Nature by the guilds

For many years, the Art Gallery of St. Albert has made November its month to celebrate all five guilds of the St. Albert Place Visual Arts Council. Full representation from each contingent, however, has never happened until now.

That’s the first of a few stunning revelations that come part and parcel with the new exhibit this week. Perennially called Guilded, the show features a group of 26 artists from the St. Albert Potters’ Guild, Painters’ Guild, Floral Arts Society, Quilters’ Guild and Paper Arts Guild. Together, they will exhibit a variety of works inspired by an excerpt from a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore, Let Nature Stun You. This quote forms both the stimulus for, and title of, the exhibition.

“Everyone’s work is loosely based around the theme of nature in lots of different ways, some more figuratively … and some more in materials,” stated Jenny Willson-McGrath, interim director and exhibition curator at the gallery. “There’s a huge variety of artworks. It’s very, very rich this year.”

Potter Gina Joys admits that she took her approach to her hand-built saggar fired pot as a direct inspiration from a quote that she found in the September 1999 edition of Ceramics Monthly magazine: “There’s a larger demand for good pots now than ever before, and one reason is the computer. The longer people work behind the machine, the more they need a link to their humanity – something made by a human hand. Pottery is a natural.”

“I just love that quote! And it goes with the theme …” she hinted. “When I read it, I thought, ‘That’s exactly how I feel right now.’ We’re in a technological age where people are wanting to be connected to something but they’re on their computer all day.”

Painter Susan Scott, on the other hand, calls herself more of an intuitive artist, as she doesn’t work from photographs or other visual cues.

“I don’t work from my head. I work from my heart,” she said.

Photos are too restricting, she continued, and she much prefers the freedom that she gets from allowing her thoughts and feelings to guide her art. She paints every day as well, which is why she paints in acrylics.

“I’m constantly busy, working with my art. I’m drawn to paint at all hours of the day. I always have a number on the go. It’s all to do with expressing from the heart.”

Kristine McGuinty is well known in this community for her series of recognizably Modigliani-esque figures. Those portraits are put to the side for her “landscape abstracts” as she calls them.

“I have more inventory of abstracts than I do of my women!” she confessed. “What I like about abstracts is bridging realism with abstraction, using a natural form that when you’re looking at the abstract you can relate to it on a level. Everybody knows that’s ground, that’s a landscape. It has all those natural forms that people can associate with and know and acknowledge what it is but in an abstract form.”

For her part, Gail Seemann is very pleased to be able to submit some nature-inspired works to this group show. She admits that she is not totally focused on one subject or style of painting when she works, but rather dabbles in all for her oil paintings.

“I’m an eclectic painter, so … I have a range. I wouldn’t say I could apply for every show or anything. Anything that looks attractive or has interesting light, I will focus in on and try and paint.”

Lina Ma perhaps is the most natural of them all as she paints the natural landscape en plein air. She is inspired by the Chinese landscape of her homeland.

“I use an umbrella sometimes to protect myself,” she laughed, adding that’s why she paints with a knife. “It’s faster. Most of my paintings of nature, I like to paint outdoors, not indoors from pictures. It’s from the real natural landscape. I like to get that experience because the real sun makes the [painting] more beautiful, more colourful.”

Willson-McGrath offered another stunner that this annual show is going to become an unofficial biennale of sorts, arriving at the gallery only every second year.

“The guilds are very busy with their work and their own events,” she explained. “This is just to make sure that everyone is really interested in this exhibition, that they’re not committed to too many events within the city. We’re spreading it out a bit as well to give people more time.”

The exhibition comes with two special events during its month-long run.

Paper artist Deirdre Allen will be conducting a bookbinding workshop this Saturday, showing participants how to make their own medieval diaries. Participants will learn traditional bookbinding techniques using gorgeous handmade papers including Japanese chiyogami.

All supplies and tools are provided but pre-registration is required. The workshop takes place from 1 to 3 p.m. and costs $25 (or $22.50 for Arts & Heritage members).

There will also be a Happy Holidays Art Workshop to be held on a drop-in basis from 6:30 to 9 p.m. during the Snowflake Festival Light Up on Friday, Nov. 21.