Wall to wall color and inspiration

I really should be working on the back of my showcase quilt, but it's fighting me at the moment so I've put it in the "time out" pile for a bit. So, I thought I'd take a moment to post a few photos from last night's visit to the Fondation Guido Molinari. 

For those of you who braved the rainy weather to join us, thank you! And for those of you who couldn't make it, please try to find some time to visit the gallery on your own, it is *well* worth the trip! We were welcomed very warmly by Gilles, the executive director, and Lisa, his assistant... they gave us a great little introduction to Molinari's life and work before guiding us through both the main gallery space on the main floor and the rooms upstairs, as well as even allowing us a sneak peek into the basement storage space! They were both very enthusiastic about sharing and discussing Molinari's work and it was a really lovely visit. 

 M. Daigneault in front of a few of the works on display

Stacy and Tamara listening intently to our guides

Photos of the works really do not do justice to either their scale or subtlety

The main gallery space

One of the works in the vault...

the building used to be a bank before Molinari turned it into his studio

  

The framed screenprints upstairs were impossible to photograph...

but the reflections in the glass of the frames made for some interesting compositions

A peek into his workspace... makes a messy sewing table seem not so bad!

Molinari used copious amounts of masking tape in creating the distinctive sharp lines in his paintings... after it was used, he would wind the tape up into balls which he would then give to neighborhood kids to play with on the street!

Down in the basement, we got a sneak peek at where they store all the

pieces in the collection when they aren't on display in the gallery

Molinari's signature and date on the back of one of the pieces in the basement,

and another piece leaning up against a nearby wall

There were a staggering number of canvases and other works stored in the basement

Many of the canvases are extremely large, and Molinari came up with some interesting solutions for moving them, including cutting a slot into the floor between the basement and the ground floor gallery, as well as a large removable chunk of moulding in the vestibule door frame

If you have some photos of the visit you'd like to share, please feel free to post them in the comments below, or on the Facebook page or in the MQG forum... we'd love to see them!