Remembering Venice

Reflections: A Canal In Venice

I had the good fortune to travel to Italy with a group of artists in 2011 and my favourite place was Venice.  I did several sketches and took many photos while my husband and I strolled through the streets. The old buildings and their reflections were wonderful. This watercolour painting was finished two days ago, using photos and sketches as references. It will be entered into the Square Foot Art Exhibition at The Art Exchange along with two other paintings. Some day I would love to go back to Venice. 

The Heart of Old South : Wortley Village Homes

Wortley Village Homes

This painting is the result of  a walk through the village with a good friend noticing the amazing variety of roof lines and porch styles to be found in Old South, as well as  stained glass windows of all shapes and sizes. In order to show the roof lines and porches, it was necessary to use an angle that did not allow a good view of the windows. I decided to use elements from a stained glass window seen on a previous walk in the village, as a border. The painting itself then became part of a stained glass window. To avoid symmetry I added the words along the left.
I have explored roof lines in other paintings which may be seen in this show.

The Heart of Old South: Window on Wortley

Window On Wortley

This is another painting that will be in the show, The Heart of Old South at The Art Exchange.
One of the really delightful things about Wortley Village in Old South is the way the independent shopkeepers take the time to make their shops attractive with unique window displays, window boxes, and signs.
If you have ever driven or walked down Wortley Road, you can't help but have noticed the shop at the corner of Emery and Wortley with its bright yellow bicycle and fabulous window boxes exploding with seasonal flowers.
In my painting, Window On Wortley, I have chosen to paint from the interior of the shop. The bicycle is purple because it works better in the painting that way. Peeking through the spokes of the bicycle are spring daffodils, one of my favourite spring flowers.

The Heart Of Old South: The Industrial Revolution

As The Crows Fly

If you are like me, when you think of The Industrial Revolution, words such as elegant, fanciful, romantic and decorative don't immediately pop into your head. Yet the Industrial Revolution provided new technologies which allowed builders to use mass-produced pre-cut architectural trim to produce houses which are certainly elegant, fanciful, romantic and decorative. The age of the machine produced some of the most elaborate and feminine homes found in Old South London. Turned porch supports, gable details, gingerbread trim and all sorts of decorative woodwork details were made possible and affordable by machine made woodworking which was then transported by railway. The growth of the rail system allowed mass produced items to be easily transported. The talented local builders were then able to use their skill and imagination to combine these items with bay windows, turrets, porches, brackets, stained glass windows and transoms and other decorative items in surprising and pleasing ways to produce enchantingly unique homes. These features appear, not only on large stately homes, but also on smaller working class homes and cottages. Wonderful!
This is my whimsical interpretation of Old South, As The Crows Fly......rooftops,decorative gables, gingerbread and fish scale trim, windows of all sorts, an Old Ontario Cottage, trees in three seasons, towers, one lovely porch pergola, steeples and, of course, the ubiquitous crows.

The Heart of Old South: Summer Chairs: # 2

Summer Chairs # 2

On the left is Summer Chairs #2 , one of my paintings that will be in the group show, The Heart of Old South, at The Art Exchange from November 21st to December 24th.
 I love the porches on many of the homes in Old South London.  As a child I spent many pleasant summer afternoons on my great aunt's porch on Winsor Ave.
As I walked through Old South while preparing for the show, I began to notice all the different chairs on the porches I saw. That started me thinking about the summer chairs we use on porches, decks and lawns in the summer. I began to play with images of chairs. Summer Chairs #1 was the result , a pen and ink piece you can see at the show or on my website. ( Just click on galleries and choose Old South London. )
I had so much fun with Summer Chairs #1  that I did a second similar piece in watercolour and pen. I added geraniums both in watercolour and in pen in the background  as a reference to all the Geranium Walks that have been held in Old South London.

Show at The Art Exchange:The Heart of Old South: "Caw Tales"

Bird Watching On Elmwood

This is one of my paintings which will be part of the group show at The Art Exchange from Nov.21st to Dec. 24th.

The working title of this piece was Caw Tale. Here is the reason.

When my grandson was very young, he called the crows, which are frequently seen and heard in Old South, caw tails. ( It was very poetic, I thought, but then, what grandmother wouldn't have thought the same thing? ).
Later, when he began to attend a daycare on Elmwood Ave, I occasionally picked him up at the end of the day. I felt like an old crone next to all the lovely young women who worked there as well as next to all the beautiful young moms.
One day, as I walked to the daycare from my car, I noticed the rooftop of a house on Elmwood and I loved the way it peeked out from the trees. Some years later, when I was preparing for our show, I decided to use the image of that particular house. I added a crow, partly because they are often to be found in the large trees in Old South, partly as a reminder of earlier years with my grandson but also as a companion for the old crone in my tale.
When it was finished I changed the title ( twice ), since Caw Tale probably made sense only to me. Its current title is, Bird Watching On Elmwood.

Art Show, Five Artists On The Rock