Peggy's Cove Festival of the Arts - July 11th to 21st

We have the Peggy's Cove Festival of the Arts going once again and our Opening Gala on Thursday, July 11th at Shining Waters Marina in Tantallon, NS. Tickets are $20 and are available through the PCAFA website.

There will be a silent auction of arts and crafts, with six member artists will be demonstrating art at the event. I'll be one of the artists demoing, the theme is fish based art, and since I like painting, (and not fish, generally!) I'll be stretching that definition by working on an acrylic painting of a mermaid;-) There will also be a live band, a silent auction, a fish tank game, and other things going on at the gala, so if you are in the area around that time, don't miss it!

Events will be going on throughout the festival, including live band concerts, the Paint Peggy's Cove weekend event, and other events.  I'm just pasting the descriptions from the website here because they certainly explain it clearer than I could!
Primarily a “coastal festival’ - this is an early summer celebration of the wealth of artistic talent in an area just south of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The focal point is our beautiful St. Margaret’s Bay with its iconic Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse.

Our resident artists live along Highway #333 (Prospect Rd. - Peggy’s Cove Rd.) parts of Highway #3 (Hubley to East River) and the Hammond’s Plains Rd south of Pockwock Rd. or on the many sideroads leading to picturesque villages. Our STUDIO TOUR  2013 extends from Prospect to East River, following the coast. See our Get Involved page for details.

We offer two weekends of signature events - Paint Peggy’s Cove and a Studio Tour, along with a feature concert. Plans for mid-week activities are in the works. Our festival is growing!  We plan to make waves on the art scene here in Nova Scotia!

The festival is also a celebration of fine artisans, musicians and performance artists. Concerts, demonstrations and workshops will become part of the event over time. In this area so near Halifax, you’ll find over 70 artists living in a wonderful setting where forested hills meet the sparkling Atlantic Ocean.

Hurricane Earl Hits My Doorstep

Hurricane Earl Hits Fox Point, Nova Scotia.

Hurricane Earl just passed us by here in Nova Scotia, and it was pretty intense. I think it's the first hurricane I've ever been in, the closest I had ever come before were some tropical storms I experienced when we lived outside of Fredericton, New Brunswick in the nineties.


Since the storm struck during the day, it was more interesting, as you could see it progress as the day went on.

When I woke up at seven thirty, there was hardly any wind and it was just sprinkling lightly. But within fifteen minutes, you could see the wind picking up (now I really know what is meant by the term 'gathering steam'!) and the rain started to intensify as well.

Sunrise before Hurricane Earl by Corinne Oullette.

About two and half hours later, the power went out... (not so bad in the middle of the day and in the summer, it's been hot and muggy, so the storm is cooling it down a bit.)

One interesting thing about this is that I really noticed the 'calm before the storm' effect that I'd always heard about! There was no birdsong other than the seagulls, and I think they were really enjoy soaring in the winds above the surf... Maybe seagulls are the 'surfer dudes' of the bird kingdom!




Searching For An Exit - Sept.2010.

A friend of mine took a beautiful shot of the sunrise on Friday morning, prior to Earl moving into the neighbourhood, and the weather looked great.  If we didn't have meteorologists and old farmer's almanac guys, you'd never even know a storm was coming in!

Well, after I wrote this, the hurricane got progressively worse, apparently, it tracked further east than was expected and hit Lunenburg county, which is where I am, bang on! We got hit with a category one, and there were idiots out there surfing! Unfortunately, I didn't get any shots of them, I thought two fools out there in a hurricane were enough without me joining in!

Online Entity - Sept.2010.

Our power ended up being out for 26 and half hours, which is not convenient at all... You don't realize exactly how much you need electricity to live in this day and age until you have to do without it for an extended period of time.

Mind you, I do one thing that really works very well for me in a non-electric situation, as long as it's daylight... I got a lot of painting done for one day, that was for sure!  Have a look, I've also added in one that I started but haven't finished yet.

Photo Images 1 and 2 - by Teresa Young.

Totem Tumble - In Progress.

Flowing Free - Sept.2010.

A Tour Around Peggy's Cove



Closeup of the lighthouse.



Undersea Eyes by Teresa Young.

On Saturday, after working on a number of glass paintings and reaching the point where I was watching paint dry, I decided I'd procrastinate in a new and unique way,  so I went and took a boat tour around Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.

Peggy's Cove is gorgeous location and seeing it from the deck of a boat is a great way of getting a different perspective on a premier tourist spot...



Peggy's Cove Tour Boat.

Cove Jewels - glass painting inspired by the cove.

If you want go ahead and take a look at the website run by the boat tour company, it contains quite a lot of information, some beautiful photographs and loads of facts about Peggy's Cove and the wildlife of the surrounding area.

View from the boat.

We were made to feel very welcome at the outset by the crew of the boat and were given the initial safety information prior to leaving the dock... 

At least it wasn't as bad as the airplane lectures on safety I've sat through as it was delivered with a sense of humour by our tour guide Emily.

The tour includes an hour long ride around the area with great water views of the lighthouse.  The underwater camera portion of the tour is where the boat is stopped to drop a camera so the passengers can get a good look at the ocean floor. 



Nice day for a cruise...

And there's also a chance to get a photo of yourself with the olympic torch that was used to start the run across Canada for the leadup to the Olympics. 
I found this quite ironic as I'd moved away from British Columbia prior to the Olympics, and here I had a chance to hold one of the torches, which I never would have if I hadn't left...



I think Emily is admiring Bill's legs!

Surreal colours!

While anchored in a little cove not far from the lighthouse, we were watching video of a local lobster and the camera decided it really wanted to be free and somehow slipped the line holding it to the boat...

Peter helps Bill into his new clothes...

Apparently, this isn't a common occurence so we just happened to luck out on this tour.  I wasn't about to complain about the extra time on the water as it was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky overhead... 

As we watched the captain of the boat (Bill Johnston) get helped into a dive suit by Peter Richardson, (his first mate) we were able to get a great look at the surrounding landscape. 

One small island we passed had been bought by a local woman for 240 thousand dollars and she built a house on it. 

Fishing village near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.

The power would have to be brought out to the island via underwater cable and the fresh water would have to be brought in or captured via a cistern. 

But I bet the lady has great privacy! 

There was a nice little boat dock there and it looked like a beautiful place to swim...  Just imagine owning your own island though!  That amount of money would buy half a house in Vancouver, BC area at best...

Emily (our guide) pointed out the comorants sunning themselves on the nearby rocks.  She explained that these fishing birds are wonderful weather predictors. 

If the birds are there, you can count on decent weather, but if foul weather is coming in, then the birds will be mysteriously absent...

Emilio Giancola and
Joe Persicone hold the torch.

It's never been explained how wildlife knows in advance about things like earthquakes and tornadoes, but I guess you can extend that little mystery to thunderstorms and hurricaines as well!

After Bill retrieved the camera, we pulled anchor and started back towards the cove. 

As we neared the lighthouse, Emily pulled out the Olympic torch and also brought out some Olympic clothing that we could put on if we were interested... 

A couple of young lads down from Halifax and Ontario decided to go the whole route and suited up...

Of course no photo op is complete without the captain's willing participation...

Sunset at Peggy's Cove.

Once everyone got a turn to try out the torch (although for a while there I thought I'd dropped in on a Star Wars convention, they were using the torch as a light saber for a bit...) we started the boat back up and headed back to the dock...

As far as I was concerned, it certainly was a wonderful trip that I'd recommend to anyone visiting the area.  And it was a great way to take a break and see more of the province!

Next month I think I'll check out the Cabot Trail!

Images by Teresa Young:
1. Undersea Eyes - Aug.2010,  2. Peggy's Cove lighthouse,  3. Tour Boat,  4. Cove Jewels - Aug.2010,  5. The lighthouse as seen from the water,  6. Unnamed glass abstract - Aug.2010,  7. Wake of the boat,  8. Photo of Bill in scuba gear,  9. My surreal lighthouse shot,  10. Bill and Peter preparing to retrieve the camera,  11. Fishing village near the cove,  12. Emilio, Joe and Bill with the Olympic torch,  13. View from the boat,  14. Sunset at Peggy's Cove.

Painting Outside the Box...

 

I think I mentioned in a previous post that sometimes I have a tendency to paint anything that doesn't move too fast!

I don't know, maybe it's the three dimensionality that gets my motor running, but it seems to have a much different feel than painting in 2D.
And you get in the mood for a change, so it's all very interesting to explore...

I think it might have started with my

ex husband's motorcycle back in eighties, I had painted a nice surreal on his jean jacket that he was really attached to, it had a floating face above a marshy scene based on landscapes in photos I had taken around Nova Scotia, Canada somewhere. It was supposed to catch the feeling of the Maritimes, and it really did, in a very dreamy, bluish, sort of floaty way... After he decided his Yamaha 750 Virago had finally reached the point of needing a paint job, he really wanted that image on his bike!

Never mind that I had no experience whatsoever painting a motorcycle, had never used an airbrush and didn't even own one! Talk about being forced out of your comfort zone... But on some level, I think he did me a favour, I muddled through, did my research and it all turned out quite lovely. And I learned it's much better to step out and experiment than to get complacent and stop learning!  I wouldn't mind painting a few bikes sometime too if it ever came up, and I learned a lot about airbrushing, metal paints and so on in the process. So it was all good.

But back to the blog subject at hand... That was probably my first serious experience with painting on 3D objects. And it's got different design challenges, you have to keep looking at it as you do your design to see what the audience will see and try to balance it as much as possible to keep the composition working. It's a lot of fun, but you have to keep on top of things.

After that, periodically, I'd just paint something that caught my fancy, just for the sheer enjoyment of it!

When I was first separated and had no money, everyone on my Christmas list got homemade shortbread cookies and hand painted dough ornaments from me that year. The funny part of that was that when I eventually got more money together and things got better over time, my friends and family still wanted the cookies and ornaments instead! Hilarious;-) Thankfully, they finally got tired of them and I got tired of baking, so it all worked out.
Somewhere in the mid 2000's, I found a lamp in a thrift shop that looked like a clove of garlic to me. It was kind of attractive in shape, but was very, very ugly in colour and texture. So I decided, well, why not, I'll paint over it with acrylic and varnish it, it's plastic based anyway! The lamp turned out beautiful, and I've still got it. It got me to thinking about other objects...
Such as boxes.  Jewelry boxes, knick knack boxes, boxes for keeping keys, rings or pins in.  Why not make them more decorative and something people can enjoy putting on their shelf or mantle?  So after that, as a small hobby, I've always painted boxes, it's just something that satisfies that urge to create that doesn't seem to be quite as serious as a full blown painting.
I've noticed boxes have come back into style more in the last decade, maybe I was just getting ahead of the curve a bit... And of course, I've been experimenting with glass painting as well, maybe next I need to paint a glass box!

Images by Teresa Young:

1. Candlestick - Jul.2010,  2. Paper mache ring box - Jan.2010,  3. Small Jewelry box- Jan.2010,  4. Octagonal box - Dec.2009,  5. Circular box - Jan.2010,  6. 7. 8. Lecture Stand - 2009,  9. Painted Lamp - circa 2001,  10. Book shaped box - Jul.2010, 11. Eye box - Jul.2010.

 

It's A Comedy Of Errors!

 

Last weekend, I decided to go on a short jaunt and take a look around New Brunswick, Canada, just because I can...  I had a place to stay for a couple of nights in Fredericton, my friend Donna and I had been in the military together in the eighties and had stayed in touch over the years, so I was all set.  Or so I thought...

Now there is one little thing about me that is really relevant to know before you read the post, I literally have no natural sense of direction.  I could get lost in a shopping mall and have! But that's never kept me from driving around looking at scenery... I tend to think it just adds to the mystery of a trip if you don't really know where you are and how to get there.  But I've become very good with maps in compensation...

Well, I've done the road trip from Halifax to Fredericton quite a number of times, so you'd think it would be a no-brainer.  But I sometimes get inventive and veer off on weird tangents. 

And what they say about artists is true, they are eccentric, no way around it!  In some way or another, you're going to feel a twilight zone around at times when dealing with them...  And I'm no exception.

On the spur of the moment,  I figured out I was bored with the old route and decided to drive down the west coast of Nova Scotia and maybe take the Digby ferry across to Saint John, NB.

What the heck, I'd do it different this time.  Didn't check any schedules, as that would be a copout, sigh....  By the time I got there, it was just before noon and I found that the ferry didn't leave until four and it was an exhorbitant price. If I turned back around and continued driving back up the coastline, I could beat the ferry and get into Freddy Beach at the same time anyway. 

Not a problem, right?  Except I got lost going back up the coast around the bay of Fundy and ended up losing a couple of hours going in circles. It was beautiful, but by the time I figured it out, (I had to break down and actually check a map) I had added a couple of hours on to my trip.  Happens. 

I guess I could be the poster girl for GPS if I applied, but I hate being told what to do (pigheaded and five years in the military!) so I actually have one that I have never used.  Just couldn't bring myself to download that software and call myself lame at navigating! (No offense meant to Donna and others who swear by their GPS's)...

But I made it and saw some very beautiful and artistically inspiring scenery, not to mention sunsets, and I was very happy to arrive...

The next day, we all got up and went on our originally scheduled tour down to St. Martins, New Brunswick...  Or we tried.  On the way, just an hour outside of Fredericton, we heard a snap, clang and a crash and the muffler was dragging.

Oh this was hilarious!  I was so glad I wasn't driving this time, I'd just taken ribbing the night before on how I was pretty good at extending a short trip with inventive driving and unusual circumstances and this time, I wasn't in the driver's seat!  After I stopped laughing, we got out and looked at the problem. 

I looked at her trunk and really stopped laughing, booster cables, one screwdriver, no rope or wires, and one very sad emergency kit that was aimed toward first aid!  How could people drive around like this?  Ah well, not everyone is mechanically inclined, and she's not an ex-technician but an ex-finance clerk, so I guess it makes sense.  If I need help with financials, I'll call Donna, but not for anything like mechanics or practical things that require some type of tools...

So she called a garage and we found out that it would cost, cost, cost to tow, and while she was doing that, I found the muffler clamp so it could be wired up to get to a garage, saving her money...  It would still take 45 minutes and cost over a hundred bucks as it was. Yuck!  I'm sitting there, thinking it over, and decided I couldn't take it anymore... I asked her how much were her booster cables worth.  Ten bucks on sale... Alright!  Now we're talking!

I stripped the cables, jury rigged the muffler clamp back into place and she called off the towing guy.  She told him her friend was a former technician and mentioned my solution.  He laughed, called me 'inventive' and told it should work fine for a short jaunt.

We made it to a gas station and I bought what I could find, brass snare wires of all things, and wired it up tighter and it sounded better than ever!  So we decided to continue on to St. Martins.  No guts, no glory, right?  And it worked out fine, it was hot and sunny, I think we used up our set of weird things to go wrong by then and were due for a break...  If you want to take a look at the caves of St. Martins, which are well worth the trip, muffler or no muffler trouble, you can follow this facebook link and look at my shots of it.

After we'd worn out St. Martins, the T-shirt lady showed us the latest area attraction, the literature on the Fundy Trail... 

Ah well, onwards we go!  It was also beautiful, but I want to go back again to see that with the tide out next time. Here's a public Facebook link on that one as well if you want to take a look...

The next day, I was going to drive straight back to Halifax as I'd promised Donna I would!  But well, I tried, but ended up taking a side trip up to the Miramichi en route just to see if it still looked the same... It did, and then I went home!  Can't be too predictable now, can I?

Images (photos and paintings by Teresa Young):

1. Unnamed abstract - Oct.2003,  2. Map of Maritimes, courtesy of Google,  3. Covered bridge near St. John, NB,  4. Sunken Treasure - Jun.2001,  5. Blue Emotions - Jul.2002,  6. Caves of St.Martins, NB,  7 and 8. Fundy Trail, NB.

There's A Sniper On The Bridge

 

On Sunday, as I was driving up the length of Nova Scotia, Canada back to where I live and I had an experience that shocked me.

It highlighted something for me that I knew in theory, but didn't realize emotionally...

There's a major difference between reality and what we see when we are being entertained.

I was driving with a friend, and was in the passenger seat and it was about 7 PM in the evening.  It was still bright daylight, and we were singing along with a CD.
 

I am one of those odd people that looks up.  Did you ever notice in the movies that noone looks up?

Anyway, I saw a man on the overpass sighting down a rifle right at me!   

I looked up as I saw his movement of the rifle from my passenger over to me...

Since I served five years in the military I am very conversant with the body language of someone sighting through a rifle.  Although I must admit, I don't remember looking down the barrel before!

He was bundled up in a beige winter jacket that was obviously being used to obscure him and what he was doing.  I was initially trying to resolve it into a camera, but I couldn't, faced with my personal experien

ce and artist's eye, it was definitely a rifle.  With a scope.

We went so fast, it was a highway, and by the time we got to the next exit, he would have been gone.  Because two of us saw him, you can't take out two witnesses at once, so that probably saved my life...

What a feeling.  And I play video games, where I am in battles and danger constantly. 

I tend to watch crime shows, and I've always been an action movie fan...

It just wasn't the same.  Yow~ I can't describe the depth of feeling that is there which is in major contrast to the imaginary events...

 The feeling is like a bottom dropping out of what you know is true and everything is up in the air.  You know what is real, and it's not what you thought it was...

Very heady stuff.  I wouldn't want to experience it again, that is for sure.  Although, I had that feeling once before, in backwoods New Brunswick. 

Twenty years ago, my ex husband and I were checking out logging roads trying to find good beaver dams to fish trout from.  He had gotten permission from the landowners who lived out of the area to check out the roads, of course, so it was all in good  fun.  And great fishing, of course!

We had one of those old Ford Broncos, with the locking hubs and four wheel drive capability.  So when we saw the road we wanted, and I jumped out an locked the hubs.  I wasn't hard on the eyes then and whoever lived in the trailer across the road must have seen me...

We drove back into the forest for forty minutes, didn't find the fishing spot and came back out...  When we came to within a mile of the main road, there were three trees freshly cut down across the road!  And it was dusk and I had the weird feeling we were being watched very, very closely. 

My ex was a very smart man.  And very savy in the ways of the world, he got me to scoot over into the drivers seat, leave the engine running as he jumped out to move the trees off the road.  He grabbed his rifle from the backseat as well.. Smart man...

As he walked past the truck, he lifted the rifle in the air as if in salute and waved at me...  After that, the watched feeling disappeared, he moved the trees and we carried on our merry way.

I think I've had enough drama in my life now...  Maybe I'll watch more cheerful TV shows now.

It would be interesting to hear if anyone else had a weird experience like that, please comment if you have a story to tell! 

Images:
Wikipedia - 1,3, 4, and 5.  2. Toulouse and Nina Munteanu at Barrington Bay, NS,  6.  The Trickster by Teresa Young - Feb. 2009.