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  Friends of
  Bon Echo Park
  16151 Hwy 41 RR 1
  Cloyne, ON K0H 1K0

  contactinfo

  Derek Maggs
  Executive Director
 (613) 336-0830
  Fax - (613) 336-2712
  e-mail:  fobecho@mazinaw.on.ca

  E. Helen Yanch
  Operations Manager
  Greystones Gift &
  Book Shop
  (613) 336-9863
  (May to Thanksgiving)
  (613) 336-0830   (October to April)
  Fax - (613) 336-2712
  e-mail: greystones
@mazinaw.on.ca

     DIRECTORS
  President -
  Betty Pearce 
  Vice President -
  Dave Deacon
  Secretary -
  Mary Jane Turner
  Treasurer -
  Ernest Lapchinski
  Red Emond
  Mary Kelly
  Harold Kaufman
  Pat Nobbs
  Jane Potyok

  

Memorial to Colin Edwards, Local Educator, Artist

Colin Edwards Memorial Art Gallery Opens for a New Season

Mazinaw Lake and Bon Echo Provincial Park have drawn artists to its shores for hundreds of years.  Continuing the example of the aboriginal peoples, the Group of Seven and the many who still come to appreciate and create, the Friends of Bon Echo Park (the Friends) provide numerous venues for artists to showcase their work.  In addition to the Bon Echo Art Exhibition and Sale on July 24, 25, 26, the Friends provide the Colin Edwards Memorial Art Gallery in the Greystones Gift and Book Shop.

The Art Gallery was renamed in 2008 in memory of Colin Edwards, long time resident, educator, artist and active leader in the Friends. His wife, Grace Edwards, stated, “What a wonderful honour and a credit to Colin’s memory this dedication and designation of the Greystones Art Gallery is. For Colin, living and working in this community meant  giving back as well. He was always involved in community organizations from the Volunteer Fire Department in the early 70's when he first moved here, to the Mazinaw Community Fund as one of the Founding Directors. But the Friends of Bon Echo was the Organization to which he dedicated the most time and energy. He saw in Bon Echo Provincial Park and North Addington Education Center the potential of a valuable partnership that could complement and benefit from each other.                   

With the many challenges that Bon Echo has faced and continues to face, Colin believed that the mandate of the Friends Organization would be one of the means to Bon Echo being able to continue to offer to its visitors what those visitors before them had seen and experienced. Colin's own canvases reflected the landscapes around his home in the Land O'Lakes area. So many landmarks were captured in his work. But Bon Echo, with such a unique ecology and a deep and long history was more than an artistic inspiration and he recognized it as a special place and landmark to be explored by the residents and visitors in this world 'north of 7'. The natural, historical and cultural heritage of Bon Echo was a draw and a teacher, the beauty and majesty of the Park - a refuge and inspiration. 'Preservation if appropriate, and education – key.’ ”

The Art Gallery is showcasing the original work of four pairs of artists over the current season. Jean Finlayson of Madoc and Bina Mizra of Ottawa will be the featured artists from July 23rd to August 13th.
Jean Finlayson was born in Montreal and raised for ten years in Northern Quebec. Her parents homesteaded in Farmborough, east of Rouyan–Noranda. She discovered her love for the Canadian Shield during her childhood and has become proficient at capturing the colours, textures, light and feeling for the landscape in her oil and casein paintings.  In the late fifties, Jean enrolled in art classes affiliated with Sir George William College, now Concordia University in Montreal.  Between the 1960’s and the early 2000’s, she earned a living working with textiles, creating clothing, braided rugs, and fun cat toys.  Now that she has semi-retired from working in the industry, she has come back full circle to her love of painting. 

Jean is now creating a variety of landscape paintings reflecting her deep attraction to the land, rocks, water, trees and soil of the Canadian Shield.  She captures the beguiling nature and spirit of our wetlands and marshes. Her rocks convey their sense of stability and permanence. One can feel present and almost able to touch the life within the painting. Jean feels rewarded with the satisfaction of recreating the natural world onto a blank canvas.  She hopes her landscape paintings are a reminder of what the planet has given to its inhabitants, and what we the people need to do to keep all fauna and flora around us well and healthy.

Jean has been accepted into several juried shows in the Hastings County area, including the Annual ‘Expression’ Art Exhibition at the John Parrott Gallery in Belleville, Mysteries of the Park at the Algonquin Park Visitor Centre and at several smaller exhibitions close to home.

Jean is currently working out of her home north of Madoc, surrounded with organic gardens, trees, wetlands and fields.  She shares her home with a dog, cat and the wildlife that surrounds the property.
 
Bina Mizra, as a contemporary Canadian visual artist, has merged sculptural relief with oil painting to create three-dimensional representations of the places that have inspired her life.
Texture and colour are the principal elements she has emphasized throughout her work.  This has enabled her to make an otherwise flat surface come to life. By exploring various textural components through collage she has been able to bring a depth to the canvas that is truly unique. Adding colour is essential in developing the emotional aspect of her work for it can evoke memories, soothe and calm the mind, or awaken and stimulate the senses.
Viewers can derive their own appreciation for the pure and simple beauty of the landscape embodied in the paintings when natural elements are brought together with brilliant hues. Our environment shapes our understanding and our perceptions. By integrating nature into her art, the canvas becomes a window to the magnificent world around us.
“Sculpture rather than painting” were words once spoken of the Lawren Harris canvas “First Snow”, words that speak to the very essence of what she strives to capture.

The Colin Edwards Memorial Art Gallery is open during Greystones Gift and Book Shop hours, 10:30 – 6:00 daily.

Friday, July 24 11am - 5pm
Saturday, July 25, 10am - 5pm
Sunday, July 26 10am - 4pm

"Echoes From The Rock" is the Newsletter published by the Friends of Bon Echo Park and is distributed semi-annually to all our members . It highlights recent and current activities of the Friends, future projects, and other tidbits of information.

links

Here are some links to some associated and interesting sites that the Friends of Bon Echo are glad to mention. Some of these sites are based in the heart of beautiful Mazinaw Country!!!