Jenn travels the Maritimes looking for artwork and occasionally writing about her life and her encounters with the artists. June 27th, 2009 - Maureen Newman
I visited Maureen Newman on a referral from another artist in the same area. Maureen lives outside of Granville, near Annapolis Royal, with her husband. Having grown up in the valley, she and her husband decided to come 
back to retire. The area is beautiful, with woodland, fields, hills and beaches. It is no wonder that she decided to pick up painting here jut 3 years ago – for someone who loves rural Nova Scotia, there is so much to draw inspiration from. Her paintings are selling successfully, and you can see that it makes her happy to share her stories on canvas with others. Maureen has been busy painting and showing her work, and was the featured artist at the Milford House Wilderness Retreat today.
Driving home, I happened upon the Green Barn, a barn full of sustainable and recycled treasures. Time was rushed, but I will definitely stop again next time – and so should you!
June 27th, 2009 - Reynolds Aulenback
After driving two hours door to door, I was a bit whacked out, but it didn’t take long for Reynold’s pace to buoy my own energy back up. Covered in whipped and snipped grass, he brought me inside to chat and drink coffee from Mickey Mouse mugs, just one souvenier of his and his wife’s many journeys. During this break, and within a span of about 10 minutes, I learned more about this man’s work, hobbies and interests than I thought would be possible. Had I had a crown with me, I would have dubbed him King of Multitasking. It was amazing. Aside from carving and painting, Reynolds (in a band with his wife, Marie) plays music, tends his land -as well as his neighbor’s, travels, and brings tour groups of people every year to Nashville and other parts of the States. After some time, and quick, witty banter between he and his wife, we did make it to the shop to view his work, and to choose which pieces to bring back to "FAM Headquarters". Reynolds says he carves only what he sees in the wood. He began with hiking sticks, which he still makes, and evolved into people, animals, birds and bugs. Among my favorites were musicians with crazy legs, and a rooster bent around into a seemingly impossible position.
Reynolds donates much of his work to causes and charities in the province, and has been showing his work at the Lunenburg Folk Art Festival since 1996. I’ll look forward to seeing him and Marie again in August – I’m sure he’ll have lots of great folk art, and without a doubt, a story or two!
June 14, 2009 - Calvin Woodworth
Trips have been slow since my partner and I purchased a house and began playing Tetris with it, but I did manage one out trip in the last week to visit with Calvin Woodworth at his house in Bridgewater. Calvin’s partner in business and in life, Linda, met me at the door and brought me to the basement studio where he was at work carving out relief scenes later to be painted into familiar Nova Scotian landscapes and icons.Calvin started producing art after a serious fall in 1995 left him unable to return to work. His 3 dimensional paintings are an interesting mix of relief carving and paint. Though the ocean dominated the scenery in several paintings, the water was never the same in any of them, making purchasing decisions very difficult. Calvin also carves small figures of people and hummingbirds, one of which was given to me as a gift, and whose wings helped guide my poor sense of direction home.
May 23, 2009 - "Colpittsis are in there"
This past week, I visited with Barry Colpitts in East Ship Harbour along the number 7 highway in Tangier. The house was easy to spot, being absolutely covered with Barry’s paintings and carvings, and on the back, a poem written for him by a friend. It is not difficult to notice that this work is his passion, but if that wasn’t apparent in the appearance of the house, it would soon become so while listening to him talk, following him around the property to see new and old pieces, and works in progress.
We tromped around the property looking at pieces in various barns, I stubbornly turned down his offer of a pair of rubber boots numerous times. Maybe wanting to prove that I may be wearing lip gloss but I’m not afraid to get my feet dirty. I got sneak peeks of work to be exhibited at his show coming up at the Craig Gallery at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth toward the end of June, and it’s a show that I’m definitely excited to be able to check out.
Barry’s pieces are so bright and so full of life. He uses boat paint for much of his work, and because of the fumes has a great paint shed outside, which he can stand outside of, put his arms through holes in the wall, and paint the piece inside, looking at it through a piece of plexiglass. So the work is sheltered from the elements (and blackflies!), and he’s sheltered from the fumes. I thought that was pretty neat. At one point, I was commenting on a lady’s head coming out of a seagull’s mouth. He said it was a mermaid being born. ”I don’t know if I heard that somewheres or I made it up. But how else does a mermaid get born?” It’s going to be tough to hand over some (all) of these pieces
May 21, 2009 - "What do you know about folk art anyway?"
I visited with the Naugler brothers a couple of weeks back; they had given me my first real taste of folk art in 1996, when I watched the NFB documentary “Folk Art Found Me,” so I was excited to visit with them and see the work that they are still tirelessly producing.
I found Ransford quite by accident, driving on the highway through Lunenburg County. I was beckoned in the driveway by his handpainted sign, but as luck would have it this wasn’t the day I would visit. I was glad to return though, and to stand around the shop and talk, admiring the hundreds of photos of work that Ransford has produced for people ranging from American tourists to then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul. Ransford is busy creating for the Folk Art Festival in August and so didn’t have anything that he could sell me at the time, his creations seem to fly out of his shop as quickly as they are made! I am looking forward though to being able to place orders for some of his bright, dreamlike pieces.
He pointed me in the direction of his brother, Bradford, who I’m pretty sure didn’t know what to make of me at first. 
He welcomed me into the shop, sat down, asked what I was all about. When I explained the business to him and that I was interested in buying, he pointed to 3 gulls in the window and said, “I got those for sale.” After a bit more banter, he just shot his question at me, “What do you know about folk art anyway?” I guess my response satisfied him enough, because he then let me into another room in the shop where many more pieces appeared for sale, 4 of which made the journey back to Lunenburg in the car. I regret not being able to take a photo of one of his last pieces, which was already wrapped for shipping to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia – a life sized likeness of president Barak Obama (a handsome piece, for sure!)
In speaking with the brothers, the pride in the folk art that they produce shines, whether it be through displaying photos and publications, or the protective stance they take over their work. I would be proud too if my work was sought out worldwide!
May 5, 2009 - Louise Chisholm
My first trip out was to visit an outsider artist named Lousie Chisholm in Central Grove. I packed up my bag, put on my sunglasses and started the ignition. A beautiful day for driving, and also for riding the cable ferry that takes you from Digby neck to the island that Louise calls home.
Louise had previously participated in the Nova Scotia Studio Rally so was easily found by directions listed in an older rally map. Her home is very whimsical, and warm. She invited me on a tour of the house, showing me pieces in her collection by local artists. We spent the afternoon purusing her own art over tea and freshly baked cookies. She moved to the island 30 years ago from Toronto Island after refusing a promotion to stock broker, choosing instead to make art. Louise went to Nova Scotia College of Art and Design to learn to draw, at the same time as her daughter left the island for university. Her collection is vast and she says, “I just MAKE stuff, that’s all.”
