Forrestall Family's Life in Art: Tom Forrestall's museum opening at the McMichael Collection of Art in Kleinberg and gallery opening in Toronto

The weekend of January 30th and 31st is when my father, Tom Forrestall's retrospective exhibition which is traveling across Canada, opened at the McMichael Museum of Canadian Art in Kleinberg, Ontario. A satellite gallery opening also took place at Kinsman Robinson in Toronto. It was a full, long weekend honoring my father at an extraordinary museum thirty minutes north of Toronto, and dad did brilliantly. I whiled away my time looking at paintings of our dad's that spanned from 1955 to the present at the museum, and included drawings, watercolors, early oil paintings and egg tempera works. I so enjoyed talking with wonderful old family friends. The weekend included dinners, luncheons, and watching dad's egg tempera painting demonstrations (he did two!) and talks with museum director, Tom Smart and book signings.

Tom Forrestall (below) gives an egg tempera demonstration at Robinson Kinsman, who sponsored the museum show.

Tom Smart, Director of the McMichael Collection, hosted a wonderful dinner in Toronto with guests, who included collectors who had loaned artwork to the exhibition and Ray Cronin, the Director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, who is responsible for the curating and circulating of the exhibition. The museum staff did an extraordinary job with the hanging, and the exhibition was beautifully installed on the second floor of the main building. Some paintings were included in this exhibition, which were not in the original show at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. One painting I found particularly powerful has been in a private collection and not seen by the public for 35 years. This rather minimal composition, in a shaped canvas, has a flash of lightening piercing a night sky on the top panel, with a solemn scene of a Victorian room on the lower oval panel. I was standing and talking with the owner of the painting and was able to tell him exactly where the painting was painted. The watercolor sketch that was the study for this painting (bottom being filmed by Chuck Lapp), was created at the O'Dell Museum in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

"Tom and Monica Forrestall in the Founder's Lounge at the opening of Tom's retrospective exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, in Kleinburg, Ontario. Father and daughter stand in front of the Founder's Lounge fireplace. At one time the room was a favourite meeting place for some members of the Group of Seven. The historic Canoe Lake sign was taken from the train station where Tom Thomson used to travel to" S.Weir

We all missed the presense of my amazing mother, Natalie LeBlanc Forrestall (in the shaped painting above), the love of my father's life, who expertly managed dad's career for 48 years. This museum exhibition was something mom worked at so hard for years to make happen. Natalie was not just the woman behind the man, but the person who lovingly ran his buisness. Wonderful childhood memories flooded back while visiting with paintings of mom in the show, my siblings, as well as paintings of dad's wonderful rambling home and studio in Dartmouth, and our summer home, Three Oaks. An emotion filled, happy and successful weekend for dad, and we are so proud of him. And somewhere our dear mom is watching.

Gallery show installation shots.

And some of the work at the McMichael Collection of Canadian Art Museum below:

The painting "The House at River Bend" is a painting Tom did of the landscape surrounding his family's homestead in Middleton, Nova Scotia. Tom Forrestall (left) and Tom Smart (below, left) discuss dad's work at the McMichael Museum of Canadian Art. Kristin Grimson (Tom's niece), Monica Forrestall, Tom Forrestall, below right. Tom Forrestall's table at The McMichael Museum opening dinner in Toronto with Tom Smart and his guest Susan, Tom Forrestall. David DeVries (Tom's nephew) and his mother-in-law Elsie at The McMichael exhibition. Tom Forrestall signing copies of his book at the museum.

Tom Forrestall signing his book.

Dad's documentary film maker Chuck Lapp (above and below) and The McMichael Museum Librarian and Archivist, Linda Morita expertly record the day's events.