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the Allure of Alia:
Showcasing the 2013 collection of Montreal jewellery designer Anne Mari Chagnon
June 8, 2013 11am-5:00pm
Richard Gill 2013 Fall Show:
Opening on Friday, October 14 2:00pm-10:00pm
Continuing daily
11am-5:00p through Monday, October 14m
Richard Gill 2012 Fall Show: Landmarks of the Mind - 40th Anniversary Show!
Truly a Landmark Event for Burnstown Sculptor. Begins on Friday, September 28 and runs for 10 days.
*Note that this year we are pleased to offer a complimentary shuttle service for any guests who may be staying nearby. Kindly let us know if think you would like to use this service.
Here's a link to some options for accommodations within 10 minutes of Burnstown:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g182180-Renfrew_Ontario-Hotels.html
It was 1972 when Richard Gill put on his first show of pottery at his studio/home in Burnstown that he called Fog Run. In those days the show invitations were hand drawn and handwritten. The clay was custom mixed in a large hand cranked bread dough mixer using rain water collected in big wooden barrels. The pots were thrown on a kick wheel and baked in a wood-fired kiln all of which were designed and built by his own hand with the passion and exuberant energy of his youth. The pots were decorated with unique textures and his signature style drawings that evoked the distilled essence of civilization and settlements.
The locals loved his pots and folks came in droves from miles around to buy them. When one day a customer commented that they loved his drawings on the pots but had no more need for the pots themselves he set about to solve the problem. He cut a finished wet pot in half and opened it up put a hanger on the back, fired it and hung it on the wall. When it sold the next day he knew he was on to something and that's when his work evolved from functional to purely visual. People started asking him if he would mind rendering their homes, farms or cottages in clay and his skills as a former architect served him well. Now over 50 percent of his work is custom made by commission. Today the invitations are professionally printed, the mailing list has grown and managed by computer and the use of email make things more efficient. The work has evolved with increasingly skillful detail as well as colour with the use of computer operated electric kilns.
This landmark 40th show will include a wide variety of material that is sure to appeal to many aesthetics and consists of 3 collections: Landmarks of the Mind, Flora & Femme and the French River ( Northern Ontario)
Some are pieces that he has wanted to sculpt for years but didn't fit into the theme of a conceived concept for a show or that he perceived as too complex at the time. Highlights of the show include renditions of the Moulin Rouge, the Stairway to the Paris Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, Monte Carlo, Whitehall, London, St Peter's in Rome, Versailles, Santiago de Campostola, Perce Rock, Haida Totem Poles, St Joseph's Oratory, Montreal, as well as closer to home icons like the Chateau Laurier, Parliament buildings along with some familiar favorites of the Ottawa Valley to name just a few of more than 100 new works.
Others are landmarks that made a lasting impression on him in his youth like the Statue of Liberty that he recalls climbing when on a business trip with his father at the age of 16. Or perhaps what was his very first recollection of Big Ben that this mother pointed out to him at the age of 3 indelibly imprinted in his mind.
Landmarks of the Mind opens at Bittersweet Gallery in Burnstown on September 28, 2012.
The show continues daily from 11 to 5 pm to October 8.
For more information call 613-432-5254 or 613-433-9990.
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