This novel has everything I like in a good read - a little bit of history, lots of art, fine writing and a great plot. Besides which it's quite long so it lasts a few nights.
The premise is that the artist participates in a scientific study that unexpectedly sends him back to the 17th century or at least puts him into the body or mind of the famous painter Velazquez. He begins to paint like Velazquez. His family life is chaos, and he gets involved with shady dealings. You're never quite sure exactly what's happening in what dimension, but it's a really good uncertainty that keeps you guessing and reading. I highly recommend this for quality escapist entertainment!
October 23, 2012
September 30, 2012
Watercolour Sketching
He made 30 paintings, all the same size, about 9 x 12". Cynthia and I loved them, watching a video of Hartman at work, and joking that "we could do that!"
It's harder than it looks. I was inspired to try my hand, while at the same time fulfilling an item on my bucket list, which was to go up to Kettle Valley one sunny afternoon and paint. There are two benches there with little tables in front of them - just perfect. It was a glorious afternoon and I had so much fun and gained new respect for John Hartman. But hey, it was just my first try. I bet I could get better at this.
Hartman didn't do any colour mixing at all. Because he worked quickly outdoors, he just dabbed away directly from his watercolour box, getting some colour variation by overpainting once in a while, but mostly the pictures all have the same 8 - 12 colours and they look great together.
I decided to pay little attention to colour - hence the purple mountains. This watercolour sketching method, working fast with no preliminary drawing, takes the pressure off trying to be perfect. Even though my scene looks a bit like palm trees by the Nile river rather than the park at Kettle Valley, I'm pretty excited about doing more of this, and taking a break from the watercolour portraits I've been working on lately. 
You can see Hartman's paintings at the Kelowna Art Gallery for the next three months.
Update: I tried another one (left) looking out over the valley from Thornhaven the other day. Too much fun.
Kurelek's Vision of Canada
I always thought of Kurelek as primarily a pastoral painter who recorded scenes of farm life on the prairies, and he was that, but his main goal as a painter was to engage his audiences in deep thinking about spiritual principles. Kurelek converted to Catholicism in his 20s and became passionate about his belief that the world was going to hell in a handbasket, as the saying goes, and that the only hope for salvation is God. Besides farm scenes, the book includes many dark and disturbing images - funerals, a barn burned down, a metaphorical crucifixion in a field because of anger.
Joan Murray takes an unflinching view of Kurelek's art. She says there is "Much to hate" and that Kurelek had an "unformed sense of picture making" and a terrible sense of colour, with a few later exceptions. His characters are simplistic, often with hackneyed expressions and looking "as though they have no bones." Kurelek was largely self-taught and admitted that what rules and techniques he did learn, he liked to flout. For instance, he had no trouble with dividing a canvas exactly in half.
I love Kurelek's folksy style and would love to do what he did, driving around the countryside and recording everyday scenes with a paintbrush.
Cover Letter Queen by Carol Caron
I helped a little bit, early on, with the editing, and found myself so intrigued that I'm sure at times I forgot my editing duties entirely while I chuckled my way through a section. I thought Carol did a particularly good job of the parts that included "Johnny." The book is fictionalized, but I know quite well the man on whom this character is based and I thought she just nailed it with him.
The timing is great - the book moves along briskly, taking a wry look at the sixty-some jobs the main character has held in her lifetime. In spite of taking a hilarious look at why she applied for each job, how she got it, what she did and why she quit, Cover Letter Queen never falls into anything even close to a monotonous rhythm. You will laugh, you will squirm at times, and most of all you'll keep reading to try to figure out what makes the protagonist tick and what she'll be up to next. Whatever she does, I hope she keeps writing. I'm looking forward to the next book already.
You can get more info or buy at http://coverletterqueen.com/
August 25, 2012
Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally
This interesting account is written in alternating chapters by partners Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon, the Vancouver creators of the 100-Mile Diet. The book was first published as The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating.
Smith and Mackinnon took a year to eat only food that had been grown or raised within 100 miles of their home. They blogged about their experiences and the blog went viral or whatever happens when a blog really catches on - people all over the country and around the world began clicking in within a month or two. The book, written in 2007, was a bestseller in Canada and won a prize for non-fiction.
It compares well to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Same idea - live for a year on local foods. Kingsolver's book had an edge of glamour and celebrity, while this one by contrast is very humble. Smith and Mackinnon's quest is intensely personal, and hard on their relationship. They're not well off and are content with little. They ate a lot of potatoes and eggs.
But they also found delicious food they hadn't used before, ranging from greens in the wild to all kinds of shellfish from the shore to exotic varieties of fruits and vegetables at nearby farms and markets. They are mostly vegetarian, and they were pretty strict with themselves. They allowed themselves to use what they already had in the house, and if they were invited out or travelling, they ate what was offered or available. Their most difficult quest in the Lower Mainland was for grain - it took them seven months to identify a grower, and during those seven months they sorely missed their bread and pancakes and tortillas. When the year was up, they mostly kept to their diet, finding they just liked it better. They put back a few favourites like lemons, rice, and beer. Their second winter was easier because they'd frozen or canned lots of produce the summer before.
The book is overloaded with history and philosophy, which sometimes seems forced. But in general the writing is natural and real. It's pretty raw; Kingsolver's book was so "pretty" that it really inspired me to try to find more local food. This story is quite a hard one, likely more realistic to what most of us experience when we move towards local eating: more work, more preserving, missing familiar food, lots of searching, and when you do find local food, it's often more expensive.
But Smith and Mackinnon attest to what we've also found to be true. Local food is fresher and tastier and supporting a local farmer rather than a multinational is almost as satisfying as eating the food.
Smith and Mackinnon took a year to eat only food that had been grown or raised within 100 miles of their home. They blogged about their experiences and the blog went viral or whatever happens when a blog really catches on - people all over the country and around the world began clicking in within a month or two. The book, written in 2007, was a bestseller in Canada and won a prize for non-fiction.
It compares well to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Same idea - live for a year on local foods. Kingsolver's book had an edge of glamour and celebrity, while this one by contrast is very humble. Smith and Mackinnon's quest is intensely personal, and hard on their relationship. They're not well off and are content with little. They ate a lot of potatoes and eggs.
But they also found delicious food they hadn't used before, ranging from greens in the wild to all kinds of shellfish from the shore to exotic varieties of fruits and vegetables at nearby farms and markets. They are mostly vegetarian, and they were pretty strict with themselves. They allowed themselves to use what they already had in the house, and if they were invited out or travelling, they ate what was offered or available. Their most difficult quest in the Lower Mainland was for grain - it took them seven months to identify a grower, and during those seven months they sorely missed their bread and pancakes and tortillas. When the year was up, they mostly kept to their diet, finding they just liked it better. They put back a few favourites like lemons, rice, and beer. Their second winter was easier because they'd frozen or canned lots of produce the summer before.
The book is overloaded with history and philosophy, which sometimes seems forced. But in general the writing is natural and real. It's pretty raw; Kingsolver's book was so "pretty" that it really inspired me to try to find more local food. This story is quite a hard one, likely more realistic to what most of us experience when we move towards local eating: more work, more preserving, missing familiar food, lots of searching, and when you do find local food, it's often more expensive.
But Smith and Mackinnon attest to what we've also found to be true. Local food is fresher and tastier and supporting a local farmer rather than a multinational is almost as satisfying as eating the food.
August 3, 2012
A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch
Anyone who's from Winnipeg and enjoys the theatre should definitely read A Fiery Soul. John Hirsch came to Winnipeg from Hungary as a war orphan at the age of 17. All his family either died at Auschwitz or were killed in the war. His early upbringing near Budapest was a culturally rich one and he transplanted some of that richness to Winnipeg, becoming a founder of the Manitoba Theatre Centre and an early director at Rainbow Stage in the late 50s and 60s.
Both these theatres were formative in my life - we were taken to them as children and they kickstarted my lifelong love of drama. I saw Fiddler on the Roof at Rainbow Stage at least 40 years ago, and it feels like yesterday. Hirsch believed in educating about drama, and wherever he worked in Canada and the U.S. in the course of his eminent career, he encouraged the teaching component of the theatre company. I took Ryan to drama lessons in Winnipeg when he was 10 or 12, and also once invited a group of actors from MTC to work with the cast of Scapino and teach us commedia del arte. So many southern Manitobans have benefitted from the seeds sown by John Hirsch.
Hirsch also directed for many years at Stratford in Ontario, for CBC, on Broadway, in California and eventually around the world. He was energetic, alternative, wildly creative and intense, ruffling many feathers along the way.
This book, by Fraidie Martz and Andrew Wilson, is incredibly detailed, describing the writing, budget, casting, scenery, special effects, interpersonal relationships, reviews, and audience reception of most of the 120 or so plays Hirsch directed in his life. But it's also intensely personal, never losing sight of its fascinating central figure, and I enjoyed it all. I think I had nurtured an idea that I knew a lot of plays, but realized after reading this, that I have read or seen only a handful. So many plays, so little time!
Both these theatres were formative in my life - we were taken to them as children and they kickstarted my lifelong love of drama. I saw Fiddler on the Roof at Rainbow Stage at least 40 years ago, and it feels like yesterday. Hirsch believed in educating about drama, and wherever he worked in Canada and the U.S. in the course of his eminent career, he encouraged the teaching component of the theatre company. I took Ryan to drama lessons in Winnipeg when he was 10 or 12, and also once invited a group of actors from MTC to work with the cast of Scapino and teach us commedia del arte. So many southern Manitobans have benefitted from the seeds sown by John Hirsch.
Hirsch also directed for many years at Stratford in Ontario, for CBC, on Broadway, in California and eventually around the world. He was energetic, alternative, wildly creative and intense, ruffling many feathers along the way.
This book, by Fraidie Martz and Andrew Wilson, is incredibly detailed, describing the writing, budget, casting, scenery, special effects, interpersonal relationships, reviews, and audience reception of most of the 120 or so plays Hirsch directed in his life. But it's also intensely personal, never losing sight of its fascinating central figure, and I enjoyed it all. I think I had nurtured an idea that I knew a lot of plays, but realized after reading this, that I have read or seen only a handful. So many plays, so little time!
July 19, 2012
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
A very good summer read! The gentle title of this novel doesn't say much about it - it's a spellbinder (I took that word off the back cover) set in the Amazon jungle and there's hardly a dull or gentle moment in it.
The characters are mostly doctors who work for an American pharmaceutical company. As the story opens, a report comes to the company that one of their researchers has died in Brazil, and the company sends another researcher to find out the circumstances of his death and to report on the elusive and reclusive head researcher and the progress of the project.
The stunning thing about this book is its character development. "Well-rounded" doesn't begin to describe almost every character in the book. Some books I read right through to the end still trying to figure out who was who, but in this book there's no doubt. There are at least seven or eight highly distinctive main characters, and they're far from caricatures. Each has many facets and surprises, all fitting in believably into a fascinating and human whole.
The advertising on the book makes much of a previous novel, Bel Canto, which I will try to get, and Patchett has apparently written at least seven other books.
The characters are mostly doctors who work for an American pharmaceutical company. As the story opens, a report comes to the company that one of their researchers has died in Brazil, and the company sends another researcher to find out the circumstances of his death and to report on the elusive and reclusive head researcher and the progress of the project.
The stunning thing about this book is its character development. "Well-rounded" doesn't begin to describe almost every character in the book. Some books I read right through to the end still trying to figure out who was who, but in this book there's no doubt. There are at least seven or eight highly distinctive main characters, and they're far from caricatures. Each has many facets and surprises, all fitting in believably into a fascinating and human whole.
The advertising on the book makes much of a previous novel, Bel Canto, which I will try to get, and Patchett has apparently written at least seven other books.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)