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September/October 2023 Newsletter

GALLERY ARTISTS

GROUP SHOW

September 13 to October 7

Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm

Follow us on Facebook & Instagram to stay in the loop.

Labour Day Weekend Redux

Summer returned and everyone accomplished in three days

what we’ve been trying to do all summer between rainstorms!

That’s me in the yellow ball cap at the Tancook Island Museum & Gallery.

Speaking of Galleries

Thank you brave mariners who sailed your cars through river-roads

to celebrate the Captain’s House Gallery openings,

be informed by artists talks, and supported the exhibitions with nibbles

from Chester’s Coastal Charcuterie

Fear Of Missing Out

If you, like me, stayed home rather than venture out into yet another deluge,

the last month of the gallery season is dedicated to OUR ARTISTS.

The rooms will be awash with art from realistic to abstract, muted to vibrant,

paintings, drawings, textiles and ceramics.

Did You Say Ceramics?

Yes, Alex McCurdy’s ceramics will be in the group show!

Artist Prints and Greeting Cards

Orders can be placed for gift giving.

Visit the gallery or www.carolhansenartist.com and email gallery to order.

Thank you for a wet yet wonderful season!

I am about to embark on a painted floor cloth journey

that will add a new dimension to the gallery next season.

Stay tuned!

See you at the Gallery!

__________________________________________________

ROBIN MULLER

OPENING RECEPTION: WEDNESDAY AUGUST 23 5-7PM

TEXTILES AND TRAVELS

August 16 to September 9

Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm

ARTIST TALK - ROBIN MULLER

Saturday, August 26 2pm

Robin Muller has been making weavings and other art works for galleries and interior designers since 1979.  She has worked mostly as a hand-weaver but have also made artist’s books and Jacquard weavings on hand and power looms.

Jacquard looms create images and large shapes across the fabric, seen in images on men’s ties or the symmetrical curves on large damask tablecloths.  Historically these looms were controlled by punch cards. Since the 1990’s, these looms interact with Photoshop-like programs to create large photographic images, and drawings that span the width of the cloth.

The imagery for this body of work comes photos of patterns and people she has collected during her travels over the past 30 years.

Robin has taught book arts and weaving, at The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (now NSCAD University), specializing in complex structures and Jacquard weaving.  She has completed residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, the Jacquard Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina and the Lisio Foundation in Florence, Italy.

Her artwork has been exhibited across the US and Canada as well as Norway, Finland, France, Germany, South Korea and 3 African countries.  It is also included in private and public collections including The Museum of Civilization in Ottawa and the Nova Scotia Art Bank.

Robin Muller was born in Northern Virginia in 1955. She received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and her MFA from University of Michigan in 1978.  She worked at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco and the University of North Dakota before immigrating to Canada to join the faculty of NSCAD University, formerly the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She retired in 2015.

SUMMER IN THE GALLERY

August 16 - September 9

Wednesday - Saturday

11am - 4pm

Carol Hansen - Figurative Paintings

Loretta Manning - Hooked Rugs

Robin Muller -Textile Shop

Throws, Shawls, Scarves

ART PLANTAE

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY JULY 20 5-7PM

BOTANICAL ART

July 19 to August 12

Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm

ARTIST TALK - MARGARET BEST

Saturday, July 22 2pm

Botanical art has been in a dynamic global renaissance since the mid-1980s presenting a marriage of science and aesthetics beyond the constraints of illustration.

The art form is rooted in the history of documenting medicinal plants, voyages of discovery, and the development of horticulture.  In contemporary times, the movement has produced elevated levels of realism using permanent materials in a range of mediums. Remarkable works depicting purely plant forms, mostly on white backgrounds are becoming more commonplace in fine art galleries, fine art publications, public and private collections, and focused exhibitions in renowned botanical gardens. Increasingly, exhibition themes are turning to plant life in peril to expand public awareness

The featured artists in the 1st Art Plantae Group exhibition at the Captain’s House Gallery have connected during the past five years bound by the challenges of medium mastery in watercolour, graphite, and coloured pencil to explore a wide range of plant forms found in Nova Scotia. Selected subject matter has ranged from native plants, to heirloom food species, to fungi foraged in local forests—many expressing seasonal changes.

All of the exhibiting artists have developed or extended their passion for plant art under the guidance of Chester-area resident and internationally-recognized artist and educator, Margaret Best. Exhibitors include Margaret Best, Cynthia Dean, Gwen Dueck, Karen Hooper, Elizabeth Hulshoff, Katherine MacPherson, Santi Phommachakr, Sengmany Phommachakr, Anne-Marie Sheppard, Corinne Silver, and Bobby Young.

Quotes from some of the participating artists:

“The contemporary resurgence of botanical art makes me excited about the possibilities it holds for inspiring appreciation of nature’s beauty and urgent conservation efforts. I am thrilled to have been able to study this art form with one of the world’s leading botanical artists right here in Nova Scotia.” Anne-Marie Sheppard

“Just one of the wonderful aspects of this art form is how it re-focuses and hones the way you see nature.” Gwen Dueck

“As we are all intricately and intrinsically woven into the fabric of nature, I am driven to express its dynamic beauty and diversity. This art form facilitates it perfectly.” Cynthia Dean

SUMMER IN THE GALLERY

July 19 - August 12

Wednesday - Saturday

11am - 4pm

Carol Hansen - Figurative Paintings

Loretta Manning - Hooked Rugs

Gwen Duck - Abstract Paintings

Valerie Hearder - Textiles

CAROL HANSEN

KINSHIP

EXHIBITION OPENING THURSDAY

JUNE 22, 5-7PM

ACRYLIC PAINTINGS

21 June to 15 July

Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm

MEET THE ARTIST

Exhibition Talk - 24 June - Saturday 2pm

Since my mother’s passing, I have been paging through photo albums of her life in South Africa. She had spent a half century there, compared to my two decades. Widowed at 51, she moved to Canada, and spent the next 35 years with me and my Canadian family.

I had already begun to introduce figures into my paintings. The people in my mother’s photographs appealed to me as figures for future paintings; but how to compose them on the canvas, puzzled me.

A visit to fellow South African artist, Valerie Hearder’s studio, surrounded me with vibrant scenes of African figures, and her textile Canadian landforms. This inspired me to have the people in my mother’s South African photos, walk out of her albums into the Nova Scotian gardens, shorelines and fields of my paintings.

How can I part with paintings of those so close to me? The figures in the paintings are no more my kin, than the flowers in the painting are only mine. The painting becomes universal; its purpose is to evoke a feeling in the viewer that is personal to them.

An only child who has few cousins, kinship had a lesser impact on me growing up. Marriage, and especially the birth of children, changed all that. Death of parents was yet another factor that deepened my grasp of kinship.

Thus grew the idea for Kinship. Not only the kinship we share with blood relatives but with people we are drawn to because we share a kinship through philosophy, creativity, activity, adversity, and the workplace. I look forward to sharing the work of the past winter and spring with you.

VALERIE HEARDER

AFRICAN INFLUENCES,

ATLANTIC LANDSCAPES

EXHIBITION OPENING THURSDAY JUNE 22, 5-7PM

TEXTILES

21 June to 15 July

Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 4pm

MEET THE ARTIST

Exhibition Talk - July 8 - Saturday 2pm

Val’s career in textile arts has ranged from teaching internationally, writing books, exhibiting her art quilts, to leading cultural textile tours to South Africa. Her influences are varied, and her work will reflect those influences; from the Tropic of Capricorn which runs through South Africa, where she was born, moving to live in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and on to Labrador where she worked with indigenous communities to support craft economies. Val settled in Mahone Bay with her husband in the early 1980s, and it was there her textile and quilting arts flourished. She taught internationally for over 25 years, including in the UK, USA, Ireland and Japan, and wrote 2 books on quilting.

Her fascination with textiles that tell people’s stories was sparked by various women's groups in South Africa who were making vibrant embroidered and appliqué story cloths. She began returning to South Africa and that led her to start a small fair trade business importing textiles from South Africa. She donated a portion of the sales to the Grandmother to Grandmother Campaign. Those visits evolved into her leading cultural tours to SA to visit the women’s groups in person. Many South African pieces from her African embroidery collection are now in the collection of Michigan State University.

One of her treasured experiences was living in Newfoundland for 7 years, where the rugged landscape soon expressed itself in her work. Her vibrant South African pallet softened into the subtle misty greys of Newfoundland. She attended art school at the Anna Templeton Centre for Textile Arts in St.John’s and became an active part of the arts community there.

 This show represents these times of her life, living in the North, in Newfoundland and her South African roots and the frequent visit she made back to SA over a 10 year period. 

Val says: When Carol and I got together and compared notes, we realized we have so much in common. We both have South African roots, and both arrived to live here in Nova Scotia in our twenties. We thought it would be fascinating to bring the diversity of our experiences into a show and share our interpretations with gallery visitors.

We’re excited to show a vibrant, diverse collection of my textiles, pieces from my collection of South African women’s work, and Carol’s Kinship paintings that reflect our South African roots, and our love for our chosen home in Nova Scotia.

LORETTA MANNING

RUG HOOKING

Loretta’s framed rugs are exhibited all season

Loretta grew up in Grand Desert, an Acadian village on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore. Memories of her family are intertwined with women spinning yarn from their own sheep, and knitting for the family lobster fishers. A folk artist uncle drew patterns on potato sacks for hooked rugs. Later, spending time in Cape Breton with Acadian in-laws, introduced Loretta to the hooked rugs of Chetticamp.

Immediately after retirement, Loretta began to explore the art of rug hooking. Many classes with Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking Studio followed. After she mastered the technique, Loretta’s contemporary style of rug hooking evolved over three years of design, colour, creativity and inspiration classes with Deanne, and Michele Micarelli of the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia.

Texture is one of the important elements in Loretta’s rugs. She use a wide variety of wool yarns as well as wool cloth, velvets, and silks. The artist designs her rugs and hooks them on one hundred percent linen. They are framed and ready to hang on your wall.

GWEN DUECK

ABSTACT PAINTING

Gwen’s paintings are exhibited all season

Gwen paints in acrylic on canvas, primarily abstract expressionism. Gwen believes art is important. It enriches, explains, expresses, and enlivens artists, and art appreciators.

Abstract art is often not readily understood. It does not have identifiable subjects, but rather shapes and colours are its defining elements. These elements are the way power, rhythm, grace, and above all, energy, are brought to the work, and expressed in the work. 

Upon openly viewing an abstract piece (without looking for specific subjects or symbols), a viewer will discover emotion, perhaps memories, or see a story or narrative. It is a worthwhile challenge, and will be a wonderful discovery. 

Born in Ontario, the artist retired to Chester from a career in the financial industry in New York City. She and her husband owned and operated the Warp and Woof Gallery and Gifts in Chester until 2012. She paints year round out of her Chester studio, watched over by her dog, Lorenzo.

November 2022 Group Show

The Captain’s House Gallery
Open weekends 10am - 4pm

and

Celebration of Trees at the Gallery

Fundraiser to benefit
The Chester Lighthouse Food Bank

Friday 25th 5pm-7pm
Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th 10am-4pm

This November, the gallery walls glow with richly textured hooked rugs by Loretta Manning. Painterly floor mats underfoot, and hand crafted art dolls by Joan Doherty. Gwen Dueck’s abstracts and Polly Greene’s quilted wall hangings colour the walls with organic movement and finely stitched geometrics. Beverley McInnes's rust metal sentinels dance on window sills with Carol Hansen’s acrylic paintings and Eric MacIntosh’s oils. Thought provoking photography from Spain to Chester by Nick Hansen-MacDonald, round out the November Group Show.

New at the Gallery

Archival Prints of Carol Hansen’s Paintings

give the gift of art this season

Celebration of Trees

Friday 25th 5pm-7pm
Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th 10am-4pm

Many Nova Scotians are faced with worsening food insecurity. Volunteers and the Chester Merchants Association have organized a silent auction of Christmas trees decorated by individuals, groups and businesses, to benefit Chester’s Lighthouse Food Bank. These twinkling beauties will be on display at the gallery for you to bid on and vote for your favourite tree.

Special Sparkle Event

Sunday November 27, 2-4pm

Tanner & Co beer tasting

Festive non-alcohol punch and cookies

3:30pm

People’s Choice Award voting deadline

 4:00pm

Silent Auction closes & Santa announces

Winner of People’s Choice Award Trophy

Top Bids of Trees

Lighthouse Food Bank Donation

Nick Hansen-MacDonald

SENSELESS ARTICULATION

15 September to 8 October
Wednesday to Saturday 11am-4pm

Meet Nick Saturday, October 1 2-4 pm

Nick Hansen-MacDonald is a forager, documentary photographer and wanderer of waste spaces. In the summer of 2007 he ordered a Pentax P3 35mm film camera from eBay; his first fully manual camera. Using this camera he learned to expose and compose photos by shooting whatever was around him: friends, family and the places that he passed through and spent time in. He took to the controls quickly and shot innumerable rolls of film on that camera until it was sucked into the abyss, never to be seen again.

Since then he has experimented with many different film and digital cameras, enjoying the process of learning how to use a new tool as much as reviewing the product of his efforts.

Nick has always held a keen interest in documentary style street photography. Catching real moments and scenes with minimal intervention by the photographer on the subject. As a forager and scavenger he can usually be found exploring fringe spaces at the periphery of civilization such as junkyards, train tracks, graveyards and the woods.

The overlaps between foraging and photography are not lost on him and may shed light on a deeper tendency within his process. Both practices involve a kind of aimless searching, unsure of what, if anything, will be turned up by a given outing. Sometimes there are targets in mind. With foraging it may be a certain type of tree associated with a particular species of mushroom. In photography one may be looking for a certain type of light whether dappled, overcast or the golden hour before dusk. In either scenario you may end up finding something other than what you were looking for by dumb luck.

Another overlapping space between his interests is the connection between decay and rebirth. Saprophytic fungi are primary decomposers, they play an essential role in breaking down organic matter into fertile soil, and for them to grow another organism needs to die. Other species of fungi go even farther and parasitize particular organisms, starving them of nutrients, to bloom for a single day in unique architecture only to wither and disappear without trace just as quickly as a dream. And just like the mushroom thats existence is so quiet and fleeting that it can easily be passed by undetected, so too are the opportunities to capture the right light or the right movement of a subject within the confines of the photographer's lens.

In photography Nick often finds himself attracted to the contents of junkyards, at once an eyesore and blemish on the landscape, but in the right frame and light these bits of dying physical culture are reborn to capture the attention of the observer one final time. A strange and uneasy relationship exists between the once was, and the is to be.

Since the origins of Nick's vision as a photographer, he has carried many cameras to many parts of the world. He has always prided himself as one who walks through all places and believes there are few things as divine, as the appropriate mixture of high and low culture.

Now wherever he is, he sees with the same eye, with or without camera, he looks for good light in all its forms, small insignificant details that reel in his interest, cinematic compositions of people as they occur, and subside in ephemeral choreography, both claustrophobic and minimalist scenes that depict the extremes of spectral space, and most importantly, scenes that feel like memories.

Nick’s show will include a mixture of digital photography, as well as 120 and 35mm film photography. Subjects are decay, endings, scavenging, stone and light. Locations are Nova Scotia, Spain, Italy, France, Wales and the British Virgin Islands.

Written by the artist.

HELENE BLANCHET
Textile Folk Artist

Hélène Blanchet, textile folk artist, quilter, Master Gardener, story teller, occasional city dweller, makes her home with her husband in an off-grid cabin in the Cape Breton highlands. She stitches about her life, creating detailed stories in textiles.

The artist regularly participates in residencies and art retreats. She actively exhibits her work in solo and juried group exhibitions across North America. She is affiliated with Fine Craft and Quilt Associations across Canada. Her work is carried in several Cape Breton galleries, and she’s a juried member of the Nova Scotia Folk Art Festival. Hélène also manages to find time to study horticulture.

JOAN DOHERTY
Canvas Floorcloths

ART FOR THE FLOOR

The last time Joan presented the gallery with 5 new mats, they sold out within a day. Painted canvas mats are a very slow process, requiring countless layers of paint and polyurethane to complete. With great anticipation we awaited the arrival of the new batch, which I am thrilled to announce is here.

CAROL HANSEN
Acrylic Paintings

CREATIVE SEEDS

September at last. A beloved garden chore is colleting poppy seeds to sow after the garden has died down, for next year's blooms.

The garden is a canvas to artists and non-artists alike. Winter kill opens up space, which enables an over shadowed neighbour to flourish. Yet the desire to add one more plant variety can be irresistible. On the canvas, negative space is a similar compositional element artists wrestle with. Originally this painting’s background was filled with plants to the top. By painting out those details, the poppy took the visual spot light.

Nova Scotia’s gardening queen, Niki Jabbour, advised me to collect poppy seeds in the fall, and sow them selectively. The following spring, the poppies, and my artist’s eye, were unencumbered by distracting floral neighbours. I closely observed the details in the irregular petals and clockface carpels, and abandoned background altogether in my paintings.

However, the success of controlled sowing resulted in so many 3 foot tall poppies, that I expanded the poppy real estate closer to the shore. Fauve artist Emil Nolde’s vibrant poppy paintings further influenced me. I embraced eye popping, panoramic, floral seascapes. To heck with less is more!

Along came a poppy commission. The client was averse to brightly coloured art, yet loved how I painted poppies. She asked for a less saturated painting. By conincidence, last fall I sowed a new poppy variety, as my garden interest was shifting to less saturated poppy varieties. I welcomed her request, because less really is more... sometimes.

Captain's House Gallery
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

ERIC MACINTOSH

Painting Around the Point

17 August to 10 September
Wednesday to Saturday 11am-4pm

Locke Island, in sheltered Allendale Bay, is connected to Nova Scotia’s south shore by the Crescent Beach causeway. The fishing community, later renamed Lockeport, is where oil painter Eric MacIntosh grew up, surrounded by the sea.

The 1960s fishing community of Lockeport was far removed from its heyday as a trader of cod, and timber, destined to the West Indies. Eric was born into leaner times, but the community supported the enthusiastic young artist by saving cardboard dividers from tea boxes, along with house and boat paint, to use as art materials. Under a model ship builder’s mentorship, the six year old youth’s love of creating art was cemented. Artists and teachers in the small community furthered his art education, and he became well known for his paintings of locals and the surrounding shoreline.

Leaving home at seventeen, the artist found work where he could, which led him to the fish plant and eventually, offshore fishing. At twenty, he made his way to Halifax to attend NSCAD University to study fine art, but every summer he returned to the south shore, and fished for his tuition. Art at NSCAD was an entirely different kettle of fish from Lockeport. Eric walked into the world of Abstract Expressionism and Conceptual Art. He embraced it all, especially the work of Les Automatistes, a dissident group of artists from Montreal, formed during the early 1940s. Automatism, and the natural surroundings of rock and cliffs, would coalesce to produce an enormous body of work over the following decades.

Tragedy struck: due to a poor summer fishing season, Eric was unable to pay his tuition and finish his degree. Broke and unemployed, the artist enrolled at the Nova Scotia Nautical Institute, and followed a career as Conservation Fisheries Officer for the next 32 years.

During his Fisheries career, Eric sold eighty paintings and commissions, which are in private collections across Canada. The artist continued to paint furiously, and participate in shows such as the Nova Scotia Far and Wide Exhibition through the Nova Scotia Art Museum. After retirement, Eric devoted himself full time to painting. He renovated an outbuilding into a studio and moved his easel and paints from the attic to a light filled space.

The mature artist searches out marine scenes of reflective and absorbing subject matter; the constant ebb and flow of the Atlantic over the rocky shoreline, that has worn down boulders as smooth as flesh. The sun’s movement creates deep shadows; the tides expose the vibrant colours of seaweed and Irish moss. Clamouring over the rocky cliffs of West Green Harbour, Eric comes close to being washed away in his attempt to observe his subject: the sea and those who make a living from it.

When you enter the Captain’s House Gallery on August 17, the volume of work will flow over you in a powerful wave. The sensitive portrayal of the strength of rock, the power of water; shimmering, glistening, and exploding - brings Nova Scotian shorelines into the gallery.

Doll Maker Joan Doherty

The Beach Women of Grand Bank, Newfoundland

During the late nineteenth century to the 1940s, from April to October, young girls, mothers and grandmothers rose at 5am every day except Sunday, to tend codfish drying on the beach. A distinctive group in their large snow white sunbonnets and voluminous aprons, were worn until fish processing moved them indoors to fish plants.

Joan has been making dolls for over 50 years. Her newest creations are a Fisherman and three Beach Women. Each sold separately.

Painter Carol Hansen

Commissioned Artwork

Art has been commissioned throughout western history. Leonardo da Vinci painted many commissions, such as the Mona Lisa.

Commissions are an important source of income, because an art career is volatile. Take covid for example. For two years, performing artists starved, while visual artists made and sold more art than ever experienced. I had two solo exhibitions and a collaboration during covid that were so successful I thought I was on the road to riches. Alas, the covid art boom is over, and visual artists are back to leaner times, because people are buying tickets to concerts, Europe, anything - just to get the heck away from the house (which is full of all the stuff they bought during covid).

Commissions involve the buyer’s preferences, and where the piece will hang. Although the artist doesn’t have total free rein, there is a grounding effect brought on by the parameters of a commission. The client chooses me because they like my painting style and subjects. An unavailable size, colour range or subject is why they request a commission, rather than choose something from the gallery. Since I don’t find commissions any more difficult, the price is the same as what I sell in the gallery.

Ideally the client visits the gallery and chooses works she prefers, which gives me an indication of the mood of the painting, she is after. I take my own source photos, but occasionally will use one from the client, provided I am not restricted to composition and colours. Recently, a client wanted a square poppy painting, which I have many source photos for, since I grow poppies in my garden. I scrolled through my poppy collection with her, cropped into a square format, until she found a composition she liked. This will be my next painting, to be included in my exhibition space at the gallery. Watch it unfold on Facebook and Instagram.

See you soon at the gallery!

Captain's House Gallery
JULY/AUGUST Newsletter

GWEN DUECK

Abstract Paintings

20 July to 13 August
Wednesday to Saturday 11am-4pm

Meet Gwen Saturday July 23 2pm-4pm

The girl who grew up in St Catherines Ontario, the daughter of school teachers, who earned a degree in history, will sweep you up in a whirlwind of emotion through her paintings. That happened to me when I entered her home.

Gwen paints continuously, year-round. Her studio is filled with finished canvases, ready to be transported to various exhibitions. Gwen points to a wooden counter, covered with jars of brushes and paint. The counter came from the Warp and Woof Gifts and Gallery, which she and husband, John, purchased in 1995, after retiring from the financial industry in New York City.

During the Warp and Woof years, Gwen began to paint, and exhibit under the name Isabella Fletcher, in order to remain anonymous from her role as business owner. She has attended countless art workshops, and master classes. During their travels, the art loving couple visited the important galleries of Europe, further deepening Gwen’s belief of art’s importance to enrich, explain, express, and enliven artists, and art appreciators.

The Captain’s House Gallery welcomes you to explore abstract art through Gwen’s exhibition. Her brushwork, shapes and colours express power, rhythm, grace and above all, energy. Upon viewing the paintings, without looking for specific subjects or symbols, you will discover emotions, perhaps memories, or see a story or narrative. A worthwhile challenge, and wonderful discovery of abstract art.

DEBORAH TOOGOOD

Book Signing

Meet the author Saturday 23 July 2pm-4pm

Books will be available for purchase 

Deborah grew up in Moncton, New Brunswick, with many wonderful summers spent on the Northumberland Shore. After graduating from the University of Regina and Acadia University, she taught high school in New Brunswick, Ottawa and Montreal. A move to Nova Scotia in the late eighties brought her back to the Maritimes. After raising her two children, Deborah qualified as an ESL teacher (English as a Second Language). Many rewarding years were spent working in Halifax schools, teaching and helping international students, and newcomers to Nova Scotia.  

A lover of books, Deborah took a two-week writing course at Toronto’s Humber College. She won Writing for Children’s Division, and was encouraged to turn her short story into Chasing the Phantom Ship, which was shortlisted for the Hackmatack award. The sequel, Wild Ghost Chase, will be in stores this summer. Both books are published by Nimbus and are suitable for ages 8-12.

JOAN DOHERTY

Painted Floorcloths

20 July to 13 August

Wednesday to Saturday 11am-4pm 

Art for the floor

Joan’s floorcloths are made from heavy canvas, hand painted by the artist, and finished with five coats of poly-urethane, resulting in a durable finish. Joan began her artistic life as a doll maker, studied art at NSCAD University in Halifax, and spent a year in Finland studying weaving. After many years of successful sales through the Nova Scotia Designer Craftsman shows, Joan pivoted to painted floorcloths. Her years of handling coloured thread, and fabric prepared her to rapidly advance as a floorcloth painter. She sold them at Mills Brothers Gift Shop in Halifax and in her business, Marigold Bed and Breakfast. Guests seeing the mats underfoot throughout the house, were eager to take one home.  

Introduced to North American colonies in the early 1700s, floorcloths were originally made from recycled ships' sails. They insulated the floor, and became known as "crumb cloths" when used under tables. Patterns were hand painted or stencilled by women in the home, or itinerant painters. They remained popular until the1860s when the more affordable and mass-produced linoleum became available.
 

CAROL HANSEN

Shoreline Paintings

20 July to 13 August

Wednesday to Saturday 11am-4pm 

Why do artists choose the art they create? Gwen was attracted to abstract from the start, and has invested enormous time and energy, deepening her understanding and ability of non-objective painting. Joan has loved colour, and fabric since childhood. She has translated it into whatever she creates from dolls to floorcloths. I drew from a very early age, even though no one around me was making art. It kept me company, kept me from being bored in trigonometry class, and eventually took me to art school, printmaking, pastels, and now painting. Art making is a lifelong study for the artist.

Spending time with each visiting artist, hearing how they brought art into their lives, and evolved over time to produce a unique body of work, is inspiring. I am learning how varied artists are in this province, and yet how similar we are, as we work at our craft, seeking recognition for our labours.

I have felt overwhelmed this spring; with the amount of work I’ve had to accomplish. Yet I also feel a great sense of satisfaction when I step back from an exhibition I’ve hung, and see how fabulous the work of the visiting artist looks in my gallery. Summer is at its height and the three exhibition rooms of the Captain’s House Gallery are bursting with colour. 

See you soon in the gallery!

 Chester carpenters Ivan Fitch and Logan Davis installed double paned windows during one of the worst Nova Scotian winters in years.

I'm a snowbird and live on Virgin Gorda Island in the Caribbean, with my hubby, Colin. Island life isn't tanning naked on the beach; that was the 1970s. I walk at sunrise, and work in my studio appropriately clothed.

Other than the layers of clothing, my routine is similar to living in the village of Chester. Capturing images while I walk is key to what I paint, and remains so, closer to the equator.

Almost 2 years had passed since our last visit. My mind's eye had forgotten how much the colour blue is part of living on a tiny island, surrounded by ocean.

The kestrels on Virgin Gorda are inspirational and will muscle their way into future paintings, much like the Nova Scotian crows have done.

While in my Virgin Gorda studio, I continue to paint for the Captain's House Gallery from images gathered in Nova Scotia. I paint Virgin Gorda for my own home and leave those canvases behind. I have, however, brought one with me this time, which you will see in the gallery this season.

Neighbours saw my work and commissioned me to paint their island view. The experience was unnerving because I am new to commissions. There were quite a few nights of staring into the dark, resisting the pull of the studio. I am thankful for the experience which taught me so much, and to the gracious owners who had confidence in my ability.

The gallery will open this year with two exhibition spaces. The former dining room, a quirky but interesting space, will challenge my art hanging skills. This area will contain my paintings throughout the season. Instead of a theme, I have become interested in exploring acrylics in more ways, using sgraffito, and combining paint with coloured pencil and pastels.

Gallery Manager, Shelli Stevens and I shared many video calls, discussing my new website. I sketched each page, and Shelli conveyed my vision to patient and efficient Trevor of Hop Creative in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Before I flew south, I visited artists' studios with Shelli, and confirmed solo exhibitions with a textile artist, two painters and a photographer. I will do my best to showcase these talented individuals at the Captain's House Gallery this season. The gallery opens June 22. The next months will be a giddy ride to get ready. Stay tuned for the June newsletter when all will be revealed about this season's exhibitions.

See you soon, gallery friends.