Spark your creativity during our 9-day festival
You are invited to explore painting, photography, metalworking, weaving, and more! Explore a wide variety of visual art and maybe even pick up a new hobby during small town BIG
Lake Scugog Studio Tour
Saturday, April 1st & Sunday, May 1st, 10 am – 5 pm at Various Locations Across Scugog
After a two-year hiatus, the Lake Scugog studio tour is back for 2022! The tour will feature 35 artists at 13 sites around Scugog. This self-guided tour promises a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process. Visit sites at your own pace! Site #6 featuring the work of Cheryl Fulcher, Jeremy Le Page, and Neil Olorenshaw will be open all May at the Scugog Arts Space.
There are prizes to be won! Each one of the 13 sites will have its own draws for prizes valued between $50 and $150. You will be entered for a chance to win at each site you visit. Winners will be drawn by the artists at their site at 4:30 pm on Sunday, May 1st.
Learn more here
Photography Challenge with Jonathan van Bilsen
Saturday April 30th, 1:30 pm at Jonathan’s Studio, 188 Mary St. Port Perry
We are challenging you to photograph landmarks around our small town. You have from Saturday, April 30th to Saturday, May 7th to use your creativity and photography skills to capture the landmarks of Scugog. Submit your photos via email to [email protected] or tag us @Scugogarts on Instagram. The top photos will be featured on our website and social media pages.
We want to see how you capture Scugog on camera! From experienced photographers to complete beginners, all are welcome to participate in this week-long challenge. See what you can do with the camera on your phone! This is a great opportunity to explore a new hobby and have some fun in our community.
Jonathan will be opening up the challenge with an artist talk about his work in photography and sharing some insight about his skills. He will also be answering questions, he can share the basics for beginners or give some tips and tricks to the more advanced photographer.
Shape Shifting Over Time
Saturday April 9th – Thursday 4th, Regular Library Hours at the Kent Farndale Gallery – Scugog Memorial Library
Explore the world of quilting through the work of Lynne Lee. Through the exhibiting of her quilts, Lynne provides an opportunity for visitors to see that quilts are art, express her thoughts and ideas, and reflect that the work of a quilter changes over time as greater challenges are undertaken. For Lynne, quilting provides a creative outlet that reflects who she is and where she is in the development of her art.
Originally quilts were made as essential household items to provide warmth, reduce drafts, use up extra pieces of fabric, and add colour to homes. Quilts were made by following a pattern, using cardboard templates or perhaps newspapers to define shapes that would then be pieced together. Over time they have come to be recognized as art. Quilting has become freer and reflective of the quilter’s inner voice, a way to express oneself and reflect upon the world where we all live. The quilter uses fabric and thread to create and their imagination to tell a story or create an image. Artistic principles are employed as the fabric is cut freely to create beautiful lines and shapes that are pieced together….often an engineering challenge is faced as the pieces are sewn together into a whole.
Appreciating Abstract Painting
Thursday May 5th, 7-8 pm at the Scugog Arts Space
Why abstract painting? Where did it come from? How do I know if it’s any good? This one-hour talk will attempt, in an idiosyncratic way, to answer these questions as straightforwardly as possible. Using pictorial examples and a brief talk (with lots of time for question-and-answer along the way), the aim of this session will be to address the three questions listed above, to give viewers a chance to develop a personal appreciation of this approach to art-making.
Informed by a late Modern interpretation of abstraction, Michael’s current practise involves working with abstract interpretations of landscape as well as abstraction in other forms. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art (now OCADU) in 1984 and holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Toronto. Michael has shown his work in Toronto, Hamilton, Charlottetown, Creemore, Thornhill and Peterborough and is held in several private collections.
Register for Michael’s talk here
Metal Jewelry Making Demo
Friday May 6th, Drop-in 1-4 pm at the Scugog Arts Space
Join Cheryl Fulcher for demonstrations on how to make a forged cuff bracelet and chain-link jewelry. The forged cuff bracelet demo will be an interactive display to promote conversation around tool options and the process. (Due to the loud noise, Cheryl won’t be hammering as earplugs are recommended.) This display will offer a variety of tool options, ranging from basic affordable tools for those just starting out, to more specialized jewellery tools. She will have pieces in progress set up with the various tools to demonstrate how they can be used.
Cheryl will also be giving an interactive ongoing demonstration of how to make various types of chain links. She will have various types of weaves in progress to demonstrate how they are made. The display will offer a variety of tool options, ranging from, a basic set of pliers, to more specialized jewellery tools, how to make your own links from wire versus purchasing commercially prepared links, how the inner diameter and wire gauge (thickness) will determine the look and shape of the pattern, various metal options, the display will feature sterling silver, copper, stainless steel and rubber “o” rings.
Scugog Shore Fibre Artists Guild Demos
Saturday May 7th, 10 am – 4 pm at the Scugog Arts Space
Join the Scugog Shores Fibre Artist’s Guild for a full-day of demonstrations. They will have demos on weaving, card spinning, knitting and machine knitting, stitching, triangle loom weaving, and more. Drop by and explore the world of fibre arts!
China: Through the Lens and Brush
Saturday May 7th – Thursday June 2nd, Regular Library Hours at the Scugog Memorial Public Library
Explore China through acrylic and watercolour paintings by Ray McNeice and photography by James Wilkes. Become immersed in nature and culture worlds away! China is a major presence in our world today. It is a country that most of us know very little about. It is this mystery and the artists’ non-Asian response to it that they feel could make for an intriguing exhibition in Port Perry.
Step-dad Ray McNeice and step-son James Wilkes are alike in many ways. They share a visual sense that they have nurtured for some 40 years. Ray’s career path has been as a now-retired graphic design professional, while James’s path has been in academia as a cultural ecologist with a concern for Indigenous rights and environmental issues, teaching at Trent University in Peterborough and pursuing a doctorate at Queen’s University. Both have been to China and were intrigued by the country, interpreting it in their own way, Ray through a paintbrush and James through the lens of a camera.