Chronicling COVID-19

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian art, Canadian wilderness, Music in Canada, Pandemic, Quebec Art

Tags

Arrogance, Covid-19, Early Music, Hank Knox, Quebec lockdown, Self-Isolation

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

My posts are delayed because of essential business. Quebec is closed.

My main meal comes from meals-on-wheels. As I was going to pick it up, wearing protective gear, I bumped into an assembly of people who doubted we should take authorities seriously. They were not standing at a distance from one another and I saw a person coming out of the swimming pool room.

I didn’t think I had it in me to transform myself into the manager of the building. It was an incredible moment. What I said and wrote in emails was, basically,

disperse immediately and do not let anyone into the building. If something is delivered, it stays in the lobby and someone rings your apartment. Three apartments are for sale. Real Estate is not an essential service. No one comes to visit apartments. If a rule is broken, I’ll call the police, the RCMP (Mounted Police), la GRC (Gendarmerie royale canadienne) …

This morning I saw a sign asking people not to use the swimming pool.

Our worst enemies are the people who are too arrogant to obey the law. They don’t know that their freedom ends where the freedom of others begin. Only food, medication and the mail can be delivered.

I then had a conversation with a friend who is a postmaster. Mailmen will not ask you to sign if there is a delivery. That is contact. Covid rests on surfaces, which may include the mail.

One must also realize that there is very little medical help. I often tell people that if they wish to be well treated, they should go to the vet’s office. They have to learn medicine carefully as animals do not speak, except “en son langage.”

I am embedding music played by Hank Knox, a member, by marriage, of Sir Ernest MacMillan‘s family. My dear friend Andrea, whom I lost to cancer recently, was Sir Ernest’s niece. I knew the family but not closely, except for Andrea. We became friends when David and I rented the lower floor of her house.

David had found employment in Toronto. We were in a hotel looking for a home. David drove through streets he knew I would like. He saw a sign on a big tree and Andrea standing outside. He learned that she loved music and cats. So David said he would pick me up because he was certain I wanted to live in that house and that a friendship would grow. I must phone Betsy. She sent me harpsichord music.

https://www.mcgill.ca/music/hank-knox

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Hank+Knox&&view=detail&mid=4484F90DC0AD59DEDB0C4484F90DC0AD59DEDB0C&&FORM=VDRVRV

Barns by A. Y. Jackson, 1926 (The Group of Seven) (WikiArt)

A. Y. Jackson: Nature Untamed

08 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian wilderness

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

A.Y. Jackson, art, Canada, Canadian wilderness, Group of Seven, Toronto

Grey Day, Laurentians by A. Y. Jackson, 1928 (Photo credit: wikiart.org)

It is still summer in Sherbrooke. In fact, summer did not begin until late July, if not later. Yet, we will soon be fascinated by autumn’s palette of colours: shades of red, yellow, purple, burgundy: a study in vibrant colours. This type of scenery was depicted by members of the Group of Seven (see Group of Seven, Canadian Encyclopedia). And so was winter. Above is A. Y. Jackson’s Red Maple (1914), an early painting, but most of the paintings I am showing are winter landscapes depicting Quebec. Jackson was born in Montreal, and it would appear we all belong to the land of our youth.

The Red Maple by A. Y. Jackson, 1914 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alexander Young Jackson

Montreal
Chicago
Paris

Born and raised in Montréal, A.Y. Jackson CC CMG (October 3, 1882 – April 5, 1974) first apprenticed taking evening classes at the Monument-National and the Conseil des arts et manufactures (Internet Archive) under Edmond Dyonnet (1896-99). He then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1906-07) and at the Académie Julian in Paris, under Jean-Paul Laurens (1907). He joined the Étapes art colony, a productive stage in his career. One of his paintings, “Paysage embrumé,” was accepted by the Paris Salon.

Therefore, A. Y. Jackson was an unlikely member of the Group of Seven, of which he was a founding member all of whom portrayed Canada’s wilderness. Matters changed, when Jackson exhibited his Edge of the Maple Wood (1910), shown below. The painting drew the attention of the Group of Seven’s only wealthy member, Lawren Harris, who purchased it. Jackson could not earn a living in Montreal.

Saint-Tite-des-Caps by A. Y. Jackson (Photo credit: Google Images

Barns by A. Y. Jackson (Photo credit: wikiart.org)

A Quebec Village (Photo credit: Heffel Gallery)

The Group of Seven

Recognition worked its magic and induced A. Y. Jackson to move to Toronto where he first shared a studio with Tom Tompson (Canadian Encyclopedia), the artist featured in my last post.

“Jackson taught Thomson aspects of technique, especially colour, while Thomson taught Jackson about the Canadian wilderness (see A. Y. Jackson, Canadian Encyclopedia).”

Jackson visited Algonguin Park, where Thomson built his cabin, loved its scenery and chose to be a landscape artist. He also went west, to the Rocky Mountains, but by and large, he worked in Ontario areas associated with the Group of Seven such as Algonguin Park, the Algoma district, Georgian Bay and the North Shore (Lake Superior), etc. But Jackson also painted Quebec.

Career …

A. Y. Jackson was a war artist (1917-1919). He taught at the Ontario College of Art, the current Ontario College of Art and Design and the Banff School of Fine Arts (1943-1949). Later, he was artist-in-residence at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario, where he died at the age of 91.

Members of the Group of Seven were Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston (replaced by A. J. Casson), Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. Macdonald and F. H. Varley. The group was formerly established in 1924 and 1925, but had held its first exhibition in 1920 at the Art Gallery of Toronto, now the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The video we will view shows Tom Thompson, the Group’s precursor, as well as Emily Carr and David Milne, celebrated artists who also loved nature untamed.

My kindest regards to all of you. ♥

Sources and Resources