Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Art Fayre 2011 a rousing success!

Here's a look back at Art Fayre 2011, which was a rousing success! The weather was beautiful, as was the artwork.

 

The show featured 15 talented local artists.

  
The oils of Aino Lutter.



John Sims' lovely horses.



Many visitors came to enjoy the show and purchase art, supporting the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in the process.


  Gerdine van Woudenberg's wonderful chainsaw carvings were extremely popular:




The vernissage on Saturday was a great opportunity for people to meet and mingle with the participating artists.



Barbara Glen's mixed media work.



Rug-hooked wallhangings by Natalie Rowe.



Liz Skelly hand her sculpture being photographed by local paparazzi!



David Kelleher provided exquisite classical guitar music.



Guitarist David Kelleher and artist John Sims.


More works by John Sims.





There were lots of delicious goodies to eat, provided by that artists. These cupcakes by Ronna Mogelon were works of art in themselves!


Here is Ronna with some of her robin and egg drawings.



A good time was had by all!



The Art Fayre committee is looking forward to another successful show this year. Stay tuned for further updates! Thanks to all who made the show so successful this year.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Art Fayre is hours away!

Last Wednesday, the Art Fayre committee gathered at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum to set up the show. It was a steaming-hot day, but we managed to arrange and hang all of the beautiful artwork without succumbing to heat stroke.


Lunch break for members of the committee!



Every year, Ronna's birthday falls on or near Art Fayre. Barb baked Ronna a wonderful carrot cake with cream cheese icing, and we had an impromptu birthday celebration! If you'd like a sneak peak at Ronna's drawings, check out her blog.

If you're in the area, tune in to "In Town and Out" on CBC radio Saturday morning (91.5 in Ottawa, 95.5 in Cornwall) to hear the announcement Natalie recorded for Art Fayre. We are looking forward to seeing you this weekend, rain or shine, and hope to get more people out from Ottawa and Montreal. Wouldn't it be wonderful to sell every piece of art this year?

Come see us in Dunvegan this weekend! Beautiful art, a vernissage, artist demonstrations, yummy refreshments, and the talented David Keller playing classical guitar. What more could you ask for?


Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Art Fayre this Saturday and Sunday!


If you want to find out what this is, come to Art Fayre this Saturday and Sunday at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan, Ontario. A sunny weekend is forecast and we hope to see our largest crowd ever! The show is an opportunity for you to meet talented local artists and take home some one-of-kind art, all while helping to raise funds for our jewel of a museum.

Dunvegan is an hour east of Ottawa, and hour west of Montreal, and close to Cornwall and the Massena, NY border crossing. Why not take a leisurely drive in the beautiful Glengarry countryside this weekend? Come see us at Art Fayre! You can take in the show, meet the artists at the Saturday Vernissage, watch artist demonstrations on Sunday, and enjoy free refreshments. 

We're looking forward to seeing you!







Monday, May 30, 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

Portrait of an Artist - Gerdine van Woudenberg

Today's Art Fayre artist is Gerdine van Woudenberg of Dunvegan, Ontario.

 Gerdine was born in Holland and emigrated to Harvey Station, New Brunswick when she was seven years old. We'll let her tell you about her work in her own words:

"I have spent 16 years in post secondary education, including degrees/diplomas in:  Equestrian certificate from Kemptville College, a paralegal degree from Algonquin College, a Bachelor’s of Arts (specializing in human rights) from St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, a Master’s degree from  the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University (specializing in Development Studies) and I have completed 6 years of a PHD in Anthropology at McGill University."


"Since living in Glengarry County since 1997 (when I came to do my Masters at Carleton) I  started working part time with my Master Carpenter partner finishing his cabinetry and furniture. I then moved to the lathe, hand carvings and eventually into building canoe furniture and historic reproductions. Having carved stump men and gnomes for years by hand, the move to the chainsaw enabled me to go larger, quicker and work with unique pieces of wood otherwise too large for the workshop. The passion and love I feel for the chainsaw was unexpected, and has opened a whole new array of artistic expression." 


"This venture has only just begun for me. Despite the fact that my education is in a totally different venue and invested so much time building my intellectual passions on paper (I graduated with top honours in many of my degrees and won several big scholarships), the years my mother spent as a young child teaching us girls the ‘handicrafts of a woman’ (we were 4 girls raised on a dairy farm and had to learn the work of a farmer for economic reasons) came back in my later life. I feel  like I have spent half of my life developing one side of my brain, and now I am giving the opportunity to re-develop the other side (why they used to offer art classes and music in schools.)"

 

"When it comes to chainsaw carving, no piece of wood is the same, and I have to think carefully about every piece. The mushrooms and fungus have captured my interest as they are so unique and every piece of wood brings a new one alive either through the grain of the wood or the stump I am carving it from. I am now moving into carving some creatures coming out of the wood (all of which are natural /existing branches ) and adding a splash of colour to the carvings. My dolphin carvings are meant as lawn ornaments meant to view the lawn as an ocean. All these carvings are carved from tree crotches, which has the most colourful and beautifully unique growth rings."

Join us at Art Fayre 2011 to meet Gerdine and add one of her lovely carvings to your art collection! You can also visit her website.


Thursday, May 19, 2011

Not long now!


Just over three weeks until Art Fayre 2011! Tell your friends, tell your family! Great art, fascinating artist demonstrations, refreshments and fun. Please spread the word and make this our best year ever.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Portrait of an Artist - Natalie Rowe

Today's Art Fayre artist is Natalie Rowe of Apple Hill, Ontario.

Natalie is a graphic designer and musician by training, having graduated from the University of Toronto in 1987 with a Bachelor of Music degree, and George Brown College in 1990 with an Honours Design Diploma. She has run her own design business, Grinning Gecko Design, since 1994.

Natalie began hooking rugs after moving to Nova Scotia in 1998. She learned the basics of this traditional craft from her next-door neighbours (a Newfoundlander and an Acadian).


Fintastic Fishies



Fintastic Fishies - detail

  
Fintastic Fishies - detail

Soon after, she began designing her own rug patterns. Using her graphic design skills and taking inspiration from the world around her, she creates rugs that usually end up as wall-hangings. To Natalie, rug-hooking is like painting with wool.
 

Foster


She enjoys dyeing her own wool, which is not only a lot of fun, but gives greater control over the colours used in projects. She hooks with new and recycled material. Many an old wool skirt has worked its way into her rugs, not to mention a coat that formerly warmed her husband! She particularly enjoys using type in her rug designs (all those typography classes paid off), and writing verse to include in the borders of her rugs.


Fintastic Fishies - detail



Julius
 
 
 Natalie's mats have been featured in Rug Hooking magazine's A Celebration of Hand-hooked Rugs XI and XII. They have been featured in several shows, including Mat Hooking: From Simple to Sublime (a juried show at the Mary E. Black gallery in Halifax, NS) and the Comfort & Joy Show (at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador), as well the juried show West Coast Textures (held at the FibreEssence Gallery in Vancouver.) Natalie has particpated in Art Fayre since 2009/



Prospect Village



Albino Axolotl and Friends



Bug Rug

  Natalie now lives on a farm in lovely eastern Ontario, but rug hooking is her link to Nova Scotia. She is a "happy hooker!"

Friday, April 29, 2011

Portrait of an Artist - Evlyn Fortier

Today's Art Fayre Artist is Evlyn Fortier of LeFaivre, Ontario.

Evlyn’s two passions have always been Art and Philosophy. She received her B.A. in Fine Arts (studio) from the University of Waterloo in 1984. Evlyn returned to school in 1987 and completed a M.A. in Philosophy at McMaster University in Hamilton in 1991. She achieved her final degree, a PhD. in Philosophy at the University of Ottawa in 1999.

She has taught Philosophy at Carleton University, St. Paul’s University and the Dominican College in Ottawa. But even while teaching, she continued to make Art and keep abreast of ideas and trends in the Art world.




Evlyn works primarily in Chalk Pastel and Oil. She has participated in numerous group shows in Waterloo, Guelph, Kitchener, Hamilton, Toronto and Vankleek Hill. She exhibited regularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s in Miniatures Exhibitions in Toronto, and later in Miniatures exhibitions in Yugoslavia and Italy.



Evlyn’s husband, the late Peter MacElwain, was a sculptor who exhibited large-scale works in Toronto, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. Evlyn assisted Peter in the creation and setting up of these works. She and Peter ran a foundry where they cast sculpture in bronze, aluminum and lead.



Most recently, she has participated in the Artist Trading Card group that meets once a month in Dunvegan, Ontario. Making Art Cards has allowed Evlyn the chance to try other media, especially collage, and to be more experimental in her work.





Evlyn presently works as a Policy Analyst for the Department of Human Resources and Social Development in Gatineau. She divides her time between her apartment in Gatineau and her home in Lefaivre, Ontario, where she recuperates from spending time as a civil servant by drawing, painting and mucking about in her garden.

Join us at Art Fayre 2011 to meet Evlyn and see her beautiful works of art!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Portrait of an Artist - Ronna Mogelon

Today's Art Fayre artist is Ronna Mogelon of Dunvegan, Ontario.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Ronna Mogelon has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University (Montreal). After graduation, she moved to Toronto, where she was owner of Cheshire Studio and created graphic design for various companies and organizations in and around the city.

Into the Woods


She is author of two published books: a compilation of her humorous cat cartoons entitled “Famous People’s Cats” and “Wild in the Kitchen: Recipes for Wild Fruits, Weeds and Seeds” -- an illustrated cookbook of wild plants she discovered around her Dunvegan farmstead.


Last Snow




Nesting Robin



She has exhibited her colour pencil drawings locally at several group shows in Vankleek Hill and Dunvegan. She’s had solo exhibits at the “Skelly Gallery,” St. Eugene in 2003, 2005 and 2008. Ronna has shown her work at Art Fayre since its inception in 2005.


Path in the Pines


Planting Time


Snow Shovel


January Road


The talented Ronna will again be showing and selling her work at Art Fayre 2011. Please join us June 11 & 12 and enjoy this fine art in person!