Tall Ships Enter Hamilton Harbour - Black & White Photography

 Waiting on the Tall Ships - mid-afternoon Friday, June 28th, 2013 - 
images taken from Hamilton side of the Burlington Canal

 HERE THEY COME!!!

 Passing thru Modern Day artifacts .... 

Majestic champions of the Great Lakes ... 
even if they are of a bygone era ... 
(Published too as single photos in Raise the Hammer)

More on the Tall Ships Extravaganza 
in Hamilton over Canada Day Weekend - HERE
And their course within the Harbour - PDF

The War of 1812: Stud

Horses used in warfare has occurred for well over 7000 years. Recently, a play and film based on the novel, War Horse, brought the public's attention again to the plight of this domesticated animal caught within war zones. 

Today, near obsolete for this purpose, (except in  Afghanistan ), horses have been replaced by a cadre of  'defense contractors' who work in the 'arms industry'.  It's a trillion dollar business ...
 
While reading about the War of 1812, I was somewhat surprised to discover that the role of the horse during the two year long land skirmishes receive scant to no mention. And yet, transportation of men, supplies and artillery wholeheartedly depended on these truly extra-ordinary beasts of burden. 

To rectify this historical oversight, I present this painting - 'War of 1812: Stud'

'War of 1812: Stud' by Margaret Lindsay Holton 

acrylic on loose canvas - 6'W x 4'H

For price, contact the artist.

(Colours are a bit distorted in this photo reproduction, but you get the idea ... ) 

New Painting - 'eye-cloud'

'eye-cloud' by m.l.holton

(acrylic on canvas - unframed )

The IDEA here is to investigate the notion of how we are increasingly
 placing our 'memories' into corporate controlled "iClouds".
From a distance, the orchid above is seemingly 'hidden' in the 'cloud' ... 
yet, on closer examination, using our own eyes, the hidden flower
becomes distinct, and we thus naturally 'emboss' the image into our own memory.
Ergo, an 'eye-cloud'. No corporation involved. 
The mini ethereal gold spirals represent thoughts ...  

 

Detail of orchid bloom in 'eye-Cloud' by m.l.holton

For size & price, please contact the artist.

Note: the 'colour' on the larger image is more accurate then the 'detail'.

The black circles in the upper left of that image 

are actually small gold ink spirals, (better seen in the close-up.)

Spring Birch - New Paintings by mlh

Something about birch trees ... have been a focus for over a month now ...

'Birch Bark', acrylic on canvas, 4 feet square.

'Spring Birch' acrylic on board, by mlh - If interested in purchase, please contact the artist.

Bill Cunningham: Veteran 'Street Photog'

Last night, watching TVO, I was entranced by this wonderful Richard Press documentary about the indomitable Bill Cunningham, the 'fashion' photographer for the New York Times. The film successfully captures Mr. Cunningham's affable charm, gentle grace, professionalism and irrepressible impish-ness. It also does a marvelous job of sharing the streets of New York City.

Now well into his 80's, Mr.Cunningham continues to provide a seasoned perspective about the fluctuations of fashion of New York, and beyond. With a delicate balance of candid reflection, he 'snaps' and curates the nuances of the state of ourselves. He clearly has 'serious fun', an attitude that many 'junior photographers' could do well to emulate.

A veteran cultural anthropologist (long before the term was ever invented),  his visual observations of all things 'fashion' both beguile and inform. His near-intuitive fusion of past and present trends has humbled many 'wannabe' fashionistas. While he remains ever-modest and self-effacing, his 'roving eye' is impeccably sharp.

That we should all do so well, and be so happy, in our 80's ...
'Bill Cunningham New York' is a wonderful tribute to an inspired - and inspiring - 'reporter'.
See it.

Note: A re-run of this enchanting film runs on TVO on Monday, May 27th at 12am, midnight. If you can't watch it at that time, FOR SURE, copy/rent or buy it. There are gold nuggets of wisdom and wit throughout. And, for what it's worth, Roger Ebert gave it one of his rare scores of 4 stars, or 100%.

Here are some additional notable links of several New York Times slide-show videos that Bill recently 'curated':   Adieu Anna,   Stormville  ,  Florescent , Sketching in Pastels. 

All above photos by Bill Cunniingham - attributed to the New York Times - his employer.
The header shot has been taken from the available downloads supplied by the filmmakers.  

Lush Lilacs - Spring, 2013

At the farm, awoke to the smell of lilacs ... 

their intoxicating smell permeated the entire house ... 

  ...  lush and wet with dew, I TRIED with camera to 'get it' ...

 when I wasn't just gob-smacked by the floral abundance ...

 Lilacs are in full bloom all over the property.

Magical and magnificent.

To INHALE is simply - BLISS.

SPRING 2013 NEWSLETTER: From the Studio of MLH

Just putting the finishing touches now to my spring newsletter for 2013. 

It's always a bit of a daunting task to get it 'picture' and 'tone' perfect.

This year will be my largest mailing ever. 

Not quite 5000, but very close.

I hope you all will enjoy my latest work. 

Happy Spring.

  

Click on - SPRING 2013 NEWSLETTER 

UPDATE: Always interesting to discover that other artists are exploring similar concepts and techniques ... Huffington Post recently did a profile of French artist, Thomas Lamadieu's  'sky art'.  Hard to know who got there first, him or me, but either way, we're both at it.  Notch one up to 'serendipity'... 

 ===

2013 Spring Publication:   

WHITE OUT: Photo Erasures

by Margaret Lindsay Holton 

Published by Acorn Press Canada.

Order YOUR copy today from
The Collector's First Edition
via my secure merchant account

on PAYPAL :

 HERE 

Found 'Lost' Art: Photo Transfers

I thought I'd lost these during last year's move. Turns out I'd carefully packed them away in a box that has been in art storage for awhile now. Phew. The process? Scans of living autumn leaves were transferred onto hand-made paper sheets (made over a period of three months.) A time-consuming & fun 'project'. Phew.

Step 1. Scan  fragile autumn leaves to make photo transfer images

Step 2. Photo transfer onto hand-made paper sheets

Tried more conventional photo imagery too (see above), then framed all in between acrylic sheeting. They look great.

Image on lower left shows sample of leaves artfully piled up before they were scanned to create a 'flat image' to transfer onto the paper sheets ... Lotsa serious fun!  All hand-made sheets are signed & dated, 2009. All leaves were collected at various locations around Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Stephanie Vegh: Beating a Dead Horse? Or, Emerging from an Academic Chrysalis?

'Scratchings: Talon, Sting and Claw’     
Now showing at the Nathaniel Hughson Gallery.

Stephanie Vegh, the artist, was born in Hamilton, studied Art and Comparative Literature at McMaster University before leaving for the Glasgow School of Art to complete a Master in Fine Art.

This background is essential to understanding the ink drawings, watercolour sketches, cut outs and literary tidbits that she inserts into arcane 'history' and 'science' books. As she writes, "My labour-intensive articulation of diminutive subjects at an excessive scale in relation to their illustrated environments subverts the logic of these books, forcing a fusion between their history and my own."

Still with me? Take a breath, it's not as tough as it sounds. Meaning: she looks and reads, she thinks about what she's looking at and reading, and she integrates that studying into her evolving persona. All quite normal self-development when you strip away the sophistry.

As for contemporary relevancy, as a country gal born and bred, I couldn't help but think that, cumulatively, these works were 'much ado about nothing'.  Rather then stating the obvious, like the now well-documented global collapse of bees or the on-going eruption of mutating amphibians, we are teased into believing Vegh's quixotic renderings of the historically side-swiped minutiae of Nature is a  'NEW DISCOVERY' of some kind. - Well, it isn't.  

Note: All children, all over the globe, still marvel at the intricate antenna twitching of ants and the buzzing of bees. Bugs, at eye level, remain fascinating.

Perhaps Ms. Vegh's point is that all that child-like awe and wonder is lost as the head, through excessive years of myopically confined book learning, hardens the ever-curious heart. This is commonly known as the ‘ivory tower’ syndrome.

As a visual 'critique' of how, we, as a species, relate to the rest of the species of the world, Vegh seems, to me, to overstate the obvious. Drawing on once revered academic tomes dating from the 1700’s to 1850’s, Vegh has, somewhat mockingly, illuminated their deficiencies. Ok, we get it, those tomes are old hat.  

But one still wonders. Why would anyone study book works that are clearly not relevant today, except, perhaps, as a prologue to understand where we are now? In that regard, Vegh's meanderings in these dusty illustrated tomes appear as 'superior' musings on the atrophied thoughts and illustrations of dead people.   

To give them some credit, if these authors and accomplished artists were alive today they could well be at the forefront of their respective disciplines.  Imagine, for example, Charlotte Bronte writing as a contemporary of Margaret Atwood, or Carl Linneaus  working on The Genome Project ...  

It is very easy to be critical of the dead.

Aside from the overwrought obscure intent of this exhibition, the execution of Vegh's drawings and the pairing of words do have some resonance.  Thoughts ricochet and muddy emotions swirl into the murky eddies of Time Past. Individually, we journey inward - and backward - to cultural backwaters that are now very far removed from the opened floodgates of the internet. 

We all KNOW these dusty tomes are ancient and anachronistic. We can SEE Vegh's tender (not abusive) engagement with them. And, consequently, we can't help but come away wondering if, perhaps, Vegh's miffed chastisement of their inherent failings today doesn't better reflect her greater disgruntlement of her own years of isolated and isolating 'higher learning'.

An essay she wrote seems to give credence to this observation: 'Dwelling in the Windowpane: The Futural Transition of the University'   (PDF link) Therein, metaphorically speaking, she's banging on the doors, flinging open those windows and overall reasonably attempting to up-end the logic of traditional 'reasoned' learning.  

In that sense, these re-fashioned book works, on exhibit at the Nathaniel Hughson Gallery, could be construed as a rebellious 'breakthrough' for Vegh. Yes, she has now graduated into Life. She is, after all, the Executive Director of the Hamilton Arts Council and a member of Hamilton's Supercrawl Curatorial Committee.  

Hopefully, she will soon give herself lasting permission to ‘put away the books’.  

It would be grand, for example, if she funneled her talents into the little appreciation earth-rooted physicality of the web. Andrew Blum's excellent and enlightening book, 'TUBES: A Journey to the Centre of the Internet'  might be a good place to start. She would have to be quick and precise though. His practical ‘field’ research and pertinent cross-fertilized understanding of 'the way things are' will be just as obsolete as our pioneering forefathers insight, knowledge and know-how - given another year or two. 

'Scratchings: Talon, Sting and Claw’ at the Nathaniel Hughson Gallery closes April 6th, 2013.    
Hours & Directions to Gallery: here. 

(Photos of Ms. Vegh's imagery were shot by MLH during the opening on Thursday March 14th. )

 

Rhythm & Colour @ Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts

 

'Spring Creek' (2012) - oil on board  by m.l.holton

'Every day we are surrounded and influenced by Rhythm & Colour. Both are created by design - either by Man or Nature - making one no less important than the other. Be it repetitive in Nature such as the perfectly shaped petals of a dahlia or the precisely placed telephone poles along the road; each ultimately represents a visual rhythm. As for colour, nothing in this world is free from its influence. It can either be lacking or totally engulfing by a myriad of awe inspiring hues. This beauty that we are fortunate enough to experience is the inspiration for this exhibition, showcasing the elements of Rhythm and Colour'

Please join the Women's Art Association of Hamilton 

for the Opening of  Rhythm & Colour 

Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 4:30 PM.

The show runs from March 24 to April 27, 2013 at the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts.  Directions/Map: HERE.

... well attended Opening ...