Today was a big hiking day—Nokomis and part of Awausee. Both have fabulous outlooks. Awausee has giant rock faces and stunning fall colours and Nokomis has views over Old Woman Bay. Can you see the face of the Old Woman? The picture is a bit bright because it was really sunny. You should be able to make out her forehead, nose, and chin sticking out into the water.
I’m going to use the Old Woman as an excuse to talk about The Group of Seven and portrait painting. Although we know them for their landscapes, they were very talented at many forms of painting. Varley, who I haven’t really talked too much about, produced many portraits and self portraits. In fact, he even painted a self portrait in a nativity scene for St Anne’s in Toronto. The painting I want to talk about is by Lawren Harris. It is the portrait of Salem Bland that is at the AGO. Salem Bland was a Methodist minister in the early 1900’s that pushed for social change in Toronto. The reason I wanted an excuse to mention him is that he is actually related (distantly) to Ray. How cool is that—to have a relative painted by the Group of Seven? Do you he looks like Ray? Ray cooked up a big batch of pancakes on the camp stove. So good, everything tastes better in the fresh air. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
4 Comments
Mary Henry
9/22/2020 05:25:01 pm
Small world moment. Husband Don is distantly related to LeMoyne Fitzgerald, probably the last artist invited to join the Group of Seven. He was principal of the Winnipeg School of Art.
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Ray
9/25/2020 02:40:31 pm
We love hearing about the connections. It makes it so real.
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Leila Mazouz
10/13/2020 09:29:24 am
have u always wanted to do this?
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Diane
10/13/2020 01:08:03 pm
Since we retired (7th year now!) we‘ve wanted to see more Provincial Parks. So, when we started seeing advertisements for the 100th anniversary of the Group of Seven..we were...that’s perfect...we can mix it all together.
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Ray & Diane HomewoodSharing the Blessing of Travel Archives
August 2022
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