A New Life for the 'Ol Chicken Coop

Max and I managed to get the shed to this state by July 1st before I had to temporarily abandon any further work on it, as jewelry manufacturing beckoned for my attention. Being so busy the last three weeks, I guess I didn't realize how Max and his friends were looking forward to using the reclaimed chicken coop when it's finally ready for them to use as their new, soon-to-be camp. Yesterday, Saturday July 19th, the village put on its annual yard sale, and the boys scrounged for anything they could possibly use. Max says they found a few odd gems including a small, poker table, so they can sit around it and tell tall tales to each other as they play. Anyway, here are a few pics of what we've done with an old, salvaged window, and salvaged door. The shingles are eastern white cedar - the same as on the house and work garage. In a couple of years they'll turn an appealing silvery color, and will be good for seventy-five to a hundred years or so.

Fixing the ol' Chicken Coop

This 12' foot x 10' shed was originally built by the previous owner of the land, and later used as a chicken coop complete with suspended concrete floor ( Max and I have since pried up, and removed). Since purchasing the land in '98, the chicken coop has remained as it was when we first came here. It had a half-broken-off door covering what it could of the doorway, but otherwise as you can see it in the pic above, save for the few bright, new boards, was left relatively open to the weather as we had many other projects to get to first. The shed had been at the bottom of the hill before we had it carried up (cabled to an excavator bucket), and sat first in another location for a couple of years, and then when we were doing more work later on, moved to its current setting in a south facing, sheltered area across from the greenhouse and veggie garden. Around the corner is a small, extended forest that we are still making walking trails through. I'm also in there with the thinning saw from time to time, to help the trees in overly dense thickets achieve size, and maintain health. We previously prepared a pit-run gravel foundation for the shed, along with 2' x 2' foot patio squares, and concrete blocks on top. Unfortunately, being open to the weather allowed the shed to develop a case of the 'rots' from the roof truss ends where soggy insulation stuffed up in the eaves retained moisture over the years, to the old, recycled barn beams used for its foundation. Here, you can see where I added new truss ends to repair where they sit on the top plate of the walls. This had to be done on both sides of the shed. This was done after Max and I had already put new shingles on the roof. Nice, old, substantial, recycled barn beams make for a solid foundation! I learned from experimenting many years ago working on other projects, nothing comes in handier than a hydraulic car jack when lifting heavy objects close to the ground. With a car jack I've moved complete decks that have shifted or even sunk from frost heaves, and been able to level them up again. I've also used it when I was beefing up a wood shed. A great tool to have! A few cedar shingles make great shims for leveling things up too! As you can see, extensive rot removal had to be done to plan on using the shed again, even to the point of placing temporary braces in place to hold the roof up while the bottom of the walls were cut off, and replacement of loss of structural strength of the perimeter sill beam, floor joists, bottom wall plates, and then the wall studs themselves, before the braces could be removed. A strip of new plywood finally going back on after the repairs have been completed. Tabitha one of our dogs, ensuring no mice show up on the scene. (There's no mice around here, not much anyway, but she saw one once, and her imagination now works overtime - funny dog). Gabby, a new 9 - 10 month old, female dog happy to come and live with us. She's adorable, and still very much a puppy. A partial view of Gwen's veggie garden. (Pic taken in early June? I think) Another view looking eastwards across the top of the hill.

Saint John Arts Centre Exhibit May 16 - June 28

* Scroll down 3 posts for photos of the exhibit. *

Oil on Panel Bird Paintings

5" x 7" Oil on Panel

Detail

5" x 7" Oil on Panel SOLD

Detail

5" x 7" Oil on Panel

Detail

7" x 5" Oil on Panel

Detail

7" x 5" Oil on Panel

Detail

During a few days in the winter I painted a collection of various song birds, sparrows, Evening Grosbeaks, etc.

And I decided to experiment with a smaller, more intimate scale; 5" x 7", etc.

These are not included in the current exhibit.

Canadian Painter Tom Thomson's New Auction Record

Painting by Tom Thomson (This is the only painting on this blog that's not mine).



An iconic oil sketch by Tom Thomson was the centrepiece of a Sotheby's art auction on Monday, May 26, 2008 in Toronto.
Ash Prakash, a high-end art collector, bought the Thomson piece for nearly $2 million.

The vibrant oil sketch depicts three spindly trees silhouetted against a sunset is believed to have been painted in 1915 or 1916.

Before Monday's auction, it was estimated that the work would sell for between $900,000 and $1 million. After a bidding war, it sold for $1,957,000, including buyer's premium.

"There was lots of interest," said Stephen Ranger, president of Ritchie's Auctioneers. "There were three bidders on that picture -- and there even could have been more."

The buyer of the artwork, ASH PRAKASH kept quiet about his personal life but was pretty clear about why he thought the piece was well worth the price.

"I am particularly delighted to give it a home this time in Canada where it belongs," he told CTV Toronto.

The high-end art collector has a special spot at home set aside for the new painting, though he wouldn't say where.

There has been a surge in interest in the works of Thomson, who died in 1917 under mysterious circumstances in Ontario's Algonquin Park.

His "Tamarack Swamp (Sketch #5)" sold for $1 million earlier this month in Vancouver. It was Thomson's sixth painting to sell for over $1 million. Another piece is expected to sell for seven figures at a Joyner Waddington auction in Toronto on Tuesday.

Although he wasn't a member, Thomson's work was aligned with the Group of Seven, whose members also captured the beauty of the northern Ontario landscape.

Group of Seven

Group member Arthur Lismer's painting, "Pine Island, Georgian Bay," sold for $318,500 -- twice its estimated value. That sum included the buyer's premium.

The sale features works by other members of the Group Of Seven, including Franklin Carmichael's "La Cloche Hills" and Lawren Harris' "North Shore."

"After decades in private collections, many works are returning to auction and demonstrating the vigorous growth of the Canadian art market," said a Sotheby's Canada news release.

Works by group members Frederick Varley and A.Y. Jackson sold for more than $500,000 in Vancouver last week.

"Cape Mudge," by Emily Carr, another artist closely associated with the group, was also to be on the auction block.

The sale was to feature 218 lots with presale estimates ranging from $6 million to $8.5 million. In addition to paintings, it includes sculptures, prints and drawings.

Other highlights of Monday's sale include works by Douglas Coupland, Atilla Lukacs and Tony Scherman, of the Painters Eleven group.

The auction, a joint effort between Sotheby's Canada and Ritchie's Auctioneers was held at 380 King Street East in Toronto.

"It makes for an outstanding survey of Canadian art history and is highlighted by paintings of an impeccable pedigree. Many of these works have been sourced internationally," Sotheby's said.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Tom Hayes



You can find out more about Thomson's life here:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007981

Here's How the Exhibit Looks on Display at the Saint John Arts Centre May 16 - June 28

New Painting

Titled: "From the West Side" 30" x 42" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas

The following photos are of the painting exhibit displayed in two adjoining rooms at the Saint John Arts Centre.

Max checking out some of Dad's work.

My two favorite people - Gwen & Max

Shediac

Three night scenes - the first one is of of King Street in Fredericton, the middle is of the drive to Rothesay and Quispamsis from Saint John, and the last one is from the perspective of looking through an overpass in Saint John. (Camera captured poor lighting below)

The Kennebecasis

A grouping of 12" x 12's"

44 paintings in total (not all are shown)

The exhibit runs May16- June 28

Art Exhibit on until June 27 at the Saint John Arts Centre

24" x 24" Oil on gallery-wrapped Canvas

Always inspiring to live here on this amazing coast! After I was finished with this painting last night, the moon that came up over the bay was a tangerine orange! Gwen and I sat outdoors in the seclusion of the cedars that surround the firepit watching the sky transform itself.

Art Exhibit at Saint John Arts Centre May16 - June 27

Between now and the end of June you can see 44 of my paintings on display in the library, and in another adjoining room at the Saint John Arts Centre formerly known as the 'ABEC'. The centre is currently undergoing brick and mortar maintenance.

Above is a 12" x 12" (top), and a 16" x 16" (below). Both are included in the exhibit.


I'm back to jewelry making for now, but will have to post some interior pics of the gallery and exhibit as soon as I get back there to take shots.

By the way, the building was built 'round the turn of the 20th century, and was funded by Carnegie as one of his famous 400 library gifts to the whole of the continent.

Carnegie libraries are libraries which were built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Over 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built, including those belonging to public and university library systems. Carnegie earned the nickname Patron Saint of Libraries.

Of the 2,509 libraries funded between 1883 and 1929, 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 156 in Canada, and others in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, and Fiji. Very few towns that requested a grant and agreed to his terms were refused. When the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them paid for by Carnegie.

In the early 20th century, a Carnegie library was the most imposing structure in hundreds of small American communities from Maine to California. Most of the library buildings were unique, displaying a number of different Beaux-Arts and other architectural styles, including Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival and Spanish Colonial. Each style was chosen by the community and was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons to enter through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase. The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, outside virtually every library was a lamppost or lantern to symbolize enlightenment.

Two more 12" x 12"s

Living here on the coast, there's no end to beaches, surf, and seaweed...

'Springtime'

We often walk into the forest from the field that surrounds the rear of the house. Both are 12' x 12" Oil on Canvas - ... and will be part of an upcoming exhibit in Saint John, New Brunswick - May 15 - June 27 ? at the Saint John Arts Centre. Tons of work yet to prepare for it....