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.
