Lynn mostly paints in oil and acrylic usually inspired from a photo taken during her forays into the Kawartha countryside. She aims to capture how light falls on a scene or form and how it can change something that appears ordinary into extraordinary.
People often don’t realize the amount of work that goes into getting ready for a show or a gallery. Here Sandi shows off her work tagging and organizing all the baskets made this winter. She was getting ready for the Gallery opening!
Here are Sandi’s baskets, tagged and ready.
Mary Firth’s childhood home on Lorne Pk. Rd.
When I was a kid in the 1940s, Christmas cards were folded in quarters; so my mum saved those that had no writing on the blank inside for us three kids to draw on. No pads of paper for us as, like so many others, our family was struggling after the war. But each of us had our very own box of 8 Crayola crayons – basic colours only! So we spent hours drawing and colouring and reading and playing outside with all the kids along Lorne Park Road. There was no TV, no devices back then.
I loved Friday afternoons in public school- art until recess. Bliss! I took Art all though high school and university, and summer courses at OCA in copper enamelling and paper sculpture, travelling with my former Grade 2 teacher to Toronto. I was fourteen. After completing two summers at OCE I returned the following summer to OCA to start work on my art specialist which I never completed. (I got married – as my principal said, I was taking another course!) But that summer course was lots o fun sketching in Kensington Market, on the ferry to the Toronto islands and there as well.
I sold my first oil painting that summer to one of my roommates for the princely sum of $5! Marriage brought all that fun stuff to halt – teaching, weekends devoted to laundry (wringer washer, clothesline), house work (which I loathe!) and the one bright spot, entertaining our teacher friends. Still have them, by the way!
In 1970 we tore down the old log house, and built new and larger one which was rather unfinished for quite some time. At that point we had two boys, so needless to say I was kept busy with the kids and painting trim, laying and grouting tile etc. Lots of good stuff to keep me out of trouble! So, here we get around to stained glass. When the boys were old enough to understand ‘Don’t touch!’ in 1982, I drove from the farm to Port Perry for a night school course. And here I will break off, but will continue this journey at another time. Stay tuned.
View from Mom’s Deck
What inspires me? The project I’m currently working on was sparked by a photo my mother took from her deck…a stunning sunset seen through the leafless trees in late autumn. I pulled some very old and hand rolled glass from my glass stash…stuff I’ve had for many years but was waiting for the right inspiration. The pattern I drew was limited by the amount of glass I had to work with. Pattern placement is key. No mistakes could be made while I was cutting the glass, or I would not have enough glass to finish that portion of the sunset. The order in which the cuts were made had to be well planned to successfully cut out the orange sunset pieces. The panel is almost ready to be soldered. Once finished, new images will be posted.
I admit it, I find it very hard to throw things out. I am a multicrafter and I never know what direction my inspiration will take. I see things like containers, fibres, old clothes, leather scraps, paper, and the list goes on and I wonder….hmmm could I use that at some point?
Explaining this to others is complicated. They see a pile of garbage and I see a ready source of supplies when inspiration strikes. Sometimes you need the smallest scrap of fabric in a very specific colour, sometimes a piece of wire in a certain gauge…you really can’t predict the needs of a multicrafter. And there is something heartbreaking in having to buy something when you “had” it at one point and decided it didn’t warrant the space it took up.
I truly like to believe that I am not alone in this. Although family and friends might believe I am. I try very hard to keep my supplies from over-running the family’s living space, but I am not always successful. I believe that living with a “creative-type” comes with it’s own set of rules. We need extra space, we need a little chaos, we need a comfortable place to create.
So, please keep that in mind if you like the handmade items you receive from a friend or relative. We aren’t hoarders, we aren’t slobs, we just need to to keep our inspirations close at hand 😉
My art projects began by doing bulletin boards, stage scenery and art classes with children, when I worked as an educational assistant at an inner city school in Toronto. It was great fun and I loved every minute of it.
But now, retired, I get to paint whatever and whenever I want and that is wonderful too. I love the old buildings, lakes and the natural beauty of trees and plants in the Kawarthas and try to include them in many of my paintings. My other favourite subject is the scenery in the rest of Canada.
Marilyn will be in the gallery next on July 31st. (tomorrow)
During the last few years I have completed several Stained Glass windows for homes around the region.
Nothing is as exciting as the day of installation!
When designing a window for the client I have many consultation meetings to “look inside the clients head” to determine their “vision” of this special, very personal, addition to their home.
The measurements are taken, the computer drawing is made, and once the customer confirms satisfaction, the file is sent to a printing company to plot the actual size, and then the template is fitted to the actual window. Once size is confirmed the glass is chosen and the window is built on the template to ensure correct sizing.
Then the day comes when the Stained Glass window is set in place.
After all the hard work I get to see the look on the clients face, which shows me that I have gotten it right!
This picture shows one of those special moments!
In addition to windows, I love to experiment with glass combinations and processes in my kiln; creating jewelry, bowls, wall art, garden art, and to combine the glass with bicycle parts to see what I can dream up!
Come on in to the Fenelon Station Gallery to see some of my works of art!
Anne-Marie will be in the gallery next on the 26th July.
Sometimes life just seems to be spinning wildly. So many things occurring outside our ability to control. Issues fill the mind with things that need to be done, should be done, or could be done. People relying upon us for advice and physical help. Going, doing, seeing, being, helping, birth, illness, death…blend together like a tornado of effort rushing through our lives and take on a dynamic of their own often deciding a path on which you were not prepared to travel. But in reality this is life. We cannot determine everything that happens to us in our lives, but we can determine how we react to it. We learn to take the bad with the good and create the best from it.
Being creative gives an outlet to this chaos but sometimes it adds to the chaos.
Spinning helps to settle my body and mind, the constant rhythmical movement of the wheel turning fibre from mounds of cleaned, combed fleece into spun yarn twisted together and strong. The yarn may be the pure colour nature has given it or I may add dyes for riotous colour. I take the fibre, whether lamb’s wool, linen, alpaca, angora or bamboo, and let it move through my fingers to become yarn. I merely guide it and let its inherent nature become the yarn it was meant to be. Seeing the singles twirl together on the wheel is calming, but when plying two yarns together an exhilaration of excitement comes over me. When the singles yarns are twisted together to become plyed yarn they take on a new life and usefulness.
Knowing that there are sheep in a pasture being cared for by their owner who will shear them and provide fleece to be spun into fibre, which will become a garment or household item to give warmth to a chilly day.
From a mounding mass of fluffy fibre to a silken strand of useful yarn: order from chaos.
Marilyn Clayton works predominantly with gemstones and uses various methods of wrapping, weaving and connecting the jewellery she makes.
Marilyn likes to have the stones and beads she is working with dictate the medium used. Kumihimo is a versatile system of weaving using cording, thread, wire, etc alone or using beads. Marilyn is seen working the kumihimo in sterling silver and rose gold filled wire to make a flat braided bracelet to go with the ametrine necklace, also pictured.
Here are some pictures of various applications for kumi. The possibilities are endless.
Drop by the gallery and see how it’s done!
Marilyn will be in the gallery next on the 13th & 14th of July.
Once a stained glass panel reaches it’s 100th birthday, the lead gets tired and it’s weakness causes the panel to sag and break from the weight of the glass. Rebuilding the panel is a dirty and time-consuming job…not one that many people choose to take on.
Old, broken and filthy glass was removed from an area century home. Family members asked me to make a surprise anniversary gift for their parents from the boxes of broken windows that were removed from their family home.
Step 1. Taking apart and cleaning years of grime, paint spatter and caulking from the glass.
Step-1
Step 2. Design a new pattern…one limited by the size of the glass that was available. I did not introduce any new glass to this project.
Step-2
Step 3. Rebuild.
Step-3
Step 4. Enjoy the panel for another 100 years! Perhaps someone will honour my work and remake the panel when it needs requires a rebuild. We can only hope.
Did I enjoy working on this project? I certainly did!
After 40 years of marriage, they still look happy…especially after receiving this wonderful gift from their children!
Janet will be in the gallery next on August 17th.
