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You are invited to the Opening Reception of the 53rd Etobicoke Art Group Juried Exhibition. Our esteemed jurors are Olex Wlasenko artist and curator at Whitby Station Gallery and Nancy Newton, contemporary Toronto artist, www.nancynewton.com. (check out the bio at www.olexander.ca ) Refreshments will be served.

EAG’s charge to the jurors states "that they will select works of a range of media and subject matter which shows technical excellence, originality in content and composition, and that extra 'intangible' creative spark". First, second and third place awards and up to three Honourable Mentions will be announced and presented.

The opening reception is from 7 - 9 pm Wednesday January 25th. Etobicoke Civic Centre Art Gallery , 399 The West Mall, Etobicoke, Ontario (cross street is Burnhamthorpe Road)

The exhibition continues until February 24th, 2017 and is open 9-5 every day.

I am very pleased (and so were the jurors!) that my painting, a conceptual piece titled Airport Road, is included in this exhibition.

Sunday Drive is a small painting, only 12"x12". Aren't you looking forward to getting out on the weekend? We love to explore the area called Hills of the Headwaters. This is an area encompassing Orangeville (Where the gallery Dragonfly Arts on Broadway is located :), Caledon, Mulmur, Rosemont, Primrose and vicinity. The area is rolling hills, some of which are very impressive. It is an area of forests , farmland and small villages. The Bruce Trail runs through on the Niagara Escarpment. I have always loved the area.

A peaceful clear day. Green fields starting to show. Up and down the hills, off into the distance where a new view awaits. How do you like the bounce of colour between the complementary rich blue sky, the juicy orange fencepost and the dark blue road?

Enjoy your weekend!

I am happy to report that Kickinghorse Pass, British Columbia has sold at the Dragonfly Arts on Broadway in Orangeville. This painting was completed last spring 2016 during the studio weeks at the Advanced Individual Studies, Haliburton School of Art and Design.

It was by accident a couple years ago that we went over the Pass west of Banff. We were travelling to Banff but between the chit chat in the car and a long transport truck travelling just ahead of us on the right, we missed the sign for the Banff turnoff and continued unwittingly on our merry way. It had never seemed such a long trip to Banff from Calgary but we aren't locals so maybe we were mistaken.

The long trip short is that we ended up continuing on up to the Pass where we were lucky enough that our arrival coincided with a train taking the tunnel into the mountain. The mountain seemed like a huge wall in front of us, which is why I only left a little sky in the painting. We all know how big a diesel train engine is. Well it looked minuscule, smaller than a dinky toy train on that mountainside.

I am very happy for the new owner of Kickinghorse Pass, British Columbia. It is one of my favourites. Enjoy!

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Winterberry is a native bush for eastern Canada. It grows in wetter areas. These berries are also featured in Christmas floral arrangements but the berry clusters are denser. Birds and deer will eat these in the country. A male plant is needed to provide pollination. Perhaps we need more males?

I painted lots of pale colours on the snow covered pond to remind of the rainbows in the snow sparkles. The 'distant' shore is lighter still than the pond. The foreground is darker. So you see there is still organization to the abstraction. Click for a video of the creation of this little painting on instagram.

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"Marshmallow Moon in the Winter" is my progression of the song "It's a Marshmallow World in the Winter." This little painting exemplifies what I find so fun about abstraction. When the marshmallow sticks appeared at the fire pit at the bottom of our toboggan hill, I heard the moon asking to be a marshmallow--- Make it so! It is also fun to sometimes(often?) take what is on the land in my landscape and repeat it somehow in the sky .

Marshmallows won out over Winterberries for my family Christmas card. I will post Winterberries in a few days. Some prezzies are waiting to be wrapped at the moment. And then off to Christmas Eve service we go.

Have a Merry Happy Joyful Christmas. May there be Peace on Earth.

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The turnout of artists and friends for the opening reception of Progressions VI was excellent.

At the McMichael, there is a docent who is now a fast friend and a fellow artist. She organized and prepared much of a lovely potluck spread for our reception. Another representative of the McMichael, Rachel D'Oliviera spoke on behalf of the gallery. John Leonard RCA spoke, congratulating the group on the very high calibre of landscape paintings offered in this exhibition.

Part of the premise of the first Progressions exhibition was the supposition of "what if" the Group of Seven had continued until now. What would have developed? As John pointed out, there is still an unending variety of ways to paint the landscape of Canada. The McMichael is very pleased with the exhibition. Do try to take it in!

The show is very useful to the McMichael education department and so it is being held from Nov 28/16 until Feb 28/17. Schoolchildren are taken through on their way to the main galleries. Progressions VI provides them with an unusual art experience : First of all,the artists are still alive! and second, the paintings are all of a size that students can relate to. 12"x16". Over the course of the year, 30,000 schoolchildren visit the gallery. That would translate to about 10,000 seeing our exhibition!

It is a great thrill for us all to be part of an exhibition that shares a building with exhibitions of the finest in Canadian art. I am very grateful for the opportunity. And I never imagined that I would have this opportunity, much less 3 times. When doors are opened, my policy is Walk Through! Wonderful things can happen. I remember Pamela Wallin saying as a key note speaker "If you say 'yes' more often than 'no', you will do interesting things in your life." How true!

Currently there is also an exhibition of Toronto artist the late Jack Bush. His paintings are massive.

There is also an exhibition of Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson paintings that were done before the first World War and before the Group of Seven formed. The timeline was:

Tom Thomson and Jackson painted together from about 1912.

Jackson went to Europe as a soldier, was injured and then continued as a war artist (1915-19).

Thomson died in 1917 while Jackson was away at war.

Jackson and others formed the Group of Seven in 1920.

Cheryl Bailey with Buttonbush 2 at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Tomorrow I will be imagining the McMichael staff bustling about with hanging our Progressions VI exhibition. This exhibition was painted by 29 artists in the Pine Cottage at McMichael in September. All paintings are 12x16" and will hang for 3 months on the walls between Gallery 1 and Gallery 2. It is indeed a thrill to be included in this exhibition held at such a prestigious gallery. My third time.

My painting "Buttonbush 2" is a reprisal in 12x16" size of "Buttonbush" which is 12x12". The 12x12 is currently for sale with others of my paintings at Dragonfly Arts on Broadway in Orangeville, Ontario. As the Buttonbush 2 has yet to be photographed, here is a picture of Buttonbush:

The buttonbush is a native Canadian plant that grows in moist areas. The flower is a strange but delightful hairy golfball. The hairy petals eventually fall off and a lovely round reddish ball containing the developing seeds remains through fall.

Please click the "Current Exhibitions" page for detailed information about this exhibition.

Mid November --- Hmmm. Time to start thinking about what to paint for the annual Christmas card. I have been doing this on 6 or 8 inch canvases. Though I don't usually work small, it is good exercise. There are options: fun or serious, day or night, close up or far away. Oh- just had a thought --- a winterberry bush to go with the buttonbush--- I will have to think about that some more.

My thinking is done in a little moleskine sketchbook ( I keep it with me all the time- very handy for jotting down ideas.) I make a thumbnail (read "small") drawing and when I have the lines right, I put in the lights and darks. This is a pretty standard process.

At this point, I like to group areas of similar value(or level of dark/light) to minimize the busy-ness of the composition. This gives me the opportunity of creating a powerful composition.

If I don't already have a good picture in my mind of the colours, I will go "shopping" on the colour wheel and colour charts. Even though there are a myriad of choices, this is much more fun than choosing from the endless selection of yogurts at the grocerystore - and no calories involved😉

The Ontario Society of Artists' Emerging Artist 2016 Juried Exhibition is closed now. Happily, my painting "Near Banff" sold to a member of the Neilson Park Creative Centre. It is now hanging in her home over the fireplace. I don't know about you, but in our home the 'over the fireplace' position has high ranking in the decorating scheme. Pleased I am!

In a critique from a juror, it was suggested that I use more variety in the quality of my strokes. I thought perhaps go back to using more colours within the flattened shapes in order to provide further interest. I am now asking myself "Had I gotten lazy or simply simplified further?" This comment about variety was what, in the end, separated me from a prize. Never the less, I am thrilled to know that I was in the final running for a prize at this special exhibition. And of course, all critique is still a matter of opinion.

It has been a busy fall with family and doings in general. Isn't it always busy in fall? We seem like squirrels, busy with winter preparations, though our lives do not depend on this type of busy as it does for squirrels. Lucky is the squirrel with a bird feeder nearby to poach from. But I digress.

We have received news that the Etobicoke Art Group's Annual Juried Exhibition, a very competitive show, has been moved back to January from May. This is a first and means that we have "less" time to come up with our best work for the year. With Christmas in-between, it means even less time for some of us! Time will tell... Hmmm, of my currently finished work, what should I enter? Let me know what you think on the contact page...or by clicking the Facebook Like button on the enlarged view of the painting on the website.

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Near Banff SOLD

Everyone is welcome to attend the opening reception for the Ontario Society of Artists' Emerging Artist Juried Exhibition 2016. I am so pleased to have been selected for this exhibition. The big night is Friday Oct 7 from 6-8 pm. Refreshments will be served as well as several awards and lots of terrific art. I can't wait to see the offerings from the other artists. The invitation is quite interesting in that it has a 'slice' of each painting from the 32 artists. See it below, with all the details.

It has been an extremely exciting summer with several juried exhibitions where my paintings have been accepted.

At the beginning of September, I painted with a group at the Pine Studio at McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinberg. We all produced 12"x16" landscapes for the Progressions VI Ontario Provincial Touring Exhibition. My painting was Buttonbush 2 - a painting of buttonbush blooms near our pond. Of course it is abstracted, as usual for me. Each of the artists usually paints at least 2 12x16 during the course of the week in addition to whatever sizes they regularly paint. Then our fearless leader, John Leonard, curates a show from these paintings. I had also done a landscape of the view off the road in the country. John chose the Buttonbush landscape because it was more 'me'. I have a rather large interest in native plants and buttonbush is a native in wet areas. The plant produces a bloom that looks like a hairy white golfball. When the 'hairy' petals drop, a ball is left which gradually darkens. A quick snap of Moonlight Jazz , the 'other' painting, is show below the invitation. I forgot to take a photo of Buttonbush 2 but it is similar to ButtonBush by the Pond shown in the Gallery.