The Clam Chowder Feast

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Painter Lady

Sidebar: To read up on how to make Rapure, see the post titled Comfort Food From the East.

Wendy Lees said it best…

“It took ages to coordinate our schedules but we finally all made it to the very inviting and interesting home of Kath for a delicious clam chowder feast, visit with Max, studio tour, and big catch up!

Along with the chowder, Kath treated us to Rappie, a traditional Acadian dish she recalled from her childhood. It’s made with shredded potatoes and fatty pork – yum! Tammy and Jas brought homemade pickles, spring flowers and a canned treat. Karen brought Red River bread she’d made, and we enjoyed Christmas baking brought all the way from Nova Scotia by Stephen made by his mom, Betty. Oh, and I didn’t get the memo about drinking at noon being OK but Lauraine brought vino from the Rockyridge growing region in Calgary’s NW. Steven made the very same selection!

What a tasty and heartfelt meal. My only quibble with our gathering was there just wasn’t enough time to visit thoroughly with every one of these wonderful people ❤️”

I’m posting Karen’s bread recipe here. It’s amazing! Red River Bread Photo Credit: Wendy Lees.

Red River Bread
Recipe
2 cups water
3/4 cup red river cereal
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup molasses
2 teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 package dry yeast (fast rising works great)
4 1/2 cups flour

Combine 2 cups water in pan with cereal. Boil then simmer 5 mins or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add butter, molasses and salt. Cool completely.

Dissolve sugar in lukewarm water. Sprinkle yeast and proof for 10 minutes.

Combine yeast with cooled cereal mixture.

Using a wooden spoon mix in all of the flour to make a stiff dough.

Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Form a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, covering the whole ball with grease. Cover with wrap and let rise (can use oven to proof) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until ball doubles in size.

Punch down dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide dough in half and shape into loaf pans. 8×4
Cover and let rise for about and hour. Then bake at 375 F. 30-35 mins.
Loaves will be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom of the pan.
Remove from pan and let cool. Enjoy!

Tammy and Wendy, Stephen and Steven and Lauraine, brought yummy things. I wasn’t archiving at the time, but, my buddies were. The following two photographs, though, were mine taken this morning. The next time you pickle, Tammy, I want to be there. They got eaten tooo fast for a photograph!

Photo display I made, in order to acknowledge my family.

Thank you, Jas and Tammy for the springtime flowers! So beautiful when it’s -40 outdoors.

Check out the jar of pickles in the photograph, below. This one must be Tammy’s shot. I’m sorry I didn’t get an image of the plate of baked goodies Stephen and Steven shared. Oh man! So good!

The photo journal above is a collection of photographs taken by Wendy and Tammy. We always have so many laughs when we gather. I’m grateful for all of you! Being with friends and sharing conversation/food/beverages and/or live music/dancing is so life-giving.

Please take note of Max (I snapped that one), only an hour after the lunch…completely played out!

Janet Beare Studio: Belleville

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Painter Lady

It is a very snowy day here in Calgary. A quick outing this morning, and I’ve decided that the roads are such that I’m going to bunker down, drink hot coffee (which I never do in the afternoon), and do a bit of nesting.

In looking over my archives, I realized that I didn’t get around to writing about a lovely studio visit that I shared with Janet Beare in Belleville, Ontario last summer. I was blessed to have spent a summer painting poetry in my father’s apartment and to have exhibited a show for the Lisa Morris and Peter Paylor’s Artist and Artisans Studio and Gallery. Through this experience, I had the chance to meet and enjoy the company of the community artists and musicians who are creating work in their home studios, and for the most part, exploring media and the arts with wild abandon.

Over the years, I have enjoyed conversation and support in a wide circle of female artists.

I really did appreciate the dialogue with Janet, one beautiful summer’s day, in her home studio just off Farley Ave. Thank you, Janet for the trust and fun of sharing your studio space!

Janet has experimented in a variety of media and her subjects range from purely non-objective colour/textural studies to representational works in both water colour and acrylics. Don’t you think it’s fun to explore other artist’s spaces? I like the intimacy and personality of these spaces…one of the reasons I really pleasure in Wendy Lee’s Love Art in Calgary Tours.

I hope my readers will enjoy exploring Janet’s space and thank you for the warm welcome of a visiting artist in your sacred home of creativity!

Talking deck table construction…lol…as women will.

Every one has to have a studio dog!

Milkweed Pod Photographs: I loved these!

Some people like her work, some people don’t. I really really love Tracey Emin’s work, first seeing it during La Biennale de Venezia when my daughter and I traveled to Venice years ago. Tracey’s early work enveloped a process of personal healing and it has evolved tremendously through the years. I find it deep, meaningful and reflective of women’s issues in the world.

I like this little film because of the accessibility to Tracey’s space.

Final Stop: The Studio of Mark Vazquez-Mackay

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Painter Lady

Margy and I got caught up chatting with Phillip and bid Anna and him good-bye with hugs before heading over to Weeds Cafe for a Montreal spiced meat sandwich and Italian soda. It was a pretty nice feeling. When you go out on a Love Art in Calgary tour, your brain goes “ZING” and you find yourself processing so much great insight…sometimes it’s a good decision to punctuate! On we raced to the studio of Mark Vazquez-Mackay.

Mark’s studio was magical, but how can it not be when he has such a beautiful way of seeing life and his world. I think that he is extremely generous and very community centered. His hands and mind are engaged a lot in terms of visual arts in Calgary and we need to be grateful for people like him. He generates a lot of chatter. I really do treasure the fact that we got a window into just a small part of what he does and accomplishes.

I liked learning about his use of ivory black to mix colour. I liked that he had a Lucien Freud book perched against a wall. (I am nuts over Lucien Freud’s figurative works.) I was excited to have him demonstrate his exploration of camera obscura, his connection with Vermeer, his insights after reading David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters. I felt so excited about his vision around public art and his open concept of public art everywhere. I had a warm heart as he spoke of his son, the innovative and driven musician who worked alongside his Dad to paint his mother’s eyes on his front yard fence. Generally speaking, his time spent with us was jam-packed and invaluable!

Mark, impacted personally by the spring flood of last year in Calgary, appears to have not missed a heartbeat, but, with determination and resilience, rebuilt and then some. He is a hero to our arts community. A good person.

I’ve written sometimes about the objects of our affection…about how our objects hold memory and such. In Mark’s studio, I felt that I was surrounded in a blanket of so much love, perception and imagination. Truly remarkable! Thank you.

Finding a Poem For Katie Ohe

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Painter Lady

I’ve tried to write about Katie three times. Each time, I got to a point and had to stop. Today, I begin to write again.

As I reflect back on things that Katie said and then the unspoken power of her sculpture, I am left somehow overwhelmed. It seems to me that she is some version of a fireball. She is compacted energy that has been burning deeply for a lifetime and in connection with that light, I was left in awe. So, once in awe, I had to go looking for a poem.

No luck. I found no poem for Katie Ohe. That, in itself, is unbelievable. However, the act of looking for a poem caused me to sit for most of that particular afternoon, reading poetry, and that can’t be all bad.

After some days…more than a week…I found this. It describes something of Katie Ohe.

A short version, my version, of one of Katie’s stories (and really, you need Katie to tell YOU her story…nothing compares).

Katie’s Dad gave Katie and her brother each a potato to peel. Katie created a long spiral of peel…I think she said that she tried to peel the entire potato in a single peel. (Her brother doesn’t even remember this, but Katie does.) Her father then attached the end of her peel to a pin or a needle, suspended it by a string and then set the peel to spinning. This image has stuck with her all of these years. (The metaphor…the image of the twirling potato peel offered up in this narrative, illuminated some very basic principles of Katie’s work…at least I think so!)

Katie spoke of Weeping Bees and Typhoon…and so much more and shared her studio space with us. I was in awe the entire time. I was left speechless.

Katie Ohe IS a poem.

Love Art in Calgary: Aaron Sidorenko’s Studio

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Painter Lady

Always a few steps behind the rest of the tour group, I was grateful to be met by a very special door man, young York, as I made my way to his Dad’s studio space. “Really? We’re not taking the elevator, York?” Exhilarating! I climbed several flights of stairs and followed the sounds of voices…the artist already in enthusiastic conversation with the tour group. “Thank you, York.”

Magic! Pure magic! I really really really enjoyed getting to visit Aaron Sidorenko’s studio. Artists’ studios are fascinating places because they hold so many personal objects…they capture the mysteries of technique that has been developing over long periods of time…they contain book collections…they remove some of the mystery. I felt as though I was stepping into a treasure chest.

I enjoyed bumping into photographer, Jeremy Fokken’s blog…it features some brilliant photographs of Aaron within his space. Nice to see some professional photographs! The quality is stunning. Also, a great resource, Aaron’s website. Thank you, Aaron, for opening up your studio to us. I am so happy that when I left, we could all get a ride on the elevator!