The northern half of Richmond Hill is located on a natural feature called the Oak Ridges Moraine which stretches more than 160 km between the Niagara Escarpment and the Trent River. The Oak Ridges Moraine is known for its varied habitats and geographic features shaped 13,000 years ago during the last ice age.
The Oak Ridges Moraine is special because it provides naturally filtered water for abundant wildlife, surrounding populations, and natural areas.
As part of our five days of celebrations opening ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’, we will visit the Oak Ridges Moraine Parkland and Boardwalk (free activity) from 4-7 pm on Saturday September 29.
Transportation: If possible we will carpool to this venue.
Take a leisurely walk along the boardwalk. See the sun set over Lake Wilcox, a traditional Kettle Lake on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Opportunities for photography and plein air painting are plentiful.
For more information on our 5 day opening celebration event please visit the detailed outline HERE.
We are really excited to count down the days to go until the festival begins! In case you haven’t visited the website lately, we have a whole bunch of information available on the home page, and also on the exhibit page. But we thought we’d put a lot of it in this blog post anyway!
First: here is the poster our sponsor Focal Designs designed for us. Thank you Focal Designs!
If you click on the link above you’ll see the poster – these will be on display all over Richmond Hill and further afield. We are hoping that some kind souls might choose to print one copy themselves and help us out with our advertising!
Second: A map of where it is all happening can be found here. The map includes the two exhibit locations:
Boynton House & Richmond Green
1300 Elgin Mills Road East
Richmond Hill, ON L4S 1M5
Burr House Gallery & Tea Room
528 Carrville Rd,
Richmond Hill, ON L4C 6E6
The ribbon cutting occurs at noon at Boynton House and Richmond Green on September 28. We will have some music at 2:30, then awards and speeches at 3:00 pm. The exhibition paintings at Boynton House will of course be available all afternoon until 5:00 pm, and many of the master painters will be attending. Throughout the afternoon there will be opportunities for plein air painting. Also, there will be representatives from Winsor & Newton, QoR Watercolours, Daniel Smith, DeSerres Art Store, Da Vinci paints and RockWell Art Supplies demonstrating products.
At 6:00 pm, the opening day will continue at Burr House where the rest of the exhibition paintings will be on display. Tea and scones will be available, and you can observe the local spinners and weavers at work in this heritage building. Our opening day will end at 8:00 pm.
You’ll find the locations of all the festivities happening during the Five Day Celebration Event (September 28-October 2), and the location of the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, which is where the concert “Symphonic Watercolours” is being performed by the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra on October 27, to close the show, on the MAP.
Third: here is most of the event information briefly summarized in one graphic suitable for sharing on social media.
Painting is ‘Inner Symphony’ by Ona Kingdon, CSPWC, NWS, TWSA, IWS Master – President of IWS Canada. (Subject is Jessica Kun, the artistic director of the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra.)
Fourth: here is a summary of the information for the Five Days of Festivities:
Painting is ‘Colour of Music’ by Anne McCartney, CSPWC, AWS, TWSA – one of the jurors for ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’.
Fifth: A more detailed outline of the Five Day Celebration Event is here.
Remember – you are invited, and so are your friends, and their friends… please tell them all about it.
Escoda brushes have very kindly donated 3 of these awesome travel brush sets as awards for our ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ Exhibition. The awards will be announced at our opening event on September 28th at Boynton House on Richmond Green, Richmond Hill Ontario, Canada. (MAP of all event locations here)
Thank you Escoda for your generous sponsorship from all of us at IWS Canada and CSPWC.
For more information about our five day event visit our home page at iwscanada.ca or view our 5 day event pdf .
Join us at the Richmond Hill Public Library in Richmond Hill Ontario Canada on Saturday September 29th. Watch this space for the exact time of David’s presentation but IWS Canada will be there from 10 am until 3pm with opportunities for you to experiment with watercolour.
David McEown, our Canada 150 national winner (see ‘150 Ways to Celebrate’), will be presenting, “Water and Light, an Artist’s Journey from Antarctica to the North Pole”.
David narrates an entertaining digital show that merges painting, video and photography inspired from travels in the Great Bear Rainforest, Africa, Antarctica and the North Pole. Stories of chance encounters with many creatures including polar bears and emperor penguins are woven together with reflections on the environment, and the inner creative process of painting with watercolour.
“Experiment with Watercolour” activities will also be set up outside (or inside if inclement weather) to encourage the public to give it a try. We welcome your participation in this. Let us pass our enthusiasm for watercolour on to the local community hosting us for this event.
Saturday, September 29, 2018, 10am-3pm
Venue: Richmond Hill Central Library as part of the Canada wide Culture Days event.
(free activity)
For more information on our event please look at our detailed PDF.
Photo credit Daisy Gilardini
Watercolour by David McEown
The Richmond Hill Creative Eye have made these four beautiful Love and Peace themed pendants as awards for four lucky artists in our ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ Exhibition (September 28-October 27, 2018). The awards will be announced at our opening event on September 28th at Boynton House on Richmond Green.
Thank you Richmond Hill Creative Eye from all of us at IWS Canada and CSPWC/SCPA.
Love and Peace Awards by Richmond Hill Creative Eye
For more information about our five day event view our 5 day event pdf or for a summary, see the image below:
The painting in this graphic, Colour of Music, is by one of our jurors, Anne McCartney CSPWC, AWS, TWSA
This is our second exhibition venue and is also where local spinners, weavers and potters create their masterpieces. You can see them at work when we visit the part of the exhibition there.
Burr House is another heritage building within Richmond Hill. It has plenty of parking at the back and is located beside a ravine. Traditional tea and scones will be offered from 6-8 pm on the evening of September 28. They also have a store selling local artisans’ work.
Boynton House is an art exhibition space in Richmond Hill with four display rooms. The house is an historic site under the Ontario Heritage Act and dates back to about 1875. It is an example of the classic Ontario farmhouse, with unique details of its era.
Our Opening Day event begins at 12 noon and is open to the public. After the formal ribbon cutting this part of the exhibition will be available to view here at your leisure and it may be possible to have photographs taken with visiting master artists. Representatives from Winsor & Newton, QoR Watercolours, Daniel Smith, DeSerres Art Store, Da Vinci paints and RockWell Art Supplies will be in tent booths in the fenced garden area of Boynton House where they will demo products. Several will also have free samples for visiting artists.
Throughout the afternoon there will be opportunities for Plein Air painting with the masters at various locations around Richmond Green. Our Official Opening and Awards Presentation will be at 3pm, either on the main porch/garden area or within Boynton House, depending on the weather.
Refreshments and cold beverages will be available throughout the afternoon. There will also be live music by a chamber ensemble from the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra.
DANIEL SMITH: Artists’ Materials have very kindly donated 3 awards for our Symphony in Watercolour Exhibition. The awards will be announced at our opening event on September 28th at Boynton House on Richmond Green. Katherine Taylor will also be there to demo Daniel Smith products to our visitors.
Awards for specially selected ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ finalists
Thank you Daniel Smith from all of us at IWS Canada and CSPWC/SCPA.
For more information about our 5 day event please navigate to the link by clicking on the picture below.
The painting in this graphic, Colour of Music, is by one of our jurors, Anne McCartney CSPWC, AWS, TWSA
Renee is a Canadian mixed media landscape artist painting out of her studio in Sherwood Park, Alberta. At a very early age, Renee began to take a strong interest in sketching and drawing often sitting with her mother while she painted in oils. She initially started with drawing but after proving to have a natural talent and a sharp eye for detail, quickly advanced to paintings in watercolor and acrylic. In a short time, Renee started entering in competitions receiving various top awards.
At the age of 17, Picture This Framing and Gallery sponsored her to take a class with renowned artist Sue-Ellen Ross. Almost immediately, Renee fell in love with Sue-Ellen’s mixed media style and decided to implement some of the same technique into her own work.
Since then, Renee has been recognized in various art competitions across North America receiving multiple awards for her work. In 2009, she was chosen by a unanimous panel of judges to commission a painting for the University of Alberta’s Graduate Engineering Department. The piece called “Unity” can be viewed in the ETLC building at the University of Alberta. After this point, Renee took a short break to pursue dancing competitively as a ballroom dancer winning a Canadian Championship and placing in the top 25 at the world championships in Belgium. She retired in 2015.
Currently, Renee is a full time artist creating original paintings and commissions. Being a self taught artist, she brings a unique style and technique to her work. Her love of vibrancy, texture and detail influences her paintings to have a living and breathing feel. Renee’s goal as an artist is to not only stimulate the mind with lucid imagery but to encourage the viewer to use their other senses. They say a picture can tell a thousand words but a painting can transport you to another place. Whether it is a memory of trees swaying in the wind on a warm summer day or a precious moment gazing over a field of flowers with a loved one, she aspires to draw the viewer in to create their own story.
Below is an example of Renee’s watercolour work. For more about Renee, please visit her website.
IWS Canada 