25 Years in Canada - the Year 2019 Part I

Yellow Flower Served on a Platter, acrylic, 8" x 10", SOLD

Blog 25


I was excited to start 2019 with a new website. After my son had started and got stuck on creating a fresh look, Cynthia Harriston of Ottawa Net Designs combined his ideas with my functionality requirements. I was happy with the fresh look, even though I still had a lot of work to upload new paintings, course and workshop information.

Starting in January, I taught government employees again two days a week during the winter semester. While I loved the work, the 20-minute walk to the building from the National Gallery was treacherous during winter conditions, especially as I had to bring all my teaching materials with me. 

 

Kerstin Reading, acrylic, 20" x 16"

My winter courses for the City of Ottawa started in the middle of January. The number of registrations for my Cartooning and Comics courses stayed high at Francois Dupuis Recreation Centre. I also taught a mixed media course at Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex. However, the icy and snowy weather made getting to classes and workshops stressful. I preferred teaching from my studio. Aside from Painting Like Famous Artists workshops, I offered painting parties and specialty workshops like felting Easter eggs.

  

Candy and Alex, acrylic, 30" x 40", NFS

A huge milestone was the completion of the double portrait of our dogs Alex and Candy. When I started it in 2013, I thought I had lots of time to finish it. At that time, both dogs were seven years old. Little did I know that Candy would already leave us just over a year later when she died without any warning from a burst tumour. In 2016, I finally continued my work on the painting. However, I struggled with Candy. In the end, I picked another head position and re-painted her face completely. Working on Alex was a little bit easier as I had my model right with me in the studio.


Despite all the work, I was excited about the many visitors to our home. First, we hosted a big Peters Family reunion for our yearly Schnitzel Extravaganza. Then, my parents came for their last visit to Canada. Both my parents were in their eighties, and the trips to visit us became too strenuous. As they came for a visit three times a year, we had purchased a four-season cottage together after my son was born. After more than 20 years, it was time to sell the building. Even though my parents had cleaned out a lot, it took me three more days to empty the rest. In the end, we had half the garage full of stuff to donate. The experience left me mentally and physically drained. I resisted any further thoughts about selling our house. Instead, I started unpacking some of the boxes with our belongings. I am glad that we cleared our house in preparation for the sale and continue to clean out things that we do not need anymore. At the time, I was not ready to downsize to move into a much smaller house. I am sure that the day will come at some point, but at the moment, we enjoy our home and property. 

Abundance of Pansies, acrylic, 9" x 12", SOLD

As I had expected to move in 2018, I had not applied for many exhibitions. I was only part of the Navan Fine Arts Group display at Shenkman Arts Center. Nevertheless, I sold my painting Abundance of Pansies. I showed my studio to a guest, and she fell in love with the painting right away. That is the best possible scenario for an artist.

Almost Nighttime, acrylic 16" x 20", unfinished

In mid-March, I spent three hours at the DeSerres art store at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre to promote myself. I enjoyed some lovely conversations with young and older art lovers who watched me painting Almost Nighttime. It is another sunset from the shore of the St. Lawrence River in Kamouraska. 

 

Flower Doodles from the first Art Cafe

Teaching art was never only about teaching you techniques. Creating community has always been very important to me. Therefore, I welcomed new and existing clients for the first Art Cafe in April. During the event, we enjoyed some refreshments and created a themed craft while chatting, laughing and building connections.

Of Flowers and Butterflies, acrylic, 16″ x 20″, CAN $400

On the last weekend in April, I participated again in the Navan Fine Art Exhibition and Sale. During the event, I created a painting to the music played by pianist Bev McKiver. I was the second one scheduled and had assumed that I would paint an abstract piece. Instead, I started to panic as my mind went blank. Usually, when I go into my studio, I know what I want to paint. I might struggle with the composition or the process, but I know where I want to go. This time, I did not know what to expect. I had no idea what Bev would play or how I would react to it. I also was aware that people were watching me and talked to spectators during the process. When I finally started painting, I felt like flowers and butterflies. I was frustrated with the result. It took me a long time before I finished the painting. It is not one of my favourites, but it reflects the cheerful music.


In May, I worked non-stop as I planned to take some days off to spend time with two good friends from Germany and their husbands. Emptying the cottage, teaching, working on my website and marketing my events had left me spinning. It was all too much. I worked until late in the night and on weekends. When I look into my daily planner, I did not even take time for my quick 5-minute journal entries. Whenever I wanted to take time off, I prepared all the materials in advance. I needed to simplify some of my tasks. The first change was the reduction of my blog posts to a bi-weekly publication. However, the timing for their visit was perfect, as my husband and daughter spent the same time in Japan. We went sightseeing downtown and to several areas typical for the Canadian landscape, like Gatineau Park and the Mer Bleue Bog. It was fun to spend time together and be a tourist for a change!


The day after my friends left, I went on a bike ride with my son along the Ottawa River. Due to the high water on the pathway, we had to turn around and suddenly realized how dark the sky had turned. We just made it back to the car when the first heavy rain set in. Luckily, we left right away because about half an hour later, a tornado touched down where we were parked. While the residents in the area feared for their lives, we were only a few kilometres away enjoying ice cream, unaware of the drama. However, when I left later to pick up my husband and daughter from the airport, the sky was stunningly glowing in an unrealistic orange-red. On both sides of the road, trees looked like broken toothpicks, and houses were missing shingles.


In early June, I was horrified to see that someone had hacked my website and given himself administrator privileges. Luckily, I received an email right away. Together, my husband and my website designer could stop the attack quickly. I was relieved as the person either did not have the time or the interest to change any data.

During the Shenkman Arts Centre 10th Anniversary Block Party on June 14, 2019, I participate in a painting demonstration to promote Arteast and its members. At the beginning of my career, the prospect of painting watched by spectators would have made me very nervous. These days, I enjoy spending time with other artists and talking to the public. 

 

Self-portrait, oil pastels and coloured pencil, NFS

Therefore, I was also up for the challenge of creating a self-portrait during a visit to the Gauguin exhibition at the National Gallery and had a great time drawing it with oil pastels and coloured pencils.

At the end of June, I finally got to relax at the cottage with some of my friends. We enjoyed the slow pace and the time to recharge in nature. In this quiet setting, we took some time to brainstorm ideas to serve more people in our specific fields in the second half of 2019. We returned on the Friday of the long July weekend. I felt great and was very relaxed. I was looking forward to the Canada Day activities. When I woke up the next day, I could hardly walk and was in a lot of pain. I guess my body required even more rest. I was devastated because our yearly family vacation was only a week away.

 

Delightful Tulips, wool, 11" x 8.5", CAN $375

Next week, I will tell you more about my body’s need to rest and the small change that made it possible to free up a lot of time while serving more clients.

Why I love “Painting like Famous Artists” and You Should, Too

Tree of Life after Gustav Klimt

Blog 17

If you are a subscriber to my newsletter or follow me on Facebook or Google+, you have probably seen some of the artworks my students and I created during my “Painting Like Famous Artists” sessions. I have taught this programme for two years to kids from 7 - 12 years at the Bob MacQuarrie Complex in Orleans as well as in separate adult workshops at Wallack’s in Orleans last summer. The students have always responded so enthusiastically, that I am offering adult sessions this spring at François Dupuis Centre in Orleans.

Every session, I pick different artists. At the beginning, I tried to incorporate at least one Canadian painter. Now, I also try to have different genres as well as one female painter among the four artists we study every session. As many of my students are girls and women, I want to make them aware of the fantastic female painters who often get overlooked due to the male dominated art world.

Each series is not only fun and educational for my students but also me. I always prepare a little biography of the painters’ lives, find out what was important to them and their painting process. During the preparation of my classes, I always get some new insights. Sometimes, trying out a different style is very uncomfortable because it differs so much from how I work.

Often, if you try something new, it is uncomfortable at first until you know what you are doing. You might find out that an art style you really admired is a painting technique you really do not enjoy at all. This happened to me with the works of Monet. I have the highest appreciation for his works and still love them but I really do not enjoy painting with the short brush strokes the Impressionists used to create their art.

In my demo work, I try to stay pretty close to the painting I am copying. However, I encourage my students to take liberties. Ultimately, my goal is not for them to become a copycat of the famous painter we are studying but to learn some of the techniques they used, to appreciate the seemingly simple artworks for their proficiency, to acknowledge the artist’s skills independently from the student’s likes of a certain painting style or object.

Whenever I took a workshop studying a certain painter, I tried to implement what I enjoyed in the process into my own painting technique. I also encourage my adult painters who usually already have some painting experience to do the same.

If we think about the history of art, many of the masters we cherish today were completely misunderstood and rejected during their lifetime because the created works of art which did not comply with the way art was produced and appreciated by the majority of art critics and viewers. The had a new vision which differed radically from the academic opinion.

I would like my students to have an open mind when looking at different kinds of art. There is so much variety. It is easy to say “I could do this,” or “A child could paint this.” Believe me, I have had these thoughts at times, too. However, you have to remember that you would only be copying someone else’s ideas. It is always easier to copy but it is a challenge to create something new and fresh.

So if you want to find out how some of the famous artists of the past created their beautiful works of art, the next four week session of “Painting Like Famous Artists” at François Dupuis Recreation Centre starts on May 19, 2015, from 7pm to 8:30pm. We will look at the works from Franz Marc, Lawren Harris, William Turner, and Mary Cassatt. Trying to copy one of their paintings might inspire your own creative juices. In the next couple of months I will write about some artist who inspired me on my creative journey.

To register and for more information please go to http://join.ottawa.ca/fac/247/spring/all/act/110/7503/ for the adult session and http://join.ottawa.ca/fac/26/spring/all/act/565/6025/ for the kids session which starts on May 24, 2015, from 1pm to 2:30pm, at Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex. During the kids session we will be studying works of Gustav Klimt, Franklin Carmichael,Gabriele Münter, and Vincent van Gogh.

Group of Seven

 

my Tom Thomson inspired art

Blog 9

Last week, I talked about the reasons for the collaboration of artists. One famous collaboration in the Canadian art history is the “Group of Seven”.

Before I came to Canada, I had never heard of the “Group of Seven” which is not very well-known outside of Canada but very important for the development of the Canadian art scene. They are considered leaders of the first major Canadian art movement.

The art scene in Canada in the early 20th century was heavily influenced by the European art culture. However, the “Group of Seven” members wanted to show the beauty of the Canadian landscape by celebrating its wilderness. They wanted to create a truly Canadian style which they believed could only be achieved by getting out of the studio and into nature. The Group of Seven is most famous for its many plein air sketches which were often used in the studio to create bigger paintings. In many cases their sketches have so much more energy than the paintings, and capture the spontaneity of the moment.

The roots for the group can be found at the design firm Grip Ltd. in Toronto where Tom Thomson, Frederick Horsman Varley, Frank (Franz, Francis Hans) Johnston, Edward Hervey MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, and Franklin Carmichael worked. In 1913, Alexander Young Jackson and Lawren Stewart Harris joined the group. The informal group temporarily split up during World War I during which Jackson and Varley worked as official war artists.

When the “Group of Seven” was finally founded in Toronto in 1920 for their first exhibition together, Thomson had already died. His untimely death by drowning in Algonquin Park in 1917 is still an incident of many speculations. However, his name is still closely linked to the group because of the influence his painting style, visible in the many sketches and finished canvases, had on his fellow artists. He had achieved a painting style which truly captured the Canadian landscape.

Alfred Joseph Casson joined the group in 1926 replacing Frank Johnston who resigned after the first exhibition. In 1930 Edwin H. Holgate from Montreal joined the group, followed by Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald from Winnipeg in 1932.

Aside from Thomson, Emily Carr was also closely associated with the Group of Seven. She met members for the first time at the National Gallery in 1927. She and Lawren Harris developed a close relationship in which Harris supported and influenced her the most. The encounter ended Carr’s artistic isolation and inspired her to the creation of many of her most famous works.

The Group of Seven increased the awareness and appreciation of the Canadian landscape.

Their use of bright colours and bold patterning was inspired by the Post-Impressionists Van Gogh and Gauguin as well as by the contemporary Scandinavian art which MacDonald and Harris saw for the first time in 1912 at an exhibition in Buffalo.

After the Group of Seven's final show in 1931, the members realized that the art community’s opinion had shifted in favour of their art, making the security net of the group unnecessary to withstand criticism.

To the contrary, with the help of influential friends and supporters including the National Gallery, the group had reached a celebrity status. This led to accusations that the National Gallery of Canada favoured their members’ works and therefore assisted them to be the only Canadian artists to receive recognition. As a result of this controversy, the Canadian Group of Painters was founded in February 1933 and included some of the Group of Seven members.

I saw pieces of the Group of Seven for the first time during my very first visit to Canada in 1994 when my husband brought me to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario. At this point, I had stopped painting at all due to a very demanding career. However, once we moved to Canada, the Canadian landscape has also captured my interest, and I have been back to Kleinburg many times admiring the works of these great artists. I have also taken some workshops exploring some of the artists and their painting style which only has increased my admiration. Even though, I do appreciate some more than others, I found that I learned something from all of them.

I hope you enjoyed this journey into the Canadian art history. If you would like to learn more about Frederick Varley, one of the founding members of the “Group of Seven”, I invite you to my new four week mini session “Painting Like Famous Artists". It will be held at François Dupuis Recreation Centre in Orleans, and starts April 7, 2015. The other artists we will study are Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, and Vincent Van Gogh.

I also offer the "Painting Like Famous Artists" mini sessions for kids at Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex. Each session, we look at different artists. The next one starts in May.

"Painting Like Famous Artists" would also make a wonderful activity for a private get-together or a child's birthdays party. Please contact me for details and rates at kpeters@DomingoInformatics.ca.