In last week’s post, “A Very Busy First Week,” I mentioned Banting & Friends VI, but I didn’t talk about it in detail. To be honest, even though I was sitting at the registration table for most of the night, I had a lot of fun!
First of all, the food from Aroma Mediterranean Restaurant was fun. I know that’s a strange quality for food, but believe me, it’s accurate. There was just so much to choose from! There were juicy mini burgers, pieces of perfectly spiced sausage, barbecued chicken kebabs, and pasta salad. There was a big selection of fruit, vegetables, and chips, with an awesome dip I used for chips and veggies. There were also some tempting mini desserts (I couldn’t help myself). I loved that everything was bite-sized, because I could take some of everything without eating WAY too much.
After I got some food, I got a break to walk around and see the art. I’m a very artsy person, so this was a really cool event for me to be involved in. There were metal sculptures by Richard Sturgeon, many of which were mixed with an element of nature, and Maggie Hesketh displayed an array of pottery, each piece with a unique twist.
Steve Grimes had a series of artistically manipulated Polaroids, many were local pictures, including one of our own Banting House NHSC. Martin Zimmer brought his paintings depicting the beauty around all of us, with beautiful landscapes, flowers, and street scenes.
Steve Tracy had many styles of abstract art, painted in many mediums, and ranging from Canadian landscapes to a snowy painting with hidden polar bears, to pure abstract. Cheri McLeod brought paintings and doodles exploding with colour and creativity, and Kim Atlin showed off her unique and fragmented style of landscape paintings. Every artist had something I really liked, and I enjoyed chatting with many of them; it was hard to decide what to buy!
On the topic of art, I was very excited to help Grant with the display for our newest addition to the museum; the original Banting painting is believed to be the only surviving work created during his time spent here in London. It was donated by Stephen Klinck, the grandson of Roland and Molly Hill, the couple that shared the house with Banting during his time here. We put it on temporary display in Sir Frederick Banting Square for everyone to enjoy during Banting & Friends VI. Now, you can come and see it at the museum, in the Banting as an Artist gallery.
Altogether, Banting & Friends VI was a great time. I got to chat with a lot of our guests and artists, have some good food, and I ended up with two more images of Banting House than I had before!
This blog was written by Siena McLachlan, Special Events Assistant/Interpretive Guide at Banting House NHSC. Siena specializes in English Literature and Creative Writing at Western University.
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