The following three group photographs are shared here with permission from the photographer. They were taken on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evening by artist and professional photographer Cheryl Dolan. Visit her website at http://cheryldolan.blogspot.ca/
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| Photograph by Cheryl Dolan, (artist, photographer, and member of the Pontiac Artist' Association) |
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| Photograph by Cheryl Dolan, (artist, photographer, and member of the Pontiac Artist' Association) |
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| Photograph by Cheryl Dolan, (artist, photographer, and member of the Pontiac Artist' Association) |
It's hard to know where to start when you are trying to recount a week of art making with a group as gifted, organized and generous as the Pontiac Artists' Association and I think the best place to start is where we finished on Friday morning.
We finished on Friday morning with an artist talk by Geraldine Taylor on the importance of "community" for artists.
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| Artist, art collector, curator, gallery owner Geraldine Taylor holding an Evergon photograph |
- They run the Stone School Gallery
- They offer workshops at the Pontiac School of the Arts
- They hold artists talks and other events at the Stone School
- They run the Pontiac Artists' Studio Tour
- They run the Artists' Residency Project
- They run the "Works on Paper, Exhibition and Exchange"
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| Feedback at the end of the day (with Rob Hinchley) |
And it takes a village to build an organization such as this. There are countless volunteer hours required to undertake each activity listed above and PAA members all pitch in. During the residency, PAA members prepared and provided all of the accommodations and meals and much, much more.
What I witnessed is a thriving, dynamic, multi-disciplinary artist community that welcomes all newcomers to sit at their table and feast on the buffet of creativity that flows throughout this region.
The annual membership fee is only $20. The benefits are priceless. Consider joining them by clicking this link here: http://www.artpontiac.com/member-join.html
My Home Sweet Home
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| The log cabin that would be my home away from home for the week. |
The Pontiac Artist Residency hosts the visiting artists in the homes of PAA members. How lucky I was to find myself staying at the beautiful home of Wayne and Elaine!
They had a log cabin (reconstructed from historic logs of the original Macrae farm) located at the back of their property and it was incredible!
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| Interior of the log cabin |
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| The pond and sand beach in front of the cabin |
The Week Long Exchange of Art and Ideas
This is what the week looked like. Over the next few days, I want to share some details on some of these workshops (listed below) that I participated in, the artists that I met and some great lessons learned
Monday, July 17
- Book making with Valerie Bridgeman
- Demonstration of chain saw sculpture techniques by Peter Van Adrichem
- My workshop "Sketching and Paying Attention" by Cindi Moynahan-Foreman
Tuesday, July 18
- Artist’s talk: Catherine Timm, Fiber Artist
- Pocket Assemblages with Kate Strickland
- Mark Making Workshop with Karen Mackay
- Dinner at Cafe 349
- Printmaking and nature-based plein air workshop “River Works” with Rob Hinchley.
- Dinner at Dale’s, Calumet Island.
- Artist’s Talk with Geraldine Taylor about her work on the 1983 "Company of Artists and Patrons" Portfolio and her belief that art is not necessarily created by an individual, but by a whole community.
- Demonstration of chain saw sculpture techniques by Peter Van Adrichem
- Vernissage: “The Nature of the River”: an exhibition of works created during the Residency week at Art Brûlant and Impressions in Shawville, Quebec
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| Our vernissage |
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| Our vernissage |
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| My workshop documents |
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| Dale’s studio on Calumet Island. |
It looks like it was a week well spent. Thanks for sharing this really interesting and informative article.
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