Drawing the Circle Wide

Draw the circle wide.

Draw it wider still.

Let this be our song. No one stands alone, standing side by side.

  Draw the circle wide.* 

It's easy to become frustrated, (yet again), by those who just can't seem to learn to 

SING THIS SONG. 

Why is that?

As children, we all learn the most important lesson in the world - 

BE KIND.

Be compassionate and generous and tolerant and understanding and fair. Be a helper, celebrate diversity.

 LOVE.

And be reminded again and again and again and again that

 LOVE IS BETTER THAN ANGER, HOPE IS BETTER THAN FEAR.** 

Be silent no more,

 because we need to start a conversation.

We are all needed to start a conversation with family, friends, co-workers, about what sort of world we want to live in.

We are all needed to start a conversation about safe places in our communities - safe for all who feel threatened because of their sexual orientation or gender identity -  in our schools, public places, 

and yes,

 our churches, temples, synagogues, mosques. 

We are all needed to help create an environment free of homophobia, heterosexism, or other forms of exclusion, to help create an environment where we are as accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals, or anyone marginalized in society, as we are of heterosexual people.

And if safe places are not apparent in our communities, what are we doing to create them? 

Are conversations happening where you live, where you work, at your kid's school, in your place of worship? 

If not, why not? 

 What if all of our religious places, our schools, our restaurants and bars and theatres, our grocery stores and gyms, our parks and playgrounds, worked together to make our communities beacons of inclusivity for all to see?

Draw the circle wide.

Draw it wider still.

Let this be our song. No one stands alone, standing side by side.

Draw the circle wide.

*Mark Miller and Gordon Light

** Jack Layton

Trinity Lake

I have lost track of the number of times I’ve read Annie Dillard’s poignant and spiritual collection of writings, ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’.

I, too, am ‘a frayed and nibbled survivor’. My art is a necessity, at times painfully so, lodging an idea in my head, then poking and prodding me until I get it down.

And so goes my voyage.

My first memory of being in a canoe was the summer I turned seven. Our family’s 16-foot Chestnut canoe, the scent of wood and canvas, sun on water, and holding my very own paddle, stirred within me the concept of journey, voyage, passage.

Of pilgrimage.

 I suppose, spiritually, I see myself as a canoe, still afloat, (in spite of a few scrapes), but moving through water, bumping the shoreline here and there, occasionally needing to be portaged, always searching the far shore for a landing place.

This body of work, (mixed-media on canvas and wood), explores the well-travelled canoe routes of Trinity Lake. These routes are my roots, they are with me always, and though not found on any map, still somehow a part of me and of my journey taken.

Anne Renouf

Indian River Ontario

Spring, 2016

Weather Diary

Ten years ago, in Spring of 2006, I had the opportunity to travel to Ocracoke Island off the coast of North Carolina, to live and work at my art. (This was actually a 50th birthday gift from my husband Doug Brown, the only one who knew of my desire to become a hermit in order to produce some new work.) I wanted to focus on drawing, using materials I hadn't used in a while - primarily oil pastels, watercolour pencils, chalks and graphite. I set off on my month-long pilgrimage with these materials and lots of drawing surfaces.

It is a seventeen hour drive from Peterborough Ontario to Ocracoke NC. I was to live in a cottage, (sight unseen), in Ocracoke Village, just me and our then three-year-old black lab, Chester.

It wasn't long before I fell into the rhythm of island life. I wanted solitude so as to work without distraction. Yes, I had that.

And I wanted the sea.


Whatever was happening with regard to my artwork and the weather, each day included a long ramble on the glorious Ocracoke Island beach, the wide open Atlantic-facing expanse of bliss. This daily beach walk led to the creation of a series of works entitled 'Weather Diary', one-a-day drawings infused by the sea, sand, dunes and wild moody skies - the elements - that found their way into me.

You can view the art, and read about my 'Weather Diary' pilgrimage here: www.annerenouf.blogspot.ca:

The Vegetable That Keeps On Giving

swiss chard

Swiss Chard.

For nearly four months, we have been eating (and eating and eating) this gorgeous green veggie from our little vegetable patch.

Now that the tomatoes have gone, as well as the peppers, the onions, the peas and beans and cukes, we are still picking swiss chard.

Somewhere between spinach and romaine, swiss chard works as a salad green, can be added to soups and pasta sauces, chopped up and added to anything-in-a-wrap, or sauteed for a minute or two with garlic and olive oil.

One seed packet for $1.29

has yielded dozens and dozens of pickings. The more leaves we picked, the more would spring forth to take their place.

Salads are best with young bright green leaves. But the larger darker woodier leaves are excellent cooked. 

The vegetable that keeps on giving (and giving and giving).

And good fer ya too!

Highly recommended. 

October 22 vegetable garden

Recent Works (part 3)

'Earth Prayer #1'       (24" x 24"  mixed media on canvas)

'North Chapel Light'    (24" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

'Trinity Lake Morning'     (24" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

'Brief and Fragile'     (24" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

'All that is Light'      (24" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

'Credo Lake Passage'        (30" x 60" mixed media on canvas)

'Bloodline' (Redux)     (24" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

'East Long Portage'     (24" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

Recent Works (part 2)

'Crossing the Narrows (Trinity Lake)'    (24" x 24" mixed media on birch panel)

                'Women in the Wilderness' II    (48" x 24" mixed media* on canvas) 
                     

'Among the Stillness of Land'    (53" x 59" mixed media on canvas)

'Breathing Space (Fire and Water)'    (48" x 60" mixed media on canvas)

'Blue Passage 2'    (30" x 30" mixed media on canvas)

'Spirit Wind 5'    (24" x 36" mixed media on Canvas)

'Tree-line 3'    (24" x 24" mixed media on birch panel)

'Salvage 2'    (30" x 30" mixed media on canvas)

'Red Aubade'    (18" x 24" mixed media on birch panel)

'Pilgrimage 3'    (36" x 48" mixed media on canvas)

'Breathing Space 4'    (24" x 24" mixed media on birch panel)

'Salvage 2'    (30" x 30" mixed media on canvas)

'Wildcat Lake Journal  08.91'    (40" x 30" mixed media on birch panel)

*mixed media - image transfer, acrylic, graphite, pastel, gold leaf, ink

Recent Works (part 1)

A mini gallery tour...

'Upstream' (36" x 48" mixed media on canvas)

'Wildcat Lake Journal 08.92' (72" x 36" mixed media on canvas)

'Float (Silent Woods)' (24" x 24" mixed media on birch panel)

'Sugarhouse Revisited' (24" x 48" mixed media on birch panel)

'Woman in the Wilderness' (48" x 24" mixed media on canvas)

'Into the Woods (Split Yellow Light)' (30" x 60" mixed media on canvas)

'Lake-of-Bays' (24" x 72" mixed media on canvas)

                                  'Point Me to the Skies' (48" x 48" mixed media on canvas)

                             

'Cloister Light' (53" x 59" mixed media on canvas)

small works triptych 

'Crossing the Narrows' (24" x 36" mixed media on canvas)

'Passage (Aperture 2)' (53" x 59" mixed media on canvas)