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. 

Max's love of bird watching inspires his art making for Paint the Town art exhibit in Annapolis Royal

Max loves birds. Watching them, writing about them and drawing them. His obsession with bird watching has inspired all aspects of his life, including his art making here at Beach Rose Cottage.This is Max's Common Loon drawing made using watercolor pencils we brought from NYC.  And this is the piece that Max has chosen to exhibit with his mom in the "Paint The Town" artists exhibition this weekend in Annapolis Royal. The plastic Common Loon that Max picked up at a yard sale in Granville Ferry last week for $5...(there was an astonishing amount of garden ornaments for sale). Whatever inspires a piece of art, is worth the price! I guess especially if your parents (Kerry here) are paying. :)

Below: Max's "Common Loon" (top right) and his "Mallard" watercolour pencil drawing submissions for the Paint The Town exhibition in Annapolis Royal on August 21st and 22nd, 2010.

Natalie Forrestall Memorial Children Art Prize at The EX

     Every year I organize a prize in our mother's name: The Natalie Forrestall Memorial Children's Art Prize. We sponsor this prize at The Annapolis County Exhibition's art competition. The Ex, as all the locals call it, is the BIG county fair and something my mother and grandmother loved going to, and taking us all to every August. Going to the Ex was (and is) one of the highlights of fun for kids summers in Western Nova Scotia.
     Our dad sponsors two of the prizes as memorial prizes for our grandmother Esther Forrestall and mom, Natalie Forrestall; the best watercolour and the best watercolor in show. And as a group, my brother Frank, my sister, Renee and I get together and buy some good quality art supplies to give as a prize for the best piece of children's art in the under age 8 category. This year the prize (which will be judged and decided on today) will include canvases, acrylic paint, craypas, watercolor pad, sketch books, watercolor pencils, brushes etc...In this area of the province, it's very difficult to find good quality art supplies, so this is our way of putting a nice and varied supply into the hands of a child who loves to make art.

It is also a small way of ours of acknowledging our wonderful mother, who was an art teacher for many years in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and helped support the family as my father painted. Our mother was a very talented painter and the woman who encouraged all of us to paint, draw and celebrate life by looking at and making art every day. To you mom!

A couple of entries in the drawing category August 2009.

And the 2010 winner of the Natalie Forrestall Memorial Art Basket is Jacob 

with his winning drawing of a birdhouse (below).

---Monica Forrestall

Artful walks and dinnertime talks: Happy (Summer) days are here again!

Dad  came down for a nice long visit for the past week. We enjoyed wonderful visits and meals with Kerry, Max and I at our home and spent time all over Annapolis Royal for Natal day activities like the Farmer's Market.

Tom Forrestall, Susan Tileston, ARCAC (Annapolis Royal Community Arts Council) 

volunteer table at The Farmer's Market.

Tom Forrestall and our neighbour Lorraine Beswick's Floral Arrangements

 booth at The Anapolis Royal Farmer's Market. 

Dinner at Cindy and Tom's (Farfetched owners) new Annapolis Royal cottage dinner Friday night was a  delicious and amazing culinary and design journey to Thailand. Cindy is the most amazing cook, who has perfected Thai cooking with Annapolis Royal sourced ingredients. 

Dad got to the Bay of Fundy and was inspired by one scene to make many sketches for a possible big painting this winter. The Annapolis Valley area is really the place that holds his heart.
Kerry helped make dinners of Jonathan's lobsters and Bay of Fundy scallops that I picked up from the fishmonger at the market. Max and dad hunted for crabs under the seaweed on our rocky beach.  Max found a new use for my kitchen tongs---big crab grabbers for transporting to the "crab house".

Dad and Max on a rocky beach in off the Bay of Fundy.

Conversation flowed about family updates, future plans for fun, Keilor Bentley and the books Kerry has brought to read, one being the life of Picasso. My brother, Frank Forrestall made it down for a couple of days with his daughters Jessica and Gwen and Max is crazy about his cousins. Winkie and Miles came over one night and our table expanded to nine, although someone had to sit on a rocking chair. Miles' stories were hilarious, he is the absolute best story teller. His stories of "Little Joe" have to be written down. They are a short story or a book, to say the least.

--Monica Forrestall

Nova Scotia fam time

One of my favorite family photos, that I set up in 1987. The whole family is here. From left; Renee (seated), Curphey, me (Monica), Jack, William and wife Anne, Tom Forrestall, (seated front) Natalie Forrestall (mom) and Frank.

Happy Father's Day to our dad and grand dad, Tom Forrestall

Dearest Dad,

We love you dad.  You are the inspiration and love of all of our lives, dad!
Your love and loyalty define who you are. Your talent and hard work inspires all of us every day!

We start and end with the family! (Anthony Brandt)

(from left): Monica, Renee, Jack, proud dad, our loving mother Natalie, Curphey (in mom's arms) Bobby (the bob-tailed cat) and William circa 1968.

xxxooo

Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter. Brad Henry


Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible -- the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.

Virginia Satir 


Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.

Jim Rohn

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
Desmond Tutu

No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?

Elbert Hubbard



---Monica Forrestall