|
January 2004 |
Toronto - Artists Inspirations
Create your city! How would you tackle this request? Would you paint sunshine, drab skies, buildings, parks or the waterfront? What would you do if you were challenged to paint your hometown? Several artists accepted the challenge and their work was recently displayed at the Praxis Gallery in Toronto. A dominant theme of the exhibition is that Toronto is seasonal, with summer, autumn leaves and cold stark white snow popular topics of the creative minds. Locations spanned from Front Street in the heart of the business center, to beautiful Ward Island in Lake Ontario, to the Parks, Cabbagetown and bustling St. Lawrence Market. Toronto as a port city was a popular theme such as in the above pictured Port of Toronto, #9 by Branko Miokovic. Each artist, naturally, brought their own individualism to the show. Among the incredible works was a collage of paper that is first prepared by the artist, a technique developed after years of trial and error and creativity. Anna Myers has been an artist for 30 years and prefers collage. She creates her own papers and then experiments. Her piece in the show was Tourist Adventure.
Anna explains her creative process. "I got myself a camera and I went touring around Toronto looking at the architecture. Not from the point of view of buildings but from the point of view of sculptural designs. I just kept on clicking shots of buildings from the side, buildings from the bottom, buildings looking up, buildings looking down. Taking it one step further and using the structure of the buildings themselves as abstract designs." She adds, "My images are meant to guide the viewer into a completely new perception of the every day images. By using an almost
kaleidoscope montage effect of blending delicate details. My goal is to metamorphose
a single group of images into the fantasy within the confines of shape." Geoffrey Lessard's rendition of Nineteen, depicting the front steps of a Cabbagetown home in the autumn amplifies the changing seasons as the trees shed their leaves that are scattered on the foreground steps. Yet, in the middle ground there is a bright bloom of yellow and red flowers, meaning rebirth as the seasons change and the trees take their traditional winter slumber before their spring buds form.
Three interesting pen and inks were placed together. Each was a different style by the individual, whether straight linear rendition of a Toronto building, or an interesting layered image which was a window through which one sees the houses beyond, and finally a whimsical look at a visitor to the St. Lawrence Market. Yves Fournier uses bright colors to demonstrate his rendition of Father's Leaves, an oil on canvas.
"The piece basically is a tribute to my Dad." Yves explains, "My father passed away in 95. He was a big influence in my life. He was nature lover. One of the first memories I have is when my father and I used to fish together in Cornwall, which is on the shore of the St. Lawrence River. We'd get home at about 4:30 and go fishing for a couple of hours. We did that for years and years. Later on my Dad retired and he enjoyed his retirement by taking walks in the woods. My Father's Leaves, doing the painting, it was pretty easy for me to think of something that is basically along the river, and I love the fall. He loved the fall, so there's some leaves. The whole painting for me is a good place. I never looked at my father's passing as something negative. He's in a good place but I have good memories of the man. It's my way of just expressing those feelings. Every time I look at the painting, the colors, it's part of me that's in there. I'm basically speaking to my Dad using colors. It's where the whole painting comes from. It's funny how this is one of the first paintings that I exhibited in Toronto. It's a circle came around. I started painting and this became the one painting that is dedicated to someone who was very close to me." Jessica Robas' High Park Scape reminds one of Monet's Waterlily series, perhaps the artist finds Givenchy in her Toronto. Ward Island is a beautiful Oil on Canvas by Maria Carosi. Downtown the First Impression places Toronto's premier landmark, the CN Tower, directly in the background of the world surrounded by square images reflecting the concrete business sector. Irene Dukule uses blue throughout the piece. A sense of reaching to the sky with the CN Tower jutting out behind, challenged as the World's Tallest Freestanding Structure but never dominated. Lorne Wisebrod has an interesting use of yellow and orange to outline the images in Clock Tower. Each piece whether car or building has this glowing halo affect. Whatever the choice of the theme Toronto the city came as across as vibrant, versatile and vivacious thanks to the inspirations drawn by each artist who participated in Toronto Artists Inspirations. Toronto Artist's Inspirations has closed. Currently the Praxis Gallery is hosting Art Affordable until December 30th, 2003. Art Affordable Exhibitionuntil December 30, 2003
The Praxis Gallery is hosting it's annual Art Affordable during the holiday season. The Gallery is located at 1614 Queen St. West.
For further information: Praxis Gallery at www.praxisart.net Yves Fournier at artexpressions@rogers.com Geoffrey Lessard at geo.less@sympatico.ca Anna Myers at inspirations_bydesign@hotmail.com
|
|
