Amonth in the country
HAMILTON ARTIST RETURNS FROM THAILAND WITH NEW PAINTINGS
WHEN SANDEE EWASIUK
travelled to Thailand last October, she took her paintbrushes with her. That’s not surprising. Ewasiuk is a well-established painter and she’d been accepted for a month-long artist’s residency in Thailand.
But the only other artist’s material she packed was embroidery thread. It came in handy.
“I’d been playing around with some mixed media and because I’d decided to work on loose fabric, I thought the embroidery would be a nice touch,” she told me.
Her mixed-media works are on show in Paintings from Thailand, an exhibition at Kirkland Lynch Studio Gallery.
The trip to Thailand was a first for Ewasiuk. She lives in Hamilton and loves to travel. In Thailand, she spent her time at ComPeung, an organization providing accommodation for artists — including writers, musicians, performers as well as visual artists — near the city of Chiang Mai.
Ewasiuk’s paintings were inspired by what she saw.
“THE RESIDENCE was in the country and we could often hear the cows in the field across the road,” she recalls. “The farmer would move them around. One day when we were heading out on our scooter for a day trip there were three or four of them in plain view, close to the road. I thought they were so beautiful.”
That encounter led to “Cow Outside ComPeung.” The long-eared cow takes centre stage. Ewasiuk captures it reclining and gazing thoughtfully at the viewer. Dabs of paint enliven the composition, as do the clusters of embroidered blue lines on the bridle.
Subtly painted patterned backgrounds have appeared in her previous paintings. But this time, the canvas is patterned fabric which she bought at a market in Chiang Mai. She applied her acrylic paint thinly so that the patterns are still visible. She added more patterns by using bands of woven fabric as part of the painting’s border.
Sightings of insects and arachnids led to a pair of paintings Ewasiuk calls “Beautiful Bugs of Thailand.” One piece features a butterfly, the other a spider.
“Jenny, my friend who lives in Thailand, has a thing for bugs,” she says. “So on another day trip, we were out with her and ended up seeing dozens of these beautiful butterflies.
“Then we noticed the giant web hanging from a tree with the spider. The spider itself was pretty big too. There’s something lovely and intriguing about the symmetry of bugs, I think.”
IN KEEPING with her style, Ewasiuk paints her subject big and lets it dominate the composition. In one work, the spider, bigger than life, takes centre stage. In the other piece, an over-life-size butterfly reigns supreme. Ewasiuk highlights its eyes with embroidery and adds extra fabric borders top and bottom.
“Lahu Hill Tribe Market” recalls the sights of the market in Chiang Mai. A centrally placed woman, head in profile facing right and body frontally positioned, offers her wares for sale.
Embroidered red flowers enhance the woman’s dress, competing for attention with splashes of bright green, blue and red paint.