Scenes of Magnetawan Art Exhibit at the Knoepfli Inn

Today Norma and I went up to the Knoepfli Inn, located at 5484 Highway #124 Magnetawan, Ontario to hang the our first "Scenes of Magnetawan" art exhibit.

The paintings are to be displayed in the main dining room, in the common room, which is just off the dining room and in the lower part of the stairwell which is off the hallway between the two rooms.

With this being the first time of having the art displayed at the Inn Norma and I had to take the time to decide where all the paintings would be hung and from there put the nails into the wall to hang the paintings, which was time consuming.

But the end result was well worth the time and effort; especially from the reaction we received from Bea Kolman the owner of the Knoepfli Inn who was totally delighted.

The three of us sat over cups of tea and coffee and we talked about how different the rooms looked with the paintings on the wall, and how it seemed to brighten the rooms and make them look larger.

















I wandered around taking photographs of the main dining room and the stairwell, before Norma and I headed to cabin 2 to put our feet up and relax before heading back to the Inn for supper.

















We were treated to a wonderful meal starting with a garden salad, followed by warm baked rolls, roast chicken, fresh vegetables and mashed potatoes. To finish the meal we were treated a an apple cobbler with ice cream, tea and coffee.














After supper we retired to our cabin to get some well deserved rest and I found it easy to fall asleep listening to the sound of the Magnetawan River.














In the morning after breakfast, we headed back home.

If you have a chance to go out the Knoepfli Inn and enjoy the "Scenes of Magnetawan" exhibit which runs from 23 June through to 06 October 2016.

Susan Sydney

Susan Sydney was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She has always wanted to live in the country and in 1978 she and her husband, Ron purchased a farm in Smith Township.

After major renovations to the house and the barns together with adding a quarter mile track and fixing many of the fences for paddocks and pasture, they were able to move in 1979.


She is primarily a self-taught artist but Susan firmly believes that an artist can never stop learning and often attends workshops and enjoys seeing the techniques used by other artists in the creation of their own original art work. She has taken classes in a variety of painting media with various accomplished Canadian, American and European artists.

"I am inspired by the beauty that surrounds me; which so often goes unnoticed or is taken for granted. I see paintings everywhere I look, whether it is walking through the fields, driving through the countryside, out on the lake, or diving in the depths of the ocean. I would like the viewer to experience the sensations and feelings that made the subject of my paintings appealing to me."

She has always been interested in drawing and painting and started as soon as she could hold a crayon and put it to paper or on a wall.

Her mother, Inge was a landscape artist in acrylic and watercolour, who encouraged Susan to develop her talents allowing her to paint two wall murals on her bedroom walls when she was 12 years old. One was of the murals was a dragon the other was of horses.

Susan has been creating realistic paintings of horses, animals, children, the beauty of nature and scenes from everyday farm life which have been favourite subjects of her paintings for more than thirty five years.

Once she began diving over ten years ago her paintings have included the fish, the reefs and underwater wrecks she has explored. More recently she has become interested in Life Drawing and has started painting Abstract and enjoys playing with colours, textures and shapes.

While her favourite medium is transparent watercolour because of the many interesting ways in which is can be used, from the soft textures and pastel shades to the bold colours and tight detail.

She also uses a wide variety of media to help her attain the effect she requires in her paintings including acrylic, charcoal, conte, pen and ink, pencil (graphite and Prisma) and pastel. Susan is constantly trying different styles and experimenting with the various media to find their full range.


For seven years Susan owned and operated Fourwinds Art Gallery in Selwyn, Ontario. It was there she taught watercolour and drawing classes and is proud that many of her students have continued to develop their artistic talents and are becoming recognized in their own right.

Exhibitions:
Susan's paintings have been shown in over 350 Solo and Group Shows, in private and public galleries and she has participated in numerous Juried Exhibitions in Canada.

Memberships:
• 1988-1997 and 2004-present – Buckhorn Artists’ Group
  (founding member)
• 2007-present – Kawartha Artists’ Gallery and Studio
  (five years as an active member of the Executive in the position of Treasurer)
  (three years;as Group Leader for the Still Life Class)
• 2008-present – Outdoor Painters’ Group
• 2010 and 2012-present– Lindsay Art Gallery
• 2011-present - Creative Arts Guild
• 2013-present - Art on Kent

Collections:
Her originals can be found in both private and corporate collections on six of the seven Continents, (Antarctica being the missing continent so far) spanning 27 countries with the majority of her paintings throughout United States and Canada.

Susan’s art work has appeared on the covers of Horse Sense and Horse Talk magazines and the Ontario Pinto Horse News.

She was a featured author in Horse Talk magazine for her 'How to Draw Horses' column from 1994-2004.

Her black and white illustrations have appeared in The Pinto Horse and in a number of Ontario newspapers.

She designed the logo for the Ontario Pinto Horse Association and the pin representing the Canadian Limousin Association in Limoges, France for the 100th Anniversary of Limousin breeding.

Norma MacEachern

Norma MacEachern is a “work in progress “.

She was raised on a farm, and has always been a keen nature lover. Loved working in the fields, and just being outdoors in general. One of 12 children, she has always been social and outgoing which served her well in her career of 36 years.

Norma has two children (boys) and 1 Granddaughter and has been retired for 4 years. She has found it difficult to adjust to all the spare time on her hands.

Norma has been interested in art since an early age and was encouraged to expand on the knowledge of drawing and perspectives, but of course LIFE got in the way. She enrolled in Art at high school and enjoyed it but there really was nowhere to go with it when you live in a rural area.

This is the second year since Norma has joined Kawartha Artists Gallery and Studio and is slowly filling her time with some workshops and has chosen to take part in the “Outdoor Painters Group”.

She is “playing “with the various mediums, leaning toward oil and looking forward to taking a watercolour workshop. She struggles with time options for her painting but is always “up for the challenge “.



Slow but sure, that is her motto. You cannot rush great things, therefore “A Work in Progress “.

Cynthia (Cindy) Allan

Cynthia moved back to the Kawartha's in 1996. She has loved Art in any form since she was a child. With a busy life divided between family and work did not pursue Art on a serious level until her retirement in 2012. The only time she found for her Art was doodling in a meeting.

Cynthia primarily paints in oil, loves to try new media. She is a self taught Artist. Exploring the Art within is the purest joy. She has taken a few Workshops, planning on taking many more. Believes you should never stop learning.


Cynthia is an active member of the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio in Peterborough, Ontario. She has helped organize a few shows.

Cynthia lives in the rural area of the Kawartha's where nature is everything, most of these scenes are inspiration for her paintings. There is Art in every part of our life just open your eyes and enjoy.

"I think that one's art is a growth inside one. I do not think one can explain growth. It is silent and subtle. One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows." - Emily Carr