a date with Caravaggio

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

Time was running out, Caravaggio was leaving town, well at least his paintings were. The exhibition was ending on the 11th so last Friday, on the 9th, I hightailed it off downtown for Teresa Day (regular readers might recall a recent Jonah Day, same idea only now it was my turn).

The National Gallery of Canada (here in Ottawa) had a summer long exhibition of Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome. The exhibition was an exploration of how one brilliant and temperamental artist changed the course of art history in a career that spanned less than two decades. Five years in the making, the exhibition brought together a dozen of Caravaggio’s masterpieces along with more than 40 paintings by other great artists of his time who looked to him for inspiration.

As for an actual date with Caravaggio -  well that would have been way too scary. I learned that he was successfully sued for libel, had a hot temper, he killed a man in a brawl, escaped from the authorities looking for him, later seriously wounded another man, was imprisoned for this but escaped a month later, went into exile at the home of an old friend and while there was able to further his art career by completing some prestigious and lucrative commissions! Upon leaving a tavern one night, Caravaggio was ambushed and violently attacked, an attack from which he never full recovered. Basically the sort of guy your mom warned you about!

Only some 70 works by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio still survive, and those are rarely sent on loan by their owners. Not one of his paintings is held in a public collection in Canada. I consider myself most fortunate to have seen this exhibition.

Well it was a grand day - I toured Caravaggio's work, watched a film of his bio, scooted through the galleries permanent collections and feasted my eyes on originals by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Cezanne, the Group of Seven...etc. etc...On and on it went. Yum, yum... I get visually weary of seeing great art reduced to posters, other print media and the internet. It is quite refreshing to stand in front of originals - to soak in the true colours, the size, the brush strokes. I also enjoyed experiencing the progression of art history as I viewed Caravaggio's art from the 1600s right on up to the contemporary work of today. After I left the Gallery, I walked a short distance down Sussex Dr. and popped into a few private art galleries, more wonderful art.

And I bought a rock! Isn't this 'Ruby in Fushite' lovely? It is only three inches long but oh the patterns and colours...I bought it at a groovy wee shop on Sussex called Jade. They sell gem stones and jewelry. This particular rock 'spoke to me', I could see all sorts of abstract paintings in the patterns so I treated myself and brought it home to inspire me. 

Ruby Fushite

And I met a kindred spirit - the woman working in the store. When making my purchase, I shared that I could already see this rock inspiring a future series of abstracts. Her face lit up and she got quite excited. She started to enthusiastically talk about a Russian painter friend that lived with her and her family for a year. He apparently painted her a gorgeous watercolour abstract. Later, after being hired to work in this store, she found a stone that contained the exact colours and patterns of the painting. How cool is that? We had made a connection. We went on to spend many minutes looking over the rocks together and oohed and ahhed at their beauty. I told her how such patterns shocked me with their beauty, like the patterns found in wood. She looked at me and exclaimed, "Oh don't get me started on wood grain, I love wood grain patterns." And suddenly we were off on that topic for a while. Yup, a kindred spirit alright...had a great visit...

I should have asked her if she was into cloud watching! (would have never got out of the store, LOL). This sunset makes the sky look on fire.

So what else has been happening? Gee, we have had a bear visit a couple of times. He/she mangled and chewed an old apple tree located about 30 feet from our house. The bear was determined to get all of the apples. The tree has now been 'pruned' rather harshly but it should survive this. I do wonder if there might be a problem with all of the bark damage where the bear seriously chewed the surface. I hope not. The woods are full of fallen acorns for a bear to consume and it seems like he/she has moved on. Of course when walking in the woods these days, I am being more alert to any sounds of breaking twigs, anything that signals that the dog and I are not alone...Interesting notion though, the idea of having to consume lots of calories in the fall, like a bear does, in order to make it through winter. I think I would be up for the challenge... :-) Did I mention I baked an apple crisp this afternoon?...hehe...

I have had some time wasted dealing with the property where my parents lived. There has been some trespassing activity that needed attention, we had an pitiful offer come in (got to toss that one back, we didn't even try to negotiate, I have never done that before but it felt good) and I have spent hours emailing our agent (whose performance I am having to start to 'manage') as well as emailing/talking to my sister. Unfortunately it isn't all cloud watching and art around here.

And woo-hoo last night was opera night! Another trip downtown, this time to the National Arts Centre for an Opera Lyra production of Pagliacci (Anyone thinking of the Seinfeld 'Pagliacci' episode with Crazy Joe Davola as the clown? I forget all sorts of things but something like a TV sitcom episode stays stuck in my mind. Sheesh...) The opera was fabulous as usual and folks, Joanna G'froerer - principal flute player was in the house. Wee-hee! Every year we have front row, centre, season's tickets and from here I can lean over and look down into the orchestra pit. Being in the presence of Joanna, so renowned and so talented that she is, is a real treat. Okay, I am a flute player, not in her realm of course but gosh, to hear her play live, just feet from me, well I get goose bumps I tell you!

This has turned into a long post so my announcements and such shall have to wait. More tomorrow...

drawing with a grid, staycations, more studio pics

Welcome to the National Gallery of Canada! There are many reasons why I love living in Ottawa and this gallery is one of them. Last Thursday evening, I had a bit of a staycation. I attended a special exhibit and I decided to take my camera along so you could see this wonderful gallery.

The collection of art that makes up the permanent collection exhibited in many locations until this new facility was built in 1988. Architect Mosha Safdie designed this award winning glass and granite building and it truly is stunning. The above pictures show the front entrance and the photo below shows a side view.

Next is a shot taken right into the setting sun. :-) Oh well, it was going to be dark when I left the exhibit so it was now or never. This is the other end of the gallery which faces the Ottawa river.

The next picture shows the area just as you approach the entrance to the gallery. 'Maman' is a fabulous 30 ft high sculpture by artist Louise Bourgeous. The bronze spider even has marble eggs in her sac. Across the road, you can see another fabulous piece of architecture, the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica. It is absolutely incredible inside.

The picture below shows a lovely view of Canada's parliament buildings, taken from inside the gallery.

Here is an interior shot and the door under the artwork is where I walked into the exhibit I went to see. The exhibit was titled 'From Raphael to Carracci, The Art of Papal Rome'. This three month exhibition, here at the National Gallery, was the only venue in North America. There were 150 drawings and paintings by 16C masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, Titian and Carracci. All I can say is wow. What a treat to see this work. This brings me to the part of the title that mentions drawing with a grid.

Over the years that I have been teaching art, I have been amazed to often hear students remark that they can't really draw because they use a grid. Some refer to it as cheating or they will say that this is how they know they aren't really artists. I wonder if they would consider Raphael a real artist? The man used grids all of the time!!! This exhibition had many drawings by these masters that had carefully rendered one inch grids covering the page. One Raphael drawing showed a preliminary sketch of a horse. He made several mathematical notations on the page noting distances and proportions, from the front leg to the hip, the girth of the belly to the neck etc. Are these sorts of math equations wrong too? Soooo...if you are someone who uses a grid in order to help you draw, please don't think this is a really bad thing to do. Artists use many tools. Besides, you still have to get the bits you draw inside each grid right. Grids will only assist you so far. :-) Relax, stop feeling guilty and realize you are in excellent company!

My next photo is my last gallery picture. It shows a walkway heading back down to the main entrance.

So what is going on in your city? When was the last time you went to a show at your local gallery? Even if you live in the country, most folks live within an hour or two of a city. If you don't have a grand gallery like this to go to, you will find that browsing a small private gallery can really stir up your creative juices. Why not plan a staycation this fall? I know that I shall be heading back to the National Gallery soon as I want to see the permanent collection again. Oh, and I saw some art books in the gallery bookstore that would make perfect Christmas gifts. I like to save my husband the bother of shopping! :-)

From the sublime to the ridiculous. For those of you who enjoyed seeing my studio (pics in previous post), I thought I would share how the room looked two years ago when we moved here.

I'm thinking ugly mock Tudor??? Ugly something anyway...

You might recall that we are currently painting the dark brown siding on the exterior of the house. Well two years ago, as soon as we had the keys to the house, I rolled up my sleeves and started to cover up all of this dark brown. I had a deadline as I was scheduled to teach a course in this room in just a few weeks. The paint on the floor was barely dry and my husband made new tables the night before. I didn't get the track lighting added until later.

Here is another shot of the studio now...ah, much lighter and brighter...

You can click on this studio pic for a larger image. So, tell me - where are you going to staycation this fall? (Can you believe such a word was even created?)