The 12 Annual Arden Artisans Garden Party and Open Studio Event last Saturday in Arden was a homecoming of sorts for Arden Batik’s Sarah Hale.

In May, Hale moved her studio from its Elm Tree Road location to her home, essentially across the street.

“This was the old hotel in Arden and where we’re sitting was the dining room,” she said. “The man who sold it to us took his television and left everything else.

“It was a rural hotel that had been furnished in Eaton’s cheapest in 1914 (when the original hotel burnt down and this one was rebuilt).”

Hale said there were many reasons to move back here, including more and higher wall space for showing her work and access to a full-size studio on a year-round basis.

“The old cafe (on Elm Tree Road) was really only a six-month place and it needed work,” she said. “Now I can have a respectable shop in winter and not have to move things twice a year.

“Not that we get that much walk-in traffic in winter.”

But not the least of her reasoning was the fact that “I get to show off the old hotel, a lot of people are stopping by because they want to see what’s inside.”

And, she gets to tell stories.

“The story is that the town went dry because people got sick of the drunks out there on the porch,” she said.

She said the move also “makes semi-retirement easier and more productive” as she begins doing more and more custom work. Her son Isaac and his partner Sue are fixing up the old shop for use as a “garden shed” Hale said.

The open studio event also showcases the work at Judith Versavel’s Gallery on the Bay, Joanne Picket’s Arden Pottery and Gordon Wright Fine Art.

As well, the Friends of Arden opened up Kennebec Hall for the Blueberry Dessert Tea, a fundraiser for the old footbridge project which had reached 50 per cent of its $15,000 goal going in to the event.

The tea featured a variety of blueberry-based treats as well as the artwork o local artisans John DuChene, James Hanley, Arlene Uens, Carol Burbridge, Daphne & Mike and Aileen Merriam.

For those unfamiliar with the Fantasy In The Forest Art Show, it takes place every year in a mythical forest Kingdom somewhere down Draper Lake Road, allegedly in the Township of South Frontenac.

But for two days every summer (this was the 24th annual), this part of the Township magically teleports to another realm, one presided over by sculptor and King Jamie Brick.

“We have 86 artists this year (in 75 booths),” he said. “We had 60 last year.

“The bigger it gets, the harder it is to manage (but) I guess we’ll have to do something for next year (the 25th edition).”

One thing they did manage to vastly improve this year was the parking situation. For this year, they secured a location just where Draper Lake Road meets Norway Road and operated a shuttle bus every 15 minutes to take guests back and forth to the main location. Big improvement.

The limited parking around the actual site was reserved for exhibitors and food vendors.

One person who didn’t really know how much the parking situation had improved was The Tape Man, Jeff White. This was White’s first ever show/sale.

“Well, I did do a couple of Christmas craft shows at the school,” he said. “But nothing’s like this.”

White, a storyboard artist by trade (he worked on the Canada-France co-production remake of Belle and Sebastian among others), creates fantasy characters by first constructing a wire frame and then building it up with masking tape. He then applies an acrylic gel as a preservative.

“I like dragons and wizards,” he said.

He met Brick at the Originals Fair in Ottawa last December.

“I was just there looking for someone I could relate to,” White said. “I saw Jamie and we started talking.

“Next thing you know, I’m spending the last six months getting ready for this show.

“But even if I don’t sell anything, at least I’ve got my Christmas shopping done.”

(For those who might be interested, White is related to Plevna musician Bill White. Jeff’s dad, Don, is a member of the band Grateful We’re Not Dead and is Bill’s Cousin.)

On the other end of the spectrum, Ron Tremback and Patti Robertson of Solar Woodcuts have been coming to Brick’s world almost since the very beginning.

“It’s been at least 15 years,” Tremback said. “We go back to when there were only 12 booths down by the lake.

“The artists were billeted at cottages around the lake and we were billeted on an island. You couldn’t do that now.”

Tremback said he’s been doing this full time for 28 years now and has raised four kids in the process.

Fantasy in the Forest is one of his favorite shows and he has every intention of returning.

“You never drop a good show for something else,” he said. “The grass is not always greener.”

He said he enjoys seeing the same people every year.

“When we stop doing shows, we lose a lot of friends — and we don’t even know who they are,” he said. “Your booth attracts people of similar consciousness and that gives me hope for humanity.”

When you run a home for geriatric dogs, there are always expenses.

One way Sheba’s Haven Rescue has found to help defray costs is to set up a booth at craft fairs and shows. It helps them spread their message about providing a home for older animals and brings in a little money at the same time.

Last weekend, they set up a booth at Fantasy In The Forest, where Faye Wan was selling her daughter, Jennifer’s, spirit and healing dolls (Wandering Souls Art), with 50 per cent of the proceeds going directly to Sheba’s Haven.

“The dolls are a talisman against evil and negativity,” Wan said. “Jennifer is a (dog) foster mom herself and makes the dolls to raise funds.”

And that’s a good deal, said Bill McCormick, who along with his partner, Catherine Pokrywa, runs Sheba’s Haven.

“It’s dogs in, dogs out,” he said. “All the time and there’s always a need for funding.

“We have 19 dogs living with us and seven to foster.

“We don’t have a place to put another dog dish.”

But McCormick doesn’t mind.

“It’s all a labour of love,” he said. “They (the dogs) don’t complain when I come home.”

Sheba’s Haven is a three-acre fenced-in property on Sunbury Road in South Frontenac that rescues palliative dogs with life-limiting con-curative illnesses, allowing them to live out their lives in a well-balanced environment where they are part of the family.

It’s a non-profit organization that relies on public donations.

On Wednesday mornings, residents of Sheba’s Haven often visit the residents of Fairmount Home for a mutually beneficial exchange.

As the Festival of Small Halls penetrates deeper into Frontenac, Lanark and Lennox and Addington, music fans from all corners of our region will have the opportunity to see a lot of music this September.

During the first week of the Festival, LeE HARVeY OsMOND are at the ABC Hall in Bolingbroke on Friday, September 13 at 7:30, and The East Pointers play the same night at the Chaffey’s Lock Community Hall. And just to the west for those living in the Hwy. 41 corridor, Justin Rutledge is at the Marble Arts Centre in Tweed on the same night.

The next day, September 14, Madison Violet is at the Tamworth Legion at 7:30pm, while The East Pointers play the Ag Hall in McDonalds Corners. Over in Lyndhurst, not too far from Battersea, Harrow Fair is playing at Furnace Falls Farm.

On week two, Cassie and Maggie will be performing at the Denbigh-Griffith Lion’s Club on Friday, September 20 at 7:30pm. For those who live in South Frontenac, a quick jog over to the Wilton Hall on Sunday the 22nd at 3pm is your opportunity to see Cassie and Maggie. That same Sunday, over at the Maberly Hall, Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys will perform, with the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra opening for them.

In the third and final week of the festival, Friday, September 27 sees Union Duke at Seeley’s Bays Community Hall, Sultans of String at the Grace Hall in Sydenham, and the Devin Cuddy Band way up in the Matawatchan Community Hall. All shows start at 7:30.

There are other shows throughout Eastern Ontario over the three weekends of the festival. And the price is right, $25 a ticket to see and hear nationally and internationally acclaimed roots musicians of this caliber in historic local venues.

The Festival of Small Halls is a constantly innovative event. It started in Ontario in 2014, based on similar festivals in Australia and PEI. There were 3 venues that first year, and the festival has grown each year since then. It also features concerts during the Christmas season in Brockville, Delta, Manotick, Packenham, and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

This year there is a new wrinkle, Chef’s Table events featuring well know chefs preparing 3 course meals, and a concert, at a price of $75 to $95 dollars.

For further information and ticket sales for all of the Festival shows and events, go to thefestivalofsmallhalls.com

Old friends Sarah Hale (Arden Batik), Judith Versavel (Gallery on the Bay) and Joanne Pickett (Arden Pottery) spend a lot of time each summer greeting visitors at their respective studios. Between the cottagers who can’t let a season go by without picking up some pottery or art, passing tourists, and other visitors, they divide their time between creating work for sale and staffing their respective shops.

For many years they participated in the Inroads Tour with other artists and artisans from Central Frontenac, and for the last dozen, the July Arden Garden Party has been a great opportunity to work together on an event and invite other local artists to join them.

Now, in addition to the three studios in downtown Arden, Gordon Wright, on Blue Heron Ridge, just north of Hwy. 7 is showing his unique landscape painting at his studio, Gordon Wright Fine Art. In conjunction with the 4 open studios, six other local artists (John Duchene, James Hanley, Arlene Uens, Carol Burbidge, Daphne and Mike, and Aileen Merriam) will be showing at the Kennebec Hall.

The Friends of Arden will also be presenting a Blueberry Dessert Tea at the hall, and memorabilia from the area will also be on display, courtesy of the Kennebec Heritage Society.

It all runs from 10am-5pm on Saturday, July 20. Admission to the studios is free and their will be door prizes available as well.

Writer/director Peggy Hallett talking with cast following final rehearsal of her new play The Dressing Room, which will be running this week (Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 7:30) at Domino Theatre, 52 Church Street, Kingston.

Hallett says the idea for the play came to her while sitting backstage waiting to go on in a musical years ago; “The idea that there was actually a story, lots of drama and comedy, in the ladies backstage dressing room percolated with me for awhile. I realized it could work, and got moving on it.” She took her script-in-process to several reading groups for critiques, including a play reading at Domino. This spring she began casting and production. This is the final product of a number of rewrites and fine tunings.

The whole comedy takes place backstage in an aging theatre, over a period of several years, each scene set during the production of a different musical. The all-female cast runs from age 15 to 65.

Dress rehearsals can be pretty grim, but this one went well with very few hitches, though it is to be hoped that the unnecessarily complicated set changes will be speedier on opening night.

Hallett, a Sydenham resident, is retired from her teaching job, but works more than full-time painting, writing and editing. Come to her play, and enjoy the additional treat of seeing some of her artwork in the lobby.

Rodger Holden, a resident of Kaladar, has been working day and night to get his showroom in Cloyne (next to Grand’s store across from the Pioneer Museum) ready for his grand opening this week.

The renovated showroom is filled with free standing Wood Stoves an inserts, Pellet Stoves, and BBQ’s, all from top brand name suppliers, such as Pacific Energy, Enviro, Saber, Green Mountain Grills, and Black Olive Grill.

“My intention for this business is to provide the best service I can to my customers. I stand by my products and will make sure they are serviced all year round,” he said.

He comes into this new business venture with varied experience as a pastor, a former Goodyear worker, and as a wood carver.

Since he started carving 28 years ago, he has won top honors in local, regional, national, and international fowl-carving competitions His pieces can take hundreds of hours to complete.

After opening his stove showroom open, he will be setting up a gallery space in a separate room, and in addition to his carvings he will be showing the work of fellow artists as well.

The grand opening of Holden’s Hearth and Home takes place on Saturday, June 29 from 10am – 3pm. There will be a BBQ. Featuring meat from Milligan’s Meats, over the lunch hour.

Ihor Gawdan likes to “keep busy.”

To that end, the former Nortel employee has built his own home, which is heavily influenced by the works of J.R.R. Tolkein.

He loves working with wood and has taken several course in things like joinery and other construction techniques.

A few years ago, he decided to take up quilting with his wife and took courses.

The two of them made a quilt together and he made another “for my daughter”.

But somewhere along the line, he discovered that he “didn’t like sewing in straight lines.”

After a trip to Africa, he came back with some new fabrics and things started to change. He started to incorporate non-traditional quilting squares within the traditional quilting format.

“I saw a quilt hanging on a parapet and started collecting African fabrics,” he said. “I was attracted by the vibrancy of the colours.”

After a trip to Australia, which included a trek across the Outback, the ‘straight lines’ totally disappeared.

“I came back with about $500 worth of aboriginal fabrics and decided I’d better do something with them,” he said.

The result was an 8’x8’ masterpiece depicting his experiences Down Under, that ended up winning a Viewer’s Choice nod.

“Australia Sonoline” is a collage of images ranging from the Sydney Opera House to Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) and all sorts of modern and traditional inclusions that just sort of flow together in an organic flux that moves the viewer’s eye all around his textured canvas. You literally have to keep reminding yourself that this is a quilt.

His latest work promises to be his masterpiece, a 4’x8’ exploration of evolution inspired by one of his son’s songs — Beneficial Symbiosis. The lyrics are stitched into bottom of the piece.

It’s a visual journey that begins with the creation of the Earth, through periods of volcanism, the beginnings of life, the advent of mammals and finally including the colonization of Mars, with a myriad of images and concepts in between.

He’s entered it in the Colour with a U show put on by the Studio Art Quilt Associates in March and April of 2020 in Kitchener.

The piece itself may be a metaphor for Gawdan’s philosophy and is certainly a product of his methodology and the way he likes to work.

“I don’t spend hours on a computer designing a quilt,” he said. “This one started out as a little sketch on paper.

“As I go on, I look at the colours, the flow of the material.

“At some point, I may say to myself, ‘I have to go out and buy some more green.’”

He said these last two quilts have taken about “five or six months, working four or five hours in the morning.

“I usually go to bed early and get up around 3 a.m.”

Gawdan refers to his quilting as a hobby, and says that’s what it will stay.

“I’ve never wanted my hobbies to become a job,” he said. “But as we get older, we need to keep the brain moving.

“Quilting is like woodworking without the splinters.”

For the past six years, Randal and Darlene Doner have been inviting people to their home/studios down at the eastern end of Washburn Road.

It’s right on the Rideau Canal system, Brewers Mills Lock to be exact, and the studio is the old grist mill from which the lock presumably takes its name.

The Doners form a rather artistic family. Randal is a metal sculptor. Darlene makes jewelry. Daughters Rachel and Miranda are art consultants. Son Luke does corporate interiors and his wife, Katie, is a painter and commercial artist.

And they have a lot of friends who are also very artistic. So, it should come as no surprise that they invited about 50 of them to come and be part of the 2019 Doner Studio Art Festival last weekend.

The grounds are more spacious than they might first appear and it took a good hour to wander around and see everything. Painters, sculptors and artisans of every stripe were on display and there was a steady crowd of visitors making the rounds.

“We used to do a lot of art shows since 1996,” Randal said. “Then we got to an age where we wanted to slow down a bit — we haven’t slowed down much.”

In 2003, the Doners were visiting his parents on Easter Weekend. They were looking for something just like the mill.

“We went to look at it and I said ‘we have to buy this right now,’” he said. “I was prepared to give them the asking price but the real estate agent convinced us to put in a lower bid because it needed a lot of work.”

It was work his dad, an artist himself, was prepared to do They moved in in 2003.

While the art and music was the main attraction of the event, there was also a pleasant surprise on hand for visitors that ventured into the old mill itself.

Keith Kiell, who ran the mill for 25 years while his father, Jeff, owned it.

At 92, Kiell may have slowed a bit, but his memory is sharp as a tack.

“He’ll talk your ear off,” said Darlene.

He did.

“This is my wife, Evelyn,” he said. “We’ve been married for 70 years and so far, we haven’t had one argument.”

What about the mill Keith?

“Oh, McBroom owned it and my father rented it,” he said. “At one time, it provided the first electricity to Gananoque.

“I started running it in March of 1944 til 1968.

“We used to grind grain for the farmers using a thirty-horse, 550 volt electric motor because the water rights had been sold. That motor wasn’t big enough and it took a lot of maintenance.”

And that’s not all he did.

His father ran a grader for Pittsburgh Township, as did Keith (“for 27 years”).

“In 1942, I got a job on the survey crew that was mapping out routes for the 401,” he said. “I’m the last man standing from that crew.

“We planned out a route from Gan to Kingston and it almost went right through the heart of Kingston.

“They changed that to north of the city.”

The Doner family and “Doner Studio at the Mill” kicks off its summer season this weekend by hosting their annual art festival

It is, in part, a fine craft show with 40 guests artists who produce a stunning array of work; paintings using various techniques, potters, glass artists, a found object sculptor, weavers, woodworkers, in addition to soaps, skin products and teas. All of the artists are chosen by Randall and Darlene Doner to ensure that the show reflects quality and variety.

The guest artists will be displayed on the grounds of the mill property. Randal, who sculpts in metal, shows his work in the mill studio and in the sculpture garden on the property, Darlene’s jewellery studio and The Baby Jane and KSSD studios, featuring the works of their daughter and daughter in-law, will be open as well.

The restored mill and grounds make for more than a mere backdrop for the art, they are a second feature of the show.

When the Doners bought the mill in 2003 it had been vacant for 35 years and needed a great deal of refurbishing, but its history had not been lost. The property was the home of a water powered sawmill, which was torn down when the Rideau Canal was built. In 1861 a grist mill was built on the property and the mill was the basis of a thriving business through to the early 20th century. The grist mill was torn down in 1942 and replaced with a hydro generating system which still operates.

Joshua Kiell and his son Keith operated their own electrically powered mill, in the former storage elevator at the site, between 1943 and 1968. In 2003, when the Doner’s arrived, Keith Kiell, who lives in nearby Joyceville, was an early visitor and has assisted with research as the Doners restored the property.

One of the must-see elements to the art fetival is a visit with 92-year-old Keith Kiell, who will be on hand once again this year to show and talk about some of the archived material from the colourful history of what locals still call the Washburn Mill.

Christine Harvey, of the My Drama Queen, will be running kids activities all weekend, musicians Doug Reansbury (Saturday 10am -1pm) and Craig Jones (Saturday 14 and Sunday 10-4) will be performing all weekend, and there will be food. Mio Gelato with artisan gelato and sorbetto will be there, and a food truck from Glocca Morra Grills Food Truck will be available all weekend as well.

On top of all that, the Heritage Costume Club of Kingston will be holding a picnic on the site during the weekend. The club is devoted to making or purchasing, and wearing Victorian Clothing and dressing up for events. Their presence will make a stunning visual at a property that was originally developed during that very era.

The show runs from 10am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday at 1439 Washburn Road (From Inverary take Moreland Dixon to the end, turn right and then left on Washburn to 1439)

For information, go to Donerstudio.ca and click on the Art Festival link.