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           Finally after a year and 300 million the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) unveiled its new face and in these 3 days ( Nov 14-16) 80,000 people visited the Gallery.

The Transformed Art Gallery of Ontario is Toronto native Frank Gehry’s most recent building, and his first in Canada. Hallmarks of his AGO design include dramatic sculptural staircases, the warmth of Douglas fir used in the Italian Gallery. His bountiful use of glass is providing the galleries with natural light and in some way gives a connection to the city.  Thus it opened the world to 110 light-filled galleries featuring more than 4,000 new and perennial favourite art works.

     I have managed to spent all three days coming to the Gallery and enjoyed again my favorite old and new collection of art work.

Here are some images from this event (unfortunately, no camera is allowed inside, which I hope will change in time to follow other world class galleries that permit to take pictures without a flash).

Antarctica and the North Pole Presentation by David McEown at Royal Ontario Museum on October 30th, 2008 at 19:00-20:30 yesterday was fantastic. It provided an annotated view of David’s many visits to Artic and Antarctic regions of the world that spanned over many years of his travels. It was a multimedia presentation showing his art work, photography and video accompanied by his commentary and accompanying music. His passion for the arctic region, its landscapes and people was evident in his paintings, photographs and comments. It is my great wish to join him on one of his trips one of these days.

http://www.artistjourneys.com/

Workshop given by David McEown at ROM in Toronto, is currently my preferred Canadian artist and teacher. His watercolour style and subject matter (arctic landscape and general landscape) is something that I am personally most interested in, not only in my art but also in my photography as well.

This was not my first show of Robert Batemans art, but it was far the biggest one placed together to show his incredible capacity and love for animal world. The exhibit took place from September 1 to November 4, 2007 hosted at The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg. The paintings from various periods were showing his growing sensitivity to animal behaviour and their habitats. Of course, I was at awe to his incredible painting techniques and craftsmanship.

Workshop given by David McEown at ROM in Toronto, is currently my preferred Canadian artist and teacher. I am his returning student because I enjoy very much David’s style of teaching and his subjects for painting.

I have visited the festival

•  Buckhorn Art Festival 2007

Painting workshop given by Barry Coombs as a full week of painting and sketching in Toronto’s parks and historic sites. The group was relatively small, just about 10 people and we met at different sites in Toronto for a week.Here is the list of sites were we painted:

•  High Park
• Riverdale Farm
• Wards Island
• Edwards Gardens
• Black Creek Pioneer Village

July 7, 2007 my visit to Parry Sound Gallery was to participate in celebration of 97th birthday of Doris McCarthy and this day was also declared as Doris McCarthy day by Parry Sound Town Council. Read more about Doris McCarthy from North Star publication.Here are some photos from the event:

 
• The celebrant entrance with her friends and supporters.

For last 46 years this annual event attracts many art lovers from Toronto as well out of the city. It was my first attendance and because there were around 506 artist exhibiting, I finished around 18:00, with kaleidoscope of impressions from the various art forms shown by so many artists. Although my personal interest was geared toward Fine Art and Photography, there were many glass and pottery artist that caught my interest as well.Some of the artists that I liked are presented here with the links to their websites:

• Patrick Klauss - klenophotography
• Sherrill Girard - Fine Art Photography