Lakeside, dockside, poolside… whatever your perch, we have Beach Read for you. Our summer book previews and reviews cover all kinds of genres, from Historical and YA to Murder, Mystery, and Literary. Pull up a sun chair, it’s going to be a read-worthy summer.
For me, summer in Muskoka isn’t complete without a visit to the Muskoka Arts & Crafts (MAC) Summer Show—on July 15-17, 2022 at Bracebrdige’s Annie Williams Park. I’ve missed the opportunity over the last two years as the show was cancelled due to… well, I’d rather not talk about the pandemic. But I know what will happen when I pass through the Show’s entry gate this week: a form of wellness will wash over me, as it does during a swim, in a yoga class, at a spa visit, or while participating in a wilderness retreat. I call it the art of bathing. Or, Art Bathing. Art Bathing?
Catching Muskoka wildlife on camera is a tricky thing. You need patience and calm, an enviable camera, clothes that don’t swish. Photo duo Heather Truscott and Cheryl Nicholson of Heartstone Photography are learning by doing. Friends since childhood, the pair spend their Muskoka weekends walking the woods, paddling the lakes, hiking the trails. Algonquin. Arrowhead. Muskoka Lakes. They stop, wait, listen. When they spot a deer or a special bird, a groundhog, a chipmunk, they raise their Nikons and shoot… in a kindly way. The result are these arresting wildlife photos published regularly here in MuskokaStyle. Oh, and Heather and Cheryl tell stories too—the stories behind the images: what it took, and more importantly, what it meant to capture these beautiful, natural, fleeting moments on film. Stop by often, this page is updated regularly with new pix. Now, get to it. Read and Look:
Have you ever wondered what sparks an artist’s work? How they’re motivated or inspired? Where ideas come from? There are as many answers to those questions as there are artists. Wendie Donabie reflects on where ideas come from and how to capture inspiration when it hits.
MuskokaStyle writer and book reviewer Kaitlyn Sutey asks herself an age-old question: How can a writer fall in love with a hometown so deeply that they spend years building a whole fictional world around it?
Escape the the city, open an art gallery. It’s more than one artist’s dream, but Muskoka’s Wendie Donabie figured out how to make that dream her new reality.
It’s been a miracle. Author David Bruce Patterson made the move to Muskoka as a man of 60 searching for a place to belong as well as some happiness. He found both in cottage country’s artistic community.
Kaitlyn Sutey loves books, especially when read on a dock, on a lake, in a Canadian paradise called Muskoka. Here’s what she’s reading here this summer. Tag along, it’ll be fun reading together.
“My heart is on an island in Georgian Bay.” Martha Davis, Artist That’s how artist Martha Davis describes her summer-cottage studio in a place that most inspires her. Having spent childhood summers on Georgian Bay, she’s moved to create impressionistic, up-close-and-personal work drawn from the natural world: sun rising in the east, dew settling on …
Paint your own paddle by following these six easy steps—created for MuskokaStyle by artist and author Wendie Donabie. Materials: Wooden paddle – unfinished or varnished Acrylic paint and foam applicator or brushes Painter’s tape 150 or 180 with grit Sandpaper or a palm sander Spray on clear varnish Instructions: Sand the varnish off the portion …