Tuesday, January 7, 2025 (Zoom meeting)
Speaker: Danielle Beaulier, Watercolorist
Presentation Title: “How to prepare for a juried show / art competition and other best practices“.
Danielle Beaulieu is an award winning watercolor artist who lives in the Ottawa region. She is an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists and a Director at Arteast (Ottawa).
Danielle finds inspiration for her watercolors in quiet corners. Whether it’s a beautiful landscape, a flower or an antique, she always wonders what stories they would tell if these objects could talk.
For more information about Danielle please visit her website at:
https://www.daniellebeaulieuwatercolours.com/about
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 (In-Person meeting)
Location: Manotick United Church, 5567 Manotick Main St.
7:00 pm: President’s Welcome
7:15 pm: Keynote Speaker: Lori Ridgeway
8:15 pm: Refreshments /Christmas Card Exchange: We are looking to foster the MAA holiday spirit by hosting a Christmas/Holiday Card Exchange during the social event which will follow the Members’ meeting on December 3. Refreshments will be served!
How the Card Exchange Will Work: Attending members are encouraged to bring one original (hand-made) holiday card (watercolor, collage, oil, pastel, mixed media, anything goes). Each card to be signed by the artist (generic message optional), put in an envelope that measures approximately 5X7 or 4X6 or thereabouts. Upon arrival at the church, each card will be put in a raffle box and then drawn and distributed to attendees – each card will be individually opened by the recipient and shown to group.
We kindly encourage everyone to participate, so everybody can leave with an original piece of art.
Speaker: Lori Ridgeway
Title of Presentation: Aha Moments in my Learning Journey
https://www.loriridgeway.ca/index2.php/
ridgewaylori@gmail.com
More Artworks: https://www.loriridgeway.ca/index2.php/artworks/
Artist’s Bio
Lori Ridgeway began her interest in art in high school, where she was active in the visual and other arts. She focussed on watercolour and ink paintings, and had several of her paintings chosen to be part of international travelling student shows, where she won a prize for her work. Her professional career ultimately took a different turn, but she never lost sight her love for art, and spent many long hours on the edges of her international career in galleries and art neighbourhoods in North America and around the world. Her professional career was focussed on looking beyond the superficial to understand integrate the complexity of issues often less understood or overlooked, to find solutions. This has shaped her eye and artistic intellect as well.
After a long career, she immediately returned to painting in 2013, this time in oils. To make up for lost time, she has followed classes since 2014 at the Ottawa School of Art, Winslow Art Centre, and many in-person (including cross-Canada travel) and now, on-line workshops and courses by diverse top artists, understanding their best practices and philosophies and how they inform her artistic intuition. She and her husband have travelled annually since 2013 to spent in depth time in top US art centres featuring contemporary painters (including annually to Santa Fe, NM, the second largest art centre in the US).
She is a supporting member of both the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Society of Canadian Artists, as well as an active member of the East Central Ontario Art Association, the West Carleton Arts Society, and three other local Ottawa Societies. Her paintings have been accepted into local, regional, national and international juried exhibitions and group shows.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024 (In-Person meeting)
Location: Manotick United Church, 5567 Manotick Main St.
Speakers: David Kearn and France Laliberté
Title of Presentation: A sneak preview of their upcoming book: Creative Surge: Three Winters with Tom Thompson, to be released on November 14, 2024.
Description: In just three winters Tom Thomson created all of his masterworks, an achievement sometimes overshadowed by an incredible mastery of oil sketches and his untimely death. We take a voyage of discovery through the poignant winters of 1914/15, 1915/16 and 1916/17 in Tom Thomson’s studio. Our back and forth conversations offer a lens through which to rediscover his masterworks, re-energizing and refreshing our attachment to his studio paintings as well as Tom’s evolution as an artist. Our strong personal connection to Thomson’s genius shines through our respect for these magnificent paintings! Much has been written – and continues to be written – about Tom Thomson and his art. Still, we are perhaps the first to truly convey the drama and importance of these three winters, spotlighting his large paintings. Written in an accessible and engaging style, the reader is inspired to rediscover Tom’s studio paintings. Whether this is your first or fifteenth book on Tom Thomson, it will set you on the trail to seek out Tom’s art during your next gallery visit!
About the Authors:
France Laliberté and David Kearn met in 1978 in Alberta. David was a Flight Test Engineer conducting tests on a British helicopter in arctic climes. France was a trainee Air Traic Controller. The winter season soon warmed and David returned to the UK. Together for only a few weeks, they felt the heaviness of parting. Would they ever see each other again? Of course! David eventually moved to Montreal to work in Aerospace. France worked in the travel industry. Decades later, after career opportunities and moves from Montreal, life-doors opened up. France studied interior design and rediscovered art, long buried. She painted her version of The Jack Pine for a milestone birthday for David. Shortly afterwards David left regular employment and his path in the arts began.
France was valedictorian of her interior design graduating class and her kitchen project was chosen for display at the annual instructor’s regional design conference. David’s innate love of art also drew him to creating and communicating. He is a recipient of the Ted Marshall Memorial Scholarship from the Ottawa School of Art and for the past 15 years, has taught at the School.
France and David launched Break-a-Brush® together in 2013, initially hosting painting workshops themed on master painters. Over the past 11 years, Break-a-Brush® has developed considerably and now includes on-line courses, seminars and mentoring, all whilst retaining its core of
workshops. At the heart of Break-a-Brush® is a deep interest in every participant. Individual attention is aimed at encouraging what comes naturally: that learning is fun, and everyone can push boundaries to discover that creating will flow more easily.
David is a regular feature on Rogers TV Daytime Ottawa. Each month David demystifies art, making it straightforward and accessible to all. His openness, commitment and energy are infectious and have earned him a reputation as inspired artist, writer and inclusive coach: “I infuse my love of art into everything I do. Creativity is always an opportunity for growth as well as being motivating and fun.” France continues, “I love what art is and what it does for people. I recently watched a wonderful video of a homeless man who, after waking and exiting his tent, had breakfast, tidied up and then spent an hour or so doing art. He said that it made him forget his circumstances and helped him keep a positive attitude. What more needs to be said?”
David published his first book “Eighteen Pieces” in 2021. It is in equal parts an artist’s journey of discovery and practical, enabling methods. David has a knack for connecting underlying ideas and principles, shining a light on the enigmatic and its magic. A second book, “One Summer along the Trans Canada Trail – Plein-air Painting in Ottawa- Gatineau” was published in 2023. A painting adventure: in a sense, it follows Tom Thomson’s painting methods. This book describes a single season’s plein-air painting along with some hidden local history and a touch of whimsy. For these first two books, France was both an engine of inspiration and fountain of support, including taking on the role of editor. Their third book “Creative Surge: Three Winters with Tom Thomson” is authored together and they join their deep respect and admiration for Tom Thomson as one of Canada’s treasured painters thanking Tom for his contribution to their creative lives. In addition to their shared love of the arts, life, and people, France is a member of Mensa Canada and an active blogger on finance and nutrition. David maintains his association with the Engineering profession as a Chartered Engineer (U.K.) and is an advocate for local whole food and energy accounting.
Tuesday, Oct 1, 2024 (In-Person meeting/Zoom)
Speaker: Heidi Taillefer
Title of Presentation: Level 50: A 50 Year Retrospective.
Description: Heidi has been making art for over 50 years and is having a solo retrospective of her work in September 2024 (Montreal). Her talk will feature an overview of her evolution as an artist and cover the technical considerations of being a career artist and by sharing her personal experience, both as an artist and as an illustrator.
Website: https://www.heiditaillefer.com/
Bio and Artist Statement:
Heidi Taillefer is a 21st century surrealist and symbolist who began working as a commercial illustrator in the mid 90’s. Although considered self-taught, she did take childhood art classes at the La Palette school of Art in Beaurepaire village, Quebec, where she first established her style as a result of the freedom allowed to her by teacher Renate Heidersdorf.
She eventually pursued her fine art activities in tandem with illustration, using her painting style to secure contracts with such clients as the Cirque du Soleil, Infiniti luxury automobiles, the NFL, and Forbes magazine, to name a few.
Although she has no formal academic training in art, Taillefer studied Humanistics at McGill university and has travelled extensively throughout the world, all of which informs her art to this day. Her work channels the influences of some of the early 20th century surrealists such as Max Ernst, Girogio DeChirico, and Paul Delvaux, and is an original creative fusion of classical figurative painting, surrealism, contemporary realism, and mythology combined with popular figurative traditions ranging from Victorian romanticism to science fiction.
Taillefer’s work delves deep into themes which address the human experience, painting subjects comprised of seemingly incongruous objects characterized as symbolic. Subjects depicted in her work form a complex composite of elements and add a contemporary spin to often classical icons.
The main characteristic of Taillefer’s work is her depiction of the growing hybridization of technology and humanity, in which she depicts “machine-like” constructions. Taillefer’s approach is to infuse primordial aspects of the human condition into hybridized depictions of humans and animals, and seeks to remind the viewer of the inescapable nature of our being despite our increasing merger with technology. It puts into question notions of spiritual truth and morality within the context of a technological explosion, and asks what becomes of spirituality and humanity in the face of a technological revolution.