In the news

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!

There was a great turnout on Friday evening, for the Vernissage of the "Fall Art Expo d'art d'automne" of the Artists Circle of the West Island (of Montréal).
As part of this exhibition we're collecting donations of non-perishable food for On Rock Community Services, for their food bank and school lunch programs, and we've already amassed a fair amount of canned and packaged goods - but they need more.
The "Fall Art Expo" continues through October 20, 2024, with 10% of all proceeds from art sales being donated to "On Rock".
So please stop by the art show, and drop off a food donation if you can.
This community organization is recovering from a freezer malfunction, followed by a completely unrelated flood, so they've lost a significant proportion of their food supplies during the critical back-to-school and pre-holiday periods.
They need our help now more than ever, to better help those in our community who are struggling.
https://onrock.org/
Also on a community note, as a resident of the Pierrefonds Borough of Montréal for well over 30 years, I was very pleased that Catherine Clément-Talbot attended the Vernissage.
She is the City Councilor for my Cap-Saint-Jacques District, and lives in the nature park where I often stop to paint en plein-air off the back of my bicycle.
Mrs. Clément-Talbot has also visited our home gardens, when she stopped by while campaigning for municipal elections during the summer of 2021.
I'm sure she doesn't remember, but I was impressed that she was out knocking on doors herself - and then took the time to chat with my husband about ecological gardens and with me about plein-air painting.
At the Vernissage, she graciously offered to say a few words about the importance of the arts and community involvement in our city and borough.
Then Kayla Reid of "On Rock Community Services" shared kinds words about the support of events sch as ours, not only for collecting food but also for raising awareness of challenges within our community.
It was a lovely Vernissage, made even better by knowing that we were supporting such a vital community organization. 

Opening hours, to 20 Oct 2024:
. Thu/Fri:  1600 to 2000
. Sat/Sun: 1300 to 1700
. Closed:  Mon - Wed
. Closed for Thanksgiving on October 13 

Location:
Centre Culturel de Pierrefonds
[Pierrefonds Cultural Centre]
13 850 boulevard Gouin ouest
Pierrefonds-Roxboro Borough, Montréal

This week, exceptionally, I have two group art shows opening on consecutive days (see the end of this post for details)!
The first opens on Thursday at the stunning Maison Trestler (Trestler House) national historic site.
Nestled on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains ("Lac des Deux-Montagnes"), this stunning 225-year-old stone building will host the "Fall-Winter Nature Exhibition” through the end of December 2024.
The artworks will be displayed throughout the main floor, with its lovely period furniture, where it always feels as though the paintings are hanging on the walls of a museum.
Trestler House does in fact encompass a museum, detailing local history, on its second level.
Art shows help the Trestler House Foundation raise the funds necessary to maintain this gem of a historic building, as well as to continue its role in local history education.
There’s no Vernissage scheduled yet for this exhibition, but something may be in the works the winter holidays.

On Friday the “Autumn Art Expo” opens, with the Artists' Circle of the West Island, and will continue through October 20, 2024.
If you're in the Montréal or West Island areas, feel free to drop by the Vernissage on Friday evening, between 1900 and 2100; light refreshments will be provided.
Two of my watercolour paintings will be on display, with an autumn theme, and both happen to be floral scenes. One is a more contemporary art piece, while the other is in a traditional style; I’d be curious to know which you prefer! (I’ll post photos of the paintings, after the exhibitions have opened.)
If you do stop by for the Vernissage or during this two-week exhibition, please bring along some non-perishable foods as we're taking this opportunity to support the local food bank of On Rock Community Services.
A full 10% of the sale of any artworks during this show will also be donated to On Rock, to help support our community – although it’s free to view the art show, with no donation of food or funds required.
Pop in to see original paintings by local artists, and to support our community at the same time

Details of both exhibitions:

La Maison Trestler | 85, chemin de la Commune | Vaudreuil-Dorion | 450.455.6290 | info@trestler.qc.ca | www.trestler.qc.ca
Open: Tue - Fri: 0900-noon & 1800-1630 | Sun: 1300 to 1600 | Closed: Sat & Mon
Period: October 3 through the end of December 2024

Centre Culturel de Pierrefonds (Pierrefonds Cultural Centre) | 13850, boulevard Gouin ouest | Montréal - Pierrefonds Borough | Lower Level Gallery Space
Open: Thu-Fri: 1600 to 2000 | Sat-Sun: 1300 to 1700 | Closed: Mon-Wed (also closed October 13, for Thanksgiving)
Period: October 4 through October 20, 2024

It's been a busy week, since the end of the group exhibition of the Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM) in Old Montréal last Saturday.
To start, I'm preparing for two other upcoming group shows, which open soon - on consecutive days. The "Art Expo d'art" of the Artists Circle of the West Island opens for two weeks on October 3, at the City of Montréal's Pierrefonds Cultural Centre. Then the three-month "Fall & Winter Nature Exhibition" at the Maison Trestler House (a National Historic Site, built in 1798), opens on October 4, 2024.

On Monday I was in meetings for two upcoming art-related chronic pain projects, for which I'm a Patient Partner; one as a committee member, and the other as a co-presenter.
Both are linked to my  Art Despite Pain initiative, which uses my paintings to raise awareness of pain conditions while encouraging others living with persistent pain to try creative pursuits for pain-management. Stay tuned for details of both these events; "PAINtalks 2024" in November and the other next year.

On Tuesday it was back to my 'patient life', with the morning at a specialist medical clinic for the second of my two rare diseases. The first of my rare conditions is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), formerly called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). An autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory disease, CRPS has caused my Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), occasional full-body autoimmune fatigue, and the multiple localized symptoms in my right hand and arm; high-impact (severe) chronic pain, bone, joint, and skin issues, and frequent spasms and tremors.

My second rare disease is Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD), which doesn't cause pain but is considered more dangerous. FMD affects the arteries - primarily the carotids on each side of the neck, the abdominal aorta leading to the heart, and the renal arteries to the kidneys - and puts me at increased risk of aneurysm, spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), and stroke.
For this condition I have frequent monitoring by a cardiologist-internist, take several additional medications, and try even more than usual to find the beauty and joy in each day!

On that note, the best part of last week was a three-day watercolour painting Master-Class - in person - with the brilliant American artist and instructor Thomas W Schaller. It began Wednesday morning, and wound up at 1700 on Friday, at the Atelier d'aquarelle le Partage in Laval Québec (just north of Montréal).
This was the marquee event to mark the 40th anniversary of this local watercolour group, and I feel exceedingly lucky to have been able to participate.
Thomas is a truly encouraging, generous, and kind artist and teacher, while his little buddy Otis brought his own enthusiasm - for treats and doggy ear-rubs.

Each morning Thomas gave one or two painting demonstrations, starting with a discussion of his reference-photo in terms of what he'd adjust to better meet his conceptualization of a particular scene and emotion. Next he'd create a value-study, and only then sketch his plan onto watercolour paper.

This MasterClass considered the planning of each painting at a much more conceptual level than what I've actively considered before, and I really enjoyed Thomas' descriptions of his thought processes while planning a painting. 

Many of his statements struck chords for me, including these:
- "Painting is a solitary language"
- "I always want my paintings to be about something... like an emotional experience (imagined or based on personal experience). Think of the question: "What does it make you feel?"

My paintings from this workshop weren't very good, but that's okay as I was trying new techniques and learning quite a lot - and I already knew that my cognitive issues and pain would likely worsen throughout the day. My overall goal, for any art class or workshop, is to learn something new rather than to create an exhibition-quality painting.
With the many symptoms of my two different rare diseases, it's often difficult for me to paint at all in the afternoons; the chronic neuropathic pain in my right hand and arm, for example, tends to worsen throughout the day - as do my cognitive issues. So I was happy to be able to paint at all!
Although I haven't been home to do any painting since this workshop ended, I'm already looking forward to trying some of what I've learned when I get back to my easel again.

In the meantime, happy first day of Autumn - and all the best for this beautiful time of colourful foliage in much of Canada and the United States!

There was quite a turnout this past Thursday night, at the Vernissage for the "Bloom" art show of the historic Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM; now open to all, not only women).
The weather was unseasonably warm, so the Old Montréal or Vieux-Montréal area of the city was teeming with visitors - tourists and locals alike.
The gallery is on a main thoroughfare leading to the activities in the Old Port sector (concerts, ferris wheel, zip lines, and much more), as well as between the popular Place Jacques-Cartier square - packed with restaurants and cafés - and the most iconic building of our historic district; the dome-roofed Marché Bonsecours Market.
As it's a high-traffic area for pedestrians, we had a good number of international visitors throughout the show - in addition to local art lovers. This photo shows only the back portion of the gallery, at the start of the Vernissage; I wasn't able to get a shot of the entire space, as most visitors were gathered towards to front where we had a professional musician playing the piano.

This was a juried exhibition, so I was pleased to have both my paintings accepted; the maximum number of artworks per artist for this event.
Each was a floral watercolour, to honour the "Bloom" theme of the show, but painted in rather different styles (I'm standing to the left of my 'stacked' paintings).

The Women's Art Society of Montreal (WASM) was founded in 1894 by two local women, Mrs. James Peck (née Mary Alice Skelton) and Mary Martha ("May") Phillips. Their goal was to integrate women into the art world, at a time when art societies accepted only men and women had very few rights.
For example, married women were referred to by adding "Mrs." before their husband's given and family names; so "Mary Alice Skelton" was erased by marriage, when she became "Mrs. James Peck".
In the same spirit of inclusivity in place at its inception, the WASM accepts all genders and gender-identifications; we've retained our original name to honour our 130 year history, and as a reminder that women remain excluded from public life - and the arts - in many parts of the world.

The Women's Art Society of Montréal (WASM), founded in 1894 - now open to all, not only women - is celebrating our 130th anniversary with an art show in the stunning Old Montréal area of the city.
This afternoon I was on volunteer duty there, at the BOA Gallery, greeting visitors to the "Bloom" flower-themed exhibition.
If you're in town, feel free to drop by for the Vernissage this Thursday evening from 1730 to 2030; September 12, 2024. We'll have live piano music and light refreshments, along with the traditional Meet the Artists celebration.
As it's a juried art show, there will also be a few awards presented; Best in show, Best by theme, and possibly a couple of Honourable Mentions as well.
At the other WASM exhibition this year, I was absolutely thrilled to have received an Honourable Mention from such a historic and prestigious arts organization for one of my watercolours.
As the saying goes, "lightning doesn't strike twice", so I'm certain that my name won't be on any of the awards or mentions for the current show - but I'm very curious to find out which paintings the Judges have selected, as the submissions were once again fabulous.
If you can't make it to the Vernissage, you can still view the fifty or so paintings - in a variety of styles and mediums - through Saturday September 14, 2024.
In the meantime, here are a few photos from the exhibition yesterday - before the doors opened to the public.
There were visitors from Belgium, France, Mexico, Nigeria, and the United States (Colorado and Seattle), although most were from the Montréal area - out enjoying a Sunday afternoon in the historic district.
If you'd like to visit, the address is:
Galerie BOA Gallery
263 rue de la Commune est
Vieux-Montréal, Québec.
The gallery is just west of the Marché Bonsecours Market, with its iconic domed roof; this gorgeous market hall housed the Parliament of Canada in 1849, and is hosting the World Press Photo Exhibition through October 14, 2024.
So if you do stop by the WASM show, walk a block further east to see the spectacular press photos!

Last week I'd just returned from a visit to Vieux-Québec (Old Québec) with my husband, where we visited two fabulous exhibitions at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Québec Museum of Fine Arts).
The second was "Rembrandt - Etchings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen", featuring 88 of his rare etchings.
"The works selected offer a panorama that reveals Rembrandt's outstanding skill as an engraver in the human, aesthetic, and technical dimensions of engraving... include the artist's foremost masterpieces, i.e., The Hundred Guilder Print (circa 1648), The Three Crosses (1653), and The Little Tomb (circa 1657), and other outstanding works."
Unfortunately, taking photos wasn't permitted in this exhibition, so if you'd like details you can visit the webpage of the museum using the link above.

The first exhibition we viewed was "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", which continues through January 5, 2025 - and is well worth a visit.
She's an artist whose work I adore, so when I found out that visitors were allowed to take photos during the exhibition, well, let's just say that I took quite a few.
As I wrote last week, the best way to share my passion for her paintings is through her brushstrokes, so here are a few more of my favourites among all the pieces displayed.
Of course, photos can't compare to seeing these paintings in person, so I'd still encourage you to visit the exhibition if you can.

And if you've never visited Québec City, be sure to add a several extra days as Vieux-Québec is a living museum; the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vieux-Québec:

"The Historic District of Old Québec is an urban area of about 135 hectares... A well-preserved integrated urban ensemble, the historic district is a remarkable example of a fortified colonial town, and unique north of Mexico...
The historic centre, confined within the current boundaries of the district, is the product of more than four centuries of history. During this period, the fortified town retained the integrity of its essential historical components, particularly from the standpoint of its architecture and urban spatial organization."

I'll write about the historic architecture and soul of Old Québec in a future post, but for now let's head back to Museum of Fine Arts and Helen McNicoll! Here are a few more snapshots of my favourite paintings from this exhibition, along with their descriptions.

Picking Flowers, c. 1912, Oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Ontario.
"This painting is based on a plein-air study, exhibited nearby, likely made while McNicoll was travelling.
By carefully recording the composition, colour, and light of the scene in the oil sketch, the artist faithfully recreated the outdoor sensation when she later enlarged the scene on this canvas...
However, not all Of McNicoll's studio canvases have complimentary sketches, suggesting some large-scale works were painted directly en plein air."
~ Image description, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

Picking Berries, 1913, Oil on canvas, Pierre Lassonde Collection.
"As McNicoll left few records, it is difficult to know with certainty where each image was created... The meticulous brushwork that forms this painting mirrors the labour of the young girls that are the focus of the image."
~ Image description, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

Midsummer c. 1909 Oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Purchase.
~ Image description, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

Two paintings in "The Water's Edge" section:
- The Blue Sea, c. 1914, Oil on canvas, McMichael Canadian Art Collection; and
- On the Beach, 1912, Oil on canvas, Pierre Lassonde Collection.

"After completing her studies, McNicoll adopted the Impressionist technique of painting exhibition-ready canvases on an easel set up outdoors.
Perhaps taking inspiration from the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla, who held a major monographic exhibition in London in the summer of 1908, McNicoll's paintings took on an increasingly sunny air.
Like Sorolla, McNicoll's quick brushstrokes deftly express sunlight reflected on white clothing, shadows cast by ridges or rocks in the sand, and the movement of figures across sun-strewn shorelines.
Within a few years, she was appropriately described as a painter who "scatters sunshine" on her canvases."

~ Section description, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

These are but a few of my favourite paintings, among the many on display at this retrospective exhibition, and it was very hard to even choose my personal "Top 10".

If you're now suddenly planning a trip to Québec City, feel free to reach out via the "Leave a Comment!" or "Contact" sections of this website for some of our other favourite places to visit in Old Québec.

I'm just back from a fantastic art-trip, to a historic gem of a place only about 3 hours from Montréal. My husband had mentioned last weekend that he wouldn't mind "going away somewhere for a few days", as we hadn't been anywhere since last fall. I quickly replied that there were two art exhibitions that I'd have loved to see this summer, in Québec City. Within an hour we'd mapped out our plans, chosen dates, and booked a hotel. Luckily for me, my now-retired sweetheart also loves museums!

We chose to stay within Old Québec, an area that many consider to be a living museum; the first North American city to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 1985.
Old Québec (Vieux-Québec in French) is the most intact fortified town north of Mexico, and has preserved its colonial architecture for over 400 years.
For those of you who adore architecture or history, I'll be posting soon about the stunning buildings we saw and visited during this trip.

As for the two art exhibitions on my wish-list for this getaway, the first was "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Québec's provincial museum of fine arts). There's still plenty of time to visit this retrospective, which doesn't wrap up until January 5, 2025.

I'd been aware of Helen McNicoll's paintings for about twenty years, but it wasn't until the 2020 publication of a book - and accompanying lectures from the Art Institute of Canada - that I truly fell under the spell of her luminous work.
That book was "Helen McNicoll: Life & Work" by Samantha Burton. If I could choose one single sentence to summarize it, this would be it:
"McNicoll maintained a strong attachment to the fundamental principles of 'pure' Impressionism and pushed the style further than any other Canadian artist." ~ Samantha Burton.

From the online introduction to the book:
"Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, Helen McNicoll (1879-1915) achieved a great deal of international success in a brief career that lasted just over a decade.
Although deaf from the age of two, McNicoll did not let personal hardship deter her from a career in art.

After training at the Art Association of Montreal, McNicoll moved to London, England, to pursue her passion as she travelled extensively through Europe.
McNicoll relied on lip-reading to navigate through her life, and her art took on the unique perspective of an observer who understood isolation.
She quickly became renowned overseas and in Canada for her luminous canvases that engage with issues such as femininity and domesticity, rural labour, fashion, and tourism.

Elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1913 and the Royal Canadian Academy in 1914, McNicoll died in England in 1915 at the young age of 35...
Revered in her own day as technically advanced and "profoundly original," at the time of her death McNicoll had exhibited over seventy works in exhibitions in Canada and England".

My husband viewing Garden, by Helen McNicoll, 1913, with the full painting below:

In short, Helen McNicoll was one of the most important Impressionist artists in Canada, but was then somehow virtually forgotten after her far-too-young death.
This is acknowledged in the introduction to the current exhibition:

"Following a memorial exhibition dedicated to her life and work at the Art Association of Montreal in 1925, Helen McNicoll was virtually forgotten for close to 75 years.
The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec is proud to make a significant contribution toward rightly recognizing a woman artist who grew up in Montréal in the late 19th century and made a name for herself on the world stage.
McNicoll's art was widely celebrated during her lifetime: critics were unanimous in praising the exceptional treatment of light in her paintings and the immersive nature of her subjects.
She was elected as an associate member of the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and her too-brief career greatly increased the recognition of... Canadian art on both sides of the Atlantic.
Representing modernity through her luminous Impressionist style and her timeless subjects, McNicoll's paintings invite us to imagine travelling the world alongside the artist.
Adopting this viewpoint, Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey explores the outer worlds that the artist recreated in pencil and paint, as well as the inner worlds she navigated, examining themes of female independence and fulfillment, personal and professional risk-taking, and friendship.
Through more than 65 objects, ... this journey offers a fulsome overview and new considerations of the artist's oeuvre. It is the first exhibition... devoted to McNicoll in nearly 100 years."
~ Exhibition Introduction, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

The best way to share my passion for this artist is through her own brushstrokes, so I'm sharing some of my snapshots from the exhibition along with their descriptions; I was pleasantly surprised that photography was permitted within this retrospective. So I'm posting a few of my photos of this show today, several more next week, then I'll write about the historic architecture and soul of Old Québec - along with the second of my wish-list exhibitions: "Rembrandt - Etchings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen" (also at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, but on until September 2, 2024 and with no photography permitted).

The Apple Gatherer c.1911, Oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario):
"When this work was exhibited in 1911, the Montreal press extolled its radiance: "[it] is one of those delightfully sunshiny pictures of which Miss McNicoll is now an almost perfect master.
The sunlight filtering through the trees, and flickering upon the figure and the ground, is very happily translated."
As exemplified here, McNicol's mature painting style blended Impressionism and plein-air Naturalism:
"[all of her] canvasses possess the same quality of open-air sunshine, disarming all thoughts of labor in the studio."
As her skill developed, her ability to render sunlight convincingly became a hallmark of her style, no matter the subject depicted."
~ Image description, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

Sunny September, 1913, Oil on canvas, Pierre Lassonde Collection.
"A Toronto-based critic once designated McNicoll "a painter of sunshine [...] with delicious transparent shadows and wonderful reflections, of children in the field picking flowers, and of radiant gardens. She is essentially a 'plein air' artist."
~ Image description, "Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey", at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Aug 2024.

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