Canadian Folk Art and Outsider Art
Ora C. Walper. Painter. Kitchener, Ontario. Active early to mid 20th century.
Ora Curry Walper was a painter of scenes of life in early Ontario. He was also a portrait painter and an inventor.
Ref:Blake McKendry, An Illustrated Companion to Canadian Folk Art (1999).
Albert Geisel. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Elmira, Ontario. Active mid 20th century.
Albert Geisel was a primitive artist who made sculptures out of ‘as found’ materials such as wood, metal plastic, glass and found objects.
Ref: An Illustrated Companion to Canadian Folk Art. Blake McKendry, Kingston, Ontario. 1999.
Ref:Kobayashi/Bird, A Compendium of Canadian Folk Artists (1985).
John J. Kenyon. Painter. Washington, Ontario. Active 1890’s – 1930’s.
J. J. Kenyon settled in Blair, Ontario in the 1890’s where he became a photographer and a painter. He used the medium of photography to further his paintings; travelling to fairs and horse shows to photograph animals that he would later paint. Mr. kenyon followed the ‘Grand Circuit’ horse races where he would paint the portraits of winning horses and then sell them to the owners of the horses.
A link to the Wellington County Museum and Archive site with some background on J. J. Kenyon:
Ewald Rentz. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Beardmore, Ontario. Active 1970’s to 1990’s.
Ewald Rentz was born in the U.S. and grew up in Manitoba; eventually moving to northern Ontario. He became a sculptor when he retired in the 1970’s. He worked with ‘as found’ shapes of tree branches and roots; shaping them with home made wood fillers, knives and chisels. His work was always colored and usually signed; always after he became well known in the 1980’s. Ewald Rentz was inspired by the human condition; making carvings that were often humorous and always tongue in cheek.
“He has talked frequently of his ability to find interesting forms “in” the objects he picks up, bringing them to expression by small modifications of carving, painting or building-up with plastic wood. He thus has been able to make a turkey for remarkably little modification of the fugus-form from which it is derived.”
Ref: From the Heart: Folk Art in Canada, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, c1983.
Some examples are shown here.
Ewald Rentz. Carving of a bear with his Lunch:
Ewald Rentz. A Bear with his Lunch Pail.
Ewald Rentz. The Wedding:
Ewald Rentz. The Wedding.
Ewald Rentz. Winnipeg Bound. His textured and carved wood fillers can be seen here:
Ewald Rentz. Beardmore, Ontario.
Mary Adams. Fibre artist. Basket weaver. St. Regis, Quebec. Also known as Mary Kawennatakie. Active much of the 20th century.
Mary Adams was a First Nations textile artist. She was born on the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve in Ontario. She learned traditional weaving in Ash and Sweet Grass from her mother. Known for her ‘Wedding Cake Basket’ design she produced increasingly ornate patterns and designs throughout her life. An image of one of her ‘Wedding Cake’ baskets is shown below.
An image of a ‘Wedding Cake’ basket by Mary Adams-Kawennatakie:
Wedding Basket by Mary Adams. St. Regis, Quebec. 1995.
REF:http://www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/crossing/artist1.htm
