Late summer thoughts

One of Steven's shots of
St. Clair Avenue
A major Toronto street during
the blackout of August 14, 2003

Five years ago, on August 14, Toronto experienced a
lengthy blackout. I was at my friend Jennifer's place,
and we were drinking a cup of tea, when her husband
Michael told us the power was out in the area.

Thinking nothing of it, I got in my car to go home
and walk the dog, and that's when I found out this
was much bigger than a little foul up in Rosedale.
In fact it was a massive power failure that darkened
Ontario and much of the United States northeast that day.

When I got to Yonge street near Merton, taking my
usual deke route home, trying to avoid the St. Clair
rush hour the problem became real. Thousands of
stranded subway riders were walking home in all
directions. People always say Torontonians are cold,
but I didn't see that. All of the motorists were offering
people rides. Of course traffic was moving at a snail's pace,
but I drove some people home that day.

Pretty Flash in Cedarvale Park
August 14, 2003

In the park we listened to the rumours running
rampant among dog walkers trying to figure out
what caused the blackout. We had a laugh with
Astrid, who was walking her lovely new Border
Collie, Flash. Then we wandered down to Amato's
on St. Clair, a pizza place that was running its
gas ovens without the electric fans required
by law, and doing a booming business.

The now defunct Amato's pizza took a
safety risk to feed the neighbourhood.

We ran into the whole neighbourhood there,
but especially Joan and Richard, and the four
of us decided to carry our pizza picnic to a nearby
little park and eat under the stars.

Me (left) with Joan and Richard
Everybody's happy.

That was the real miracle, a dark sky studded
with thousands of stars, because there were
no lights, except the candles people lit
cautiously in their houses and on their
porches.

Car lights on darkened St. Clair
August 14, 2003.

We visited with friends nearby, and then
walked home to sit on our garden bench
and enjoy the marvel of the night.

More car lights on dark St. Clair
August 14, 2003
by Steven van Schaik

In the morning our friends Cathy and Chris
invited us for breakfast. They were using
their barbecue and had coffee!!! By lunch time
the whole thing was over, but it remains in
our memory as a wonderful time.

That doesn't mean we want it to happen
again. We were lucky that our fridge
full of groceries stayed cool. But it
was a lot of fun at the time.

In the bag

A few weeks ago I was looking at the work of some wonderful
realist painters working on objects inside glass, and in lunch
bags. That Sunday I was attracted to apples in a plastic bag lying on the table when Steven and I were unpacking after our weekend shopping trip. I grabbed the bag and made off with it into the studio, promising to buy more, and began this little painting -- but I just couldn't get it to work.

I started the way I sometimes do with small paintings, drawing
with fine marker on a pre-painted ground. In this case the ground was orange for warmth. But the pen was
too harsh, the apples the wrong colour.

Tonight I went at it again, as a break from a formal portrait
I was working on, and it's almost done. I like the exuberance.
High realist it's not. And my friends who don't believe in
white will be certain there's too much of it. Maybe so,
and yet -- a bag of apples now and then is fun to paint.
What's the rule about the doctor. An apple a day?

Have a break the rules with passion day.

Small is beautiful

Trying out new ideas is a lot less fraught, if you work on a smaller canvas. Here are a two
7x9" paintings, I did a couple of years ago. In the first I
was playing around with a red ground, something
I'd just started working with. In the second I started the
drawing on bond paper, then gel mediumed it to a
canvas, painted it in acrylic, and applied a thick
gel medium glaze.

What did I learn? I prefer working on either
watercolour paper with acrylics, or canvas.
Good to know. Both paintings sold, and
were fun to do. That's always my first goal with
painting -- enjoying myself.


Have a cutting-edge day!

Erin Go Bragh

Hi,

I hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day. I got teased a bit at school (aw) because
I was wearing green, and my Irish connections are
somewhat suspect. My mother thinks that the Poindexters
were Huguenots, who fled France for Ireland, and then
fled Ireland for Canada. By that time they were Pounders.
They lived in exciting times, if you liked persecution and famine.
At any rate their descendants (moi et my famille) love St. Patrick's Day.
The menu was far from fancy as I had a late day at school, and
it's a one hour drive away in optimal traffic. I stopped into
Loblaws on the way home, picked up a Movenpick roasted
chicken, and a pre-made (ouch I know) salad. Never fear I know
Barb who works at the salad bar, and I trust her. Of course
I added grape tomatoes (a passion of mine), a red pepper,
and an avocado, plus Steven made the dressing. I also bought a small,
scrumptious, mocha cake iced in a thin layer of chocolate, and
a tiny bottle of Veuve Cliquot. Josephine and I toasted the
Emerald Isle with champagne greened slightly with food
colouring... Steven, Sam and Nata had Sprite with Lime Cordial.
I got home to find Steven decking the kitchen
with more shamrock garlands and St. Patrick's Day banners
than we've ever had. He was in a very festive mood. We enjoyed
a delightful supper -- the animals were so excited that the cats
insisted on attacking the tablecloth and jumping on our laps,
so we had to keep banishing them to the basement. Of
course as the night wore on all three beasts got more than their
fair share of the chicken and went to bed singing Irish songs -- but
not "Danny Boy," because Timbah insisted that's not a real
Irish song. http://a.abcnews.com/US/story?id=4424077&page=1
But is Timbah right?
http://www.standingstones.com/dannyboy.html

The pictures? Sam and Nata with Timbah trying to get in the picture.
Fiona wearing a dollar store St. Pat's garland.