Lighthouse at Cape Spear by Lori Kallay, who has artwork available at Martello Alley.Supplied Photo
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There are myriad benefits to living in a city that has maintained much of its historic character. One is that the city has a real personality, lent by both its built architecture and geographic location. While we have a great waterfront, architecture itself has a major role to play in forming Kingston’s character, and the downtown is definitely shaped by its historic buildings (sorry, west end, your big-box and development sprawl just doesn’t inspire). Tourists flock here (once again!) to admire the Limestone City, and it’s worthwhile for residents to pause every once in a while to look around and admire our built environment, too.
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Once you start really looking, you begin noticing things you never paid much attention to before. For instance, I just recently noticed a name tiled into the floor of a doorway alcove — probably of some long-ago building owner — and now I’m wondering how many more of these there might be in our streetscape. Kingston’s downtown is full of interesting styles of architecture and architectural embellishments, including carved and decorated windows, doors, carriageways and alleys. One alley in particular has a new lease on life, thanks to the efforts of David Dossett, artist and proprietor of Martello Alley (at 203B Wellington, between Queen and Princess streets). Once unlovely and uninviting, the alleyway is now welcoming and cheerful, and has been so for several years (in case you’ve missed it).
The alley leads the way to a small courtyard beyond, but there’s no need to rush through the alley, which is hung with Kingston-inspired and other artwork to enjoy. The courtyard contains many repurposed objects that brighten the space and gladden the heart, and the area is shared (in season) with the Delightfully Different Tea Room next door. As intriguing as they are, however, the alley and the courtyard serve primarily as a charming prelude to the gallery, which is the main event. Step inside and be amazed and delighted by the artwork that fills this long, narrow space. It is filled literally floor-to-ceiling with all different types of art, but it all works together surprisingly well, the crowded walls and tables making you look very closely at what is on display so that you don’t miss anything. And what a wealth of things there are to see!
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It has been a while since I explored the Martello Alley, and I must say that the gallery is more vibrant and filled with more quality artwork than I recall from its early days. Here you will find paintings in all different media, and with a wide range of subject matter including non-representational art, landscape, abstract, still life and portraiture, among others. And if you have ever been on the hunt for a Kingston scene to give to someone as a gift (perhaps a work colleague who is leaving the city), this is the place to go for an original work or a print.
Martello Alley also showcases pottery, sculpture, stained glass, photography and textiles, as well as a selection of soaps, jewelry, art cards, woodworking, collage and repurposed objects. Indeed, there seems to be a little bit of everything there, and it is all made by local and regional artists. You could spend quite some time exploring the gallery, and it would be time well spent in a cheerful, creative environment. One of the represented artists is usually on hand staffing the gallery, so there is also an opportunity to talk to them about their work if you are so inclined. And if you would like to continue your art adventure in the same vein, there is the gallery’s sister space, Martello on Brock, just a short walk away on Brock Street (between King and Wellington). Now that the warmer weather is upon us, it’s time to get out and explore Kingston’s downtown once again — you never know what you’ll discover down some art-filled alleyway.
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Kamille Parkinson earned a PhD in art history from Queen’s University, and is currently a copywriter, writer of fiction and art historian at large. You can find her on LinkedIn, some of her writing at Word Painter Projects on Facebook, at www.wordpainterprojects.com and can contact her at wordpainterprojects@gmail.com.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
