Ottawa - National Gallery

The Ontario Hooking Craft Guild AGM was in Ottawa this year and a group of us drove up a day early to enjoy the location.

It was a drizzly, grey day.

The impressive, windowed ramp into the gallery was encased in plywood as the 30 year old windows need to be replaced but the atrium was still open to the light.

We looked out at this sculpture as we ate at the gallery cafeteria, which had surprisingly good food. Majestic, 2011, by Michel De Broin, is made from New Orleans lamp posts that were damaged and displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

While having lunch we decided that we would spend 2 hours and then all meet back at the gallery shop. I knew this would not be enough time for me to see everything but tried to move pretty quickly and see as much as possible. The following photos are just a small selection of the ones I took. Which is an even smaller selection than what was on display.

I opted to start on the same floor as the cafeteria in the Contemporary Art section. Beyond Redemption by Adrian Stimson

The contemporary galleries always provide a variety of media and I am often surprised at some of the odd exhibits that I find compelling. Evidence of Body Binding by General Idea.

This was constructed in wood and the illusion of sunlight was achieved through sanding and painting the surfaces. Sunlight on table and floor by Murray Favro.

Voyage by Carl Beam

I wandered from room to room and at some point moved into the Canadian Artists section.

No idea why this appealed to me - the bright colours? that I saw bullrushes? Its called Asparagus and was painted by Claude Tousignant

I know why this did - one of my favorite subjects and one of my favourite artists. Lighthouse, Father Point by Lawren  S.Harris.

The farmhouse is painted realistically but the sky is more abstract and the foreground more folk art??? Ontario Farmhouse by Carl Schaefer

This one has quite a limited colour palette and made me look at how the subtle colours are carried around the painting. Doc Snyder's House by L.L Fitzgerald.

Landscape, Hochelaga by Marc-Aurele Fortin.

An unusually dark Lawren S. Harris, Black Court, Halifax.

There seemed to be a higher number than usual of female artists. A painting (by Davies) of Elizabeth Wynn Wood next to her sculpture, Gesture.

Girl in Yellow Sweater, Prudence Heward. This was in a gallery devoted to members of the Beaver Hall Group (first president was A Y Jackson) that was formed in Quebec in the early 1920s. Half the members were female artists.

I spent some time looking at brush strokes on this one, trying to see how I could replicate them in rug hooking to get this effect. Landscape, Ahuntsic by Marc-Aurele Fortin

Snow Clouds, Franklin Carmichael.

Pilgrimage, Jock Macdonald.

Another Lawren S. Harris, Beaver Pond

Another Elizabeth Wynn Wood, Passing Rain

The last gallery I had time for was devoted to Indigenous Artists.

Armoured Whale by Tim Pitsiulak

wHOLE w(((h)))orl(((d))) by lessLIE

I wasn't on my feet the whole time, I had a brief rest by the pool.

I also took a brief stroll around the green courtyard. I welcomed the mental break from the over stimulation of all the art.

I met Pat in the atrium and we had a glass of wine there before meeting the others at the shop. We compared notes discussing the pieces we had all seen and those that some of us had missed. Heather was the only one who had gone to more than one floor and seen the photography.
Back to the hotel where we met up with Pam who had been helping set up JJ's rug display. Out to dinner at a Greek restaurant. (The night before had been Thai).