Ordinary moments transformed
DOZENS OF LOCAL ARTISTS SHINE IN FIELDCOTE MUSEUM’S JURIED SHOW
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WORK OF ART can help us see the most ordinary moments in a new light, whether it’s a pair of horses in a field, a potted plant or an abandoned cat.
Two horses, one white, the other black, dominate the composition in Whitney MacKay’s “Aspiring,” a large acrylic painting.
Their heads are close together and they gaze out at us, making for a highly intimate relationship between us and them.
A rural landscape rises behind the horses with a sliver of blue sky.
MacKay, an emerging artist who paints animals, landscapes and abstracts, received a Judges’ Choice prize for this painting.
It is a piece in Fresh from the Studio, a group show by local artists at Ancaster’s Fieldcote Museum.
The juried exhibition, the second of its kind at the museum, is organized by the Fieldcote Museum Fine Arts Committee. The committee received more than 156 entries and the judges chose 49, committee member Janet Parker told me.
The exhibition includes paintings, prints, photos and sculpture from artists whose careers range from emerging to well-established. Styles and subjects are wonderfully varied.
Marcela Prikryl made her household plant the subject of “My Corn Plant,” an exuberant still-life.
Prikryl, who has been exhibiting for more than 25 years, has tackled a variety of techniques and subjects, including the human figure and landscape. She excels at drawing, printmaking and painting.
Her potted plant takes centre stage, its long pointy leaves reaching for the top and sides of the painting. Prikryl enlivens the surrounding space with streaks of yellows, pinks and blues that evoke a sunny interior.
Susan Outlaw, an artist and art teacher who works in a lifelike style, brings us up close to a big blossom in “Magnolia and Cobalt.” One of many magnolias in Ancaster, this one on Jerseyville Road caught her eye.
Kim Opheim draws our attention to a black and white feline gazing thoughtfully at the world through what looks like a barred enclosure in “Abandoned Cat,” a photographic image.
The cat appears on the far left so we might see it first. Eventually we get to a sign propped up on the far right. It completes the narrative.
Patricia Lynes takes to the outdoors in “Hogan Lake, Algonquin Park.” Lynes uses loose and rough brush strokes to capture nature’s rugged side.
Water in the left foreground leads us to a rocky shore rising in bursts of rounded multicoloured shapes on the right. Trees grow from the land and push beyond the picture space.
Jeannette Essiambre chooses a more urban landscape in “Porto, Portugal.” She focuses on the tops of buildings with their terracotta roofs.
Her painting conveys a sense of calm and order through the straight lines of the walls and the geometry of the windows and sloping roofs.
Also on display are works by Susan Bartolacci, Mike Kukucska, Claudette Losier, Franca Marazia, Lee Munn and Alison Sawatzky, among others.
Clara Laratta and John Farr each received a Judges’ Choice prize and Nika Hough got an Honourable Mention. Visitors can vote for their favourite piece, and the winner of the People’s Choice prize will be announced at the end of the show.
Regina Haggo, art historian, public speaker, curator, YouTube video maker and former professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, teaches at the Dundas Valley School of Art. dhaggo@the spec.com