns, to brick reds with royal blues. She is recently working acrylic gouache, and collaging medieval knights jousting beside her detailed paper cuttings of triplexs. She has luminous yellow skies beside fairytale night ones, dotted with stars.
The last work I bought from her was a night sky paper cutting I saw over her hearth at her home at one of her rare home shows. I asked her friend Linda to guard it for me, as I had fallen instantly in love. This weekend, I spent more time talking with Linda and her husband Christopher (an English professor who calls her Rose) than anyone, and adored their varied perspectives, and her art. We had in common my colleague who was his friend from Kindergarten, and we talked about art, medicine, history, family, travel, and math (E was the last thing Linda remembered from Trigonometry, and 30 years later,
Allan was working on the Maxwell's Equations to explain it plainly to her once he understood it.
Linda Creasey Brown is a Lakeshore painter whose life spanned California and Quebec with interesting perspectives on churches, which she loves to paint from below, with awe-inspiring silhouettes that people have mistakeningly interpreted as a statement, and react to in transference of their feelings on religion. Her grandchildren are painted on docks and beaches, and in snowsuits, and they resonate with a happy childhood. She validates me by saying I should write my memoirs about growing up in an evangelical church, as though my opinion was valued.
I met Helena when she and her husband owned a gallery in St. Anne's. Her quilts were show stoppers, and still travel the world on oversized walls only galleries and mansions can do justice to their scale. Her uniquely named
colour explosions have now evolved from square and rectangular to circular. Her show stopper in sea blues is called Coral Reef and sold the first day of the sale. Her hand sown flower stamen and colour matching are meticulous and rich.
Valerie Ferenczy-Reichman surprised me with her collection of sweet animals in a medium I don't often love; clay. She had the most incredible totem, with each animal face on the base of a neck, and colours to make a mallard jealous. She was most proud of her singing performances, which she gave daily, and the fact that all her pottery was hand thrown on the wheel. She answered the question I always wondered: do you dislike it for others to take a picture of your work? Yes, she does, but admits she has no website so the only images out there are because others have posted them.
Thomas De Souza is an enthusiastic man who paints in bright colours as a reflection of his lively personality. He remains faithful to gold frames, even though the organizer suggests to avoid them. His Rideau Canal complete with Chateau Laurier is quivering with colour. He takes the real and adds his own imagination. His horses dance, and his skies are inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. (Do you know Vincent Van Gogh? He asks, without judgement or expectation.)
Charmian Gibson Silver mirrors the landscape in her display of the water shadows she paints. Subtle and impressionistic, they make me want to look up and see what makes their reflection.
Sara Barnoff loves the fall, and takes ethereal colours to create masterpieces that trail often onto the border around the painting. The leaves are from a real garden, so rare in pictures, with holes that insects have made. The milkweed open, and seed float away, in fairytale silver.
Norma Bradley-Walker paints Montreal archictecture with a watercolourist's delicate treatment of light and form. She tells me of her similar impression of the passion of
Heritage Montreal tour guides, having recently been in Lachine for an outing. We are both convinced at its value, see it as a locally attended program, and are surprised at its low key visibility but large crowds. Her newest creation is a street view done with two different depths with a feeling of a triptych. She paints on paper, then carefully folds it around to meet the next corner. She calls it
3-D architecture.
Muriel Smith Baran surprises with close-ups of trees and a love of woods, which we share in our favoured Terra Cotta, while limping with a cane. I didn't take her card, but I did look up her website TreesRMe!
Craig Skinner is not only a detailed realist painter, but a boyscout at heart, at the ready to help secure wobbly paintings on a windy day, with a cordless drill, screws, a well-weighted down tent, and clear hockey tape that serves as a sophisticated answer to duct tape.
Manjit Singh Chatrik and his wife are a great team. He paint and writes and she suppports with cleaning and cooking. They acknowledge each other in a way only good teammates can. I have met him painting in front of Galerie d'Art Pointe-Claire, on the pedestrian street He excitedly brings over his "first and last" pastel that he just completed.
Two notable absentees from the Lakeshore Artists association were:
Janice Poltrick-Donato (who was probably off hiking a tall mountain) and
Martine Legrand whose work echoes for me the great Jean-Paul Lemieux. I hope they can make it next time!
How is it possible to have so much beauty and passion? What a perfect way to spend the day! Thank you for letting me admire and converse with you today.
I was asked to lend back two pieces for an upcoming show by an artist. For me, this is a dream come true: to be a patron of the arts! (mécène ou bienfacteur/se des arts, en français):
From the personal collection of Dr. Em.
