A Smattering of Art

By this point in the trip we've experienced the best art the Canadians have to offer. We've been to the the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; The Rooms Museum in St. John's, Newfoundland; the Quebec Fine Arts Museum; The National Gallery in Ottawa; and the Art Gallery of Ontario.  We saw two specialized museums in Toronto:  The Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art as well as the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics.  Some have presented themselves in magnificent buildings which enhanced the whole experience.

The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

"The Rooms", St. John's, Newfoundland

National Gallery in Ottawa

The Rooms in St. John's wins hands down for its presentation scheme.  They mixed both art and artifacts in their 'rooms' and floors.  It was a very effective presentation.

A whaling exhibition at 'The Rooms'

The Aga Khan was a recommendation by the neighbors at the terrible house we rented in Toronto.  I won't go into what a disaster the place was, but every experience has something good, and the good thing which came out of that rental was we met the next door neighbors.  Sheila and Eugene were lovely people who turned out to be artists and in Eugene's case, a marvelous musician - a banjo player!  He also plays the accordion. They both have been painters, and they are currently collaborating on mosaics which are large decorative pieces suitable for outdoor display.

They suggested the Aga Khan, and we went.  I know zippo about Islamic art, and this museum was both beautiful and instructive.  This was one of the many unique (to me) items in the museum.  This is a page of the 'Blue Koran' - the Koran written in gold leaf on dyed blue parchment in 1000 CE.  I learned quite a bit about Islamic art patterns here.  We also saw a wonderful exhibition about Near Eastern carpets in 17th century European paintings.  They showed the painting and the carpet portrayed - side by side.

All over Canada, we discovered the "Group of Seven" as well as Emily Carr, and Inuit art.  Those three groups alone made our museum time worthwhile.  First, the Group of Seven is just that:  Seven Canadian artists who were all friends, all painters, and who formed a loose association somewhat like the Impressionists did in the 1880's.  This group's time frame is post-impressionist and right at the beginning of modern art. They painted from the end of World War I forward with some of them painted for more than 40 years.  They focused their art on Canadian landscape painting.

We actually took a train tour into a remote area of Canada outside of Sault Ste. Marie.  In the 1920's Lauren Harris, one of the seven, actually rented a railroad car, had it delivered via train to the Agawa Canyon area and proceeded to paint.  His friends (others of the 'seven') were so enthralled with the paintings he produced, they followed him up and stayed in railroad cars for the next few summers, all painting and hanging out together. Their works are often grouped together in the museums, and each Canadian museum owns some of their paintings.  Here's my favorite Harris painting.  He actually went to the Arctic to paint icebergs, and this is what he saw.

Emily Carr is an artist who should have been part of the 'seven', but wasn't due to her location (Pacific Northwest) as well as her sex and her age.  She was older than the seven, and her paintings prior to meeting them were all about preservation of the art of the First People of the Pacific coast.  She painted the desolation of the native villages which had been ravaged by small pox in the 1860's, subsequently abandoned because sometimes the entire village died, and then looted in the 1880's by Europeans.  It is an old story.  In the early 1900s Carr was trying to call attention to the degradation of the Pacific coast native tribes.  In our opinion, her strongest work is her later work after she came in contact with the 'seven'.  She painted this in 1940.

I also fell in love with Inuit art.  Did you know a higher percentage of Inuits are artists than any other culture in the world?  They generally work in traditional materials - stone, ivory, or bone, but their contemporary works often have a whimsical touch.  

  

We also discovered two modern iconic Canadian artists:  Alexander Colville who painted post WWII up until 2012 was that rare artist:  famous in his own lifetime.  We were fortunate to see an entire exhibition of his work.  He bucked the trends of his time which were non-representational.  He painted uber realistically, but as with this painting, is about everything except what the picture actually is.  His wife was his model for the entire life of their 60+ year marriage.  She was less than comfortable with the nude paintings especially when displayed, but she was more uncomfortable with another woman being painted in the nude by her husband!

Christopher Pratt paints Newfoundland.  He's their painter emeritus.  At age 80, he's still criss-crossing Newfoundland in a Range Rover scribbling in notebooks about where he is, what he is seeing, and even what he had for lunch!  Then, he paints.  We saw an entire exhibition of his work, but I couldn't photograph it, so I snitched an image from Google. 

We actually saw this one.  It's called "Beyond Cities and Into the Real".  Pretty much outlines his entire painting philosophy as well as his fellow Newfoundlanders.

In Nova Scotia, I found a primitive artist who tickled me.  I like primitive art.  This is the type of art which comes from the souls of artists who are usually not formally trained.  The guy I saw in Nova Scotia is called Joe Norris.  Here's the piece that caught my interest.  It's a 1930's vanity repurposed as a piece of art.

The Gardiner Museum in Toronto was right in my sweet spot - ceramics (AKA pottery).  A Toronto couple went crazy and within a 10 year period put together a world class collection which they then gave to the city along with a museum to house it in and the money to keep it up.  I loved the Japanese section as well as the Contemporary section of this museum.   Here are two of my favorite pieces.

 

This piece is Japanese porcelain circa 1670, and it's called 'Banded Hedge'. 

 My favorite contemporary piece is as much about the "empty space as it is about the ceramics". That's a direct quote from the artist. (Can you see the children?)  This takes amazing wheel control as well as an aesthetic sense, and isn't that art at its best?

The unexpected art of the trip was religious.  Those Roman Catholics in Quebec built some really nice churches.  Some were so special they have been designated 'basilicas' by the Pope.  Here's the altar area of the Notre Dame Basilica of Upper Quebec City

I also have a soft spot for stained glass windows, especially those of the Nativity.  I mean, who doesn't like Christmas?  

Best outdoor art goes, hands down, to Quebec City.  They had the best statues and the best mural I've seen this trip.  Here's a history of Quebec City in a nutshell, well, actually, in a wall.

I especially like Champlain (guy in front and center) - founder of Quebec City, who left behind no picture of himself, so the City just made up a likeness - and that's officially Champlain.  Some of the most influential people in Quebec City were the Ursuline nuns in the upper right window.  They came to Quebec in the 1680's.  The two guys on the balcony are the two Quebecians who were instrumental in crafting the Confederation of Canada in 1867 - joining of all the provinces into one country.  This magnificent piece is painted in the tromp 'de oeil style - meaning it looks 3D on the side of a five story building in Lower Old Quebec.  

The Ursuline Convent/Church in Quebec City had one of my favorite exhibits - embroidery.  Apparently, the 'mother convent' in France sent over to Quebec City in the early 1700's a woman whose family were master embroiderers in Paris.  She became a nun, and drawing on the skills taught her by her family, she ran an embroidery workshop for the Quebec City Convent for over 40 years.  The exhibit was a display of the religious coverings for altars, priests, etc. she masterminded and then supervised the crafting of.  Naturally, they wouldn't let me photo any of it.

Those who really know me realize I could go on and on and on.  And, yes, I have a zillion pictures of the art I've seen across Canada. I decided to go with the smattering approach in the blog, so no one would be bored witless by lots and lots of pictures of pictures, and statues, and sculptures, and ceramics, and decorative arts, and, and, and....  I didn't even mention the 'lesser' museums we saw everywhere including the Sault Ste. Marie Art Museum which is 40 years old and proudly displaying the highlights of what they've bought over the last 40 years.  Now, that was interesting.  My favorite piece from that museum is by an unknown artist

Finally, I'll leave you with a piece of outdoor art, well, it's outdoors at least.  It's the BIG NICKEL in Sudbury, Ontario, the center of the nickel industry of North America, if not the world.  Not sure this is art, but it's sure distinctive, and I wanted to see it!

The Peculiarities of Canadians

At this point in the Great Canadian Adventure, we have covered quite a bit of ground. So far we've motored from Arizona to New England, and from New England to New Brunswick, and from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia.  We ferried to and from Newfoundland and lolled around the Gaspe peninsula.  I managed not to be seasick on a single ferry or boat (there have been five, so far), and Drake assisted a deer in committing suicide.

We struggled across Quebec doing charades.  Doing the chicken dance will always get you something you recognize to eat.  As we progressed across French Canada, I got bolder and began subjecting the poor French Canadiens to my badly pronounced French.  I discovered I can READ French signs, but no one could understand me when I spoke the actual words.  I might as well have been speaking Spanish.  Funnily enough, my limited Spanish would creep in when I would try to speak French -  "Bluet, por favor."  No wonder they got these puzzled looks on their faces when I opened my mouth. It took five people with lots of consultation to help us order a fast food meal one afternoon.

Now we've found the bulk of the Canadian population in Ontario.  Did you know there are only 35 million Canadians?  That's fewer than the State of California.  Twenty percent of them live on the north shore crescent of Lake Ontario in high rises.  Having covered this much Canadian ground, we've noticed a few things:

1)  All Canadians agree the hardest people to understand when they talk are Newfoundlanders.  I absolutely agree.  Standing in a Newfoundland bathroom washing my hands, I was easedropping on two ladies standing next to me.  I might as well have saved my ears - didn't understand a single word they said, and yes, they were speaking English, at least the Newfoundland version.

2)  The fastest talkers are the people in Toronto - they speak very close to the speed of light.  I find myself repeating what I THINK I've heard.  

3)  All Canadians, whether French or not, like 'poutine'.  These are saltless French fries, covered in salty brown gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds.  NOT yummy looking, and completely devoid of any nutritional value.  No one understands why we don't want to eat them.

4)  French Canadiens are ice phobic.  I was in a restaurant in Levis', major town in Quebec, and I ordered a ginger ale, the 7-up/Sprite substitute of Canada.  The waiter brought the can and a straw.  When I asked for a glass of ice, he explained the restaurant had no ice.  No ice?  In a sit down restaurant?    Then a couple of days later, I was in a motel and went looking for the ice machine.  What I found was the manager who, instead of directly me to the ice machine, handed me what looked like a 6" x 12" piece of bubble wrap - at least they were large bubbles - and this was the ice offered.  Bubble wrap ice.  I mean these places have electricity and everything; they just don't have ice.

5)  My arithmetic skills are absolutely first rate at this point - figuring what the temperature is, how many miles we have to drive, what the gallon price of the gas is, and translating the speed limits.  We've discovered the exchange rate between American Dollars and Canadian Dollars is negated by the Canadian taxes - they run about 20% (or more) on EVERYTHING.

6)  I don't even laugh anymore when offered loonies and toonies ($1 and $2 coins).

7)  The Dollar Store is the Dollarama, and those green and yellow signs are everywhere.

8)  In French Canada you use the Toillete.  In English Canada you use the Washroom.  In the USA, you just go to the bathroom.

9)  It has been a relief to discover Americans do not have tackiness cornered.  If you moved 1000 feet from Niagara Falls, it was a carnival.  All it lacked was the girlie show. Crammed together was:  the wax museum, the mini golf course, amusement rides, the souvenir shops, ice cream stores, fast food joints, and Ripley's Believe it or Not, just to name SOME of the attractions on one block.

10)  I knew Canadians had notorious sweet tooths.  They eat about twice as much ice cream (per person) as Americans.  And, they're not picky - they eat bad ice cream. Just as long as it's sweet; that's all that's required.  What I didn't expect is everything else being loaded with sugar.  We are certain there's a 'Canadian' formula for Heinz ketchup and adult cereals - they are sweeter than all get out.  Everyone offers 'the best plum sauce' as a condiment - think gelatinous sugar syrup.  Most Canadians drink 3 sugars and 2 creams in their coffee.

11) Most real Canadians get their sugar fix at 'Tim's' AKA Tim Horton's.  This chain is not like Dunkin' Donuts and it's not McDonald's, but it's everywhere. There are breakfast food sandwiches, a pastry case, with lots of yummy treats as well as 'Tim Bits' (donut holes in about 10 varieties).  There are hot sandwiches. The coffee is outstanding.  These places are like the local diners of each neighborhood, and every age group eats here - regularly.  I must confess:  We are addicted when on the road. "Yes, yes, there's a Tim's just ahead!"  I'll be coming back to the States with a caffeine jones.

12) Credit card slots at the gas stations are backwards.

13)  Every business has a portable credit card chip reader.  Credit cards in Canada have a pin number associated with them, so the waitress, sales clerk, convenience store clerk, etc. whips out a handheld device when you make a purchase, then you insert your credit card into the machine, punch in your pin number, and Voila!  done.  Well, except for us....we have to 'sign', but your credit card never leaves your hand.

14)  Grocery store rewards cards are only good for 'air miles'.  Really.  You get so many miles per grocery purchase.

Hardly surprising air miles would be so popular - we'll be traveling 5867 kilometers between St John's, Newfoundland and Banff, Alberta.  Let's see....that's the same as crossing Texas from Orange to El Paso 4.5 times.  Piece of cake, ey?