The place has only been open for a few months now but Pat Wagensveld has already scored two shows there.
The Daffodil Gallery is located smack dab in the heart of downtown Edmonton’s Art Walk District. It found life after Edmonton’s Karen Bishop and St. Albert painter Rick Rogers got together to provide a new and “unpretentious” showcase for established and emerging artists from across the country.
Since Rogers was a member of the Visual Arts Studio Association (formerly the Studio Gallery), he already had a good lead on who might be a strong name on the roster.
“He fell in love with my work,” Wagensveld elaborated. “He brought Karen around and they just said, ‘Please’.”
As the idiom goes, that was all she wrote. The deal was done. Now, it’s just a matter of establishing the gallery with strong early shows with formidable names and talents.
“She’s one of our … I guess they call it a ‘stable’ of artists but I prefer ‘community’,” explained Bishop. “She’s been with us since the beginning.”
That beginning was in the spring. Neither she nor Wagensveld have looked back since. Wagensveld already participated in the group show in April. This time she’s sharing the marquee with Edmonton artist Saeed Hojjati, a familiar name to those who frequent Art Beat Gallery here.
“I am actually thrilled with the show,” said Bishop. “Pat’s paintings are quite abstract and very textured with real bold colours. Quite dramatic. Saeed’s paintings are kind of whimsical, I guess, but they still have this intense colour and they’re quite bold. They really go together in a way that has surprised me.”
“I thought they would, but I didn’t expect it to be so brilliant, but I don’t mean brilliant in a big headed way. I mean brilliant in an impact way.”
As far as the artist is concerned, however, it all stems from just coming up with great composition time and time again.
“It’s all about the significant line,” said Wagensveld. “I’m still dealing with that prominent line in everything that always stands out at you.”
If you don’t know what this means then just think of how important the horizon is in any landscape. Her travels east to Emma Lake in the infamously straight-planed province of Saskatchewan play a significant role in the development of this series of works. Certainly, she must have focused much of her attention on the horizon while on the road.
But it’s not just about that geographic feature. Sometimes, the most important line comes on a face or a flower, like in her painting Lines of Deception. It looks like she’s doing geometry with an obtuse angle on the horizon marker.
“If you look at many, many forms, there’s always one significant line that stands out at you. I’m working with that but on a prairie perspective.”
The September Show runs until Sept. 30. Both artists will be in attendance today from 2 to 4 p.m.
The Daffodil Gallery is located at 10412 124 Street in Edmonton.
For more information, call 780-760-1278 (1ART) or visit www.daffodilgallery.ca.
