Toronto Outdoor Art Show

Took a quick look on the weekend. It's Canada's largest annual juried outdoor art exhibition, but smaller than I've ever seen it before. The front lawn section just north of Queen was mostly empty, even while artists were placed in remote, narrow areas along the sides of city hall. There's construction going on so that may have complicated the layout.

There was a wonderful array of talent on view, in the usual, bewildering variety of mediums. I wanted to call out some of the work I that caught my eye.

First up is the wonderful George A. Walker, who does stark, graphic wood engravings. His body of work is enormous, and ranges from fine art to illustration and graphic novels. 

He's done a good deal of work with The Porcupine's Quill, including the marvelous Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson, about one of Canada's celebrated Group of Seven artists (well, posthumously) who drowned in a canoeing accident in 1917.

He printed me up a business card on the spot with a little hand press.

Classy!