My friend, Madeline Conacher, will be teaching an introductory course on meditation at the main branch of the Ajax Public Library, 55 Harwood St South, Rotary Rm B on Monday May 12th at 7pm. For more details on the course, please visit
http://toronto.shambhala.org/program_details.php?id=13863&cid=171 Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on May 8, 2008 at 11:00am —
No Comments
Joan Bontje has a show at the Ontario Power Generation Information Centre, 1675 Montgomery Park Road. in Pickering. The Centre is open to the public from nine A.M till three thirty P.M. Monday to Friday. ( Closed to the public on weekends).
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on May 3, 2008 at 6:23pm —
No Comments
For the very low price of a web camera, (about thirty dollars), you can not only talk to other artists, but see them as well We use a free site called, (www.sightspeed.com) . Why would anyone spend money on long distance charges, when they could talk to and also see their friends and relatives? Have a look at this site and investigate how easy it is to install a web cam.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on April 21, 2008 at 10:09pm —
Comments
Well known local artists, Janice Brown, Irene Leach and Judith Jewer, (who are all Ajax Creative Arts Members,) are presenting a show at the McLean Centre, 95 Magill Drive in Ajax. The exhibition of their works will be on display from Tuesday April 22, till Sunday, May 25,2008. Opening Reception is on Sunday April 27,2008. 12:30 to 4:30 P.M. Drop by to meet the artists in person. They will be in Community Room # 1, (the room is near the front doors.) Refreshments will be served. Miniature painti…
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on April 10, 2008 at 11:21pm —
No Comments
Dorsey James has given us a great website for viewing the effects of war in the middle east region. It shows the changes made throughout history, right up to the present time. It's quite interesting. (www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf) .
Sorry. That should have been plural "maps"
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on April 8, 2008 at 11:00am —
Comments
I have just finished reading "Roughing It In The Bush" by English novelist Susanna Moodie. This is the true, first hand account of a family building a new home in the Rice Lake area of Ontario. It covers the years from 1832 to 1839 and all the hardships endured by the early settlers.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on March 15, 2008 at 4:00pm —
No Comments
Oshawa Art Association is holding its Spring Studio Tour on the weekend of May 10, and 11, 2008. There will be approximately thirty artists opening their homes and studios in Oshawa, Orono, Uxbridge, Pickering and Ajax. For more information on the tour, please visit, (www.steinhausstudio.com/) , click on the link for O.A.A.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on March 11, 2008 at 1:48pm —
No Comments
If you enjoy sketching faces, pay a visit to (http://theportraitparty.blogspot.com/) . It's quite interesting.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on March 9, 2008 at 7:34pm —
No Comments
At the McMichael, 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg. A lecture and tour will be held on Saturday, March 22, 11:00 A.M till 1:00 P.M. The curators wiill discuss the role of drawing and examine its continued use as a significant mode of expression for todays artists.Call 905.893.1121, ext.2228 to purchase tickets. (includes gallery admission and light refreshments.) The Group of Seven exhibition features their drawings as well as the works of nine contemporary artists. For information on this show…
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on March 1, 2008 at 12:58pm —
No Comments
Here is a great blog with a very upbeat message and great writing. Here's a sample:
"I had the good fortune to be at the high mountain California observatory just after the first astronauts returned from their time on the Moon. Since I had been a science journalist, the director of the telescope told me that he had a story that those high flying men told him and he had a tape, which has been brought back. Nevertheless, the story is better than the tape because it calls on each of us to use our…
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on February 27, 2008 at 9:27am —
No Comments
Have not been on here much since the Fall. Had a busy season in my seasonal job as a school photographer.
Currently, have entries in a current show through the Fed. of Canadian Artists; hope my entry gets accepted. I don't always get into the juried shows I enter.
Currently have a large watercolour collage style portrait commission to finish for March 3rd so am a bit swamped and short of time lol!
Continue
Posted by jocelyn ball on February 16, 2008 at 9:19am —
Comments
A great web page for all art related items of interest, articles, art supplies,and techniques, go to the newly designed
http://preview.artistsnetwork.com/GeneralMenu/ .
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on February 7, 2008 at 9:29am —
No Comments
While on line,he got a bee in his bonnet,
I'll make a web page and ask artists to log on it,
It'll be filled with the things that they like,
said creative Web Master Mike,
And I think I will call it... "DASONET"!
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on January 15, 2008 at 4:26pm —
Comment
Go to
http://drawn.ca/ for articles on drawing and artists who love to illustrate.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on January 12, 2008 at 7:52pm —
No Comments
Posted by cheryl bannister on January 11, 2008 at 1:33pm —
No Comments
Good things come in small packages. If you can find a copy of "The Painted Word" by Thomas Wolfe, it's an interesting book on what made art sell over the last hundred years or so. and what made some artists famous.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on December 27, 2007 at 8:14pm —
No Comments
I've just finished a 36" x 54" oil on canvas painting of all of the captains of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team since their inception in the early 1920s (I've been a fan of the team since the early 1960s). And I'm offering copies of a limited edition print of the painting for sale. If you are looking for a unique Christmas gift for family, friends or clients who are Leaf fans, this might just be the perfect idea! Go to my site at…
Continue
Posted by Allan OMarra on December 4, 2007 at 11:30am —
No Comments
but i hope, you can understand my english.
until now, i have only german websites.
when the chaos is perfect, you can see on this site
more about my links.
http://kulturserver-sh.de/home/krauseb/web/krause.htmli hope, you will enjoy it ((-:=
brigitta
Continue
Posted by brigitta k. on November 30, 2007 at 10:59am —
Comment
Providing a link to photos on a Facebook page from my show opening last night plus pix of the paintings as shown:
Opening
…
Continue
Posted by Allan OMarra on October 5, 2007 at 7:02pm —
No Comments
A reminder that my show, 'Moments of Awakening' opens tomorrow, Thursday, October 4, in Toronto at Gallery 888, located at 888 Queen St. East (between Broadview and Carlaw). Opening happens between 6 and 9 p.m. Would love to see some of you folks there!

The Dalai Lama Shoots Adolph Hitler, oil on canvas, 40" x 54"
Continue
Posted by Allan OMarra on October 3, 2007 at 9:58pm —
No Comments
Glad to have been invited to this site by Allan!
I have rarely had time to get involved much within my own community's art goings on. Always too much work and running I guess.
I have entered the PineRidge juried exhibitions, the Oshawa one a couple of times as well as an older one in Pickering that was held at the library and civic building there back in 97. I had one Best of Show for a black and white airbrush portrait of my sister, Kyla. I think that show may be defunct or met…
Continue
Posted by jocelyn ball on September 28, 2007 at 4:17pm —
Comments
Drop by the gallery next time you come to the club. It's just down the street at 62 Old Kingston Road, in Pickering Village. Sharon Steinhaus is showing some of her artwork there. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday, 11:00 A.M till 7:00 P.M. And also on Saturday from 11:00 A.M till 4:00 P.M. It has a unique collection of original works of art and prints from different cultures and countries. It is truly the Gallery with a Difference!
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on September 26, 2007 at 4:12pm —
Comment
For a truly amazing video showing the various faces of women, and how artists depicted them over the centuries, go to (
http://miraulam.multiply.com/video/item/38) . Just hit the "play" button, sit back and enjoy.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on September 25, 2007 at 1:35pm —
Comments
Michael Jack teaches a watercolour class at Palmerston Community School, 400 Palmerston St, Whitby on Wednesday evenings. It is a course for beginners, and runs from 7:00 P.M. till 9:00 P.M. Students who finish this course, can then take part two at Michaels home. Michael also includes instruction on drawing and design during this course. If you are interested, you can register on line at, (
www.whitby.ca), a registration form can also be picked up at 555 Rossla…
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on September 10, 2007 at 9:50pm —
No Comments
Check out a new product for pastel artists. Sharon sent us a video from Artists Magazine. Go to (
http://www.artistsmagazine.com/video/tamtv.asp?showid=61075) They are low dust and erasable.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on August 31, 2007 at 9:42pm —
No Comments
Printmaking is the most exciting aspects of Photography. Black and White Print making lends itself towards a leisurely creation. You can fine tune the image-by enlarging it and altering the tones of White through Black. You can also reduce or increase the contrast between them. Cropping the edges readys the Print for final viewing.
Photo Printing Paper is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion containing crystals of silver atoms combined with bromine or chlorine atoms or both. Light is p…
Continue
Posted by Pacco J Pompei. on August 27, 2007 at 5:29am —
No Comments
The zone scale at right has ten steps and is based on Ansel Adams's description of zones in his book The negative. Zone 0(zero) relates to the deepest black print value that photographic printing paper can produce. Zone V corresponds to a middle gray, the tone of a standard-gray test card of 18 percent reflectance. Zone IX relates to the lightest possible print value-pure white of the paper base.
The Zone System allows you to previsualize how the tones in any scene will look in a print a…
Continue
Posted by Pacco J Pompei. on August 27, 2007 at 5:25am —
No Comments
As an experiment I have uploaded an abstract image that can be printed on your own inkjet printer. It should look nice at about 8" x 10"
Just click this link, then right click and save the image to your desktop and print it on your own printer. Feel free to pass it around to friends.
…
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on August 14, 2007 at 12:18pm —
Comment
I have been thinking of the various art forms that I have been interested in over the years. A few years ago I saw gourd art at a local show and bought some seeds to try to grow my own hard-shelled gourds for crafting and painting. The first year was not successful as I tried to grow them in my backyard and may have been a bit late in planting them. I perservevered and bought more seeds from Northern Dipper Farm in Ontario. I was very kindly loaned the use of a big plot of land up north at a fri…
Continue
Posted by Lynn Leighton on June 24, 2007 at 10:07pm —
No Comments
- For those of you who are interested in Canadian aviation heritage or have family or friends with this interest I recommend you visit this musem located on the former Downsview Airport property in Toronto. The focus of this relatively new museum is to display aircraft with a Canadian connection. Amongst many aircraft is the only full scale metal replica of the Avro Arrow,in existence. This is the product of a multi year project of volunteers and supporters and which was completed and unv
…
Continue
Posted by Robert J Bourke on June 24, 2007 at 9:01am —
Comments
Don Hightower and I had an interesting discussion on abstraction and automatism at the club last night (A.C.A.). Don did a great automatist pencil sketch, which I hope he will scan and post.
When I got home afterwards I googled automatism and found this great article on the subject. [
Link]
I especiall liked her linkage of abstract art to music. She says, "When you listen to music, you don’t…
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on June 22, 2007 at 3:38pm —
Comment

"In [the] mystical state of love there is no object of love generating the love. It´s only our own subjective state that causes us to feel love. This is a very unusual state of consciousness, being in love without an object. To give understanding to it, mystics talked about love for God or…
Continue
Posted by Allan OMarra on June 20, 2007 at 11:01am —
No Comments
Don,t go to Curry's on a Sunday. They are closed from May 24 to September 3rd. This may save someone a wasted trip.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on June 19, 2007 at 8:27pm —
No Comments
A little plug for myself: my job of twenty years as a promotions manager in Bank of Montreal Corporate Marketing was recently eliminated and I am in the process of setting up a psychotherapy practice out of my home in Ajax (I trained at the Transpersonal Therapy Centre in Toronto, graduating in 2004), as well as putting much more time into my painting career. Check the link to see my therapy practices offerings on a page of my web site. And have a look at the attached PDF file flyer I've prep…
Continue
Posted by Allan OMarra on June 18, 2007 at 10:45am —
No Comments
Click on "COMMENT" and add an interesting book to the list. It doesn't have to be art related, just a darn good read.I just finished The Davinci Code, by Dan Brown. Rated it about three stars.
Great-***** Very Good-**** Not Bad-*** Dull-** Don't Bother-*
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on June 16, 2007 at 3:55pm —
Comments
When we (my husband Steve and I) moved into our little house in
Oshawa, we found that we had many, many projects to tackle before the
character home would shine and sparkle again. One of these projects was
the sadly neglected backyard. Grossly overgrown with weeds, studded
with rocks and surrounded by clumpy clay, I realized that it was
going to take a lot of hot, sweaty work to mold this bug nirvana into
the cozy, cottage garden I wanted, a space filled with flowers and
plants that I could inco…
Continue
Posted by Flora R. Powell on June 15, 2007 at 10:49pm —
Comments
Picasso, love him or hate him, was a huge influence on modedrn art. Here is a great web resource for students of contemporary art. It has an enormous catlogue of his work, from his early years until his death. It also has a good bio and time line of his major pieces. [
Link]
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on June 12, 2007 at 8:53pm —
No Comments
I thought I would make
this image available to other artists for painting in other media such as oils, watercolours or acrylic.
It can be printed out at 8" x 10" by 100 dpi. Click on the picture to download.
Can you find the Ents in the picture?
…
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on June 11, 2007 at 11:12pm —
Comments
I always enjoy Peter Goddard's reviews in the Toronto Star. The Star keeps an archive of recent reviews going back quite a few weeks. The reviews have a slideshow of the art being reviewed so, if you have some free time, you can browse the archives here. [
Link]
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on June 11, 2007 at 10:24am —
Comment
There was a good article and slide show about Leonard Cohen's new show in the online Toronto Star this weekend. I can't wait to hear Philip Glass' music set to Cohen's poems. [
Link]
Continue
Posted by Mike Butler on June 11, 2007 at 8:20am —
No Comments
Posted by Allan OMarra on June 8, 2007 at 3:27pm —
No Comments
If everyone who is now a member of the Durham Artists Social Network invites one more fellow artist to join, this web page will continue to grow. Add your comments or start a new blog. Post websites that you have found to be interesting and helpful in the past. Note: put all web addresses in brackets. (.....) If everyone becomes involved it will be a place to visit each time you turn your computor on.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on June 8, 2007 at 12:29pm —
No Comments
If you have never had the opportunity to visit the Musee d Orsay in Paris, you can take a virtual guided tour or look at the 146 paintings by visiting (
www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html) Its worth a look!
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on June 7, 2007 at 11:09pm —
No Comments
If you are interested in all things related to colour, check out this website. (www. colormatters.com). Don't forget to spell color the American way. This site has information on every imaginable hue. How colour affects you, colour blindness etc.
Continue
Posted by Don Hightower on June 3, 2007 at 12:22pm —
No Comments