Girard Portfolio: Wildflowers of Ontario

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Wildflowers of Ontario

Just as spring is making its presence known with warmer sunlit days, melting snow and wet streets, I dream of bursts of floral colour to follow in the coming months. Many may already know that I sold the farm in Milford, Ontario where I would take long relaxing walks on the acreage where there was an abundance of wildflowers there to enjoy.

Here is a new series inspired by the warm glow and colours of a summers day on the farm. An early pioneer writer, Catherine Parr Trail in 1868 wrote Canadian Wildflowers of Ontario with hand painted lithographs by Agnes Fitzgibbon. I thought how interesting it would be to revisit that theme of wildflowers but this time pushing toward sprays of colour and texture-Fitzgibbon abandoned!

These became first a series of 18 5" x 7"in. watercolour sketches, some of which were sent to the Pontiac Art Association, Shawville, Quebec. There they will be part of an 'Artists' Exchange' to be re-distributed to participants who offered their work.

I am developing a series of watercolours from those sketches that will be exhibited together in the coming months in the local area. They represent some new techniques that I am pleased to display here today. Let me know what you think!
Next comes my submission for the Reves d'Automne show that takes place every September in the Baie St. Paul area in Quebec.

Blue Vervain, 14" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.) $220.

Bergamot, 14" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.) $175.

Queen Anne's Lace, 14" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.) $260.

Black Eyed Susan, 4" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.) $260.

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Biography

My childhood has been delineated by my marauding father who joined the Forces to have us uprooted from place to place: stationed in Picton, Prince Edward County, Petawawa, the Rhone Valley, Germany, and Edmonton. Finally I concluded my high school days in Timmins, Ontario, my birthplace.

I graduated from Queen’s in Kingston in 1974 with a minor in art history and history followed by a teaching degree in secondary visual arts education the following year, 1975. At Queen's, I was instructed by Jennifer Dickson, Trevor Hodgson and Allen Dickinson. In 1975, I began exploring painting with wax using the traditional Javanese tjanting needles on textile and exhibited in a student show.

In the early years in my education career, I travelled to northern Ontario to the James Bay region and worked as an arts & crafts co-ordinator. I learned more from them at that point than they me.

In the late seventies, I saw the work of Joyce Devlin in North Gower and was observant of her exquisite portraits and layers of acrylic paint.

I left teaching and travelled to work as an artist in Montreal. There I handmade folk clothing and accessories using the wax resist techniques on natural fibres I had learned years earlier.

In Ste. Rose north of Montreal island I began my family and in 1980 Emilie was born. Soon in 1982 Camille followed and I returned with my husband to Ottawa and gave birth to Andrea in 1983. In the 1980’s I returned to the teaching profession and was employed with the Ottawa Carleton Catholic School Board for 13 years working solely at St. Mark’s in Manotick.

In the early 1990’s I moved to Kemptville and began working with watercolour being attracted to its fluid line and challenging techniques. I was introduced to an academic method of watercolour by the artist, Jaw Shaw then in Oxford Mills. Her knowledge and careful manipulations still impress me and have influenced my work. I exhibited with her and a group of artists in Oxford Mills at the stackwall building next to the dam. I also exhibited with the North Grenville Art Guild at this time, showing a series of watercolours of historic buildings in the area. I worked behind the scenes in set design with the Kemptville Players and later became part of the leadership team of the Dandelion Festival, North Grenville. In the late 1990’s I taught Visual Arts Education in the Education Faculty of the University of Ottawa as a part-time professor to 2003. I transferred in 2000 to teach at St. Michael’s Catholic High School and retired from formal education in June 2010.

Presently I am exploring the medium of encaustic painting soon becoming a new series. I hope you enjoy these blogs as a new series comes to completion.

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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Wildflowers of Ontario

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