Artists display many dashes of colour
Summerdide and area artists redefine colour in exhibition at Eptek Centre hanging until May 19
A welcome splash of colour arrived in Summerside recently with the opening of a new exhibition featuring work from local artists at the Eptek Centre.
The exhibition, entitled “Colour Splash,” gathered a large crowd of spectators eager to admire the different interpretations of bright, eye-catching colours, patterns and textured artwork created by members of the Summerside Art Club.
“We usually do a show every two years and we have a theme of some sort,” explained club president, Lise Genova. “The theme today is colour splash and it can be interpreted into many different things, and colours can be expressed in many different ways.”
Painting is one of Genova’s greatest pleasures in life, and her artwork on display at the exhibition brought out a world of creativity.
“The theme in my painting is romance and I started with a few collages of couples posing in romantic positions, and then I combined pieces of piano music that’s around 100 years old, from my mother’s collection,” said Genova, who calls her mixed media piece, “Ballroom Dance.”
Couples young and old swirl and dance between strips of treasured French folk music in
her artwork, which took more than a week to create.
“My mother was a musician and she accompanied people when they were singing, on the piano, so from these music titles I connected them to my romantic couples dancing.”
Genova added, “When I was painting I started to sing because I remembered singing these songs with my mother long ago.”
Mixed media artist Pamela Detlor interpreted the colour theme also with a musical twist.
“I was a big fan of David Bowie when I grew up, and I think he pushed the boundaries of what it was to be just a fluid individual and not based on sexuality, political or religious beliefs, said Detlor. “He just created endlessly, and when he passed, me and a lot of friends felt like we lost something special.”
Even though Detlor didn’t know him personally, she decided to pay homage with an acrylic painting of Bowie on canvas, which took more than 60 hours to create.
“I just wanted to pay my respects to him, so I chose two of his well-known characters Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust and thought I would finalize the piece of him just as David Bowie, as a way of saying goodbye.”
The Eptek Centre is open Tuesdays to Fridays 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sundays 12-4 p.m. The art exhibition runs until May 19.