Picture-perfect day in Toronto with beautiful art and a spa treatment

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A trip to two art shows and a visit to the spa. Sounds like a divine way to spend the day in Toronto, yes?

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BLUE ON BLUE: Picasso: Painting The Blue Period at the AGO is really a lesson on “Picasso becoming Picasso,” as my guide Gillian McIntyre put it, focusing on his early works from 1901-1904.

Born to a painter father in Malaga, Pablo Picasso was all of 19 years old when the Spaniard arrived in Paris, soaking up influences by such contemporaries as Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Rodin, and living in a Montmartre apartment.

His Blue Period began with 1901’s The Blue Room, depicting a nude woman bathing in his apartment, and it’s one of three paintings in the AGO exhibit including 1902’s Crouching Beggarwoman and 1903’s The Soup (both painted in Barcelona), which detail the science that uncovered the paintings underneath the trio of works.

As interesting as those discoveries are, it’s the art itself that wows as Picasso focused on beggars and sex workers, including those inside the women’s prison, Saint-Lazare, where many suffered from venereal diseases but he often depicted them as nuns or the Virgin Mary to evoke empathy.

He was also mourning the loss of his close friend Carles Casagemas, who had taken his own life.

The colour blue was associated with “loneliness and solitude” by artists in Paris and Barcelona at the turn of the century.

Picasso turned a mental corner with his Rose Period of 1904-1907, also on display at the AGO, after he fell in love with bohemian artist Fernande Olivier and began painting her in “warm terracotta hues” of pinks and oranges.

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MONET ALL DAY: Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience, being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, is a digital art experience that enables attendees to feel like they’re inside the work of late 19th-century French Impressionism founder Claude Monet.

In his own words, Monet was obsessed with “landscapes of water and reflection.”

Unlike Immersive Van Gogh, which opened last summer in one huge room (and will host Immersive Klimt: Revolution starting Oct. 21), Beyond Monet is broken up into two rooms.

The first room, bathed in pink and purple light with the sound of birds, water and ambient music, is inspired by Monet’s famous Water Lilies painting so there’s plenty of reflective ponds and wooden bridges, along with hanging placards with information about the artist (unlike Van Gogh).

Next you walk through a darkened hall with dangling silver strips and enter a much larger room with a 360-degree projection of various Monet paintings while you sit on a large gazebo in the centre or distanced circles, some with elevated seating.

The latter is the more enticing of the two rooms as Monet quotes are also displayed among the striking art work that continuously surrounds you on a loop: “Water … I wish I could be before it or above it and, when I die, to be buried in a buoy,” the artist is quoted as saying.

Monet had me until that very last thought.

SPAHHH: The Omni King Edward Mokara Spa opened in July after a nine-month, $3-million facelift and is the first of its kind in Canada.

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The 6,000-square-foot elegant, sleek-looking and calm space has lots of gold, beige, brown and purple accents, a welcoming front desk staffed by spa director Julia Chang, an array of products including Eminence Organic Skin Care from Hungary — used in my 80-minute Your Majesty’s Facial, and a full salon including manicure and pedicure stations.

After going to the changing room, I hang out in the waiting room in my robe before esthetician Natalia Dolzycki takes me into one of seven candle-lit treatment rooms for a facial that begins with me selecting a Mokara Aromatherapy Blend (uplift, invigorate or relax).

Given your feet might be aching after wandering around two art exhibits, it’s pretty wonderful that this facial begins with a foot ritual with the relaxing Aromatherapy Blend added to the foot bath.

I get a gentle foot scrub on a chair in the room before making my way over to the bed for the deluxe facial, which includes a double cleanse, exfoliation with hand and arm massage, blueberry stimulant (which heats up and reddens my face), followed by a calm toner spritz, facial massage, menthol mask and skin massage.

Among the last steps is marine peptide eye cream, moisturizer and a final spritz of aromatherapy blend.

I definitely feel like a work of art when I float out of the spa.

IF YOU GO:

For tickets to Picasso: Painting the Blue Period, opening to the public on Oct. 26 and running until Jan. 16, visit tickets.ago.ca/events/Picasso .

For tickets to Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience, currently running until Nov. 7, check out monettoronto.com .

To book at treatment at the Mokara Spa, contact omnihotels.com/hotels/toronto-king-edward/spa or call 416-863-3131.