Michelle (Basic) Hendry - Fine Artist & Author

Artist and Author - Landscapes and Ruins

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Escape to Urban Culture

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Union Station
Architectural Detail, Union Station, Toronto © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

Most people escape to my neck of the woods for a vacation. This weekend, I escaped to Toronto for a little urban culture after a long winter buried in the snow belt.

I managed to get a ticket to see Dr. Wayne Dyer speak at a conference. Dr. Dyer is an exceptional speaker. He has a remarkable ability to take difficult topics and make them seem brilliantly simple.

Dr. Dyer spoke about imagination and how the subconscious cannot distinguish between the real and the imagined. It is through this that we can train ourselves the change the way we think and allow ourselves to become fully who we are. When we turn off our ‘ego’ we are able to connect with something deeper. It is the connection between these concepts that takes the idea of purpose and intent further than simply imagining what we want. Once we are able to feel it, we can become it. The mind is a powerful thing, if only we can learn to use it!

CN Tower
Room with a View of the CN Tower, Toronto © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

The next day I met my mother and my sister to tour the Holman Hunt Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).  William Holman Hunt (1827 – 1910) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, along with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais .

The Pre-Raphaelite painters sought to return to a more medieval philosophy and approach to painting unlike the Renaissance painters represented by Raphael. Their use of symbolism, extreme detail and pure colour were hallmarks of the style. Hunt had friends that were chemists and he spent a great deal of time focusing on the materials and pigments used in his paintings. Hunt’s and his colleague’s paintings are amongst a rare group of art that has maintained their rich colour saturation over time.

Hunt
Isabella and the Pot of Basil (based on the John Keats poem, Isabella, William Holman Hunt, 1868

Hunt was passionate about Literature and Poetry, painting his wife as Isabella and, in his last painting, due to failing eyesight, the Lady of Shalott.

Hunt
The Light of the World, William Holman Hunt, 1854

Hunt visited the Middle East, in Egypt and Jerusalem many times and his paintings reflected subjects of the Holy Land and of Christ, painting both controversial works and a painting which hung in St. Paul’s in London, “The Light of the World”. Hunt’s intent was to create a modern iconography for the religious.

The exhibition runs at the AGO until May 10.

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Comments

  1. I would have to carry a drool cup around my neck looking at these paintings, they are just MAGNIFICENT. Isabella and the pot of Basil is fascinating to me. I would have loved to have spent time seeing it up close and examining the paint surface.

    Sounds like a super trip.

  2. very nice shot of union station 🙂 I can’t stand Toronto. I would try my hardest to avoid going there. If I hadn’t had to fly so many times I don’t think I would have gone more then the 2 times I did when I was a kid. Its just too big of a city for me. There are some nice parts but for me they are few and far between. I really do want to take hubby to the CN tower though next time we are in Ontario and take him to the zoo.

    sounds like a great art exhibit 😀 lots of gorgeous things to look at!

  3. I hope I get to see the pre-raphaelite exhibition. I love those paintings. Me, I like toronto to visit. My husband and I do cheap dates, walking through the downtown, eating burrito’s and finishing up at Gregs Icecream. Next time, you must find Gregs.

  6. Jafa – The paint texture is incredibly smooth with the occasional bit of distinguishable brushstroke. The textures created are illusions that are so real, you feel you could pull the quilted fabric from under Isabella’s pot….

    Jennifer Roe – I hate the suburbs. I dislike sprawling masses of concrete with no purpose, Downtown, on the other hand is magical!

    Ingrid – You must go!! 🙂

    Kinsey – I read it with Oprah’s webcast last year. Dr. Dyer adds the element of using our bodies to solidify the thought by feeling what it is you are manifesting. This lecture was like the practical part of Tolle’s approach. I got a lot from the New Earth too.

    Linda – I miss the culture of the City. I have returned to a dumping of fresh snow and the fragile beauties of my home.

  7. As lovely as they are, I still prefer Waterhouse’s take on the Lady of Shalott.
    Hope you had a good time in T.O. The last time I was in Union Station I was catching a train back to Niagara because my car’d been stolen. <:(

  8. Michelle,

    All these photos are beautiful. I really like the first one and also Isabella and the basil pot. Light, colors and details one this one are stunning.

  9. beautiful paintings Michelle and how wonderful to see them IRL….beautiful..beautiful…colour and composition!!
    sounds like you had a wonderful weekend …
    enjoy your Easter 🙂

  10. Wow, great photos you took here Michelle. The two paintings are simply beeeeuuuutiful. I love the rich color in the first one as well as the style. Her gown and face seem almost real to me. Love the expression on her face.

    The other one “The Light of the Wolrd” touches me in another whole way. If I look at for a bit it brings tears to my eyes. I think it has SUCH a gentle peace about it. A sense of love that really moves me. Oddly, I like it’s muted tones as much as the other one’s brilliant tones.

    Very nice for you to share these with us.
    Hugs,
    Robin 🙂

  11. Great photos Michelle. I am very attached to The Light of the World because it hung in the vestry of my church when I was a young chorister. I always thought it was a bit like the entrance to my Dad’s allotment. There is a wonder about it, which touched my child’s view.

    xhenry

  12. Hunt was phenomenal, wasn’t he?

    Henry! How amazing to have such a personal connection….

    Lana – Yes – that could colour your feelings about the place!