Where did summer go?

Here in Canada we had a late spring with cool wet weather and winter went on forever, so summer seemed incredibly short this year. Now we are officially into fall. In that short time I have been busy but neglectfull of my blog. We had a few great weeks up at the cottage, a place I love to be and hate to leave. Last weekend was our final trip for this year  and shared with my siblings and spouses (minus one).. It was the only weekend I had free from exhibiting or preparing for a show. I have one more to do in three weeks and then I"m into the teaching.

Last night was the opening of "Line of Thought" which I will write more about in another blog post as I haven't yet downloaded the photos.. Two weeks ago was our encaustic show, "Fusion". Three friends from Gallery 96 and myself took an encaustic course a little over a year ago and were immediately addicted. So we mounted our own show at a friends new gallery overlooking the Avon River, just outside of Stratford. Studio Stratts is the studio and gallery of Nancy Groenestege, built as an addition to her home. It is a great place in  a wonderfull location just two minutes out of town. Nice high ceilings, lots of windows, great lighting and as I said a terrific view. This was the first exhibition Nancy hosted and she was a great host during set up and the exhibition.

The four of us worked independently but it was amazing to see the similarities when we put the work together to hang. The groupings just formed themselves either by colour or subject matter. Here is some of the work.

BIRCH WOOD

This is one of mine and that's not real birch but simulated with the encaustic.

AUTUMN

Another one of mine , also shown above with the other "red" landscapes by Wendy Orr and Michelle Salter.

BARN SWALLOWS and the single one above are inspired by  the 2 swallows that few into the barn and sat chatting quietly on a wire whilst I was working on my encaustic. We no longer farm so the barn is generally empty except for the barn cats and other visiting wildlife. I have used it for an exhibition called Rural Roots that I mounted with other Gallery 96 members and features in an earlier blog. The 2 little one beside the single barn swallow are by Wendy Orr.

THISTLES

                                                                THE STORYTELLER

The lavendar wall with Wendy Orr's Lupins that were inspired by her recent trip to Newfoundland. Growing Lupins in Ontario is hit and miss I've found, but they grow in abundance on "the rock".

GEORGIAN BAY ROCK

The above is all Michelle Salter's work, the texture in this piece is amazing, but I favour the 2 small pieces, they also use charcoal in them.

ESCAPE

Lots of blow torch with this one.

                                                                   COPPER POSIES

                                                                      BARN OWL

Peaking out of an old mold from a Cambridge tool and die factory that closed years ago. I used several of the mold as you will see later.

"Barn Owl" and the top right "Winter Wood" are mine next to the aqua and white work of Michelle and Anna

Anna Koot's wall, the landscape was so delicate. My personal fav is the pears.

This is another one of Anna's but no matter howmany time I rotate it to a verticle is switched back to horizontal.

My Fish and Mexican Daisies.

Yet another barn owl peeking out of a hole in a birch tree, 2 of my favourite subjects.

MEDITATION

                                                               BUTTERFLY LADY

She is done with colour pencil, collage on rice paper with encaustic. She is one of my favourites and I think I will try more using this technique.

A wall of landscapes mostly by Wendy Orr and a few of mine and Michelle's The ones on die molds and the one with gold leaves is mine. Wendy Orr did several amzing ones with sheep she saw in Newfoundland.

"Haliburton", a triptych inspired by scenes at my cottage on Kennisis Lake. It's a long narrow lake and sometimes gets lots of whitecaps. Not my favourite conditions for using our canoes.

"Gone Fishing" is another triptych. The bouy was made from neccessity...there was a nob in the middle of the die.

THE WATCHER was another sculpture piece. I thought she looked sort of aboriginal but Michelle tells me that the elongated "S" neck is reflective of my celtic heritage. Not sure that there is much of that in my blood, I married into the name and my family is so Anglo.

Tha';s it for the encaustic, but leave you with a scene from Kennisis Lake, a late day sky, just starting to clear after a grey day.