All of the artists in the gallery are getting ready to greet our visitors this coming weekend, May 19th. We are excited to be opening for another season. We have a few new faces this year with new artwork. Here you can see the work that goes into setting up the gallery each year. We come in and dust, sweep and clean windows and then the artwork arrives and a few of our members do all the work turning the empty space into a lovely gallery.
Click on any image to see it in full size.
I am best known for my ever-changing Acrylic Media Mix, Collage, Watercolour, Ink & Pencil Pet Portraits, birch tree variations as well as my outdoor Wall Murals.
All my works are original and unique. My subjects are joyful, easy to live with and incorporate intriguing textures within. Many celebrate the best of Ontario’s multiple seasons!
I will be kicking off the season at the Fenelon Station Gallery by working the entire long weekend. I will have a creation on the go as I look after the gallery. I’d love to have you visit and have a chat or leave you to look around at all the lovely work that is in the gallery this year.
We open on May 19th at 10 am and are open until 5pm. And we will be open on the Victoria Day Monday too. See you here!
Owl’s Own
Brenda is best known for her ever-changing Acrylic Collage & Birch Bark paintings, Ink & Pencil drawings and her outdoor Wall Murals.
Mom, I’m Home!
What’s new this year? Outdoor Paintings for the porch or patio!! All unique images inspired by Ontario’s landscape, people and architecture.
Strongly influenced by a highly creative family, Brenda studied Art & Design at Vancouver City Collage, Humber College, Ontario College of Art & Design and Fleming School of the Arts.
Brenda worked within Toronto’s commercial Interior Design industry for 25 years before finally breaking away to re-ignite her own individual artistic abilities.
Amazed and inspired by perfect simplicity and structure
found in everyday items, natural or man-made,
Brenda creates lively, realistic images out of almost any medium, sometimes combining paints with birch bark, leather, feathers, glass, maps, plaster, inks, fibre … strategically mounted on canvas, paper, or wood supports.
All her works are unique, visually intriguing and tactile. Most depict Ontario’s Seasonal Splendour, our people or local architecture.
Commissions Welcomed & Encouraged. Private home/studio open by appointment.
Brenda will be in the gallery next on September 2nd.
Many times as an artist I get stuck on subject matter to paint – and since I like to inspire , I in turn need that one idea that jump starts my creative juices.
I can’t say I am a single minded person who only does certain material, but I always like to incorporate an inspirational overtone – I never do buildings – they are blah to me.
Since I paint on different mediums – canvas, wood, slate – actually any surface – I try to match the subject matter to the size of surface I have – this last while it has been slate – pieces off old barns – that was given to me by fellow artist Morris Young – and being that it is Canada’s 150th birthday celebration I have been concentrating on Canadian beauty. Repeats I do – because people love our birds, love our Maple Leaf, love our wildlife and natural beauty – and in general feel the warmth of our country whether they live here or are visiting. That’s what inspires me .
Janet will be in the gallery next on August 25th!
When we moved to our beautiful wooded lot just outside of Bobcaygeon two years ago, I asked my husband to build me a little studio where I could display and store my work, but most importantly so I could work outside. I love to weld but it is not the healthiest trade, especially indoors.
My workspace consists of a 8′ x 2′ workbench with a vice mounted on it and a welder and plasma cutter by my side. Add a grinder, some vice grips, a wire brush and emery cloth and that completes all the tools I need to make my sculptures! Surprising that so little tools and some brute strength on my part can create such hefty garden art pieces!
When my working season starts (I don’t endure the winters outside!), I place a large metal order and it gets delivered to my doorstep. The metal comes to me in 20′ lengths, so immediately I get to cutting it into the various pieces I need to create my sculptures. That is a long and tedious process and I am happy to get to the next step of bending each piece by hand on my bench vice. Once the pieces are formed to my liking, I get my skull flamed welding helmet on (a Christmas gift from my husband) and get welding. This is where the vice grips come in handy, to clamp each piece securely before I weld. Then a little cleaning up with a brush and emery cloth and the piece is ready for a stone.
I am really enjoying my new workspace. Having worked in many environments, I have had some time to think about an ideal setup and this is it. I’m enjoying the outdoors while I work. What more can you ask for? My “Rockhound Reg” is usually in a shaded spot by my side and occasionally my workbench is put to a different use, a good shave to cool him off!
If you are making a trip Bobcaygeon way, please feel free to drop by my studio. I am open from May long weekend to Thanksgiving, Friday to Sunday (and holidays), 11-4. If that doesn’t work into your schedule, I also welcome appointments. Call or text me at 705-341-5738.
Sandy will be in the gallery next on August 17th.
For my watercolour paintings, I prefer to work ‘wet-on-wet’, meaning using wet paint on wet paper. This method gives the softest effects, because the paint flows and moves easily across the moistened paper. However, this method is the most unpredictable. The depth of colour and degree of softness depends on the amount of water in the paint and the water saturation of the paper.
When the paper dries out, the brush strokes become sharper and sharper, because the paint stays in place more easily. It’s a balancing act for sure. You have to work quickly sometimes and at other times, you must wait. As some of the water is absorbed into the paper, the sheen of wetness on the paper surface subsides. It is at this exact time, that you have better paint flow control, but still can maintain a soft, painterly look….easier said than done sometimes.
As the paper continues to dry (loses it’s sheen), you move from painting the soft areas – sky, distant hills and trees, to the sharper, deeper coloured, foreground areas. This is what is meant by the term ‘painting light to dark’.
Watercolour can be tamed, but never completely controlled. That’s the challenge and the intrigue, which keeps this medium both frustrating for some artists and exciting for others.
Janice will next be in the gallery on August 19th.
Peter Martin has been fascinated with the beauty of stone since he was a child who was constantly bringing home rocks of all shapes, sizes and colours and decorating his bedroom with these treasures.
Since retiring 10 years ago he became serious about creating interesting and beautiful sculptures from soapstone and alabaster, which are his stones of choice.
When creating a piece he seeks to use shapes and colours that will be true to the subject he is working on but occasionally he will push the boundaries and use different colour of stone that will catch the eye and highlight the beauty of each part of the sculpture.
Peter hopes you will also see the beauty of stone as he does.
Peter will next be in the gallery on August 12th.
I usually create my own designs but a few years ago I saw this tiny (just over an inch square) picture in a magazine and thought it would be a good candidate for a stained glass panel – I sometimes get lazy! So I cut out that tiny picture, modified it somewhat and am just finishing my version of the original.
After making sure I had the appropriate glass and enough came on hand to frame the finished piece, I cut and laid out the black glass border in a 12×13 jig after taping the inside edges with 7/32″ copper foil. Next I cut out the trees, ground the edges, taped them, and after the corners of the black border were soldered I soldered the trees in place.
This gives me a relatively stable framework that can be lifted slightly so that I can slip the glass for the individual bands of colour underneath, trace the shape, cut, grind, tape and tack-solder each in place. I started at the bottom with the green-brown band a worked my way up to the sky ( which alone used 5-1/2′ of copper foil).
A finished solder bead is then applied to the face of the panel. It is then flipped over to solder the reverse. The zinc came is then cut and soldered to the black glass border. Wire loops are soldered to the upper reverse side corners. A confession – I have never mastered darkening the fame successfully so after thoroughly cleaning the glass and applying the patina to darken the solder, and cleaning thoroughly once again, after everything is dry, I paint the zinc frame. ( a no-no, I’m sure!)I then polish the piece with furniture wax – and hope someone will buy it!
I am somewhat restricted re the size of any project now as I have to work in my apartment Kitchen. I cut glass in a 12×26″ area between the wall and the sink in front of the toaster oven – I have to tape glass there too as the light is good. (My eyesight is not so great now and I see double at times ). My grinder is beside the stove, close to the one reliable outlet on on the stove side of the kitchen and where my work board sits. Before I can solder however, I must press down the copper foil firmly on each piece of glass with a fid. That job is done on the other side of the sink. So now I’m ready to solder. The soldering iron is plugged into the same reliable outlet used by the grinder, the kettle etc. the stove top is OK except if I want to cook or bake. The whole set-up is not great, but I no longer have the luxury of a shop – great sadness!
A plug for the Scugog Library’s annual Snowflake Sale (a fund raiser for the library which takes place in the month before Christmas). My work is there along with that of a dozen or so locals. So if you are in Port Perry, do some of your Christmas shopping at the library!
Mary will be next at the gallery on July 23rd.
As you may well know, I use the artistic name Fudgee. But what many may not know is the origin of this. So this blog will fill in some of the spaces of my quest to be creative and when and how the artistic name Fudgee came to be.
As long as I can remember I have loved to create things …… I may not be good at it but it brought me joy. As a boy, I used my trusty pen knife to carve designs in pieces of wood making endless streams of shavings. Most of my work I would consider primitive; carving out small totem poles and Tiki heads. Working with wood later in life, I progressed to making cabinets, desks, blanket boxes pergolas, cedar pole arbors and chairs and finally woodturning. To digress, I dabbled in many art mediums; clay sculpturing, bead work, copper foiling, leather work, folk art, stain glass, pen and ink drawing and painting.
In 1964 I entered in my first show. It was the Kiwanis Club of East York Hobby Fair open to adults and children in our community. I won two awards at that fair …. Best in Class for my leather carvings and Best in Show.
To further my creativity, I attended Sheridan College Creative Design Program and used my skills to teach young children and adults creative arts. Today, I am a self taught Master Woodturner and enjoy every chance I get to make stuff. Last year I entered the Kawartha Woodturning Guild’s year end completion, entering a bowl with wooden fruit which placed Best in Show and is now proudly displayed in our home.
So, about the name Fudgee ….. It’s not too mysterious. It’s a childhood nick name that began playing football with my friends. One my buddies had an older brother that was a biker and often joined in the games. Frank being older and much bigger than the rest of our group I was picked to cover Frank. Well as it turned out I was able to cover Frank’s position ….. although I didn’t have the body mass to do much of anything once he got the ball but one of his comments was that I stuck to him like fudge. This has stuck with me since the early 60’s and I am still known by this name by family and friends from my old life in the big City of Toronto and now by some in the Kawarthas.
Morris will be in the gallery on the 20th to 22nd of July.
A few years ago I travelled to Italy to take a pottery course. A few of us have stayed in touch and decided to travel to Portugal, see the sights and take in a couple of pottery workshops. It is a wonderful way to experience a country and get to know “the locals”. After a couple of days of sightseeing fun in Lisbon, we travelled to a wonderful small town on the coast called Estoril.
Our workshop was with Helena Brizido, an internationally known and very talented potter who is currently focusing on alternate firing methods as she creates unique sculptural pieces. Three days working with Helena has inspired me to revisit alternate firings for some of my work. Helena introduced us to some new twists to some well-known alternate firing methods such as raku, naked raku, and barrel-firing.
I am excited to get set up to work with all of these firing methods again but I am especially looking forward to exploring the ‘new to me’ India Smoke. It will require some work to set up and some new equipment but I am up for the challenge!
Janet will next be in the gallery on July 15th.
