"A Beautiful Destruction"

Opening and Reception for Louis Helbig and "A Beautiful Destruction": Thursday 10th December, 6.00pm to 8.00pm in the Upstairs Gallery.

A solo exhibition and sale of large format aerial photographs.

Last year, Louis and his partner Kristin Reimer hop-scotched across Canada in a 1946 Luscombe single propeller aeroplane.
The goal and destination was fort McMurray and the Alberta Tar Sands.

The title of this show echoes W.B.Yeats' phrase: "A terrible beauty is born", when writing of the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin. What Louis and Kristin discovered, from on high, were views that were almost unbelievable and overwhelming in their intensity.

As Louis writes, "The Alberta tar Sands are a place of superlatives, a place of awesome beauty and destruction, where exaggeration of scale seems almost impossible. Leaving aside the politics that surround them or their technical specifics, the Tar sands are simply awe-inspiring. With every twis and turn of the airplane another incredible scene presents itself, followed by another. It's a linear kaleidoscope of contrasts, colours and patterns garnished by the movement of machinery below."

This collection is an important artistic statement that is captivating, stunning and edgy. This will be moving to larger venues, so come and support your neighbour (Louis and Kristin live in Ottawa) and a show that has national and even global significance. Up until 6th January 2010.

Soft Petals and Steaming Steel: which is a dream and which is real?

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Opening and Reception on Friday, 27th November 2009, 5.00 pm to 8.30 pm for Peter Cunningham's "Soft Petals and Steaming Steel: which is a dream and which is real?" works in oil and acrylic.
Peter will give a talk at 7.00 pm, with question and answer period to follow.

"A knowledge, understanding and love for the subject is evident in the interplay of light and colour across his beautiful landscapes and gardens, while his hauntingly evocative railway and industrial scenes transcend the merely pictorial and enter a realm of mystery and imagination."

Peter Cunningham was born in Birmingham, England, in 1951. At the age of thirteen his family moved from the industrial Midlands to rural Staffordshire, where he discovered a love for the surrounding countryside and the English landscape painting tradition.

After completing high school, Peter studied at the Stafford College of Art and then continued at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London, England. Armed with a solid, formal education Peter, with his wife Gail, set up a studio in their first home, a converted canal boat. Peter, Gail and their two daughters moved to Canada in 1984. The professional studio is in Ottawa, where Peter and family live and is on land. Cunningham's work is represented by galleries in Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal and Saint John and is in many private collections in Canada, England and the United States.

Some of Peter Cunningham's corporate clients include KPMG Peat Marwick and Thorne, Mead Johnson, The Royal Bank, OMERS, Scotia Bank Place, Metropolitan Life, Midland Walwyn, Merrill Lynch, Human Resources Development Canada, Sirius Consulting Group, Pan Canadian Group and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

For prices and dimensions please visit (or contact) Snapdragon Gallery.
For a really good time, come to the opening on Friday, 5 to 8.30pm

Lynette Deir: "Serendipity", acrylic on canvas

Opening on Friday 13th (yes, a lucky day),
Lynette Deir presents "Serendipity", a collection
of new abstracts.
Come and meet the artist, 7.00pm to 10.00pm,

The Dancers in the Rhythm and the Storm: Sorya Gopalan

Opening on Thursday, 29th October 2009, 7.00pm to 10.00pm is the new show of Sorya Gopalan: "The Dancers in the Rhythm and the Storm", acrylic on canvas. Dancers from around the world have influenced Sorya's latest group of work and the result is an abstract style of figurative painting. Ms. Gopalan translates the movement of the dance to these large scale canvases.

Sorya Gopalan was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, moved to Montreal at age 15 yrs. and began painting whilst working on her Master's degree in Toronto. Ms. Gopalan now lives in Ottawa and paints full time.

Squigs and Doo-Wops ending 6.00pm 28th Oct. 2009

Here are some images of the show that will
be leaving Wednesday evening.

Sunday: 10.00am to 5.00pm
Closed Mon. Tues.
Wednesday: 11.00am to 6.00pm

"Squigs and Doo-Wops", mixed media by Ted Willis

"Squigs and Doo-Wops" mixed media on canvas by Ted Willis

Opening: (Party and beginning of sale) 7.00pm to 10.00pm, Friday 16th October 2009.

Short walk the talk at 8.30pm, with Q and A, Teddy bares all!

Ted Willis, who hails originally from California, brings the passion and urgency of big, breaking colour. Think "Surf's up, in Magicolor!!"

Quote from the artist: "I am less interested in commenting on the world than I am in making a complex and challenging visual experience, with a touch of humour. The "Squigs" are a re-invention of Abstract Expressionism - graffitti by Twombly and Pollock. As for the "Doo-Wops"; think "Miro, Arp and Noguchi meet the Jetson's".

Running until Wednesday 28th October.

See these images and below for John Benn's show

Here are some more images that would not fit in the preceding post, come by...

Coming to a Close "A Year in the Woods"

The collection of the show will be breaking up at the close of Tuesday, 13th October.
Twenty-four of the original thirty-nine remain.
Some comments:

"Being here is like being in the woods...so calming, quiet."

"Where did you paint that one, John? They look just like the woods where my father and I used to walk..."

"...ooh, these two are like Old Masters..."

"A Year in the Woods", oils 'en plein air' by John Benn

On Thursday, October 1st, 6.00pm to 9.00pm we are hosting the opening for John Benn's ambitious project: "A Year in the Woods". I met John in the mid seventies, when he was best known for his beautiful (and masterful) etchings. In fact, I remember spending the entire take of my 1975 show and going to find John in Toronto and making my first (for me major) purchase!

Here we all are in 2009 and this is a great show. John Benn will be giving a talk with question and answer at 7.30pm. I will let the artist explain:

"On the 27th July 2008 I sat down in the woods to paint, deliberately choosing an unprepossessing area so as to challenge and hone my abilities and not mask my deficiencies with mere content.

My plan was to continue, weather permitting, for one full year.
N.B. At minus 17 Celsius, oil paint becomes exceedingly stiff and difficult to work.

The year is over, but I find myself still going there to paint.
The more I look, the more I see and what I see in these simple woods is so beautiful, so very beautiful and staggeringly difficult to paint.

From that year's work, 36 paintings were chosen for this exhibition."

Erotic Art + Poetry: Benefit this Friday 25th September

I invite you to an Evening of Erotic Art and Poetry: "Uncovered and Unlocked", this Friday,7.00pm to 10.00pm in the upstairs gallery at Snapdragon.

Tickets are $5 and all the money raised from the sale of tickets will go to fight breast cancer.








































"Uncovered" refers to the sculptures in clay, made by Harold Schneider, who is now 91 years old and has had a distinguished career as both a painter and a sculptor. This retrospective, (eros-spective) is an extremely rare chance to purchase these joyful, sensual works that show couples celebrating love, life and each other. These sculptures are of everyday people, suffused with extraordinary passion. Harold Schneider's daughter, Susan Laing, will give a talk about her father's life and work at 8.00pm.



The second part of the title, "Unlocked" is the collection of erotic poems by Rona Shaffran. Rona is Co-Director of the Tree Reading Series reading series, one of the longest running in Canada. Many of these poems have been read at writer festivals, both in Australia and here in Ottawa. As on publisher writes: "a well put together collection...one that captures both the rich depth and sharp edges of relationships".
Rona Shaffran will be reading from her collection "Unlocked" at 8.30pm.

I am posting some whole images and some partial images, as this is an all ages blog. Hope to see you on Friday, 7.00pm to 10.00pm.

This Friday's opening: "Glass Me Not - Paintings and the Looking Glass"

The world of blogging is new to me so please bear with me in my quest to share more images of new shows, new works and interesting news.

Getting the pictures up here seems to be the current challenge, we will see if you can see Marylee Laing's wonderful paintings.

So the lay out is pretty strange, I will have to work on that.
Come and see for them real, this Friday
6.00 to 9.00 pm.
Marylee Laing will be
giving a talk at 7.00 pm
with questions to follow.

See you there, Upstairs Gallery
at Snapdragon.