ARTISANS AT HAND: Offer a wide variety of artistic expression
/By Angela Hawn
One need only look at the plethora of annual studio tours, craft shows, galleries and art shops in Hastings County to know that there is plenty of talent out there. These clever and innovative artists and artisans come from all walks of life, some of them born and bred in the area, others are happy to call Hastings County their new home. And lovers of the arts are happy to welcome them.
Thinking of setting off on your own art tour? Here are just a few ideas to help get you started.
RON PLAIZIER – WILDLIFE ARTIST
Ron Plaizier, an accomplished realistic wildlife artist is shown with one of his subjects. Photo Courtesy Ron Plaizier.
Ron Plaizier once drew inspiration from his home on the beautiful south shore of Quebec’s Saint Lawrence River, but the 60 year-old artist now finds plenty of subject matter right in his own backyard in Marmora, Ontario. Birds are a particular favourite.
“I started out as a wood carver in my 20’s and 30’s,” recalls Plaizier, “but I had to quit when the wood dust started to bother me.”
Now Plaizier paints, exhibiting and selling original paintings, prints and calendars from a small gallery operated out of his home. Plaizier also takes plenty of photographs too, although they aren’t for sale.
“The photographs are just a reference tool,” explains Plaizier. “I might use a computer to superimpose an image of a blue jay taken on a fence over top of a stump or in a pretty garden setting to get a more interesting background to paint.”
Retired from a career as Chief Information Officer for Kawartha Pineridge School Board, Plaizier notes a background in technology certainly comes in handy with his art. And it’s obvious he loves the research required for each piece as well.
Frequently this homework takes Plaizier and wife, Judy, to the Maritimes or various provincial parks, like Algonquin or Lake Superior. This past summer he counted himself lucky to come across some Bald Eagles on a gorgeous northern Ontario river.
This stunning realistic painting is but one of the masterpieces created by Ron Plaizier. Photo Courtesy Ron Plaizier.
A firm believer in environmental stewardship, Plaizier donates a portion of paintings sold through the group Artists for Conservation towards wildlife habitat preservation. Wetlands conservation advocate Ducks Unlimited selected one of Plaizier’s barn owl paintings for their 2018 National Art Portfolio, auctioning off 650 prints at various venues around the country.
“When I’m not painting, I’m outdoors,” laughs the artist. “I love living here because it’s so rural, so beautiful; you’re never far from good kayaking or good hiking.”
NANEEN TYNER – BASKET WEAVER
Naneen Tyner is an expert in the age-old practice of basket weaving. Photo Courtesy Naneen Tyner.
Bubbly basket weaver Naneen Tyner has just gotten back from yoga class when she picks up the phone and breathlessly agrees to be interviewed. This Tweed Studio Tour regular clearly loves her art and wants to share that passion with the world.
“I’m busy; I don’t sit around,” she chuckles when asked what she does with her time when a basket project doesn’t have her full attention.
Budding basket makers take note: Tyner frequently tutors others in the craft. The 70 year-old fondly remembers the first time she learned how to make a basket at a Loyalist College class in Belleville almost 25 years ago and there’s been no looking back since.
“That first basket took me all day,” she reminisces. “But I loved it and afterwards I got in touch with the teacher and asked if she’d come out to my area to teach a class.”
Tyner now designs and makes all manner of attractive and practical vessels, from apple baskets to wine baskets to a leather-trimmed woven backpack outfitted with a harness for the wearer’s comfort. She often comes up with the patterns herself, but also relies on advice and encouragement from her daughter.
Working from natural materials these baskets show the versatility and utility of basket weaving artistry. Photo Courtesy Naneen Tyner.
“She’ll see something when she’s out and come home and tell me about it,” says Tyner. “My daughter’s always thinking of new and different things she thinks people might want, like a cookie basket.”
All of Tyner’s baskets start out as split ash, sold in rolls of various sizes. Whether she dyes her materials, stains them or simply coats the reeds with linseed oil, it is clear that Tyner derives a great deal of pleasure from the process. With unadulterated pleasure she describes one of her most recent projects: a cylinder-shaped vessel meant to hold contemporary cardboard tubes of tissues.
“Sometimes I get ideas just looking in books or just seeing the shape of different objects,” Tyner chuckles. “If I can see it, I can usually make it.”
SHAWN DONNAN – METAL ARTIST
Before Horizon Metal Works artist Shawn Donnan. hoto Courtesy Shawn Donnan.
Before Horizon Metal Works artist Shawn Donnan even thinks about firing up his welding torch and creating a fire globe, his clients’ ideas go down on paper, with design help from his sister, Kelly Baldock. Donnan refers to these giant steel balls, illuminated by fire or LED lighting, as one-off artworks, custom-made pieces frequently reflecting the purchaser’s life story.
“Everything always holds together on paper,” chuckles 49 year-old Donnan, noting the challenges involved in cutting out those same images once Baldock has transferred them onto a metal surface can prove to be quite tricky.
Donnan got his start welding 30 years ago, fixing machinery on his family’s massive dairy farm. He ran a small business on the side that was primarily focused on making wrought iron furniture, but he wanted to go further. And while stepping away from a 300 plus head Stirling-Rawdon agricultural operation run by the Donnan clan for five generations wasn’t easy, the artist knows it was the right move for him.
“There’s no life like it,” says Donnan of his days on the farm, happily noting he still helps out when needed. “But you don’t want to live your life with regrets.”
This impressive fire globe is the result of a joint effort between Shawn Donnan and his designer sister Kelly Baldock. Photo Courtesy Shawn Donnan.
Donnan now works full-time out of his workshop that is located in the Oak Hills area. There he fashions metal wall hangings, light towers and impressive globes. Consider the piece Donnan created for Canada’s 150th. Adorned with iconic national images including a polar bear, a Mountie and an intricate replica of Parliament Hill, the globe actually made the trip to Ottawa in the back of Donnan’s truck, where it received high praise from the Prime Minister himself.
Donnan speaks with equal enthusiasm about a fire globe commissioned by the group responsible for organizing annual cleanup operations along a nearby section of the Highway of Heroes, the lengthy stretch of the 401 dedicated to Canada’s fallen soldiers. First unveiled at a charity hockey game, the memorial contains a number of emotional symbols, including a number of hearses wending their way from CFB Trenton to Toronto.
Happiest with a plasma torch in his hands, this artist seeks rest and recreation on the open roads, occasionally cruising along the west coast between Vancouver and California on his motorcycle or hitting local snowmobile trails in winter. But no matter where the path takes him, Donnan is sure to pick up plenty of inspiration along the way for future artworks.
WENDY TAXIS – WIRE ARTIST
Wendy Taxis, began her unique artistic expression by creating three dimensional wire sculptures from reclaimed materials. Photo Courtesy Wendy Taxis.
Cheerful and accommodating, Wendy Taxis happily explains the origins of her surname before the conversation winds itself around to her wire art. She’s come by the moniker thanks to her late husband, whose long ago German ancestors represented some of the very first taxi drivers, those who made a living via horse-drawn buggies versus contemporary cabs.
“I get phone calls in the middle of the night,” jokes 66 year-old Taxis, “people looking for a ride at three in the morning.”
Fortunately, any potential lack of sleep doesn’t prevent Taxis from creating her wire art, a skill set she began to develop ten years ago when she moved to Bancroft from Roseneathe. She would come home to find all of the little bits of copper wire electricians had left lying on the floor of her new house and see potential in the mess.
“I picked up the pieces and began twisting them into shapes,” recalls the artist, whose work can be found at Bancroft’s A Place for the Arts, the Bancroft Art Gallery and various local shops. “I just started playing with them.”
That desire to create goes back to Taxis’ childhood when she watched her mother paint with oils. Wendy experimented with both oil and acrylic paint herself before turning to more three-dimensional art forms.
“I started out by creating a form and filling it in and I’ve also taken one, long continuous wire and twisted it into something,” explains Taxis. “But now I use multiple pieces of wire at the same time and work with it much the same way you would use clay.”
Wire sculpture of a peacock shoe by Wendy Taxis. Photo Courtesy Wendy Taxis.
Taxis also loves to “draw” with wire, using her medium the same way an artist might sketch with charcoal. She frequently makes two-dimensional wire pieces suitable for hanging on a wall.
When not busy with her art, Taxis plays music. After thirty plus years teaching at the Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, she can play almost anything, from piano to clarinet. Six years ago she took up the cello and during her free time, she directs Bancroft’s two hand-bell choirs.
“I find Bancroft very warm and welcoming,” chuckles the artist. “If you want to get involved in the community, you just have to put yourself out there.”
CONNIE YRJOLA – JEWELLERY DESIGNER
Connie Yrjola is known for her classic yet trend-setting jewelry. Photo Courtesy Connie Yrjola.
Home renovations are temporarily keeping jewellery maker Connie Yrjola from doing what she loves best, but she promises customers they can still get in touch for repairs, redesigns or custom orders such as bridal collections. The 58 year-old hopes to open her studio sometime in the spring. In the meantime, those wishing to check out Yrjola’s work can currently find her Glamour Junkie brand jewellery at various nearby locations such as The Quinte Arts Council Gallery and Gift Shop, as well as Diva Adornments in Bloomfield (where Yrjola holds down a part time “day job”).
“I need to create,” laughs Yrjola, who also helps to promote other artists with the two annual enormous local arts and crafts shows she produces alongside friend and fellow artisan, Barb Forgie. “When I’m not designing jewellery, I’m sewing or knitting or making soup stock.”
As a little girl, Yrjola loved to comb through the costume jewellery boxes of her aunt and cousin, learning early on to appreciate masterpieces such as vintage Sherman brooches made with Swarovski crystals. In grade six she started making her own rings out of telephone wire and selling them to her mother’s friends for 25 cents a piece.
Connie Yrjola creates quality jewellery for those seeking just the right accessory to transform an outfit from ordinary to distinctive. PHOTO COURTESY CONNIE YRJOLA
The art of salesmanship comes easily to the friendly and easy-going Yrjola, who worked in the Incentive Travel Business for many years and has a background in marketing and communications. But jewellery has always spoken to her and once she moved to Hastings County with her CN worker husband, she decided to devote more time to designing her own creations.
“My husband registered me for a business license,” explains Yrjola, “and I signed up for silver-smithing courses at George Brown College.”
Not the sort to limit herself to just one medium, Yrjola loves to experiment and often works with recycled and upcycled materials. She claims she likes to throw everything down, take a look at it, arrange and rearrange, and then see what transpires from there.
“I let the materials inspire me,” Yrjola says, noting that she frequently finds ideas in the kind of show-piece jewellery models wear on the runway. “I like to do trend-setting pieces and I change up my collections all of the time.”
Top: Tyner with array of baskets. Photo Courtesy Naneen Tyner. Second row left: Donnan with Prime Minister Trudeau. Photo Courtesy Shawn Donnan. Second row right: Realistic Snowy White Owl by Plaizier. Photo Courtesy Ron Plaizier. Middle: Plaizier with additional art pieces. Photo Courtesy Ron Plaizier. Bottom left: Yrjola’s unique jewellery creations. Photo Courtesy Connie Yrjola. Bottom right: Woodpecker wire sculpture by Taxis. Photo Courtesy Wendy Taxis.
