Statement

My current work toggles between oil landscapes of the peaceful world around me and ink drawings of social commentary. The common theme through my artistic eras of watercolour, figure drawing, oil painting, and ink drawings has been our human existence in relation to the world we inhabit.
For me, feelings of comfort and familiarity abound when I paint landscapes; during that time, my questioning concerns technique: the use of paint and colour to create form, atmosphere and earthiness. My love of the land and desire to portray its heartbreaking beauty lies in my rural childhood. 
In ink drawings, a traditional social commentary medium, I explore my curiosity about our human, mimetic nature; the drawings require much more planning, several drafts, and thoughtful deliberation. In the drawings, I am motivated largely by my own interest and curiosity in our human condition, wondering how to name and describe what it is we do. My goal is to gain distance from myself and my views, to ‘see’ my culture from a more disinterested perspective.

Currently I use the richness of oils to portray our fertile and peaceful landscapes, which seem in jeopardy. I feel conflict - using toxic materials to portray the land that feeds me. I am part of the problem but also part of an admirable tradition. Can not everyone make the same claim? 
The immediacy and low toxicity of ink allows me to hope that finding a disinterested vision of Canadian society may shift a viewer’s inner landscape, as this new, distant perspective has shifted mine. Often sketch book squiggles are the basis for a fully developed piece; hasty notes of interesting points, which, when strung together, compose a stimulating new outlook. 

The oil paintings I make, are in a traditional style of representational art, with the aim of creating a small moment of suspended time for a viewer, one where the concerns of one’s day are set aside momentarily. A moment of no worries, no cares and no tomorrows.
My ink work bridges the modern and post-modern eras. While I appreciate and seek technical ability, I also seek to explore the multi-faceted world I live in, the one with no answers.

Growing up in the country, a hard-wired concern with fairness, listening to the radio .. these are my largest influences. My current series, titled: Imaginaries of Peace, was inspired by the CBC radio show ‘Ideas’. Listening to the radio always requires a notebook and pen in hand. I learn aurally although I express myself visually. 
Additionally, exhibiting in other countries/cultures has awakened me to the possibilities of art as a tool for more than personal self-expression, more than a means of creating beauty, rather, art as a tool to stimulate public discussion of the issues that determine our future.   

Selected Exhibitions
2009 - The Gibson Cultural Centre, Alliston, ON - invitational
2009 - Boxheart Gallery, Pittsburgh, PPA - invitational
2008 - Woolwich Public Library, Elmira, ON - invitational
2008 - Georgian College, Barrie, ON - group
2007 - Ars Latina, State Gallery, Castellon de la Plana, Spain - invitational
2007 – Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, ON - invitational
2006 – Uluslarasi Sanat Festivali, Adana, Turkey – invitational
2006 - University of Georgia, Watkinsville, GA – invitational  
2006 – Art on Main, Alliston, ON – invitation
2006 - The New Tecumseth Library, Alliston, ON - solo
2006 – Strade del Mondo, Ex Chiesa di San Sebastiano, Belforte del Chient, Italia - invitational
2006 – Galleria degli Antichi Forni, Macerata, Italia - invitational
2006 – The Millpond Gallery, Alliston, ON – juried
2005 – The OCAF Cultural Arts Foundation Center, Watkinsville, GA - invitational
2005 – The Museum of Arad, Arad, Romania - invitational
2005 – Millpond Gallery, Alliston, ON - juried
2004 – The Museum of Arad, Arad, Romania - invitational
2004 – The Travelling Weave Inaugural, Porto Recanati, Italy - invitational
2003 – Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy - invitational
2003 – Taos Invites Taos, NM – invitational
2003 – The Apple Tree, Taos, NM - solo
2002 – Taos Invites Taos, Taos, NM – invitational
2001 – The Apple Tree, Taos NM – solo
1999 – Parks Gallery Internet Fine Art Auction, Taos, NM – juried
1999 – Taos Open, Taos, NM – group
1999 – Silverhawk Annual Fine Art Auction, Taos, NM - juried
1998 – Drawings and Carvings, Taos, NM – duet
1997 – The Best of Taos, Taos, NM – juried
1996 – Maximum Drawings, Santa Fe, NM – juried
1995 – McMichael Annual Exhibition, Kleinburg, ON – juried
1995 – TAA Drawing Exhibition, Taos, NM – juried
1994 – Bareiss Gallery Exhibition, El Prado, NM – group
1994 – Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Exhibition, Kitchener, ON – group
1993 – Taos Open, Taos, NM – group
1992 – Peel Regional Art Gallery Autumn Exhibition, London, ON – juried
1991 – Crosshill Schoolhouse Painting Exhibition, Millbank, ON – duet
1990 – Wellington County Museum Exhibition, Fergus, ON – juried
1988 – Elmira Library Spring Exhibition, Elmira, ON – juried
1976 – University of Waterloo Art Exhibition, Waterloo, ON – juried

Education
2006 – Qualifications in Visual Art, University of Western, London, ON
2000 – Pleine Aire Painting with Ron Rencher, Rencher Studios, Taos, NM
1998 – Oil Painting with Laura Robb, Valdez School Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1992 – Drawing with Gustav Rehberger, Art Students League, NY, NY
1976 – Bachelor of Arts, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Galleries
Gallery-on-the-Grand, Waterloo, ON
The Old Pink Schoolhouse, Tres Piedras, NM

Residency
Bee-Bar Ranch, Tres Piedras, NM 1998 - 2003              

Bibliography
Hurriyet (Gukurova)                           06/10/12
Hurriyet (Gukurova)                           06/08/12
Southern Distinction                           06/06
Lake Oconee Living                           06/04
The Alliston Herald                             06/01/18
The Caledon Citizen                            06/01/18
Athens Herald-Banner                         05/09                      
The Elmira Independent                       05/06/24
Corriere Adriatico                               04/09
Wide Open Spaces                             00/10
Rocks Talk                                         98/03
THE Magazine                                    96/09
The Unplugged Quarterly                     95/07
The Taos News                                   93/10/07

Commissions
Corporate:    GA Paper, Markham, ON
                     Dr. L. Whyte-Ferguson, Taos, NM
Personal:       B. Nelson, OR
                     N. Elgammal, Toronto, ON                                                         

Selected Collections
E. Allgood,     Denmark
B. Barbour-Soules, San Francisco,    CA
S. Bryant, Brookfield,     NH
A. Burnett, Mars Hill,     NC
J. Haas, Saltspring Island,     BC
L. Lightner, Garden City,    KS
M. & J. Lombard, Torrance,    CA
K. Nelson, Tres Piedras,    NM
R. & S. Roth, Crosshill,    ON
P. Sherman, Hoover,    TX
L. Smith, Brownwood,    TX
L. Thom, Kingston,  ON
M. Urdahl, New York,     NY

Contributions To The Field
2006 & 2007   Painting in the Park, Earle Rowe Provincial Park, Alliston, ON
2004                Mentor, University of Western Ontario, London, ON

Associations
Member, CARFAC, Toronto, ON
Member, International Artistic Committee, Biennale Arad 2005, Romania
Member, International Artistic Committee 2006, Ars Latina, Tecate, Mexico
Honorary Member, Terra Dell’Arte Cultural Association, Tolentino, Italy
Founding Member, The Travelling Wave, www.TravellingWave.org