Field Trip: Art With Panache

From the Open Doors Site: Art with Panache presents the work of London and southwestern Ontario artists. Come and see – and discuss – artwork and jewelry created by local artists. A jewelry artist will be available to demonstrate how to make extraordinary pieces with polymer clay. Also, watch artists in action as they paint a complete canvas in only 40 minutes!

This was a place I wanted to go, I like seeing art being produced, and I thought it would be interesting to talk with the artists.  It was a good opportunity to practice speaking English with our student as we mulled over which piece of art we liked best.

This one is called a money drop tree.  The artist makes quite a few of these and they all turn out differently as she encourages passersby to help with adding the leaves to it.   The leaves are all done in silver and copper tones (like money).   She often gives them away as fundraisers for charity.   Neat concept I thought.

We were not actually able to take a lot of pictures, for some reasons artists frown upon such activity...I think they actually want people to buy their work instead of take pictures of it.  :)

This piece made me think of the work by the group of Seven for some reason.   I tried to explain that to my student but am really not sure how much he understood. 

It wasn't his most favourite piece (he really liked the money tree and another painting I was discouraged from taking a picture of). 

I thought it rather neat myself...something about the curving pattern worked for me.

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Everyone seemed to like this painting...the realism, the lily pads.. made my sweetheart want to go fishing.  Me of wanting to read a book in silence.   The lad to go looking for frogs and my student "walk by water". 

There were a few pieces  like this one scattered about, my son thought them interesting, but wondered if they could be made smaller.  They kinda like like wood but were made out of some type of polymer that I can't recall the name of.

We did the artist who could paint a canvas quickly.  He did it with a background of quick blue paint strokes and then added colour over top.  It was rather fascinating to watch him...as the colour kinda blended together but not really, we saw a boat house take shape right in front of our eyes.  I was too interested and forgot to take pictures.

I spent a lot of time talking with a lady who makes jewelry, and plan to email her about setting up a class for our homeschool group to learn how to work with the material she uses.  It's like a very versatile clay and needs hardening in the oven, but it's not really a clay it's a plastic based compound.   Interesting how she is able to work with it, the lad saw the possibilities of it very quickly.

You can find out more about Art with Panache on Facebook.