Michel Pleau- Sculpter la lumière - Sculpting Light

The gallery has a limited number of copies of the new book release, " Michel Pleau - Sculpter la lumière - Sculpting Light", which would make a wonderful affordable gift item for art lovers on your list this holiday season. This is a lovely slim coffee table book about Canadian artist Michel Pleau's work, and his painting process with accompanying high quality images of his landscape paintings. The text by Suzette Emond is so beautifully written it reads like poetry as it shares the artist's spiritual connection and painting journey in nature. Inspired by the Group of Seven painters, especially Tom Thompson, Pleau's inclination remains to paint the beauty of nature and Canadian wilderness scenes in a spontaneous style that easily enthralls the viewer with its magic.

Michel Pleau is an accomplished Canadian painter and the recipient of various awards and distinction, including the Canadian painting Grand Prize in 1989. Since 1974 Michel has participated in over twenty group and solo exhibitions in galleries in North America and Europe. He is a member of the Figurative Arts Institute since 1999 and lives in the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec. Michel Pleau is represented by Tay River Gallery in Perth Ontario.

Michel Pleau
Sculpter la lumière - Sculpting Light
Size: 9 1 / 2 "x 8"
48 pages, papier glacé ,48 pages high quality glossy paper
42 photos de toiles et quelques photos de l'artiste 42 photos of paintings and some photos of the artist
$15 retail ( price in the gallery) $20 shipped.

Snowstorms play havoc

Just a note to out of town customers. In the case of snowstorms, please call the gallery to ensure that we are open before travelling to Perth. Hwy 7 between Carleton Place & Perth can be extremely hazardous during snow storms, as there is very often quite a delay in the road being plowed or salted or sanded on this stretch of the highway. As we do not live in the town of Perth, but in the country and must travel the highway, there may be the rare occasion when we are snowed in or cannot drive in.
Lisa Brown, Gallery owner.

Excerpts from Shirley Mancino's Travel Journal Dec/08

Shirley Mancino is an accomplished professional artist represented by Tay River Gallery in Perth. As an experienced budget traveller, life in Asia is often the inspiration for her work. Mancino travels to paint andpaints to travel. Image pictured to the left is "Sari Elegance", a 30 x 22 original painting in watercolour & acrylic by Shirley Mancino currently available at Tay River Gallery.

Epistle from Mahabilipurim- Nov 29
Just so you all know, we are safe and sound in SE India....nowhere near the fire and bomb blasts in Mumbai. Our flights departed and arrived on time but still we were about 21 hours in airline transit. We arrived in Chennai in the rain. We made a mistake in our arrival time, wasn't the middle of the afternoon but in the middle of the night 12 midnight to be exact. We had our guide book packed away and no hotel pre-booked....so we found a place in the city which cost about $30 US about twice as much as we have ever paid before....pouring rain and windy and two AM before we got settled in. The next morning we were awakened by a knock on our door by a man wanting to shine our shoes. we explained that we only had sandals and he offered to make us shoes....only in India.

Our biggest adventure so far has been finding our way across the sprawling city last Saturday and then onto the bus for Mahabs the next day....didn't get rained on or at least only a sprinkle....This is the monsoon season on this coast but we have also had a typhoon for the last 4 days, winds at 50 miles, power out all over on and off for days (mostly off) and our hotel room roof here in Mahabs is now leaking. We have had some romantic candle light evenings in our room with no TV and we have sat in the dark trying to stay awake so that we could overcome our jet lag. We are now able to stay awake all day which is a relief and the sun has come out. We changed rooms this morning so should be dry and safe tonite. We are missing the comforts and conveniences of home especially the food choices. This is a very poor state and/or village and there are barely no veggies to be had.We are tired of Indian food already and go looking for western alternatives.... absolutely no chocolate or treats. Beer is about $3 Cdn a bottle but til today, it hasn't been hot enuf to think about it.

I have completed 2 1/2 paintings so far so my production levels on that score are about normal. No galleries or other art studios here with the exception of stone carvers...they are everywhere. Will get this off before the power goes down again.

Dec 03- Further notes from Mahabs
We are staying in a small guest house here at the beach. This is an ancient town with temples and cave carving from the 1st to the 6th century...Palava, for any of you who care. we saw most of the sights the last time we were here so this time we have just been hanging out recuperating from the 10 1/2 hour time difference. It has taken us about 10 days which is what they suggest it will take.

The weather is great and we have been swimming twice altho... the water is very rough and dirty from the storms last week...our room is about 12 x 12, tiled floors and bathroom, TV and a balcony with plants and seating areas right outside our door, fan only and cool water shower which is surprisingly easy to get used to when the temp is 29 degrees C. Cost is about $5 USD. Oh and I get fresh flowers affixed to my door every morning!

As mentioned in our last epistle, a cyclone blew thru here and put the final touches on a sea wall which had been damaged about a month ago....12 feet high, 12 feet wide and about 200 feet long....the sea is very unforgiving. Now the rubble blocks the beach in front of a luxury hotel. The beaches are strewn with plastic bags and other flotsam making it an unpleasant walk.

But the streets are not paved or are paved only in places and are cracked and broken, making walking treacherous. Sand is everywhere and garbage...the dumps seem to be on every street corner. There is tremendous poverty here, most people wear no shoes and are dressed in only longy (short little sarongs). as mentioned before, food consists mainly of rice and bread (parotta or chapattis) and dal and not much else.
We are escaping to Goa on Friday, a 24 hour train ride which will cost about $20 USD for both of us.

Martha Markowsky receives Award of Excellence in the Arts from City of Lachine, Quebec

Martha Markowsky was selected by the City of Lachine for the award of excellence in the arts for 2008. This honour was bestowed on Martha before an audience of over 300 people at the Centre St. Anne in Lachine on Sunday November 23, 2008. This award was in recognition of Martha Markowsky's achievements in art as well as within the arts community of Lachine and across Canada.
Pictured in the photo above is Mayor Claude Dauphin, with Martha accepting the award "Le fil de l'excellence 2008", and on the right, Councillor Jean-Francois Cloutier.

The city of Lachine has selected for their Christmas cards this year, the image from her original painting "Backyard Nostalgic Hockey" currently on display and available for sale during December at Tay River Gallery in Perth.



Martha Markowsky, accomplished and highly respected Canadian artist is an elected member of the Society of Canadian artists, with works in many prominent personal, corporate and government collections across Canada.

Martha Markowsky is represented by Tay River Gallery in Perth and featured in the current festive holiday show at Tay River Gallery. Paintings by Markowsky on a festive theme with many small works perfect for gift giving are on exhibit ( musicians, bar scenes, children at play, Montreal backyard scenes) See Martha's featured artist page on the gallery website for currently available paintings.

"Merrymaking by the Tay" Open House Next Saturday

Indulge in some "Merrymaking by the Tay" this month and treat yourself to a visual feast of many upbeat, bright, festive and seasonal paintings by our celebrated artists.

On Saturday November 29th, from 12 - 4 p.m. the public is invited to join us for refreshments at our annual Holiday Open House. Tay River Gallery is located in downtown Perth at 28 Wilson St. W. A few of the featured artists will be on hand periodically during the afternoon.

Among the 200 plus paintings on exhibit this month and next, view the festive selection of new works from Normand Baril, Margaret Chwialkowska, Deborah Czernecky, Leah Dockrill, Ernest Labelle, Shirley Mancino, Martha Markowsky, J. Allison Robichaud, Tricia Savoie, Charles Spratt, Paulette-Marie Sauve, James E. Pay, Rosemary Randell, and France Tremblay. Plenty of small gems at affordable prices from your favourite artists.


A special feature this month is a selection of oil paintings in an impressionist style with a strong focus on light, colour and contrast by guest artist, Ernest F. Labelle. Scenes featured in Labelle's paintings include an Ottawa backyard in Winter, rural Wakefield, a Hull streetscape and a Montebello country home. Ernest Labelle Ottawa area artist,captures in vibrant colour and vitality, the old and new architecture of his surroundings from travels around the world and from his favourite locales in Canada. Among his artistic accomplishments, Labelle has organized art shows and fundraisers, participated in Automn Art, and Images sur Toile and directed workshops in Ottawa, Gatineau, Montreal an Baie St Paul. Labelle's works are in collections in Canada and abroad.

In Watercolours, we are pleased to present a number of small festive works for gift giving by Rosemary Randell. Displayed in the holiday show from Rosemary are a number of tiny treasures with still life paintings in high realism created in watercolour and also watercolour and pastel. Luscious groupings of fruit perfect for the festive season are "Navel Gathering" and Sunday Shadows and favourite dishes with "Bowl from Perth", "A Seasonal Visitor" depicting a nostalgic winter scene and Storm Warning", a seascape set in Scotland. Rosemary Randell is an award winning Ottawa area watercolourist Ottawa who has created over 400 commissioned works during her professional career including 14 paintings for the City of Kanata. She has a Fine arts degree from Concordia University and is an elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (CSPWC). Rosemary offers watercolour and drawing classes afternoons and evenings for adults in Kanata year round.

Local Perth area artists John Shea and Bill Veale added new work to the festive mix at Tay River Gallery this past week. (not in time to be mentioned on our flyer for the event). From John Shea, we have displayed a number of small "gift giving" paintings of local scenes and architecture as well as some larger winter rural scenes in watercolour. Bill Veale captures winter with a Westport barn,(acrylic on canvas)as well as a new format watercolour (on paper/canvas varnished) of a nearby waterway. Avec les couleurs tres brillantes!

Take some time away from your busy routine to experience the joie de vivre and celebration expressed by gallery artists at Tay River Gallery.
More exciting works to come in December as the holiday show continues !

WEST TO EAST with a Paint Brush!

September 2008 was a wonderful, unique month for two Canadian Plein Air painting buddies. They managed to paint in both BC & Quebec during September.
In mid September, John Alexander Day (Ottawa based artist) joined BC artist Deborah Czernecky for a week in the Victoria area. It was a great week of painting on location for them!
Deborah recounts highlights of the trips in her usual entertaining manner:
Even the weather co-operated fully - the gloomy, gray blanket delayed its usual fall arrival!

In typical BC style, many wildlife sightings occurred including seals within 12 inches, Bald Eagles circling above, whale bones on the beach, painting (very observantly) under the flight path of Canadian Geese and White Swans, to mention just a few. Did you know that Canadian Geese poop 3 lbs of stuff daily? Under a different type of flight path, the duo were treated to a show by the Snow Birds Aerobatics Squadron while painting at Fisherman's wharf in the Inner Harbour.







It wasn't all fun and games! After hiking with painting gear through the Rain Forest for what seemed like eternity (to some) to find that unique, isolated West Coast Beach scene we were surprised to discover a road nearby, that would have made the 30 minute hike (according to
John's watch) a five minute drive. As one says, you're not a true islander until you drive the Pat Bay highway with the 450 cars that just got off the Super Ferry - all "rushing" to the same place. John was having a good painting day until then! However, all was well in the end, as he painted the setting sun over Esquimalt Lagoon later that evening.

At the end of Sept, both artists joined the Les Ensemble plein air painting group for five days of painting the Fall Colours in the Eastern Townships in Quebec. Deborah met up with John in Ottawa. With John's unique navigational skills, they sailed through Montreal (cell phone
capital of Canada, every car must come with a cell phone) and found Sutton in record time. Upon arrival, they found the Fall Colours at their peak and truly amazing. It was wonderful gathering every day with the other artists in the dining room. Morning coffees were barely drunk
before the maps were out and artists were charting their locations for the day and sharing information. Between the rolling hills looking into Vermont, the Sugar Shacks hidden behind the trees, morning fog and seeking permission to paint on various parcel of land it was another
successful painting trip. On the way back to Ottawa, it was great having John's IPhone, so Tim Hortons was never out of range!
Wrapping it up here .... "that's quite the backyard we have here in Canada!" pipes Deborah.
Deborah Czernecky and John Alexander Day are represented by Tay River Gallery, fine art gallery in Perth Ontario. View works on the website at www.tayrivergallery.com

Merrymaking by the Tay

"Merrymaking by the Tay", the annual holiday show at Tay River Gallery opens this week.
Tay River Gallery will present a festive mix of small original paintings by area artists at gift giving prices during November and December.
Also featured are a number of grand artworks of a festive flavor from our celebrated artists.


Rich in palette, joyful in theme and with a sense of everyday wonder , the upcoming season is embraced in the most delightful of creative interpretations.

"Merrymaking" - is celebration, festivity, lively enjoyment , joyous diversion, jolly, entertaining, revelry , cheer and more...

Join us at the Open House on Sat. Nov 29th from 12 - 5 pm at 28 Wilson St. W. for holiday refreshments during the Festival of Good Cheer in Perth. See the show and by chance meet an exhibiting artist. There is no artist reception scheduled for this show but a few artists do plan to stop in and visit.

New paintings are arriving over the next week from gallery artists for this show from as far west as Victoria, BC and east to Halifax NS.

Enjoy the new festive selection of paintings by talented area artists Normand Baril, Margaret Chwialkowska, Deborah Czernecky, Leah Dockrill, Ernest Labelle, Shirley Mancino, Martha Markowsky, J. Allison Robichaud, Tricia Savoie, Charles Spratt, Paulette-Marie Sauve, James E. Pay, Rosemary Randell, and France Tremblay. Plenty of small gems at affordable prices from your favourite artists.

As a special added attraction in Merrymaking , we are very pleased to introduce oil paintings by Ernest F. Labelle and watercolours by Rosemary Randell. Welcome to you both. More about the artists soon in an upcoming blog.. need to run and finish hanging this show.
Lisa B.