Altar Piece for St. Benedict's church in Halifax by Renee Forrestall

                   Renee Forrestall's altar piece at St. Ben's church in Halifax.

            

My sister Renee took on a major commission in early 2010, to do the altar piece for a new church in Clayton Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has done several icon, and smaller church altar pieces in the past, but this project was her most ambitious to date. She took this on, as a collaborative project with her husband, Nick Webb who is a professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. Nick designed the piece, and constructed the frames then installed the piece. As Renee said, "He did all of the work, and got none of the glory." Renee chose Parousia as the theme of the multi-paneled piece, "Communion of the living and the dead." Parousia is a Greek word meaning "coming or arrival" and is often used in the New Testament to indicate the second coming of the Son of Man. In her work Renee created a six-panel work showing a communion of people both living and dead, welcoming the Son of Man. 

 Renee conceived the drawing, and did that as well as the painting. In her piece, she included many, many members of the family and friends as models for the figures. Our dear mother, Natalie LeBlanc Forrestall is in there, with her favorite pet rabbit (left) dressed in a Franciscan robe. A friend of her daughter's, Miranda is there, in a baseball hat. Her nephew Max is there. The pope, Mother Theresa and others.

"Miranda posing (below)- I drew it all in palm ashes, and charcoal I made from the Palm Sunday Palm Stalks sent from Israel. Then I sealed it in, then covered it with different iron oxide powders, erased & rubbed  with bread, sealed them in, then used pigment from all over the world - including Blues from Afghanistan," said Renee. It was done on Baltic Russian-ply. 

Renee sent me some images of the altar piece in progress, from the drawing with charcoal to the painting in, to standing the enormous panels outside in her backyard on a sunny day to see them all together. 

        Drawing that includes our mother's favorite saint, Mother Theresa.

                                               Detail of same drawing. 

  One of the right panels, Renee painted our mother in on the far left in a Franciscan robe, holding her pet rabbit. 

                                        Renee's altar piece set up in her backyard in Halifax. 
Even before this piece was finished she was commissioned to do a second piece, an Icon for the same church. 

--Monica Forrestall

The Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is about honoring and remembering loved ones who have passed on

Our darling mother, here on her wedding day.

A memory of mine, I needed to make an ancient recipe for Greek history study at my school, and mom made a Bouillabaise for me to bring. It was the hit of my 7th grade class, as I explained all of the fresh seafood the Greek might have included in seafood based stews.-Monica

A memory of my brother Curphey's:
I remember the humour she maintained when dealing with idiosyncratic misbehaving. That smile, like she would be mad, if it weren't so funny.
 
Honoring mom on All Saints Day by my sister Renee:

On Nov 1st - All Saints, Day of the Dead, I was invited to speak about the Altar piece at St. Bens. Here below are some images I showed in the talk. Mom in the hospital a week before she died. I painted her into the altar piece holding her bunnikins and wearing her Fransiscan jabala. There was a gathering of about 300. I

noted how the eastern window (part of the altar piece), is in a direct line to Jerusalem. At that moment I thought of Frank and Dad over there at this time, with moms ashes. A Fransiscan brother led the prayer service, while we held candles and chanted- it was beautiful. I met a woman named Pansy who had spent an afternoon walking with mom- she came up to tell me. She was the same height as mom and had beautiful brown eyes, just like moms. God Bless, R

Destination: Holy Land for Tom Forrestall

Tomorrow my father, Tom Forrestall and brother Frank Forrestall set off for Israel for an extraordinary painting tour organized by the Atlantic Jewish Council. This trip has been months in the planning and we are thrilled and excited for all the adventures and art making that lie ahead, for both of them. They will begin their trip in Jerusalem for several days, then travel to Tel Aviv. Dad and Frank will be with an organised group for the first week, and then on their own traveling to various parts of the country to paint. My brother Frank, a very talented film maker, will document dad's painting in various locations around the country.
It will be an extraordinary adventure, and we all wish them safe travels and wonderful times. It's making me sentimental about my own trip to Israel in April 2009, a most moving and memorable trip that I wrote about for The Chronicle Herald newspaper. Bon Voyage!

--Monica Forrestall

Watercolour painting inspired by the Charles Burchfield show at the Whitney Museum of American Art

I took Max up to the Whitney yesterday to do one of their great Family Art Workshops and this time the project Max was to do was inspired by the show of paintings "Heat Waves in a Swamp" by Charles Burchfield. The workshop instructor was Jesse, who Max had already worked with, and when Max walked in he said, "Hey you've been here before."
We sat on the floor of a large gallery room of early works, in front of a painting titled "Four Seasons."
Jesse led a discussion and encouraged responses on how this painting that portrayed four seasons in one landscape work was unusual, interesting and mysterious.

Jesse then passed out small watercolor "postcards" and pencils and asked the children to choose their favorite painting and from it choose three favorite elements and interpret them on  the postcard, which they would then use as a reference for a larger piece to be done in the studios downstairs.

Max's beautiful drawing downstairs was inspired by Burchfield's painting "An April Mood"(above) of a crooked tree in a storm, very gray in palette, very dramatic. It looked like a haunted-house type-of-tree that we are seeing in stores and imagery all over these days.

I was inspired by this painting "Dandelion seed heads and the moon" (above), which had trees blowing in the breeze and butterflies and a dragonfly. One of the very modern things Burchfield does in his work is show motion, movement and vibrations. He loved to visually interpret the sounds 

he heard in the nature around him. 

In the studio, for his final piece (below), Max chose to make something completely different, a watercolour of a whale (which reminded him of the big blue whale on the ceiling at the Museum of Natural History).

The instructor, Jesse, kindly invited the parents to also make watercolours, "since you probably don't have an opportunity to make art everyday in your lives." And all the parents did. Jesse said it made for a richer experience to have children painting side by side with their parents. 

The tableful of the children (and their parents) watercolour paintings at the end of the hour of painting, laid out for everyone to see and talk about. 

Max's exuberant and colorful watercolour of an ocean scene of a blue whale and divers and fishing on the left. My wc of a dragonfly flying over dandelions and a secret swim hole under the full moon, on the right. Most importantly, Max and I made a wonderful mother/son memory, 

painting and drawing side by side. 

Updates on Fam art activities

My sister Renee Forrestall has a new role as art teacher at the Grammar School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is thrilled with the job and the supplies and rooms that she has to work in, not to mention her enthusiastic and happy students. Renee followed up her commission of a major altar piece for a new Halifax church by doing two additional commissioned Icon pieces for the same church.

Frank Forrestall is wrapping up his work on the Moby Dick film he has been working on for months and is getting ready for his big trip with our dad.

Tom Forrestall is also gearing up for his 6-week trip to Israel, where he will travel all over the country and paint. My brother Frank Forrestall will accompany him and will work on a documentary film chronicling their travels and art making.

Kerry Schuss' current exhibition at his gallery KS Art on the figurative work of Jocelyn Hobbie had a great listing in the Tribeca Trib with a large image, and will have a review in Art in America. Two pieces from the show sold to very important NYC collectors. The show has been extremely well received. http://www.ksartonline.com/

I worked on two poster designs for Max's school events and for our local park, Washington Market Park. 

--Monica Forrestall

Painting alfresco on the High Line NYC

Painting outdoors has always been a part of our lives. It might seem like part of a throw back to a Victorian lifestyle, but slowing down your mind and your eye to truly see and appreciate something is good for the soul. In the trunk of the cars we drove around in all of our childhood years, in Nova Scotia, there has always been a box of sketching materials and some paper, and an old folding stool. New York, it's more challenging, and frankly I do it very, very rarely. But on September 11th, a lovely opportunity came up for Max and I to do it together in a free Whitney Museum workshop (they usually cost $10.)

I love the Whitney family art workshops; exceedingly well organized by the easy-going, fun and creative staff at the Whitney, I try to get my son Max signed up for as many as possible. And he loves them too! Although, sometimes at 9:30 am on a Saturday, it's slow going to get him out of the door.
The instructors often allow the parents to participate and make art as well, and it's a lovely bonding thing to do with your child.

On September 11th, the Whitney co-organized a day-long drawing event on the High-line park on a sunny Saturday. I'd never been to the park, I heard it was great, it's been open a year---the perfect time to go.

As is the norm, the workshop was tied into a current exhibition at the Whitney; this one "Heat Waves in a Swamp": The Paintings of Charles Burchfield was one I'd been dying to see. Burchfield was famously known for his outdoor painting, in rural and cities. He was inspired by industrial buildings and the sounds of nature in semi-rural areas.

Max, and the other children listen intently to instructor, Lisa. 

Instructor Lisa shows a reproduction of a Burchfield painting, "Insect Chorus"(1917) to the group, while asking the children how they see examples of Burchfield "sounds" imagery in this piece.

Max found a quiet spot to draw something that inspired him (some plants and the window of an art auction house.) 

Lisa gives Max some instruction on colour blending watercolour pencil marks.

Max's drawing of sounds.

--Monica Forrestall

Paint The Town ARCAC benefit weekend becomes a family affair

                                           Painting watercolours at Hillsdale House gardens. Dad did a figure in a landscape piece, while Max focused on a wc pencil piece of squirrels running up a tree.

Monica and dad painting at Fort Anne Saturday afternoon.