The 19th Annual Homer Watson Exhibition
June 6 - August 16, 2009
Opening Reception: Sunday, June 7, 2009 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Homer Watson - "Somewhere in Time"
Olaf Schneider - "Making Memories"
Margaret Lindsay Holton - "Slooow Photography - A Pinholer's Dream "
Homer Watson
Somewhere in Time
"Seascape"- Oil on Board, 1929
Curatorial Statement
For a time and age in which he lived, Homer Watson was something of a world traveler. His first trips away from the village of Doon, where he was born, were to Toronto. There he hoped to meet other artists and find encouragement for his determination to become a full time artist.
A few years later he made his first trip to New York where he met American artists and visited the galleries.
After his great success in the first juried exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA) in 1880, the wider world began to open up to Watson. During the next seven years, he traveled throughout Eastern Canada, combining a trip to the Maritimes for an RCA exhibition with a sketching expedition and visiting the main cities to meet collectors and fellow artists.
In 1887, Homer and Roxanne Watson sailed for Britain. This visit, the longest of their seven visits to the old country, lasted three years. Though they spent most of this time in England, they also traveled and lived in Scotland and made two visits to France before returning to Canada and their home in Doon. Between this visit and 1902, they crossed the Atlantic five more times in order to keep in touch with the many friends and contacts they had made in the art world in London. The last trip to Britain was in 1912.
During the same period, Watson traveled extensively on this continent: to the United States, visiting the large art centres such as New York, Buffalo and Chicago, to the Ile d’Orleans to paint and sketch with his friend and fellow artist Horatio Walker and to Cape Breton to the summer residence of his patron, James Ross of Montreal. In addition, he continued making frequent trips to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. This was the heyday of good train service, the closest station being only a five-minute walk down the road.
It wasn’t until 1921 that Watson made his first trip to the Canadian Rockies. He returned to the west eight years later, this time going all the way out to the Pacific Coast. These were the last long trips away from his home base in Doon. In the 1920’s Homer bought a car, which gave him the freedom to explore his own region. Day trips and visits to neighbouring areas were now the focus of painting expeditions with old friends.
Olaf Schneider
Making Memories
"Early Riser" - Oil on Canvas
The driving force that helps and encourages the work that Olaf does, comes from the love and support of his wife Tracey. Olaf’s objective as an artist is to remain an amateur.“In the mind of an expert, there are few possibilities. In the mind of an amateur there are endless possibilities.” says Olaf.
“I will paint an image and convey an emotional context that is accessible to the viewer. This is achieved by several methods. I sometimes like to use expressive and thick impastoed brush strokes, or soft blended strokes, rendering a sense of movement and texture, giving the painting a life of its own.
My interpretation of color also sets the dynamic mood and feelings in my paintings. Finally the tones of my paintings are often ranging from the darkest to the lightest, in an effort to achieve maximum drama.
This combination of information is created in a spontaneous and intuitive fashion. I am constantly in search of more of the elements of nature that have inspired me in the past, thus, continuing the cycle of inspiration and creation.”
Margaret Lindsay Holton
Slooow Photography - A Pinholer's Dream
"Chess at Christmas" - Pinhole Photography
Pinhole photography is the oldest known form of photography on the planet. The earliest known use of this technique was in Asia around 500 B.C, and in the West, around 500 A.D. During the Renaissance it enjoyed a brief ‘resurgence’ as scientists and philosophers explored the emerging realm of ‘optics’. Sir David Brewster, a Scottish scientist, first coined the phrase ‘pin-hole’ in the 1850’s.
Also known as a ‘camera obscura’, pinholes, without the use of lens or fancy gadgetry, lets a small pinhole of light into a completely blacked-out cavity. This incoming ‘pinhole’ of light creates a reverse image of what the pinhole is facing, in other words, a ‘negative’. Today, from this ‘negative’, a ‘positive’ print is pulled using conventional ‘darkroom’ developing techniques. In other words, the ‘positive’ photo image is what you see as a ‘finished’ photograph.
I am fascinated that any ‘image’ can ‘transfer’ without any mechanical intervention. The primary light source, (most often the SUN), simply silhouettes and ‘shadow creates’ the image on paper. Amazing.
I like how this process forces me to ‘slow down’ in the act and art of taking pictures. Pinholing is the epitome of ‘slooow photography’. A exterior ‘sun shot’, on a good bright cloudless day, can easily take 3-4 minutes of exposure ‘time’ depending on the camera I am using. (Note: I only get ONE shot per camera!) Interior shots can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, again, depending on the incoming pinhole ‘light source’.
The pinhole ‘shape’ itself determines the ‘clarity’ or ‘focus’ of the image. The rougher and bigger the pinhole, the more diluted or ‘softer’ the image. The sharper edged and smaller the hole, the clearer the ‘focus’. I admit that I pinhole somewhat ‘organically’. I never use a light meter, rather I prefer to visually gauge the brilliance of the Sun reflecting off objects.
The pleasure of this technique is in the process itself. By today’s digital & computer standards, pinholing is seemingly arcane and VERY ‘labour intensive’. Processing a single image can easily take up to 10 hours from the moment of exposure (creating the ‘negative’ on light-sensitive paper) to the pulling of the final ‘contact’ or ‘positive’ print. Yet, oddly, TIME kind of dissolves when pinholing. The process forces one to be very attentive to the ‘here & now’. All becomes vivid, more immediate, more ALIVE …. It seems as though one is literally ‘dancing with Light’ …
To my way of thinking, the final ethereal ‘pinhole’ image is well worth the wait …
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