Dani Stahle and John Proctor — Earth Tones Studio

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Marie

Dani Stahle and John Proctor, of Earth Tones Studio, fell in love with the Haliburton Highlands when they vacationed here. They were so taken with the beauty of the natural environment that they were driven to find a way to live in the Highlands full-time. They made the move 15 years ago and have not looked back. Living in the Highlands appeals to the intuitive artist inside of them. They love the ongoing journey of creativity and self-discovery that their art allows.

For John, working with recycled materials to create instruments is a current passion. He loves to “facilitate drumming and sound scapes for those who respond to the call of the dance of the drum beat. As a certified Roots of Rhythm instructor John offers training to both teaching professionals and students related to creation of instruments and rhythms.

For Dani, fabric sculpture and sculptural puppetry allows for the expression of life through a static art form. Every day enables new discoveries as she explores her creativity.At times Dani and John pool their artistic talents to create instruments with fabulous and creative hand-painted designs.

Both John and Dani use gourds in their creative process and are members of the Canadian Gourd Society. They are also members of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands and participate in the Tour de Forest, a studio tour that occurs on the long weekend in August each year. Dani is also an active member of the board of the Rails End Gallery in the village of Haliburton, Ontario.

Charlene McConnell and the Haliburton Highlands

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Marie

Charlene McConnell began her connection with the Haliburton Highlands as a cottager. Her dream, as far back as when she got married, was to own a cottage. She and her husband even saved duplicate wedding gifts as their “cottage collection”. After much searching they decided they could not find something they liked in their price range and sold the “cottage collection”. Soon after they visited the Highlands, saw an add for a property they loved and bought a cottage. They began spending so much time at the cottage that it only made sense to move there. Prior to moving to the Haliburton Highlands pottery was a hobby for Charlene. The move enabled her enrollment in the ceramics intensive program at the Haliburton School of the Arts, graduating in 2005. She now describes her love of pottery as an obsession. She and her children started new schools at the same time. Her husband continued to work in the city making life a bit challenging at first, especially with their remote cottage location and the challenges of wintering at the cottage.

Charlene literally brings the beauty of the landscape of the Haliburton Highlands into her studio and her designs. She collects real leaves and branches during woodland hikes and uses them for inspiration and pattern creation in the development of her pottery pieces. As to what she is working on next. Porcelain flowers and woven baskets. She states that “every kiln load has at least one experiment in form or glaze. I am always striving to push limits. do something different. I have a plan but the results that come out of a kiln change the direction, give inspiration and always directs the focus. Absolutely can’t guarantee where I’m going because it always is directed by how the kiln chooses to dance.” Watch for her new creations as they emerge into a form she is happy with here on MadeInHaliburton.ca.

Charlene is a member of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands and the Tour de Forest, which is a studio tour that happens on the long weekend in August each year.

Carl Dixon reunites with Coney Hatch

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Marie

Carl Dixon is reuniting with the original Coney Hatch band members in celebration of the 30^th anniversary of their first album. The band is just about to start work on a new album that is set to be released in the summer of 2012. The band made a debut appearance in the UK in October 2011 at Firefest and they were immediately offered a European record deal. This album represents the recording of their first new music in many years.

The first of a series of concerts to support the new album is this Saturday March 31^st at the Edelweiss in Kitchener, Waterloo. They will be giving a preview of some new material as well as playing some of their original work and fan favourites.

Carole Finn and the Haliburton School of the Arts

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Marie

Carole Finn moved to the Highlands, somewhat reluctantly, when she married her husband, Don. It wasn’t that she didn’t love the environment of lakes and trees, but she was an artist and at that time the Highlands had nothing much to offer in the arts. Her husband wanted to launch his own practice and the Highlands needed another lawyer. Don had been connected to the Highlands during his youth through the work his father, a builder of schools and churches, did in the area. Don was often in the Highlands working alongside his father in his youth and it was a place to which he had a connectioin.

One evening as she socialized with friends one of them put forward the idea of creating a School of the Arts in the Haliburton Highlands. Jan Augusteijn, Carl Hanke, and Carole continued to explore this notion recruiting Liz Hogden and Danny O’Neil to assist. Carl , Jan and Carole were able to take advantage of the political pressures of an election year and enter into a successful contract with Sir Sandford Fleming College. The agreement stipulated that if they were able to run the school for three years, keeping it out of the red, the college would take it over and assign a director.

From these tenuous roots a well-respected and very active Haliburton School of the Arts has grown. The Haliburton School of the Arts now functions from a full-time Fleming College Campus. It offers programs of various lengths from one day to a full-time art certification programs with courses in a variety of media. The Haliburton School of the Arts calendar of courses is very diversified and draws people from near and far to take advantage of the artistic talent that resides in, or is affiliated with, the Haliburton Highlands.

Carole has developed her skills and continues to paint on a daily basis. She states, “it is important if you are to be an artist that you paint every day”. Forty years after moving here, she recognizes that The Haliburton Highlands has much to offer artists. There is a vibrant artistic community of which she is an active part. She is a member of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands. She is part of the well-established, fall Haliburton County Studio Tour and the newer Tour de Forest that occurs on the August long weekend each year. In addition to shows within the Highlands Carole’s work is recognized in galleries and shows throughout Ontario and British Columbia.

MadeInHaliburton.ca Artist Exhibition at The Art Hive

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Marie

Please come and join us as we celebrate the artistic nature of the Haliburton Highlands through an exhibition of the work of 35 local artists. All of these artists are selling their work on MadeInHaliburton.ca and it is truly exciting to have samples of their work collected in one central location for the public to view.

The official ribbon cutting is at 11 a.m. on Saturday April the 6th but, the show will run the following hours:

Friday April 6, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday April 7, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday April 8, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday April 13, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday April 14, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday April 15, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday April 20, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday April 21, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday April 22, 2012 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Brian Wilson’s Life-long Connection to the Haliburton Highlands

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Marie

The Haliburton Highlands have been a part of Brian Wilson’s life for as long as he can remember. While growing up in Lindsay, Ontario he often travelled to the Highlands and has very fond memories of this area. When he began to consider taking art courses at the Fleming College Haliburton School of the Arts, it made sense to purchase a cottage in this familiar area and use it as a base while he furthered his artistic studies. His time in the Haliburton Highlands is only partially responsible for his love of landscapes. Canoeing and kayaking around Ontario along with travel across Europe, the U.S., and New Zealand have all been contributing factors, Brian’s love of art, and landscape, has been further refined by visits to Art Museums in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Vienna. Brian is a member of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands, and a member of Arts Hamilton.
Brian’s completion of the Certificate in Visual Arts at the Fleming College Haliburton School of the Arts, in 2008, was the realization of a long-term goal. Brian can be very proud of the fact that he was selected as the representative of the College’s Visual Arts Program at the “One of a Kind” Show in Toronto. At the show he displayed his art and explained the Haliburton School of the Arts program to prospective students. He has also taken Drawing and Painting courses at Mohawk College, and cartooning at the Dundas Valley School of Art. Check out Brian’s latest work.

Sign up for your chance to Win Art

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Marie

Sign up for our newsletter or like us on facebook(MadeInHaliburton) and be automatically entered for a chance to win “The Haunting” by Terry Adair. Draw to be made on April 30, 2012. Our newletter is full of interesting information about art in the Haliburton Highlands and new items on our website. Why not try it out?

How Barbara Joy Peel Fell In Love With Pottery

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Marie

Barbara Joy Peel was born in what is now known as Thunder Bay Ontario. At the time it was called Fort William. One of six children and the daughter of an RCAF pilot she was afforded the unique opportunity to live in a variety of locations. Through this experience she learned, first hand, about the diverse landscapes and people of Canada.

In 1971 her husband, John, made a career change and became a teacher. They had multiple opportunities to take a job in urban locations but, Barbara Joy’s love of the northern landscape and small community life made the job opportunity in the Haliburton Highlands more appealing.

Barbara Joy took a job as a law clerk, working for David Bishop. She would likely never have sat at a pottery wheel were it not for her desire to bond with her neighbour, who was a potter. At this time the Haliburton Guild of Fine Arts offered pottery courses in a garage used by the Haliburton Highlands Secondary School for storage. At the end of the first night of classes Barbara Joy was offered the opportunity to try the pottery wheel. She sat down and made a perfect cup. From that moment was “hooked”. Barbara Joy says: “I was soon forced to give up my job because it interfered with my hobby”. In 1979 she opened her home-based studio-gallery in the Village of Haliburton. The studio sits high atop a scenic hillside that overlooks the village of Haliburton. The view is a constant inspiration for her functional pottery that is simple in form, yet elegant in style.

Barbara Joy Peel is a member of the Haliburton County Studio Tour that brings many art loving individuals to the Haliburton Highlands to tour the remote studios of many of the Highlands most talented artists. The tour is always the weekend before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving weekend which is a time that the forests are adorned with their fall foliage. It is a wonderful time of year to explore the countryside and do a fall cavalcade tour and art tour at the same time. She is also involved with The Tour de Forest . This is a newer studio tour featuring artists of the Haliburton Highlands. It is growing in popularity and is now in its 6^th year of operation and occurs on the August long weekend each year.

Barbara Joy Peel loves sharing her favourite pastime with others and does so frequently by teaching at the Haliburton School of the Arts. The School of the Arts is part of Fleming College at the campus that is located in the village of Haliburton, Ontario, Canada. Feel free to sign up for her beginner programme and see if you too will fall in love with making pottery.

Annette Blady’s History and Connection to the Haliburton Highlands

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Marie

Annette Blady was born in Toronto, Canada. She studied art at the Ontario College of Art and Design and graduated in 1980. The architectural technology company, in which she was a partner in the 1980s, received international recognition. In her role as an interior designer in this firm she created works for major projects including The Nieman Marcus Centre in Chicago, Harbourfront in Toronto, and The World Financial Centre in Battery Park, New York City.

In 1989 Blady decided to pursue a full time career in fine art. She has gained international recognition and has canvases in many prominent galleries and private collections in Canada, the United States, and in Europe. She has a very broad repertoire of artwork that represent her eclectic style. Images range from chromatic exuberance to soft and poignant elegance. Her work combines textured exotic papers and fabrics with cut glass, and metallic acrylic to create mixed media collage paintings. She enjoys linking modern desing with motifs from ancient symbolism and abstract expressionism.

Annette spent time in the Haliburton Highlands in her youth and was drawn back to the area about 15 years ago when a friend suggested she explore the opportunity of teaching at the Haliburton School of the Arts. Her husband, Al’s, fond memories of time her spent her as an adolescent contributed to the decision. For the first few years they found a variety of rental accommodations that allowed them to explore various areas of the Haliburton Highlands. In 2005 they purchased their cottage home and second studio on Lake Miskwabi.

Annette is a very active participant in the artistic community of the Haliburton Highlands. She is a member of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands, an executive member of the Haliburton Sculpture Forest, teaches for a few weeks each summer at the Haliburton School of the Arts, is a participant in the Haliburton Studio Tour. She is also active in her Greater Toronto neighbourhood including participating in the Thornhill Visual Arts Tour and being a member of the Markham Arts Council.

Al Van Mil’s Artistic Background and Connection to the Haliburton Highlands

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Made In Haliburton

Al Van Mil grew up in an artistic family, learning the art of traditional oil painting from his father, an artist and teacher from the Netherlands. Al continued his study of art at the Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Guelph. Al’s artistic interests and techniques are always evolving as he experiments with new and old artistic techniques. Al was a co-founder of a commercial art compnay in 1980. In 1986 this company was named one of the three top architctural model makers in the world. In 1990 he sold this company and began painting again on a full-time basis. Since this time he has gained popularity as is evidence by his artwork has been exhibited in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, in addition to many privately owned galleries. In 1998, as a member of Collaborations with artists from the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada he began painting on stage, in many live theaters across Toronto. Consequently he designed the sets for two Canadian opera productions: Die Fledermaus in 2009, and La Boheme in 2010. A large variety of galleries presently exhibit Al’s paintings in Ontario, Quebec, New York, and London, England.

Al’s family moved frequently after his arrival in Canada. He fortuitously spent 2 years of that time in the Haliburton Highlands and attended the Haliburton Highlands Secondary School. He and his family always remembered those 2 years with great fondness and Al had a yearning to return to the Highlands. A friend encouraged him to consider teaching at the Haliburton School of the Arts. His first experience at the Haliburton School of the Arts was about 15 years ago and he has continued to be a part of the program ever since.

Initially, he stayed in rental accommodation, purposefully selecting accommodation in different locations with the goal of finding the right place to purchase. In 2005 he and his wife, Annette, purchased their cottage and studio on Miskwabi Lake. He retains his residence in Toronto in addition to his cottage home. He states that some of his recent works reflect “the sensual heart of the highlands”.

Over the years Al has become more and more involved in the Haliburton Highlands artistic community. Al participates in the Haliburton County Studio Tour which gives people an opportunity to see his cottage studio and the surrounding area that helps to nspire his artistic vision. He has also worked with the Highlands Opera Studio to create sets for their productions.