Lecture Series: Art & Ideas
Image credit: Photograph of the Gurd family home courtesy of the Lambton County Archives
Close to Home with William Heartwell
March 25, 2021 at 7:00PM
Registration is required by March 22. Space is limited.
This program will be hosted live on Zoom.
The historic homes and streets of Sarnia act as the roadmap for this lecture focusing on some of the 20th century figures that impacted the culture of the community. Presenter William Heartwell will discuss how the lives of Norman Gurd, Frances Flintoft and members of the Sarnia Women's Conservation Art Association entwine with famous artists like members of the Group of Seven and beyond.
Heartwell is a retired architect living in Toronto and has spent the last six years researching and writing about Fairholme, the Gurd family home. The mansion was built in 1874 and was located at the south-west corner of London Road and Christina Street in Sarnia. His grandfather, Fraser Heartwell, bought Fairholme in 1944 and it was William’s childhood home. Little did he know how complex a story that history would reveal and how that story had been quietly woven throughout his personal and professional life as an architect. The book, due to be released soon, is titled Fairholme: Recollections of the Gurd Mansion 1874 ● 1964.
Towards the Universal: The evolution of Lawren S. Harris' work and methods
April 15, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Registration required by April 12. Space is limited.
This program will be hosted live on Zoom
Join lecturer Alec Blair for a conversation about the dramatic evolution of Lawren Harris' paintings, from his landscape period to abstraction. Major paintings from the JNAAG permanent collection will be placed into the context of Harris' career and compared to relevant sketches and drawing which expose compositional changes and provide hints towards his changing style.
Alec Blair is the director and lead researcher for the Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project. Working with Stew Sheppard of the Harris estate, he has consulted for private and public galleries, documentary films and auction houses on the work of the artist, and is working to catalogue and produce a database of his work, intended to be available to the public in the future. The project has amassed the most complete existing inventory of Harris works to date, with images and information for more than 1,300 pieces. Blair is also a landscape painter and works as a lecturer in the University of British Columbia Geography department, teaching courses on environment and sustainability.
Image credit: Lawren Harris, Spring on the Oxtongue River, 1924, oil on canvas. From the collection of the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
Enthusiasm and Understanding: Lawren S. Harris and connections beyond the "Group"
April 22, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Registration required by April 19. Space is limited.
This program will be hosted live on Zoom.
The Group of Seven had incredible influence over artists of their time and were in ongoing contact with artists that would not gain as much fame as them, especially their female contemporaries. This lecture, presented by Alec Blair, will focus on Lawren Harris' influence on female artists like Anne Savage and Doris Mills with special attention to the correspondence between Harris and Emily Carr. Rare surviving letters, generously provided by Harris' grandson Stew Sheppard, and references from Carr's journals form the basis of this exploration of how Harris may have shifted Carr's focus and methodology.
Alec Blair is the director and lead researcher for the Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project. Working with Stew Sheppard of the Harris estate, he has consulted for private and public galleries, documentary films and auction houses on the work of the artist, and is working to catalogue and produce a database of his work, intended to be available to the public in the future. The project has amassed the most complete existing inventory of Harris works to date, with images and information for more than 1,300 pieces. Blair is also a landscape painter and works as a lecturer in the University of British Columbia Geography department, teaching courses on environment and sustainability.