Archives for category: Art

Left Victoria this morning for a few days in Vancouver, visiting friends and taking in a Cirque du Soleil show called Amaluna. Bright clear day in Victoria and gorgeous stormy day in Vancouver. We enjoyed poking around on Granville Island, especially at Circle Craft, and had another amazing meal at our favourite: Vij’s. Also a great visit with a friend who has just started a new life in the big city. We’re proud of you LJS!

Burr, chilly wait for the bus this morning, but so clear and beautiful!

Burr, chilly wait for the bus this morning, but so clear and beautiful!

The festive lights at Granville Island.

The festive lights at Granville Island.

Two days ago, on a rainy and warm December 1, the city threw an outdoor party they called Snow Day. It was a well attended family event in Centennial Square with ice sculptures, large piles of “snow” (probably the Zamboni shavings from local arenas) for sliding and throwing, refreshments and a machine that periodically blasted snowflakes out onto the crowd. It was actually quite magical!

A beautiful snowflake rests on the edge of the fountain at Centennial Square in downtown Victoria for Snow Day.

A beautiful snowflake rests on the edge of the fountain at Centennial Square in downtown Victoria for Snow Day.

After a short rest at the hotel, we ventured out again, back to Musée des beaux-arts. Until January 20, they have a special exhibit: Once upon a time… Impressionism, Great French Paintings from the Clark. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings from 5 pm, the admission is only $10. It’s a beautiful show in a beautiful part of the museum. There were a lot of people visiting. It was wonderful to see pieces by Renoir, Pissarro, Boldini and one of my favourites: Danseuses au foyer by Degas. We wandered home admiring shop windows and bought some dinner and airplane snacks on the way back to the hotel. A memorable adventure to be sure!

We weren't sure if we could take pictures in the show, much less post them online, so we took architectures shots instead. The entire gallery is gorgeous, the old bits and the modern.

We weren’t sure if we could take pictures in the show, much less post them online, so we took architectures shots instead. The entire gallery is gorgeous, the old bits and the modern.

Stunning hallway.

Stunning hallway.

An elegant detail.

An elegant detail.

The Holt Renfrew Holiday windows were very beautiful.

The Holt Renfrew Holiday windows were very beautiful.

We want GJ to have this ensemble. The velvet jacket was over the top!

We want GJ to have this ensemble. The velvet jacket was over the top!

This would be a fun place to shop.

This would be a fun place to shop.

We wandered back towards the Old Port through these wonderful neighbourhoods, looking for a few galleries and shops we had found on the internet. Three galleries we recommend visiting are: Arsenal, Darling Foundry and Parisian Laundry. Back to Vieux-Montréal and a warming snack. We ended the day having a delicious Vietnamese dinner in Chinatown.

Loved these dressers in an antique shop window.

Detail.

We passed our hotel, seeking something to warm us up. We found a gorgeous building that turned out to be an art gallery mall on rue St-Paul. It had a sweet little cafeteria where we had hot chocolate, coffee and a little pear tart.

Heading back to the hotel past Place Jacques Cartier.

Tuesday morning we were up early and headed out to explore the neighbourhoods of St-Henri, Little Burgundy and Griffintown. We could have taken the subway, but it was a clear, windy day and we decided to walk. From the bottom of St-Sulpice we turned right and headed out along the port and continued along the Lachine Canal. The walking and biking trails were unforgettable. Lots to see and very few people. I suspect in the summer and on most weekends more would be out enjoying this part of the city.

The view to the iconic Habitat 67.

A whole city that is in itself art, plus a lot of public art.

Floating barge spa, how awesome!

More pretty buildings and lots of parks and green spaces in Montréal.

This was so cool, a vegetable garden planted beside this overpass. It looked like it was actively being used.

The view of where we had been the day before, Mont Royal Chalet.

The Lachine Canal is still in operation and a National Historic Site.

GJ is always taking pics of me when I’m not looking. I like that this captures both of us, sort of.

Love this moody shot.

This building was beautiful, right on the canal. There were several “For Sale” signs in windows.

Leaving Mile End we headed down rue St-Urbain to rue Rachel and entered Parc du Mont-Royal through Parc Jeanne-Mance and past Monument à Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier. We thought we may as well walk up the paths a bit since we were there! So off we went. There were a lot of people walking and running. We made it up as far as Chalet du Mont-Royal and took in the extraordinary view from the Kondiaronk Belvedere. It was almost dark as we made our way down rue Peel towards our chosen dinner destination: Chinatown.

Approach to the Cartier monument with Mont Royal in the background.

Looking up at Monument à Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier.

Looking back towards Parc Jeanne-Mance.

A few weeks earlier and this view must have been ablaze in red, orange and yellow leaves.

Chalet du Mont-Royal

That view! I bet it’s magical at all times of the year.

Found a really sweet little place for dinner which served Hong Kong-style delicious food. I had vegetable chow mein and GJ had a beef hot pot.

For our first full day in Montréal, we met up with some friends who were visiting from Toronto. We enjoyed some yummy crêpes in Vieux-Montréal at a café called Muru, wandered around in Chinatown, explored  Musée des Beaux-Arts (which is free for the permanent exhibits) and then left our friends and had delicious salads for dinner at M Café.

Pretty little crêpe café in Vieux-Montréal: Muru.

Montréal Chinatown art shot.

Montréal pigeons look different from Victoria pigeons.

Macaroons in the display case at M Café. Mmmmmm.

Spent part of today photographing and preparing Etsy posts for some new Festive Cards. Here  is a sampling, plus a photo which Taxicab “helped” with.

Red cardinals on white wreath with red field, all on pale grey card with Japanese paper embellishment. All these cards are made from hand cut stamps.

White wreath on green field with darker green paper highlight.

White branches on grey-blue field with dark red paper highlight.

Such a good helper!

Jeudi 8 novembre: we spent about three hours at Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec, a gorgeous gallery museum on the edge of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. This museum has an impressive collection of Quebec artwork dating from the 17th Century. A special exhibit of Art and Nature in the Middle Ages was underway while we were there. We also felt privileged to see a free concert by students of the Conservatory of Music in one of the auditoriums during our visit.

Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec.

The beautiful banner for the show that was on while we were at Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec.

The building on the left is the wing which had been a prison.

Spent a few hours exploring Quebec City’s Musée de la Civilisation. They have a very interesting exhibit of Nigerian art right now. Also walked over to the Public Market which, even at this time of year, has lots of local produce and products: especially apples, beautiful beautiful apples!

A gorgeous building and interesting collection. An afternoon’s adventure.

Take-away cups aside, this Chocolat Chaud was pretty good, but the croissants were fantastic.