SERENITY

I wish I had the serenity of the Buddha, which I found sitting on the sidewalk in a Montreal street. The Winter keeps going so luckily I still have some images in my file from my recent trip to Quebec.

MONTREAL CITY HALL

While waiting outside the Montreal city hall I took a few pictures. Photographing a landmark, like this building,  is always a challenge because  over the years numerous pictures have been made of this Montreal landmark. I remember that in the nineteen seventies Time Life asked famous photographers to photograph some of the great landmarks of the world. The final results were included in their series on photography.

NEIGHBOURS, MONTREAL, PQ

Walking down a street in downtown Montreal, I had to photograph these two houses. It reminded me of the paintings by Piet Mondraan.But how do you get into the door?

BOULANGERIE, MONTREAL, PQ

One area of cityscapes, which interest me are alleys like this one in Montreal. During this short visit I did not get a chance to walk these alleys. So I definitely have to return to really explore these city backstreets. One artist, whose work I enjoy is the Dutch painter and photographer George Breitner. He was a contemporary of Vincent van Gogh. So looking at his work I liked the atmosphere of his city paintings, which I tried to recreate in this image.

DUSK, ROUTE 20, QUEBEC

Driving to Montreal along route 20. I took a few pictures of the highway at dusk. The sun had almost disappeared but the sky still had a beautiful golden colour. Of course the light was almost gone still I got a few very nice abstract images.

FOR LINDA, CHURCH CEILING, COLOUR VERSION

Linda asked to see the colour version of yesterday's picture of the montreal church. So here it is . Hope you like this version. Personally I think I prefer the monochrome version.

CHURCH CEILING, MONTREAL, PQ

I just happened to pass this church in Montreal, which happened to be open, so I just walked in and took a few pictures. I was just in time because a few minutes later the building was closed. I was most impressed with this very opulent ceiling of the church. The image worked well in colour but the more monotone picture emphasizes the design of the ceiling.

BARN, EASTERN TOWNSHIPS, QUEBEC

On our recent trip to the townships in Quebec I photographed this beautiful barn. I like barns simply for their very utilitarian architecture and the strong textures and patterns of the walls and roof. The visit was too short and we certainly are planning to explore this part of Quebec either in the Summer or maybe better in the Fall after the busy holiday season.

HOUSE, PERTH, ONTARIO

Every time I wander through the towns and villages of Ontario, I keep remembering the photographs of the Canadian photographer Ralph Greenhill . Its a pity that his work is now very much forgotten because his black and white images of nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture are simply beautiful examples of great traditional black and white photography..

BEATLES COUCH, PERTH, ONTARIO

While not exactly a great example of twentieth century furniture design, I still enjoyed this couch while having lunch in a Perth pub and of course I had to record it so I could post it on my blog.

MURAL, VANKLEEK HILL, ONTARIO

we just returned from another visit to Ottawa but this time we spent a few days in the Eastern townships of Quebec. It was a great trip and on our way we stopped at VanKleek Hill, a picturesque town in the eastern part of Ontario. To my shame I have to say I never visited this community before but we definitely are planning to visit it again in the Summer. Two murals show a little of the local history. this is one of them and I will post an image of the other mural in one of my next postings.

BARBERSHOP, PERTH, ON

The picture is inspired by the abstract paintings of the Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondriaan. It is a composition of rectangles. The light and colours are reminiscent in atmosphere of some of the paintings by Edward Hopper.

BLACK AND WHITE TREE, PERTH, ONTARIO

Walking along a street in Perth, I made some pictures of this unusually shaped maple tree. I preferred the black and white interpretation because it really emphasized the shape and textures of this tree.

LOOKS LIKE FUN, PERTH, ONTARIO

Walking along the main street in Perth this afternoon, I simply could not resist taking this picture of a store window display. 

INUIT OWL CARVING

Another subject from around the house. This time a Inuit soap stone carving. This time a different approach. instead of black and white I decided to make a colour image and just like other visual artists I now have the complete freedom to decide the final outcome of my image.

COFFEE PERCOLATOR

Winter is a time to look for subject matter around you. Still interested in the work of the Pictorialists,  I photographed this simple still life of an antique coffee percolator on the dresser in our living room and recreated the style of that period in the early twentieth century.

LOCOMOTIVE

And of course we had to go and visit the old steam locomotive. Just when we arrived the wind picked up and it really started to snow. It was difficult getting around the engine because now it is really in storage. The snow was piled up around it and on the other side various items were stored next to the old machine. Anyway we did manage to get some decent images.

COLD STORAGE

These old trains have been sitting in this city storage yard for many. They are slowly deteriorating but hopefully they will be restored and displayed near the North Bay museum. In the blowing snow yesterday they added verry bright splashes of colour in an otherwise black and white landscape.

BLOWING SNOW

This morning my friend Dan and I set out on a little photo excursion. It was quite a bit warmer then it had been the last few days. of course it did not las tlong because it first started to snow then the wind picked up and we found ourselves in a complete whiteout. But we did manage to get some fine images. So all in all it did turn into a good little outing.

WINTER FENCE, ALSACE ROAD

Still too cold to wander outside. Although dan and I were going on a little photo trip to one of our favourite places on Alsace Road in Powassan. But that will have to wait a few days. So again I looked through my negative files and found a few negatives from the same area but I took these in 1990. Just recently I was looking at the early work by the great American photographer Edward Steichen, so I recreated this image in a pictorialist style so very popular around the beginning of the twentieth century.