Things are getting fluid at the Art Gallery of St. Albert and a bit on the big side too. Patricia Coulter and Donna Marchyshyn-Shymko each created a series of large-scale, fluid acrylic works for Verve, the newest exhibit to hit the public gallery space. Coulter uses the medium to bold effect with sweeping, energetic visuals that are reminiscent of ribbon dancers.
Things are getting fluid at the Art Gallery of St. Albert and a bit on the big side too.
Patricia Coulter and Donna Marchyshyn-Shymko each created a series of large-scale, fluid acrylic works for Verve, the newest exhibit to hit the public gallery space. Coulter uses the medium to bold effect with sweeping, energetic visuals that are reminiscent of ribbon dancers.
Marchyshyn-Shymko, on the other hand, creates otherworldly environments, landscapes of strange colours with black outlines like a Fauvist colouring book. When was the last time you saw a yellow sky? It's a wonderful image to get lost in and it looks like a view across the terrain of another planet.
She explained that she doesn't work from real life.
“I don't have any preconceived ideas of what it is I'm painting,” she pointed out, adding that she considers herself a kind of colourist, always starting with a colour and a feeling or a general idea of how the painting will progress. “I'm winging it.”
Once she starts out, things can move fast because of this wellspring of pure imagination. Golden Glow, the aforementioned yellow-skied landscape, is a 36” x 48” piece that she finished – sans lines – in three hours flat.
She started with smaller collages up until John Maywood, the curator at the Stony Plain Multicultural Heritage Centre, made a tiny suggestion.
“He said, ‘You have to paint bigger!' I thought, ‘How am I going to paint bigger?' That's what I'm doing now. It's still the same kind of thing, using intuition as to where you put what colour. Ultimately they do turn out to be landscapes in some form or another.”
She has a broad variety of her oeuvre in the show, ranging from the smallish 1' x 1' canvases to a 4' x 5' monster, a size that Marchyshyn-Shymko said she doesn't choose too often.
The opening reception of Verve is tomorrow evening from 6 to 9 p.m. during the August ArtWalk event. Artists will be in attendance. The Art Gallery of St. Albert is located at 19 Perron St.
The exhibit runs until Sept. 26. Call 780-460-4310 or visit www.artgalleryofstalbert.com for more information.
Roses so sweet
There are few things more iconic and more Albertan than the wild rose so it goes without saying that it was way overdue for a showcase.
The Visual Arts Studio Association (VASA) is bringing in The Iconic Alberta Rose, a joint exhibit by Susan Casault and Cindy Barratt, each with their own distinct take on the beautiful prairie flower. Through a variety of mediums including watercolour and acrylic paint, graphite, and coloured pencil, they depict the precious buds and petals rich with their own personal connections to nature and the province.
Barratt, a familiar face after having taught art classes in the St. Albert Place studios and a past exhibitor at the Art Gallery of St. Albert, said that the subject matter has been lingering on her thoughts for some time.
“I've had this idea in my head for a number of years: to do something with the Alberta rose,” she said, adding that she saw some of Casault's paintings of rose hips and thought they would be a good team.
“I think our work complements each other extremely well.”
A lifelong painter, she loves the flower.
“The Alberta rose is something that we all relate to. We thought we'd feature it in its many stages and seasons and habitats, and allow the viewer to draw the parallels between the nuances and the province and the people.”
Part of her painting process is the hope to inspire others to learn about and appreciate nature and ultimately promote the importance of conserving and protecting natural areas and habitats.
Through her artist's statement, Casault said that she holds the rose dear to her heart as well.
“As a child growing up in rural wild rose country, the prairie rose was always a familiar sight. Yet I have taken for granted the shrubs lining the ditches, poking up through the pasture grass, and hiding amongst the trees. Only lately have I begun to truly appreciate the beauty of this hardy flower,” she writes.
“I have been exploring the [rose's] delicate detail and rich colours. I believe that the native prairie rose represents so aptly the resilient spirit of our western province and its people.”
The opening reception of The Iconic Alberta Rose is tomorrow evening from 6 to 9 p.m. during the August ArtWalk event. Artists will be in attendance. VASA is located at 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave.
The exhibit runs until Aug. 31. Call 780-460-5990 or visit www.vasa-art.com for more information.
