Trish Murphy in Colour Pencil Society Exhibit
SONSI member Trish Murphy will be exhibiting a work, “Pine Trunk” in the Colour Pencil Society of Canada’s first juried exhibit. The show opens at the Shenkman Art Centre Gallery in Ottawa on July 3rd for a month and then will travel to Montreal.
“Pine Trunk”. Trish Murphy, coloured pencil.
“Loon” shortlisted for book award
“Loon” was short listed for the 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award in the Children’s Picture Book category. The book was illustrated by SONSI member Karen Reczuch. The jurors in these awards are young readers. This year, the jurors are students at Parkdale Public School in Toronto. Five students in Grade Two will select the final winner for the Picture Book category. The winners will be announced on May 31.
One of the original acrylic paintings which Karen did for the book was on display at the SONSI Exhibit 2012.
Lori Dunn in Animal Artists Exhibit
SONSI member Lori Dunn has a scratchboard piece in the 52nd Annual Exhibit of the Society of Animal Artists, which will be held this year in the Hiram Blauvelt Museum in New Jersey from Sept to Dec 2012.
“Born This Way.” Lori Dunn, scratchboard.
While I’m not a Lady Gaga fan or anything, I did rip off the title of one of her songs to make a point. If society is supposed to be accepting of humans of all races, sizes… and lifestyles, why can’t we be accepting of all forms of animal life as well? Reptiles have gotten a bad rap since the beginning of mankind…. This little hatchling crocodile, if it makes it to adulthood, will face a life of fear and persecution from humans ignorant to its real beauty and importance on our planet.
Annual General Meeting
On Sunday, April 29, SONSI members met at the Walper Hotel in Kitchener for brunch and our Annual General Meeting. The buffet, the service, and the private room were all excellent! Detailed minutes from the meeting have been provided to members.
Following the meeting, we made our way to the City Hall Rotunda Gallery to take down our exhibit, a task made a bit complicated by crowds of chess tournament attendees, but it didn’t take us long to empty the walls and pack up our artwork.
A smaller group of us then drove over to Kitchener’s Huron Natural Area for a leisurely stroll. After taking a quick look at the interpretive signs near the front entrance (which I illustrated last year), we walked by the pond where we saw lots of painted turtles, including one log with about 10 of them piled on. In the woods, the white trilliums and trout lilies were at their peak. We spotted many butterflies, including mourning cloaks, red admirals, question marks, and painted ladies on their larval host plant, pussytoes. In a white pine we saw the home of a Pine Tube Moth, which Fiona later identified as Argyrotaenia pinatubana. On the way back to the parking lot, we admired a patch of red trilliums that included some pale yellow individuals.
Throughout the day: great conversations with interesting people and perfect weather. It couldn’t have been better!
-Emily
See more photos from the day on the event page.
Focus on Nature: works by SONSI members
Karen Reczuch, Loon
Four exhibitors are SONSI members: Kathryn Chorney, Emily Damstra, Dino Pulera, and Karen Reczuch. For an international exhibit, Southern Ontario is pretty well represented!
Some thoughts from the jurors (taken from the FON website):“Focus on Nature began as an experiment. We sought to demonstrate the connection between science and images; stimulate an interest in natural history art among practicing artists, aspiring artists and the public; and bring this art to the attention of people attending what has come to be called the Northeast Natural History Conference. Those thoughts still guide the jury. We think our experiment has worked because visual communication, like a universal language, will always help scientists explain complex objects and concepts to a general audience.Emily Damstra, Paraspirifer bownockeri
Dino Pulerà, Hammerhead skull, brain, dorsal view.
Kathryn Chorney, Great Horned Owl.
Over the years, the quality of submissions has improved, the kinds of materials and media used has expanded, and the geographic representation of artists has broadened. Artworks considered for inclusion must accurately represent the subjects, or research results and processes.
“Fishes of Toronto”
Coin design by Celia Godkin
SONSI member Celia Godkin has designed another stunning coin for the Canadian mint, featuring maple leaves. If you would like more information about the coin, please visit its page at the mint.
SONSI Exhibit 2012 Opening Reception
SONSI Exhibit 2012. Photo: Emily Damstra
Setting up the SONSI Exhibit 2012
Vic (from the Gallery) and Emily ponder placement.
Hanging the exhibit Sunday Morning.
Second ghillie brogue workshop
Cutting a template from yellow craft foam. Photo: Elizabeth Pratt.
Continuing with the Celtic themed Robbie Burns day workshop that began the Ghillie Brogues creation (or recreation) SONSI members recongregated at Hall Train studios on St Patricks day for the next stage of the workshop. The Ghillie Brogue, and in particular this Ghille Brogue was the footwear of choice for the Celtic Scotts. Or at least the one who lost his shoe in a bog some time ago, providing history, the ingenuity of Hall Train and the curiosity of SONSI members with a fascinating artifact.
The workshop began with the fantastically coloured foam mock-ups that members had begun to create in the first workshop. After carefully taping them in place the elegant process of crafting the lacing began (with much help and guidance from Hall). As everyone’s shoes began to take shape it was interesting to see how each member wanted to ensure that each of their individual needs were met in the final design. This particular design is very adaptable and can easily be altered to meet each individual need, another accomplishment of such an ancient and seemingly outmoded design.
As the final leather shoes were cut and laced, members began to look as ease in their new footwear. Once the final sewing has been done it is entirely possible that these shoes will be seen being worn by members. I wonder though if they will ever be tested out on the original earthy damp terrai that they were originally designed for?
Enormous thanks should go to Hall for sharing his expertise, time and studio with SONSI, and also to Kathryn and Joseph.
- Elizabeth
