Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Magical Newfoundland Moments, Part 3


Fisherman's Daughter-1 – Peter Sobol

For Part 1 of this series, see here, for Part 2 see here.

So then it was on to the final part of our trek, a stop at Peter Sobol Art Gallery. Peter is one of the most enthusiastic people I ever met, bubbling over with ideas and concepts and he gladly showed us around his wonderful studio and his gallery, full of his paintings and ceramic pieces. It seems like Peter himself has been captivated by the faeries as they feature predominantly in his ceramic pieces, often swimming underwater. Luscious colours predominated.

He was full of stories, offered to illustrate my short story collection and commissioned me to take a series of pictures of a dear friend who was with us, whom he said had the best Newfoundland mother’s face he’d ever seen. He’d love to paint it, with a background of Newfoundland tragedies. So I will attempt to do my dear friend justice and photograph her well, face down and reverential (she is far from!) as he instructed.

He was also involved in an unusual project – he was growing garlic in this scheme across Canada, where the participants are pooling their varieties and planting thousands of bulbs before the first frost. I didn’t know that the leaves of garlic are called scapes and can be eaten in salad at the beginning of the growing season which also incidentally encourages clove production.





Then it was on to lunch at The Captain’s Table (seen above) which has a wonderful seafood chowder and where I met a Scottish woman, living here and married to an Irishman. As I am forming an informal association of Irish-born Newfoundlanders, this was a serendipitous meeting.

My cup truly ran over on a day such as I’ve recounted. When my creative juices start to flag, I’ll go back into my memory box and remember these wonderful artists and their enchanting spaces and feel thoroughly inspired!

5 comments:

  1. So how come there's a boat sitting on the lawn? What's the story?

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  2. I love the colors in your photo: an amazing and clear blue sky with bright red is truly astonishing!

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  3. Nick:
    I feel like inventing one just for you! Just an old boat to give ambience to a restaurant called "The Captain's Table". I sure hope it wasn't the captain's boat!
    XO
    WWW

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  4. Nevin:
    Thank you, that day was truly spectacular in every sense of the word. You could bite the colours.
    XO
    WWW

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  5. Peter Sobol sounds like a very interesting person and I find it very special that he found a woman with a typical Nwefoundland face and asked you to photograph her. All things come and go in circles. For an Irish woman, you're as Newfoundland as they come, so you should be the one to photograph her.

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