CGD-Profile-black

Hello! I’m Clarice

a brand designer & watercolour artist from Toronto, Ontario. 

find me on

Inspiration in Art



Summer blew by like a breeze. I can safely say, I made the best of it, with the kids. While I got to enjoy the great summer we’ve had, the downside of that was, I haven’t been able to post anything. But now that’s school’s back in swing with the cold, I can make time to engage. Yay.

One of my last summer outings was a visit to the AGO, where I encountered my pretty neat Canadian art. Eh!

While I enjoyed the colourful views of the Group of Seven, I really enjoyed works by Cornelius Krieghoff and William Kurelek.

Cornelius Krieghoff

Cornelius did beautiful works depicting the Canadian life and winters. Including neat visuals of the natives. His works, I found are excellent in detail and very life like. They reminded me of old greeting cards I used to buy as a child. I really liked collecting those cards, because the art work was pretty and colourful. I mainly collected them so I could copy the illustrations. They made for great drawing practice. Here’s some of his impeccable work. So beautiful.

CK-LakeIce

These pictures taking by my phone really do not do these paintings any justice. The vibrance of the colour and the details in the brush strokes are something to behold.

CK-LakeIce Full CK-Kids Playing

Look how kids played outside in what looks to be freezing temps and on a frozen lake to boot. These days? Not so.

CK-BrokenIce

William Kurelek

This guy, I thoroughly enjoyed! He was self-taught and a student at Ontario College of Art. I’ve always enjoyed art, but nothing quite like this. I really liked how each piece has so much detail, that you really have to study it to take it all in. Each work also had a moral to it, and I very much approved of the way your brain has to work to connect the dots. Here\s a few of the ones I reaaly liked. I took a full painting picture and a few ‘zoomed in on the details’ ones.

WK-1Full
WK-1Closeup
WK-Lifefull
WK-Lifeclose2
WK-Lifeclose3

I also had to capture this Paul Peel painting. Just gorgeous.

Paul Peel PaulPeel Face

A close up of the detail on this angelic face. So real…like?

Then after taking all this in, I was inspired. I promised myself, I would pick up sketching and painting again. On the way home, I stopped by the Curry’s located near the museum and picked up some sketch books (as if I don’t have any! But it was a sale :)). I will have to post my doodles. Lately, I have been quite taken by lettering. But that’s another post.

AGO-Windows
Details create the big picture. -Sanford I. Weill

Share this post