OTTAWA—Art lovers, naturalists, or anyone who is looking for an oasis of calm in the midst of a busy pre-holiday season would do well to visit Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Nature and see the spacious new art gallery.
In it you will discover a stunning exhibition called Natural Affinities which features the work of both Ottawa artist Barbara Gamble and amateur naturalist Catharine Parr Traill, who came to Upper Canada in the 1830s.
Parr Traill collected plant specimens and pressed them into scrapbooks These scrapbooks, exhibited alongside Gamble’s art, invite many comparisons, as the title Natural Affinities suggests.
When an artists sits for long hours observing nature, the natural world offers a reward—an insight into its being. On the surface we see atmospheric scenes of woodlands and lakes; but spend a few moments longer and you will quiet right down and see the heart in the paintings, the feeling of being in that place, and a sense of gratitude for what is given freely to anyone in that forest or fen.
In it you will discover a stunning exhibition called Natural Affinities which features the work of both Ottawa artist Barbara Gamble and amateur naturalist Catharine Parr Traill, who came to Upper Canada in the 1830s.
Parr Traill collected plant specimens and pressed them into scrapbooks These scrapbooks, exhibited alongside Gamble’s art, invite many comparisons, as the title Natural Affinities suggests.
When an artists sits for long hours observing nature, the natural world offers a reward—an insight into its being. On the surface we see atmospheric scenes of woodlands and lakes; but spend a few moments longer and you will quiet right down and see the heart in the paintings, the feeling of being in that place, and a sense of gratitude for what is given freely to anyone in that forest or fen.
This is work that can be experienced directly. No one needs an audio guide or an art expert to understand and appreciate Gamble’s art. But if you do have a question, a museum guard is the person to talk to. After all, other than the artist or an owner of one of these works, who spends more time with the paintings? The guards are there day after day so they get to know the works on a deeper level.
Standing in front of a painting called “Red Oak” one of the guards said: “When you look at that tree you want to sit right under it and relax. You smell the oxygen and feel the breeze and talk to the tree...and let the tree talk to you.”
He was referring to the large painting that invites you into the exhibition. It is of an oak tree, not life size, but in that space it almost seems so.
The rest of the paintings vary in size and format, big, small, monumental, vertical, horizontal. They are sensual and are composed of sensual materials: oil, beeswax, canvas, and steel. Yes, steel can be sensual as Gamble uses it.
There is a sad saying among artists that “we paint what we destroy.” This is pertinent here, because whereas Parr Traill simply walked out of her door and observed what surrounded her in the 1800s, for Gamble it was different. Her subjects were not so close at hand; some were on public land such as the Ottawa Arboretum, but for others she had to get special permission to go to an undisclosed protected area to observe the plants that Parr Traill had been able to find so readily in her day.
A catalogue is available that includes many images from the exhibition and an essay by museum curator Petra Halkes. The exhibition continues until January 4th, 2009.
The Canadian Museum of Nature is at 240 McLeod Street (at Metcalf). There is limited parking on site, and strestreet parking nearby. Entrance fee is $5.
Standing in front of a painting called “Red Oak” one of the guards said: “When you look at that tree you want to sit right under it and relax. You smell the oxygen and feel the breeze and talk to the tree...and let the tree talk to you.”
He was referring to the large painting that invites you into the exhibition. It is of an oak tree, not life size, but in that space it almost seems so.
The rest of the paintings vary in size and format, big, small, monumental, vertical, horizontal. They are sensual and are composed of sensual materials: oil, beeswax, canvas, and steel. Yes, steel can be sensual as Gamble uses it.
There is a sad saying among artists that “we paint what we destroy.” This is pertinent here, because whereas Parr Traill simply walked out of her door and observed what surrounded her in the 1800s, for Gamble it was different. Her subjects were not so close at hand; some were on public land such as the Ottawa Arboretum, but for others she had to get special permission to go to an undisclosed protected area to observe the plants that Parr Traill had been able to find so readily in her day.
A catalogue is available that includes many images from the exhibition and an essay by museum curator Petra Halkes. The exhibition continues until January 4th, 2009.
The Canadian Museum of Nature is at 240 McLeod Street (at Metcalf). There is limited parking on site, and strestreet parking nearby. Entrance fee is $5.
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