Tapawingo!!!

I've decided to run away from home and duck into the mountains for some solitude, to our home in the Canadian Rocky Mountains to my own very personal "Tapawingo".

Tapagingo is known as the home base of the The McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The inspiration for the McMichael Canadian Art Collection came from its founders, Robert and Signe McMichael, avid collectors of Canadian art, who decided to build a country retreat. In 1951, Mr and Mrs McMichael purchased 10 acres of land in the village of Kleinburg, Ontario and built a pioneer-style home, which they named Tapawingo (believed to mean, “place of joy”). The log and fieldstone building is nestled in 40 hectares of stunning woodland. It houses an extensive collection of paintings by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, and First Nations and Inuit artists.

The purpose of my escape from the city is to give my new set of acrylics a swirl & get the creative juices flowing again thru painting and photography. It feels like I haven't taken a great shot in waaay too long. I'd love to be able to take a great shot with the camera, have it printed on canvas or Masonite and paint on the photograph. So I'm doing everything I can think of to get my creativity to re-awaken.

My love for art started when I was very young and I've pursued it thru high school in the 80's and then in college before I ended up falling in love with photography in the mid 90's. I've dug out one of my favorite books on the history of the Group of Seven and it has re-inspired my love of Canadian landscapes. I especially love the thick heavy brush strokes, the flow and rhythm of light and colors. Back in college I copied a black and white painting titled "Little House", 1911, by Lawren Harris. I nailed it and have always been really happy with it, when I get back to the city I will dig thru boxes and see if I still have it.

For now tho, I'm still apprehensive. I have yet to approach the easel. I've been sifting thru old books on the great painters, and taking it slow, absorbing. I've been going thru some of my digital photos to see what I can use as canvases and came across a pic I shot this time last year in Elkford, of snow falling from cedars in black and white. I sent it off to be printed on metallic paper and to be flush mounted on Masonite. The base of the photo will have a nice silver/metallic glow to it and when I get my acrylic white paint pimped with a glass beads gel medium it should look wicked with big goops of white glass/snow on silver!! Tapawingo at last!!

For sale: 20x36 Black&White metallic print, flush mounted on Masonite.

"Snow Falling on Cedars, Elkford, BC" By Brenda Castonguay Photography Inc.  toviewmore.com

(visa/mc) $300 photograph only, $500 painted in acrylic with glass bead textured gel medium. Free shipping within North America.