March 1, 2011
Hi Everyone,
Hard to believe that it is March already! I thought this was a good time to send you out a quick listing of some of my upcoming events. Check further down for more details and please forward to anyone you think might be interested. While I am finishing up some new paintings based on my studies and photos from Ireland, I am also involved with doing the final planning for exhibitions, workshops and artist talks which will take place from now until September.
• Renews-Cappahayden Cultural Days March 12th & 13th
• Artist Talk at The Rooms March 17th
• Arts & Letters Exhibition at The Rooms April 5-17th
• Class Exhibition at MUN Botanical Garden June 30th-July 30
• Southern Shore Art Exhibition
• Exhibition, Artists Talks and Workshop in Ontario, April 24-May 28
• Exhibition, Artist Talks, Workshops and new work at New Brunswick Botanical Garden July 1-30
• September 24 & 25th Workshop "Plants from The Emigrant Trail" in Renews, NL
I don't have every detail but you'll find more information on this news below. If you have any questions or want more information please don't hesitate to contact me at info@margaretwalshbest.com
Renews-Cappahayden Cultural Weekend
For two days, March 12th & 13th, the Regina Mundi Cultural Centre in Renews will be a hub of activity. Along with readings, music & entertainment, there will be a Visual Arts Exhibition. I will take part in this exhibition with a group of artists and artisans from the Southern Shore. St. Patrick's Day lasts much longer than 24 hours on the Southern Shore. The musical entertainment during this Cultural Weekend will be a good start to your Irish celebrations.
Presentation at The Rooms, St. John's, NL
Take an hour or so from your other St. Patrick's Day celebrations on Thursday, March 17th, and drop by The Rooms in St. John's. Have a very late Irish breakfast and then join me at 2:30 at the theatre on the 2nd floor for my presentation called "An Irish-Newfoundland Connection: Planting the Roots". As a 'Journey of People, Plants & Art', I will bring you some of my Irish experiences which started in my hometown of Fermeuse on the Southern Shore, NL and moved across the ocean to Ireland. I will show paintings from my touring exhibition which was first shown in Ireland in September, 2010 and is moving to North America, and present some of the work connected to a related project on the plants of the Ireland/ Newfoundland Emigrant Trail.
While you are there be sure to go to Level 2 of the Museum to check out "Talamh an Eisc, The Fishing Ground", the ongoing exhibition on the Irish in Newfoundland. You can find more information on this from The Rooms website under Coffee and Culture.
9 Bonaventure Avenue
P.O. Box 1800, Station C
St. John's, NL, Canada A1C 5P9
Telephone: (709) 757-8000
TheRooms.ca
The Arts & Letters Exhibition 2011
The Government of Newfoundland & Labrador Arts & Letters Exhibition will be held at The Rooms from April 5th - 17th, 2011. I'm very pleased that a piece of my work, "Iris pseudacorus" has been selected for the 2011 exhibition. This will be the first exhibition of this piece. Last year I was thrilled that, "Centaurea nigra", a painting from the Invasive Alien Plant series, was shown and received an award at this exhibition. The image of this has just been added to my website.
Where My Brush Takes Me 2011 - Class Exhibition
For several months in the fall and winter I offer classes on Wednesdays. Every second year an exhibition is mounted. I'm happy to say that this summer the artists in this group will be presenting their work at MUN Botanical Garden on Mount Scio Road, St. John's, NL. The Opening Reception will be June 30th from 5:00-8:00pm with the artists in attendance. The exhibition will be open to the public from Friday, July 1 to Saturday, July 31, 2011. Please come and bring a friend to view the lovely variety of watercolour, monotype and encaustic art by this group that make Wednesdays my favourite day of the week.
*Exhibit hours may vary due to conference room bookings.
Contacts at MUN Botanical Garden:
Telephone: (709) 864-8590
Fax: (709) 864-8596
E-mail: ssmith@mun.ca
MUN Botanical Gardens Website
Exhibitions Away from Home
My project on Invasive Alien Plants has been growing in leaps and bounds. What started as a couple of paintings inspired by a talk at Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden, became an exhibition of plants that are invasive and alien in our home province. Then after some research of my own, it was obvious that Invasive Alien Plants are a world wide issue. By the time my exhibition was ready for mounting in the first of two galleries in Ireland, (Check July 10, 2010 below for more on this) I had already decided that the original title of "Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants of Newfoundland & Labrador" wasn't as relevant any longer. The title now, as the grouping becomes more global, is shortened to "Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants". I realized that some of these same plants in my paintings are indeed alien and invasive in a number of places in North America and other parts of the world and that, of course, each area has its own major invasive aliens. I constantly remind myself that a plant that is a weed in one area may be treasured in another.
While in Ireland in 2010 I did studies and preparatory work on a couple of the top invasive aliens there - one from the North and one from the southeast. Two new paintings, representing these 2 plants, will become part of the next stop of my exhibition in May.
Ontario
In April "Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants" is heading off to Ontario. It will be mounted at the beautiful historic Meaford Gallery at the Meaford Hall Arts & Culture Centre. It will open to the public from April 25th - May 28th, 2010. On May 4th and 5th I will do artist talks for the Meaford Creative Arts Association and others, including a high school art group. On Friday the 6th I will be offering a workshop (10:00am-4:00pm) on watercolour florals. This workshop will be at the "Beyond Basics" level and open to anyone who has had some experience with watercolour. Registration can be arranged through the Meaford Hall Arts & Cultural Centre.
The official Opening will be on Saturday, May 7th from 2:00-4:00. If you have family or friends in the area please pass on my invitation to the opening.
You'll find me back in Ontario in July when plants are out in full force to paint an invasive alien plant of the beautiful Georgian Bay area.
July 2011
In July 2011, my paintings will move to a new exhibition space at the New Brunswick Botanical Garde. While there I will be doing artist talks, a workshop and painting one of the major invasive alien plants of New Brunswick to add to my touring exhibition. For anyone interested in attending any of these activities please contact the Garden.
The New Brunswick Botanical Garden
PO Box 1629
15 Main Street
St-Jacques District Edmundston, N.B.
E7B 1A3
Tel:
506-737-4444
Newfoundland Emigrant Trail Project
My Invasive Alien Plant project has morphed into a double-faceted body of work. While doing research on the plants before I began each painting I soon came to the realization that most and possibly all of the plants in my paintings came to us from the UK. At the same time, at a meeting in Renews, NL, I heard presentations at the Ireland /Newfoundland Festival of the Sea on the plans for the Immigrant/Emigrant Trail Project. It was an obvious fit for my work to follow this slightly divergent path. I, with my brother Tim Walsh, horticulturalist and Nursery Manager at MUN Botanical Garden, soon began the research of specific plants which are found along the route of the Emigrant Trail in Ireland and which have found their way to our province and to other parts of North America.
In a presentation on September 18th, at the launch of the Emigrant Newfoundland Trail project at the Museum in Dungarven, Ireland, I had the opportunity to talk about the plan for the expansion of my current body of work in conjunction with 'The Trail' project. . As this Trail project progresses the inclusion of the plant related research and my paintings of them will find a place in their overall plan.
Workshop "Plants of the Immigrant/ Emigrant Trail" Renews, NL
On September 24 & 25, 2011, I will be offering a workshop "Plants from the Emigrant Trail" in watercolour florals. The subject will be taken from some of the plants which border the roads and pathways of Renews, on the Southern Shore. These plants will be some of those which most likely came here many yeas ago with our Irish immigrants. This is at a Beyond Basics level, designed for anyone who has some introduction to watercolour. Please contact me if you are interested in doing this workshop. The hours will be 10:00 am-4:00pm and it will be held in the Regina Mundi Cultural Centre. Hope to see you at some of these events. For more complete details on this workshop please go to my Workshop Page.
October 21, 2010
Hello Everyone, below is a listing of some of the exhibitions where you will currently find some of my paintings. I would love it if you passed on the information to your family and friends. Also, check out the Workshop Page for my Winter Workshop offerings. Gift Certificates are always available for these. Just give me a call.
Botanical Artists of Canada, Jjuried Exhibition
October 27th - November 7th, 2010
Papermill Gallery
Todmorden Mills Heritage Site
67 Pottery Road
Toronto, Ontario
www.botanicalartistsofcanada.org
www.margaretwalshbest.com
33 Annual Garden & Nature Art Exhibition
November 5 - 28, 2010
at MUN Botanical Garden
Opening Reception November 4th, 7 - 9 pm
www.mun.ca/botgarden
www.margaretwalshbest.com
"A to Z" Member's Exhibition, Main Gallery Space
Eastern Edge Gallery
Harbour Drive, St. John's, NL
Opening: Sat Nov 6, 3 - 5 pm
Closing reception and holiday warming: Sat Dec 11, 4 - 7 pm
www.easternedge.ca
www.margaretwalshbest.com
Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants
Old Market Gallery
Dungarven, County Waterford
August 15th - October 4th, 2010
www.margaretwalshbest.com
Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants
Coastguard Station Museum
Tramore, County Waterford
Ireland
October 10th - November 14th, 2010
www.tramoretown.ie
www.margaretwalshbest.com
Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants
Touring Exhibition
Read below to find out more about
this growing body of work and check
back for dates of the exhibition of 2011.
I have been working on an exciting group of paintings over the past year and am delighted to be able to tell you all about the work. While I enjoy painting many subjects, if you know me at all, you know that my favouite subject is plants. I love them all, from the showy formal garden blooms to the miniscule blossom on the forest floor.
My study this year has caused me to fall in love with the multitude of those wild and invasive crazy plants that take over our roadsides and ditches and are classified as 'weeds' by most. Some of them make their way into our gardens and meadows and, while they are beautiful, we are not always happy to have them push out other plants we spent years trying to cultivate.
In botanical terms, the subject of my work is Invasive Alien Plants. They are those that are not native to an area but have managed to successfully establish themselves and are thriving. I have partnered with Memorial University of Newfoundland for Part I of this work and have learned much about these plants. Briefly, these plants have made their way here through a variety of pathways and in their new environments, without their usual predators and pests to keep them in check, they flourish and cause changes in our ecosystems.
While I have been drawing and photographing and painting these plants I have developed an attachment that has created a bit of a 'love-hate" relationship. While I recognize the harm that they can do to our native plants, I am attracted to them for their resilience, their strength and their determination to exist. I am inclined to think of them as "rogues"; in my mind this is synonymous with sleveens and vagabonds.
I mentioned that the exhibition in Ireland will be Part I. While in Northern Ireland and in County Waterford in the Southeast I will be painting Invasive Alien Plants from those areas and adding them to my exhibition offerings. Check back later and hear about my chats with botanists in those other areas of the world and the plants that I encountered and chose to paint.
Check below and read what Dr. Wilf Nicholls, director of Memorial University Botanical Garden, has to say about my current exhibition:
"I am not sure if we should praise or vilify Margaret Best for this superb collection of paintings! We demonize these invasive species as the second most serious threat to our native biodiversity (after habitat loss); and yet, when Margaret shows us the intricate beauty and grace of these plants, we are hard-pressed not to rejoice that they are a part of our changing habitats. Margaret Best (as all good artists) challenges us to view things differently, to question our prejudices, to pique our awareness and to make us care. Maybe we don’t need another doom and gloom leaflet about the perils of purple loosestrife and the strangling nature of bindweed; maybe we need Margaret Best to arrest our attention and educate us in another way. These are true beauties and beasts rolled into one; Margaret has captured them on paper wonderfully, our job is to ensure they don’t get away to invade elsewhere!"
From Dr. Wilf Nicholls
Director
MUN Botanical Garden
St. Joohn's, NL
It is a very exciting time for me, with more and more to see and learn and paint with each waking moment.
Keep in touch as I follow this interesting group of plants around the world.
Thanks for reading,
SHOWING RIGHT NOW:
33rd ANNUAL GARDEN AND NATURE ART EXHIBITION
MUN Botanical Gardens
306 Mount Scio Road
St. John's, Newfoundland
T: 864-8590
November 5th - November 28th
10:00am to 4:00pm Daily
www.mun.ca/botgarden
PAINTING IN THE GARDEN
MUN Botanical Garden Art Group Exhibition
MUN Botanical Gardens
306 Mount Scio Road
St. John's, Newfoundland
T: 864-8590
September 3rd – October 3rd
10:00am to 4:00pm Daily
www.mun.ca/botgarden
2008 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
17th Annual Southern Shore Art Exhibition
(Held in conjunction with the Southern Shore Shamrock Festival)
Colony of Avalon Building, Ferryland, NL
July 26 & 27, 2008 (1:00 - 6:00 pm)
www.colonyofavalon.ca
www.ssfac.com
(Craft Council Gallery at Devon House Spring!)
2010 Selected Exhibitions
"Spring"
NL Craft Counsil Gallery
59 Duckworth Street, St. John's, NL
March 9 - April 20, 2008
Opening reception March 9, 2:00-4:00pm
www.craftcouncil.nl.ca
Toronto Flower & Garden Festival
8th Annual Botanical Art Exhibition at Canada Blooms
Toronto Convention Centre, Room 711
March 12 - 16, 2008
10:00am -9:00 pm Wednesday - Saturday
10:00 - 6:00pm Sunday
www.canadabloom.com(Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Painting in the Garden - Orchids
Botanical Garden Art Group
Mount Scio Road, St. John's, NL
September 5-28, 2008
Opening reception September 4th
www.mun.ca/botgarden
Five Island Gallery
From an Island to an Island- Landscapes of the Southeast Shores
A collaboration by Irish artist Andrea Jemeson and Newfoundland & Labrador artist Margaret Best
7 Cove Road, Tors Cove, NL
September 7 - October 13, 2008
Opening reception afternoon of September 7th
www.fiveisland.ca
2007 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2007 NL Arts & Letters Exhibition
The Rooms, St. John's, NL
May 5-June 17th, 2007 Newfoundland in Toronto Second Annual Art Auction
A Benefit for The English Harbour Arts Association
at Historic Maple Cottage
62 Laing Street
Toronto, ON
Sunday, June 10, 1pm - 5pm, 2007
www.englishharbourartassociation.com
16th Annual Southern Shore Art Exhibition
(Held in conjunction with the Southern Shore Shamrock Festival)
Colony of Avalon Building, Ferryland, NL
July 21 & 22, 2007 (1:00 - 6:00 pm)
www.colonyofavalon.ca
www.ssfac.com
Todmorden Mills Exhibition
Botanical Artists of Canada
Todmorden Mills Art/Museum Gallery
Toronto, ON
October 4 - 28, 2007
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Botanical Garden
Garden & Nature Exhibition
Mount Scio Road, St. John's, NL
June 29- August 26, 2007
(Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Botanical Garden Painting in the Garden
Botanical Garden Art Group
September 7 -23, 2007
www.mun.ca/botgarden
Craft Council Gallery at Devon House
Exhibit 2007
Devon House
59 Duckworth Street,St. John's, NL
June 24 - August 31, 2007
“Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants”
Old Market Gallery
Dungarven
Ireland
“Balancing Act: Invasive Alien Plants”, Tramore Coast Guard Cultural Centre, Tramore, Ireland
