Discover the quiet beauty of 20 of Hallie Watson’s pastel landscapes and writings in the art exhibition, Gumboots and Drawing Board: Fields and Streams of Mono, at Wellington County Museum and Archives (WCMA).
This exhibit opens Sept. 7 and runs until Nov. 3.
Hallie Watson describes her childhood as a hybrid one; when she was five, her parents bought a farm in Dufferin County, near Mono Centre.
During the week, she attended school in Toronto but, on weekends and summer vacations, she lived outdoors in the fields and streams. Knee-high rubber gumboots provided the passport into a mysterious and fascinating world that no city child could experience.
“It was the sights and smells of her outdoor adventures that determined the themes of much of Hallie Watson’s art,” said WCMA curator Susan Dunlop. “From her hand, these pastel images evoke the richness of the changing seasons and their inter-relationship with all living things.”
An integral component of the exhibit is the artist’s writings on her observations, as both child and adult, on rural life.
“I have a place in all of this. I am a small piece of the wildly complicated puzzle,” said Hallie Watson.
“I still wade through the tall grass in my gumboots, then take them off and sit in a field drawing. In this way I settle in to the quiet turning of life.”
Now a native of Nova Scotia, Hallie continues to spend part of each year on the farm in Dufferin County.
An artist’s reception will be held at the WCMA on Sept. 13 from 7 to 9pm. The galleries are open weekdays from 9:30am to 4:30pm and 12 to 4pm on weekends and holidays.
