AGM

The 3 e's of Art Apply to The Salmon Run Project & Credit River

in ,

If you live in Mississauga you may have heard of the Salmon Run Project, a call to artists to decorate casts of the Coho salmon to be displayed in the Civic Centre Grand Hall early in May.  Mississauga is stepping up its support of the visual arts and this is the first project between the City's Cultural Office and the Art Gallery of Mississauga. But why salmon?

Three types of salmon inhabit the Credit River, the southern Ontario river that starts above the Niagara Escarpment and winds south  through multiple Mississauga communities before it empties into Lake Ontario at Port Credit.

The Port Credit Salmon and Trout Association volunteers recently put 5000 young Chinook into a holding pen to acclimatize them to Lake Ontario. These 6 month old baby salmon are part of an ongoing project to increase the salmon population. About 85,000 salmon will enter the Credit River each year. Meet Sally, the salmon that tried to get away from that process here.

The Credit River Anglers Association, another great volunteer organization, has done fabulous work in protecting both the salmon and the Credit. Every year they collect the migrating salmon at a point in the river that impedes their journey, and drive them safely up to Norval where they are returned to the water so continue on their way. How impressive is that?!

At one time the Credit River was so thick with salmon, it was said one could walk across the river on their backs. However, by the end of the 1800's, their numbers in Ontario rivers had been dramatically depleted.

Despite efforts to reintroduce the Atlantic salmon, they are still very rare. Reintroduction of the Pacific Salmon, such as the Chinook, has  met with much more success. The original call to artists stated we would be decorating casts of the Atlantic salmon, but what we all received was the Coho or Silver salmon.

Whatever "salmon" we work with, the lessons are the same, salmon are remarkable creatures, if we mess with nature it take a lot of time, effort, and good people to correct,  and art, like nature,  has the amazing ability to engage, educate and entertain.

The Salmon Run Project, Sanded at Last.

in
Salmon Run Project
Salmon Run project. Shaping the fin.

I don't know what tools a taxidermist uses on fish casts such as this, but I found a drywall saw effective  for the edges of the fins and for cutting out the mouth. I also used a small hand saw, a metal file, a box cutter and sand paper. Below you can see the scooped out mouth and a sample of the cut out material. The whitish edge is plaster and fibreglass. The fish is not hollow, but filled with the yellowish substance that is some type of foam.

So finally, the fish is sanded. Next step?  To attach the fins, and drill the holes for the stand. Then hurrah, the project actually begins!

Salmon Run Art Project Begins

in ,

Salmon Run Project Art Gallery of Mississauga. Salmon Run Project leaves city hall. Copyright Christine Montague

Today I went to the Art Gallery of Mississauga to pick up my salmon for the Salmon Run Project.

AGM's Jaclyn & Gail, behind the "fish counter", so-to-speak, handed over my wrapped salmon, while found object artist Carmen Hickson, another salmon recipient looked on.

For some added scale: here I am outside Mississauga's Civic Centre,  the home of the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

Stay tuna'd.

Call to Artists: New Mississauga, Halton Hills & Hills of Headwaters Art Shows

in

Suddenly, there are a lot of new visual art shows on the radar in the western Greater Toronto Area, specifically Mississauga, Burlington, Alton (Hills of Headwaters). Calling all visual artists - In Mississauga

  1. NEW DEADLINE! March 4, 2011. The Salmon Run Project. Proposal due tomorrow! You can do it, what's Red Bull for anyways?!..... Create a concept for a pre-made fibreglass salmon. Info due by 5 pm., Friday, Feb. 18th at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. See info  here. http://www5.mississauga.ca/agm/agm_root/upcomingex.html#salmon
  2. Hotbox Riverwood Mentorship Project. A professional development program to challenge artists to create temporary natural, site specific outdoor sculpture on the grounds of Riverwood Park, an amazing urban wilderness just 3 miles west of Square one on Burnamthorpe Rd.  4100 Riverwood Park Lane,  Mississauga, ON. International artist Reinhard Reitzenstein will mentor artists selected to take part in this exciting transformative learning experience. Monthly meetings begin March 2011. The project will conclude with an exhibition in the Fall of 2011.Application Deadline: February 28th  apply please send; 10 jpeg images of your work (size 72dpi) or website, a C.V. and a letter of interest to; HOTBOX24@LIVE.CA

Hills of Headwaters

  1. Time Frame. Heritage Caledon presents an open juried showat the Alton Mill Gallery. Celebrates Ontario's cultural and natural heritage through art. Open to all artists. 3 pieces may be submitted. April 1st deadline. Show May 28th - July 10th. Entry fee $25. All pieces must be available for sale. Entry forms downloaded  from www.caledon.ca

I have heard there is another theme related juried show out there having to do with the escarpment - will post more as soon as I find it.

Brampton: Beaux- Arts Brampton Annual  Open Juried Show. Entry Form and payment due Mar. 15, 2011. Delivery of works for jurying. Sunday, April 3rd. 8:30 - 10:30 am. Pick up of declined work Sun. April 3, 2011.  4 - 5 p.m. Show runs  April 5 - 30th. Download form here.

Williams Mill Gallery, Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre. The first ever theme based  juried art show is about to be announced! Stay tuned!

Art connections - Me, the Mill & the AGM

in

The Model Visits the Studio, the oil  painting I recently completed of my Williams Mill studio, has  been accepted into the Visual Arts Mississauga 33rd Annual Juried Art Show at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. That's not the only Williams Mill connection. My daughter, the figure featured in the painting, and the subject of many of the paintings within the painting, worked in the  Williams Mill Gallery throughout the summer. The show opens Thursday, January 13th at 6 p.m. and continues until Feb. 16th. Jurors for this competition were visual artist Corinne Duchesne and Oakville Galleries Curator of Contemporary Art, Marnie Fleming.  

 

 

09/09/09 Lucky Numbers for Mississauga Artists (well, most of them)

in , ,

Today, on the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year, The Lakeview Legacy Project , a non profit organization, was to stand before Mayor Hazel McCallion & the Mississauga City Council to ensure that the proposed Small Arms Building creativity centre would receive the infrastructure repair funding it so richly deserves. I wondered, (as both a visual artist and with AIM, Artists in Mississauga) would the 09/09/09 date bring good news or not for the arts &  artists in Mississauga? Now, I knew that  the team that makes up the Legacy Project has such experience, dedication and vision, that I really needn't worry. But a little chink in my faith resulted when, as just before I headed out the door to the council meeting, my teenage daughter asked for a whopping $300 for school, and that the number on the cheque I made out  was  333! (add them up- they equal 9)

My anxiety grew, when stuck in traffic snarled by back- to - school buses, and construction everywhere, it took me 3x as long to reach city hall. Then, thinking I was lucky to grab a free  parking spot behind the Living Arts Centre - it wasn't till I was far from my car  - I saw there were now new automated ticket booths. With no  change on hand, I couldn't get mine to work with my charge card. I had the joy of adding some feelings of inadequacy to those feelings of frustration at being late... until  I passed a  gentleman equally perplexed at getting his card to work.

I moved my car to the Square One Parking lot instead.

Racing over to city hall, I held the door open for an out of breath young man who, all dressed up, looked quite perturbed as he ran up the stairs towards me. Aha! a fellow witness also late to this historic event!

But then, across the great hall, little flower girls dressed up in white and pressed against the glass - caught my eye . A wedding, and he made it.

Jim Tovey, Chair of the Lakeview Legacy Project, and the Lakeview Ratepayers Association was presenting his case as I entered the Council Chambers. With no further a due Council unanimously agreed the cause was worthy and deserving. Huzzah!

And then, but with a little more difficulty, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, also got approval for funds toward their much needed and deserved expansion ideas. Huzzah again!

Happily, I returned to my car only to find a ticket on my windshield. Somewhere in time, what had been part of a large mall parking lot, still looked like the mall's parking lot, and has no obvious signs otherwise, at least not to a frustrated motorist,  was now just for private use by who knows who?!?

I could pull a "23" story line and point out that the ticket # ended in 9 (which it did) and so did the officer's number. But that's not the real point. The real point is that Mississauga is getting all grown up. It is getting mature enough enough to recognize that the arts matter, and sometimes, the value of money spent is not just about numbers. And that the nuisance of traffic, and parking that has to be paid for (sigh) are simply growing pains of coming of age.

On the "Go" - Two new paintings, Mississauga landscape, Kincardine Lighthouse interior.

in , ,

The Lighthouse Stairs Copyright Christine Montague 2009 Last week was busy!  I finished this  20" x 20" oil painting of  a youth going down the lighthouse stairs at Kincardine, Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. The challenge to myself was to paint whites in shadow (expand my gray palette). I wrote a blog on this painting & mini  color mixing lesson. Click  here.

Stop, Go. Copyright Christine Montague 2009

Above is a 9" x 12" oil painting of  a Go train emerging from the trees over the Credit River in Port Credit, Mississauga, Ontario. Young boaters from the nearby Mississauga Canoe Club stop to watch it go by - thus the title Stop and Go on the Credit River (Please note: This painting is now sold).

The Credit River in Port Credit is fabulous spot to spend an urban summer evening. Boaters, birds, coffee and ice cream - Lots of places to stroll, shop, sit & people watch.

The original painting isn't as dark as this photograph. Unfortunately it sold so quickly I never did take that quality RAW photograph. Artists out there ! Heed this lesson. A painting is NOT finished until you have taken that quality image for your records.

I often have the problem - when the painting is glossy and glazed - of getting a true representation of the painting. Either the gloss of the paint from my use of liquin (which speeds drying time) reacts like a varnish layer and reflects the light, even on an overcast day. OR even worse, the camera is too efficient and somehow photographs through the top glaze layers and The image photographs as if in an unfinished state!

My husband has decided this is his favourite of all my paintings. Hmmm. I am flattered, but considering I have done some fairly ambitious pieces over the past six years, I am bit "stopped" by such enthusiasm, but I will admit it was fun to have a "go" at a train.

(Last week I also did my first plein air painting . Here is that painting & blog - Click here) This painting will be auctioned off at the 2010 Art Gallery of Mississauga Annual Art Auction.

Cast Fishing, Cast Shadows. Plein Air Painting by the Credit River in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

in , ,

Plein air oil painting Copyright Christine Montague 2009 2010 Update: This original plein air oil painting, painted on location by the Credit River, -under the bridge at Burnamthorpe Bridge between Riverwood Park and Erindale park -  has been given as a charitable donation to the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM) for its 2010 7th Annual Art Auction Fundraiser, April 29th, 2010.

Above is a 6" x 12" oil painting of a man fishing by the Credit River. We are both under the enormous Burnamthorpe Road bridge -  between Erindale Park and Riverwood Park. The day was sunny but the shadow and the wind was cold! After 3 hours my convulsive shaking told me the painting was now finished.

Today I had the fun of plein air painting  with the newly formed group,  Ontario Plein Air Society (OPAS). I had not painted on location in years and never before with oils  ( the exception  Tapatoo Tree (sold) in water soluble oils ) .  Painting on location is quite exilarating - at least that is what I felt after I was done, and could seek relief from the cold and wind in a more sunny spot.

Just before I headed out to meet up with OPAS at Riverwood Park, I quickly thumbed through some International Artist & other art magazines for some helpful hints. Painting on location requires effort put into the logistics.

Following the example of British artist James Hart Dyke (American Artist magazine November 2003) I used the limited palette French Ultramarine, cadmium yellow, cadmium red light, raw umber and titanium white.  What freedom!

Once on location, I struggled a bit with what to paint. I sat across from an enormous old tree, partiatially in decay - but what I wanted to say about this tree could not be said on my 6" x 12" canvas. Suddenly I found my self doing a quick - almost Japanese brush like gesture of the fisherman before me ( I could have drawn him all afternoon) and that was that - I had my subject. I guess I just cannot escape the call to put a figure in my landscapes.