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If you're looking for things to do in the Montréal area during the holidays, why not take in a few art exhibitions? Several of my watercolour paintings are included in group shows through the holiday period, with others opening in early January.
The largest of my current paintings is on display at the Trestler House (Maison Trestler) national historic site, in Vaudreuil-Dorion, as part of the "Fall - Winter Nature Exhibition" which continues through January 7, 2025.
Meanwhile two of my smaller paintings were juried into the "Small Works and One-of-a-Kind Exhibition" at the Viva Vida Gallery in Pointe-Claire Village, ending on January 10, 2025.
Opening in the New Year, another of my watercolours will be on display at the Trestler House historic site as part of their "Entre-Nous 2025" celebration. This art show will open on January 16 then continue through March 16, 2025, although no date for a Vernissage has been set yet.
Next up are two virtual shows, perfect for those who don't want to venture out onto our icy roads in January and February!
The second annual "Members Only Online International Exhibition" of the new organization Women in Watercolor (WiW) will open on January 25, 2025 and remain available for almost a year.
Then the Winter 2025 "Online Art Show" of the Artists in Montréal (AiM) group, with "Breaking the Ice" as its theme, will open on February 16, 2025 for about a month. The Virtual Vernissage will take place at 1500 ET on February 16, 2025.
By mid-March I'll be helping to set up a local group exhibition, the "Spring Art Expo" of the Artists Circle of the West Island. This show will run from March 20 through 30, at the City of Montréal's lovely Pierrefonds Cultural Centre. If you'd like to save the date, our Vernissage will take place during the evening of Friday March 20, 2025.
By then I'll also be preparing for the 131st annual exhibition of the historic Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM), to be held at the stunning Montréal Arts Council (Conseil des Arts de Montréal) - on the Mezzanine level - from May 1 through 31, 2025. The WASM Vernissage will be held in the Atrium (main hall) of this gem, from 1730 to 2030 on Thursday May 8, 2025.
"The centrepiece of this Beaux-Arts building is its atrium, a vast, multipurpose space adorned with a cathedral ceiling and spectacular stained-glass windows."
Construction began in 1914 to open as a public library in 1917, then when the library moved to larger premises in the 2000s the building was renovated for Arts purposes and renamed for Québec poet Gaston-Miron. I'll post more on the historic features of this museum-like space in April or May.
I'm also planning to enter watercolour paintings into several other exhibitions this coming winter and spring, although I won't mention any of those until my works have been accepted - a common practice among artists.
Stay tuned for updates on upcoming exhibitions, and remember that you can also sign up for my seasonal/quarterly newsletter here.
Happy holidays!
I usually write these posts on Sunday nights, but this time opted to wait for a special event on Monday. Last night my sweetheart and I attended Montréal's preeminent annual holiday concert, for the first time, and I wanted to share this with you!
I'd been dealing with a pesky cold for the past two weeks - likely picked up at an overcrowded artisans' and artists' fair at which I had a table in November - but by Sunday the virus seemed to have run its course. I'd stopped coughing by the end of last week, and since then have mostly been dealing with residual fatigue from my rare autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory disease.
We thought it would be safe - for others - for me to attend the concert, but both wore masks throughout the almost three-hour event just in case either of us might be contagious. My bioethics and healthcare background means that I still think of others when it comes to preventing the spread of viruses, in particular for our elders who often live with cardiovascular or respiratory diseases which can make even simple colds dangerous for them.
What was this wonderful annual holiday concert? It was Handel's Messiah, with vocal soloists and professional choir singers, presented by the Orchestre Métropolitain symphony orchestra.
Not only were the musicians and vocalists superb, but so was the setting; Montréal's historic Notre-Dame Basilica is a spectacular setting for Christmas events. No photography was permitted during the concert, so we arrived a bit early to get a few shots of the Basilica itself.
To provide some background, this was Canada’s first church in the Gothic Revival style conceived as "a testament to... the intimate relationship between religion and art" here in Montréal. "Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1982, its religious, historic and artistic significance makes it a jewel of Quebec’s heritage."
In terms of local colonial history, European settlers claimed the island of Montréal in 1642 and by 1672 the French Sulpicians (a society of diocesan priests founded in Paris in 1641) had begun building a stone church near the site of the current Basilica. By 1823 plans had been approved for a much larger building, as the congregation had rapidly outgrown the original building.
In typical Montréal irony, this French Catholic church was designed and built under the direction of a Protestant architect (James O’Donnell) from 1824 through 1829, with the towers added later.
The western tower was finished in 1842, with the eastern tower completed the following year. Each tower houses bells cast in England; an almost 11,000 kg bell (11 tonnes) in the western tower, and a ten-bell carillon set in the eastern tower (unfortunately, the latter is currently covered for renovations).
It’s the interior of the Basilica, though, that’s the true work of art in my view – as much for its architecture as for the multiple artworks incorporated into its design. The organ alone is a masterpiece handmade by a local firm in 1891, then upgraded to 7,000 pipes for its 100th anniversary.
Our seats were in the same row as one of the most unique carvings in the Basilica, the original pulpit and stairs (from which the priests used to deliver sermons) which were installed during renovations in the 1870s. The sculptures at the base feature the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, while the guardrail incorporates statuettes representing other figures from religious history.
Although the acoustics weren’t nearly as good as at Montréal’s Maison Symphonique (symphonic hall), it was a truly lovely – and appropriate – setting for Handel’s Messiah.
For those of you more interested in the music than the setting, the Conductor was our favourite one; Montréal’s somewhat flamboyant Yannick Nézet-Séguin. There were four vocal soloists; Soprano Anna-Sophie Neher, and Mezzo-Soprano Emily D'Angelo, with Frédéric Antoun as Tenor and Geoffroy Salvas as Baritone. There were also a grouping of professional choral singers for this concert (all of whose names are listed on the website link below, for tickets and concert information).
For my husband and me, this event marked the official start of our holiday season. If you’re in the area and interested in this almost three-hour musical celebration, there will be a second performance this evening (10 December 2024 at 1930); if any tickets are still available, they would be here.
Whatever you do over the holiday season, I wish you beauty and joy – whatever that means to you.
A few weeks ago I was on-stage at The Gesù theatre here in Montréal, as part of my Art Despite Pain (#ArtDespitePain) initiative. No, I wasn't doing a painting demonstration on-stage! I was co-presenting a TED-style talk on pain research with neuroscientist Dr. Zoha Deldar from McGill University.
This was part of PAINtalks 2024, an event featuring 10 different talks about cutting-edge pain research, organized by the Quebec Network of Junior Pain Investigators (QNJPI).
PAINtalks 2024 was held in-person, along with a professionally-produced livestreaming option, to about 900 live viewers.
The entire event was aso recorded, for the QNJPI YouTube channel, and I'm happy to share with you that this video is now available!
To view my co-presentation with Dr. Deldar, about how the scientific concept of "Flow Theory" applies to how I use watercolour painting to distract my brain from my chronic pain, scroll over to about 41:15 (41 min, 15 sec). The entire event was fascinating, so if you have any interest in pain or science it's well worth viewing all 10 individual PAINtalks.
With a giant THANK YOU to Dr. Deldar and to the entire QNJPI team!
Click here for this video the QNJPI's YouTube channel
I've barely done any painting or sketching over the past few weeks, as I've been busy preparing for the inaugural "Christmas in the Country" makers' market yesterday. First, I set up our six-foot folding table in my home-studio with the tablecloth and banner, then slowly assembled all the display racks, my rotating stand for greeting cards, and more. Next, I had to decide which of my small watercolours would be displayed on the table, as there isn’t room to show all of them on such a small surface. The fun part came next, deciding where to position each rack or stand on the table. The rotating card rack goes at either end of the table, so it doesn’t block my view of visitors, then I try to sort the selected display paintings into groupings across the four staggered display racks; animals and birds on one, flowers and plants on another, landscapes, waterscapes.
As you can see, my preferred subjects are the fauna, flora and natural areas that surround me. In fact, most of the small paintings that I offer at these types of artisans’ and artists’ fairs are plein-air watercolours; the 4” x 6” and 5” x 7” formats that I paint outdoors, often off the back of my bicycle when I need to rest during a bike ride. Montréal is an island city, with several nature parks or preserves in my area, so I’m never far from beautiful natural areas and waterfront scenes. One of my two rare diseases can cause fatigue, along with high-impact (severe) chronic pain and other issues with my right hand and arm, so I ride with one hand on the bars – this means I have to stop after every twenty to thirty kilometres to rest, and so that I don’t injure my left arm and shoulder. I’ve turned this into an advantage, by using these breaks to paint, creating 'watercolours on two wheels' (#watercolourson2wheels). Each is painted on 100% cotton watercolour paper, which I mat and mount using acid-free and lignin-free materials, with archival tape that I special-order from a framing shop - the same quality of framing supplies as for my exhibition and gallery paintings.
For the makers’ market this year, I’d opted to also offer a small assortment of framed plein-air paintings after a few people asked about that at last year’s event. I’d picked up some small good-quality frames last year, when an art store just outside of Montréal had a liquidation sale prior to their renovation closure, so was prepared! I spent a few days pulling the glass panels out of these frames, to carefully clean each side of the glass panels, and choosing which of these small watercolours to frame. Of course, now I had to find room on the table to put at least some of these small framed watercolours! I’d been gifted some small wooden mini-easels, which were perfect for this. With the table display finalized, it was time to carefully pack everything up and number the boxes so my sweetheart and I would know in which order to carry them into the event space.
This makers' market was held at the Whitlock Golf and Country Club, in scenic Hudson Québec, on Saturday. After doing a Saturday and Sunday "Gathering of Artisans" last year, I was looking forward to having a one-day event for 2024 as I'd found the two-day fair to be far too demanding for my two different rare diseases. And as I need my sweetheart's help at these events, because of a Mild Cognitive Impairment caused by one of those rare conditions, I only do one table-sale each year.
Unfortunately, we found out when we arrived yesterday that the organizers had made an error with the measurements. The floor plan for table locations showed rows of back-to-back tables, without enough space in between for the artisans and artists to sit behind their tables. The last-minute solution was to move several tables to the lobby, to make enough room for the first few rows of tables to be able to fit in their chairs. But by the time it came to the last row, where my table was, there still wasn't enough room for our chairs. This meant that I had to stay standing for the entire six-hour event, in addition to the set-up and take-down periods; from 0900 to almost 1700 (the market was open from 1000 to 1600).
Perhaps worse, our aisle was so narrow that visitors couldn't stop to look at our tables and with no space behind my table I couldn't access my boxes of paintings. I only display a small selection of paintings on the table, to avoid overcrowding it, so would usually ask each visitor whether they were interested in a particular type of scene or image and then pull several out of a box for them; my boxes of watercolour paintings are also sorted by type of scene! On the positive side, there were a lot of visitors, with almost no lulls during the first few hours and then only infrequent pauses until the very late afternoon. Just as well, as I was completely exhausted by then from having to stand for so long. Another positive was chatting with a large number of visitors about chronic pain, as part of my Art Despite Pain #artdespitepain initiative; I always reserve a portion of my table for information about persistent pain, and one of my goals is to raise awareness of chronic pain. The highlights of the day were the family members and friends who stopped by, so Thank You to Fiona (and for the photo), Jan and Nick, Kath, Suzanne and Christella, and the others who came out to spend some time with us!
Overall I was disappointed by having to stand at this event, although the locale was lovely and there was plenty of natural light. But I experienced issues with last year’s “Gathering of Artisans”, so I’m not sure whether I’ll continue joining an artisans’ and artists’ fair every year. Early last spring I’d talked with a couple of members of my local artists circle, an organization with sixty members, about the idea of holding a group 'summertime studio tour day’ – but then dropped the idea after an elder family member had an emergency hip replacement soon afterwards and needed our help on an almost daily basis through the summer. But I’ve revived the concept for this year, and have already proposed this group ‘open studio’ day to our circle’s President. At this point, it’s almost certain that this will be my focus for next year; opening my home-studio for a day or two, with my folding table and display racks all set up here, as part of a group “visit the artists’ studios” event. That will be much easier on me and my rare diseases, as well as for my sweetheart; rather than having to pack and transport everything, set it all up elsewhere, then dismantle and pack everything – in a rush at the end of the event – to bring it home, I’ll be able to take my time and set up my home-studio over the course of several weeks. And then to put things away gradually, at a much slower pace.
Stay tuned for news about this in the coming months! In the meantime, several of my larger watercolour paintings are on display in two different exhibitions. My largest piece is at the Trestler House (Maison Trestler) national historic site in Vaudreuil-Dorion, until late December, while two slightly smaller paintings are at the Viva Vida Gallery in Pointe-Claire Village through January 10, 2025. On that note, Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers! And, as always, thanks so much for stopping by!
There was a great turnout at the Viva Vida Gallery in Pointe-Claire Village this past Friday night, for the Vernissage of their juried "Small Works & One-of-a-Kind" exhibition. It was nice to chat with the three fellow members of the Artists Circle of the West Island who also had paintings accepted into this show; Elsy Torres, Catherine Zanbaka, and Doina Bundaru. Many thanks to Catherine, for taking a photo of me with one of my two watercolours!
It was also lovely to meet several members of different local art associations for the first time, and to see their paintings on display; Alicia Sosa (and José), Manjit Singh Chatrik, and others. This juried art show features a wide range of artworks, from ceramics/pottery to fabrics/textiles to paintings/sketches to sculpture and more.
The concept is to expose visitors to a variety of pieces by local artists, and to provide some truly original gift ideas for anyone who’s doing their holiday shopping. The entire Pointe-Claire Village area is known for its original and quirky boutiques, cafés, and beautiful lakefront location – so it’s well worth a visit, particularly on a beautiful weekend!
This exhibition continues through January 10, 2025, so if you’re in the West Island area of Montréal, drop in and take a look. The Viva Vida Gallery and Art Centre is on Lakeshore Road in Pointe-Claire Village, between Sainte-Anne and Lourdes Streets (at 278 chemin Bord-du-Lac/Lakeshore Road).
The Gallery’s hours are Saturdays from 1000 to 1700, Sundays from noon to 1600, and Tuesdays through Thursdays from 1000 to 1700 (closed on Mondays).
As with the other boutiques in “the Village” in previous years, they may add extended holiday hours at some point in December, but these have yet to be confirmed.
If you’ll be in the Hudson area next Saturday, northwest of Montréal Island, I’ll be at the “Christmas in the Country” artisans’ and artists’ sale at the scenic Whitlock Golf and Country Club. That’s a full-day indoor event, with no entrance fee or tickets required, from 1000 to 1600.
We’ll be collecting non-perishable items at this event, for a local food bank, so if you do drop by please try to bring in a food item!
My sweetheart will be there for the day, as my ‘right hand man’, literally and figuratively – because my right hand and arm are severely affected by CRPS (a rare disease now called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, formerly known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or RSD). That’s actually one of the main reasons I started learning to paint and sketch in 2021, as a form of brain-plasticity or neuroplasticity training for the chronic pain in my hand and arm – as well as for the Mild Cognitive Impairment that developed at the end of 2018 as a result of this autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory disease.
So my table at this Hudson art event will include a section with some information on chronic pain, as part of my Art Despite Pain (#ArtDespitePain) initiative; using my artwork and events to raise awareness of chronic pain while encouraging others living with persistent pain to try creative pursuits as a way to help manage their own pain.
Hope to see you there: Whitlock Golf and Country Club, 128 Côte St-Charles, Hudson QC, from 1000 to 1600 on Saturday November 23, 2024!
Last night I had a fantastic experience, which dovetailed perfectly with my #ArtDespitePain initiative. Art Despite Pain has two main goals; to use my artwork to raise awareness of chronic pain, and to use my art-practice to encourage others living with persistent pain to try creative activities as a form of brain-plasticity or neuroplasticity tool for their own pain.
After all, I began learning to paint in 2021 as a form of DIY (do it yourself) neuroplasticity training to help me manage my multiple symptoms from a rare disease. CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) has resulted in several different types of severe pain in my right hand and arm, along with a Mild Cognitive Impairment, occasional full-body autoimmune fatigue, and a list of other autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory symptoms.
I'd read research, at the time, showing benefits of art-learning and art-appreciation - for both pain and cognitive issues - so decided to attempt a wish I'd harboured since childhood, to learn to paint with watercolours.
Not only did painting push my pain symptoms more into the background, by distracting my brain from my pain, but I also absolutely fell in love with watercolours!
Yesterday evening, I participated in "PAINtalks 2024" - as a co-presenter with neuroscientist Dr. Zoha Deldar - at The Gesù theatre-space in Montréal.
This free TEDtalk-style event, open to the public and featuring ten different talks about cutting-edge pain research, was organized by the Quebec Network of Junior Pain Investigators (QNJPI).
It was an in-person sho, with live-streaming, and about 900 people watching live! The event was aso recorded, so there will be many more views once it has been posted on the QNJPI YouTube channel (I'll post a link when it's ready to view).
This was the 9th edition of PAINtalks, held in different locations in Québec each year, so I've attended several times in person when it has been presented in Montréal - as a member of the audience.
It's a completely different experience to be one of the presenters, and to see how much backstage and behind-the-scenes effort, planning, preparation, and thought/thoughtfulness is put into this by the PAINtalks team - all volunteers who have their own healthcare and/or pain science studies or research to do!
The presenters and the Master of Ceremonies (performing artist Laurence Jalbert, who also lives with chronic pain), get all the credit at the event...
But the amount of volunteer work done by the PAINtalks team was absolutely incredible.
So this morning, I'm sending each and every one of a them a giant thank you.
They were absolutely amazing, and put together a fabulous show - which informed so many others of the incredible research being done for people living with chronic pain, or to prevent it.
Thank you, PAINtalks team!
It seems hard to believe that my husband and I left Boston only two weeks ago, after our first visit to this historic city. We'd driven there from Greenville NY, after a five-day watercolour painting workshop with Brazilian artist Fabio Cembranelli hosted by Hudson River Art Workshops (HRVAW).
My sweetheart isn't an artist, so after breakfast each day in Greenville he'd head out to explore a different town or area nearby; historic sites, interesting cafés and shops, nature preserves, scenic waterfalls, whatever took his fancy.
That was his gift to me for our 30th anniversary. From Greenville, we drove across state lines to Boston on October 12, for my anniversary gift to him; a week mostly museum-hopping in Boston.
We enjoyed each of these weeks so much that we're already planning to return in 2026, when the same artist returns to HRVAW, with another week in Boston afterwards.
With one of my all-time favourite artists being John Singer Sargent (for his watercolous and landscape paintings rather than for his portraits), I was thrilled to see so many of his paintings in person.
The Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum was a treat, not only for Sargent’s massive El Jaleo oil painting, but also for several of his watercolour landscapes; I'll write more about these another day.
The MFAB or "Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, holds the most complete collection of John Singer Sargent’s art—paintings, murals, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture" as well as the John Singer Sargent Archive.
The Archive's collection includes "correspondence written by Sargent, photographs of the artist at work, estate papers, biographical information, and other personal papers related to the life and career of this exceptional artist. Highlights include fifteen letters written by Sargent to the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet, a letter of appreciation written in the hand of Amélie Gautreau (the subject of the painting known as Madame X), and letters written by Sargent’s sister Emily that contain details of Sargent’s activities over the course of many years."
Unfortunately these documents aren't on display, and the "John Singer Sargent Archive remains closed for in-person visits until further notice", but there is an entire gallery space in the Museum devoted to Sargent’s paintings.
Gallery 232 took my breath away, to be honest, with over 20 of his oil paintings - among them several of his enormous portraits of children.
"The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" is a whopping square of 87.6 by 87.6 inches (or 7 feet, 3 inches), while "Helen Sears" was a slightly less breathtaking 65.86 inches by 35.98 inches (or almost 5 foot, 5 inches by 3 feet).
I was disappointed not to see more of his watercolour paintings on display, but at least I have the book "John Singer Sargent: Watercolors" from a joint exhibition in 2013-2014 of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the MFAB.
And I have to admit that Sargent’s portraits are absolutely fabulous, particularly viewed in person, even if I prefer his watercolours and landscapes.
We've been back home for a week now, but images of the fabulous artworks we viewed in Boston keep popping into my thoughts. The sheer volume of paintings by John Singer Sargent, for example, one of my all-time favourite artists - for his landscapes and watercolours rather than for his portraits - was truly impressive.
So I'd planned to write this week about the wide range of Sargent’s works we saw in Boston; from the monumental "El Jaleo" and massive "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" to small pencil sketches and studies. But with only a few days left until Halloween, I've decided to keep Mr. Sargent for a future post and write instead about the unexpected art we found in... Salem.
Yes, that Salem! We took a day-trip from Boston out to the site of the infamous Witch Trials, more for the history of this port town than for what called "witch kitsch". It's only about a forty-five minute train ride from Boston's North Station, but feels more like a trip backwards in a time machine - if you focus on the historic areas.
That's easier said than done in October, as Salem hosts a giant fair-like event all month, billed as "Salem Haunted Happenings". It's apparently "the largest celebration of Halloween in the world", with in excess of a half-million visitors in October to the attractions, museums, parades, parties, vendor fairs, walking tours, and other special events in what's essentially a fairly small town.
Put another way, the town has a generous 4,000 public parking spaces, yet often receives 100,000 visitors a day in October.
To avoid the crowds as much as possible, we visited midweek, taking an early train to arrive before anything had even opened for the day. This gave us an opportunity to look around before the crowds arrived, and to be almost first in line for same-day-only tickets at one of the 'museum' attractions.
The first artworks we admired were along the Essex Street pedestrian mall, a series of outdoor figureheads created by local artists. Figureheads like these would have graced the bows of ships visiting Salem Harbour in the 1700s, hence the decision to feature seventeen pieces in the "Lady of Salem Maritime Public Art Exhibition".
The next artwork we sought out was the massive mural for the "Salem Witch Trials 1692".
At this point, I should explain that the witch-related 'museums' of Salem feature primarily reproductions. Until the 1970s, the area's Witch Trials history was considered something shameful that should be hidden away, so most of the original buildings and sites involved were altered, destroyed or renovated through the years.
In the 1970s, having experienced the 'witch hunts' of McCarthyism, several American scholars became interested in the mass hysteria aspects of the Witch Trials; this soon led to an upswell of interest in popular culture. Efforts were then made to salvage related buildings, or portions of them, and several current 'museums' now feature items like an original wooden beam from the dungeon in which those accused of witchcraft awaited trial.
There's now a Salem Witch Trials Memorial, and the witch-related activities note that more than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft between February 1692 and May 1693 - with thirty found guilty, twenty executed (nineteen by hanging and one by pressing), while at least five others died in jail - because of people's fear of their neighbours, of anything or anyone who was slightly different.
Wandering through Salem in October, one striking aspect was the number of artistic garden arrangements and landscape design. Businesses and private homes very often beautifully decorated with autumn colours, even those without Halloween decorations per se. It was lovely to see these artistic touches on every block.
I should mention that I'm a big fan of Halloween, as a celebration of the Celtic roots of Samhainn (in Scottish Gaelic); the Celtic new year, when it was believed that the veil between our world and the other would become weaker and allow ancestors - and faeries - to wander among the living.
I grew up listening to my beloved (born-in-Malta) Scottish grandmother's tales of the Highlands, of the Celtic wise-women (ban-fhiosaiche), of how Flora MacDonald helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape the British after the Battle of Culloden (a place I've visited) in 1746, and how some of her female ancestors were considered to have the Second Sight (an da shealladh, a combination of future-seeing and healing).
Back to the arts in Salem, we next visited the Witch Dungeon Museum, where we viewed a short play; a partial reenactment of one of the Witch Trials, using the actual transcript as the script. From there, attendees headed down to visit a reconstruction of the dungeons in which the accused would have awaited their trials. Even without the disease, filth, and odors, it was a sobering experience.
Our next visit was to the much-hyped Salem Witch Museum - for which we'd had to reserve same-day timed tickets online at midnight, as they sell out within minutes. It provides mostly the same information as the Witch Dungeon Museum and the many different tourist pamphlets, using recorded narration as spot-lights show different stage sets vignettes positioned around a large theatre-dark room. Their 'museum', visited only after all visitors were crammed into the tiny gift shop for 10 minutes, contained very little from Salem and mostly generic witch-related objects from elsewhere. It was interesting to see books on witchcraft from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, but they were displayed in a way that made it quite difficult to see them. There was also quite a lot of modern witch-kitsch, including one of the Harry Potter books signed by J.K. Rowling.
After coffee and pumpkin donuts, to wake us up after that experience, we walked to the waterfront Historic Derby Street Neighborhood. With many houses and other buildings dating back to the 1600s and 1700s, this is a wonderful historic site. If you consider Georgian-period architecture to be art, then this is the spot for you.
It's also where we found a shop featuring local artwork with Celtic or witchy themes, away from the crowds. Witch Way Gifts offered a variety of small artworks and artisanal products; handmade candles, carvings, charms, jewelry, wood-board paintings, and more. The nearby Chocolate Pantry was another of our highlights, with a good selection of chocolates "handcrafted to perfection" on site with artistic flair.
From there we walked back towards the more crowded downtown area, skirting it, to arrive at the Salem Witch House. This is the only structure still standing in Salem with direct ties to the 1692 witch trials, and now serves as the unofficial gateway into the McIntire Historic District, with its many Georgian- and Federal-period buildings from the 1700s onward.
More architecture as art, and beautiful autumn garden designs.
We unfortunately didn't have time to visit what's likely the only true museum in Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum which - dating from 1799 - is one of the oldest continuously-operating museums in the United States. Nor did we have time to visit the 1668 The House of the Seven Gables.
Both are on our list for a return trip to Salem, as we're already planning to return to Boston within a few years.
All this to say that there's plenty for an artist to enjoy in Salem, if you can see past the witch-kitsch. Visiting outside of its busiest period of the year, October, would probably help.
On that note, Happy Halloween!
I've just about finished unpacking from two fabulous art-filled weeks away with my sweetheart, but my mind is still packed with memories!
The trip began with a five-day watercolour painting workshop in central New York State, with Brazilian artist Fabio Cembranelli, and continued with a week of museum-hopping in Boston.
The entire art-adventure was a celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary, with the workshop as his gift to me and the Boston stay as my gift to him.
Neither of us had ever visited Boston, about a six-hour drive from our home, so it was lovely to explore the area together.
We each enjoy art and art history, historic buildings, museums, and music, so we'd planned our stay around those basic themes.
For the visual arts and art history, we visited the museum-like Boston Public Library, Harvard Art Museums, Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFAB).
With a day-trip to Salem, we added a touch of more gruesome history with the Salem Witch Museum and the Witch Dungeon Museum.
Salem is also home to a large number of historic buildings, in particular within its Historic Derby Street Neighborhood, where we were pleasantly surprised to see many houses and other buildings dating from the 1600s and 1700s.
This close to Halloween, the decorations in Salem were superb, and we adored the very artistic 'haunted garden' style in the front and side yards of numerous historic homes.
Boston is also filled with fabulous historic buildings, so we did several self-guided walking tours; most notably the Freedom Trail and Historic Harvard.
The musical portion of our trip involved live music at America's oldest tavern, traditional Irish music at another historic pub, and an indie music concert at the TD Garden. We managed to find resale tickets to a sold-out show; Maggie Rogers' "Don't Forget Me Tour". Although not originally from Boston, she treated this venue as her 'home town' show because she's currently a Fellow at Harvard University. After completing a Master's (degree) in Religion and Public Life (MRPL) there, focused on "the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture", she joined Harvard's Divinity School as a Religion and Public Life Fellow. "She will spend this time expanding the writing and research of her MRPL degree, which explored the relationships of religion, spirituality, and pop culture from her vantage point as a performing artist."
In her own words: "I thought a lot about the ways in which we connect to each other through pop culture, how art can be an agent for peace, and what responsibility comes with holding that kind of power."
The word "peace" has two distinct meanings - an absence of war, or a state of tranquility and freedom from disturbance - so a portion of that last line resonated with me: "how art can be an agent for peace".
It struck me that this applies to My Art Despite Pain initiative, using art as a therapeutic tool for chronic pain management... peace from pain, if you will.
I'll write more next week about some of my favourite paintings and other artworks in Boston, but in the meantime I have to tell you that I could have spent hours looking back and forth between two specific pairs of paintings at the MFAB.
These were Claude Monet's 1891 "Grainstack (Sunset)" and "Grainstack (Snow Effect)", along with his1894 "Rouen Cathedral, Façade" and "Rouen Cathedral Façade and Tour d'Albane (Morning Effect)".
It was absolutely incredible to see each pair side-by-side, to be able to look at one then the other; my sweetheart told me later that it looked as though I was watching a tennis match.
My snapshots can't do these artworks justice, but I hope you'll get a sense of what I mean.
I've just finished a fantastic five-day watercolour painting workshop, in person, with Brazilian-Italian artist Fabio Cembranelli (a few photos of his many demonstrations are shown below).
The event was organized by Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, at their on-site art studio and lodgings (which included breakfast and dinner daily), at the rustic and historic Greenville Arms 1889 Inn.
My sweetheart came with me, to Upstate New York, and he happily explored local towns, nature trails, cafés, microbreweries, and shops during each 0900 to 1600 weekday workshop session. He and I would have breakfast together, then each go off on our own "adventures" for the day, before meeting up again for a before-dinner walk to tell the other about what we'd done.
A bonus, for us and the rest of the workshop guests, was provided by Mother Nature; a solar storm pushed the Aurora borealis - or Northern Lights - much further south than usual, allowing us to view them on Thursday night... A reminder that she remains the best artist of all!
Although I've taken many of Fabio's virtual-live ZOOM workshops, I'd never attended any of his in-person watercolour demonstrations; if ever you have the opportunity to do so, I highly recommend it!
He's such a generous teacher that he squeezed every moment out of each day, creating not only full paintings but also his beautiful "quick sketches" to illustrate a specific point or answer a question.
Fabio also provided truly helpful suggestions on our individual workshop creations, so that each of us could learn from the others' paintings and sketches.
I haven't posted any of my own watercolours from this workshop, because none are finished yet - but that's not a reflection on Fabio's teaching...
CRPS rare disease - with its neuropathic chronic pain and multiple other symptoms - significantly affects my right hand and arm, limiting the amount of painting that I can do at any given time. Of course, I knew that prior to the workshop, and would've been surprised to finish anything on-site; it was still a wonderful and worthwhile learning experience.
So I left the workshop-week yesterday with fabulous ideas and memories, plans to keep in touch with several new friends, and an assortment of "almost-done" paintings to finish up when I get home.
In the meantime, my sweetheart and I are in Boston. We drove in after the final workshop breakfast, on Saturday, to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. The watercolour workshop was his anniversary gift to me, while the Boston visit is my gift to him.
Stay tuned for news of our planned visits to two Boston art museums, and other artistic sites, next week!