The Art Fayre "Report"

Jolly dancing letters

As I may have mentioned, oh....once or twice in previous posts, Sarah and I spent the weekend in the Ottawa Valley. The point of the trip was to visit her mom but the timing of the trip centred around Art Fayre, an annual event which took place in Dunvegan over the weekend. (For pictures of the wonderful art that was hung there, as well as profiles of the artists themselves, please take a look at the Art Fayre blog - which I also link to in the right-hand column of this blog - or their Facebook page.) These jolly letters on the lawn of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum welcomed visitors to this event; there was a lively (and welcomed) little breeze on Saturday when we attended and it had spun a couple of the letters around the opposite way. I think this added to the charm!

The sign that clearly says "12"

Even though it quite clearly says on the sign (and on the blog page and on the Facebook site) that the show would run from 12-4PM each day, we still managed to get our timing wrong. For some reason we thought the show started at 1 PM, so Sarah and her mom (Evlyn Fortier) took off for Hawkesbury in the late morning to pick up some finger food for the show while I grabbed a shower. We met in Dunvegan shortly after one o'clock to discover that someone had bought one of Evlyn's paintings and was having it wrapped because she had to leave right away to return to Australia with her treasure! Luckily we got there before the buyer left so artist and fan could commune briefly and have their photo taken together; however, we did not get there in time for Sarah or me to see the actual painting before it was packed away. On the Art Fayre blog site I discovered a photo (pictured below) of the wall that contained the painting in question, taken shortly after the exhibition was hung. Evlyn's sold painting is the one on the very top left (solitary figure walking in the snow) and the one immediately to its right is another of her creations.

Merely a small sampling of artists' works on display at Art Fayre

Penguin with knotty (k)navel

Most of the pieces were on display inside the main building and I didn't take any photos in there because: 1) I always feel a little uncomfortable taking pictures of art without asking permission from the creators; and 2) everything in there had been photographed already, with a far better camera than the one I brought along with me (and those photos can be viewed on the Art Fayre blog). However, outside in the open air were several carvings by Gerdine Van Woudenberg and I think I may be forgiven for taking a few pictures of this particular piece. If you can't guess why, then clearly you're on the wrong blog! The washed-out card beside my flightless friend tells us this belongs to Gerdine's series "Victims of Progress" (this particular piece is entitled "Prehistoric Penguin"). In the background can be seen more of the series, a starfish and a seashell. There were other animals represented as well, but I noticed the penguin from about 500 metres away, which is actually pretty late for my penguin locator to go off. I must be slipping.


Here are some more pictures of the show and of the Pioneer Museum itself:

Lovely music from David Kelleher

Gerdine Van Woudenberg chainsaw sculpting

One of the restored buildings of the museum

Children's art work in the old schoolhouse

As we were preparing to leave, our friend Mac (whose partner, Brenda, was showing her work at the Fayre) showed us his latest reclamation project: a 1963 Lambretta scooter (although Mac told us that, at 1600cc, it is technically a motorcycle). I'll share some pictures of it on tomorrow's post about the rest of our trip, but for now here is a short video of Mac preparing to head home from the show:

And with a "meep meep", Mac rode off into the sunset. Poetically speaking, that is.


We had a great time at Art Fayre and it's always wonderful to see familiar faces from the local art community at these events. This time we were extra lucky: we finally got to meet Natalie of Knatolee's World fame. There's a terrific picture of Nat (standing with Ronna; they were the two organizers of this year's show) on her blog where she's enjoying a tiny chocolate-covered cheesecake bite. There were many wonderful finger foods at the show, but these sweet treats seemed to be the biggest hit. Sarah and her mom picked them up when they were late for the show.

So, clearly, they were worth the wait.