It's about love

Art is about relationships even if it appears to be about nature.

Coastal Trip by Paterson Ewen (1925-2002)  acrylic and metallic paint on gouged plywood  1974

I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario last week.  

Paterson Ewen is one of my favourite artists.

Coastal Trip by Paterson Ewen  1974  (each part is about 60 inches)

I respond with my whole body to the rugged materials and strong marks in his unique paintings.

The scale of his work holds us.  

coastal trip detail by Paterson Ewen  acrylic on plywood cut with first with a router 1974

Monotones (Seascape) by Silke Otto-Knapp watercolour on canvas 2016

I took my 7 year old grand daughter with me.  

We only lasted about an hour.

Monotones (seascape) detail by Silke Otto Knapp  

It's hard work, 

looking and thinking

 and climbing all the curvy stairs.

When we got home we made collaborative drawings with ball point pens in my journal.    

highway 17 return home

Our visit with our son and his family was beautiful and I am so very grateful. 

 

the most beautiful thing

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science.

He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead - - - his eyes are closed.

The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion.

 

 

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists,
manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,

which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms.

 This knowledge,

 This feeling,

 is at the center of true religiousness.

 In this sense, and in this sense only

I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.

Albert Einstein 

Tarpaulin # 8 Betty Goodwin 1976

In her art, Betty Goodwin reflects on the fragility and resilience of human life.

She often worked with found objects, such as clothing, which holds traces of the body and
that evoke loss and the passage of time.

While walking through Montreal in the 1970's, Goodwin noticed the large industrial tarpaulins that cover transport trucks,

their visible rips and marks a reminder of many journeys travelled.

The artist bought several repaired tarpaulins and reworked their surfaces with gesso, chalk and oil stick,

folding and refolding the canvas to add to the existing stains, scratches and seams.  By transforming this everyday object, Goodwin made it her own.

Tarpaulin #8, 1976     tarpaulin, gesso, rope, wire
by Betty Roodish Goodwin, born and died Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  1923 - 2008
(text quoted the gallery'swall signage)

I spent an entire day at the Art Gallery of Ontario and am now filled with inspiration, moved by the emotional authenticity of the contemporary art I saw there and of the respectful and intelligent way it was presented for the viewer.