Archive
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Eva McCauley
Comments Off on Eva McCauleyEva McCauley is a painter and printmaker known for her atmospheric, expressive paintings of sky, water and shifting landscapes that explore the passage of time and the transient and ephemeral nature of the spiritual and physical world. She is also a figurative artist, and is fascinated with the human condition, and the fragility of our existence. She divides her time between her studios in Bear River, N.S., and Elmira, Ontario, painting people and places that are steeped in personal significance.
Her work explores the process of recollection and how we process memories. Her focus is not on the recreation of a specific image or moment, but the creation of something informed by the act of remembering — an act which renders past experiences as ephemeral, and constantly in flux, resulting in works which perpetually shift, their images lyrical, ghost-like, and ethereal.
She studied visual art at the Ontario College of Art and Design, receiving an O.C.A.D. diploma in drawing & painting (1983), a B.F.A. from University of Guelph (1994) and a M.F.A. from University of Waterloo (1996).
Eva’s exhibition ‘Splendid Isolation’ will be featured in the main gallery at the Elora Centre for the Arts from May 26 – July 24, 2022. For more information on the exhibition please click here.
She has exhibited internationally and nationally, with solo exhibitions at ArtsPlace Gallery in Annapolis Royal, N.S., (Splendid Isolation, 2021), St. Thomas Elgin Art Centre (World’s Edge, 2014); Wandesford Quay Gallery in Cork (In/Visible, Aug/Sept. 2012); Limerick Printmakers (In/Visible, August/Sept. 2010); Elora Centre for the Arts, Elora, Ontario, and Harbinger Gallery, Waterloo (Solas agus Scáth, 2009), Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery (Momento Mori); Open Studio, Toronto (Ruptured Time); Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto (Colour of Memory, Mutable as Water, Gaze); and solo and group exhibitions at Harbinger Gallery, Waterloo; Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery 2nd Biennale (2005); and the Castellani Museum in Lewiston, N.Y. (Crossing Borders). Her work is included in collections in Canadian Embassies all over the world and is part of a Canadian boxed set collection sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
McCauley is the recipient of many awards and scholarships, including the W.O. Forsythe Painting Award (1983), Bronfman Printmaking Award (1993), Warner Lambert Printmaking Scholarship (1994) “Best in Printmaking Award” at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (1996), “Ernst & Young Purchase Award” (1996), a Canada Council “Quest” Grant for Emerging Artists (2000), as well as an Ontario Council Project Grant (2007). Her work can be found in many private and public collections such as the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Waterloo Regional Labour Council, and the Ernst & Young Canadian Print Collection.
She is an art educator, and has been a sessional professor of Fine Art at the University of Waterloo since 2002.
To find out more about Eva, please visit her website.
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Yangyang Pan
Comments Off on Yangyang PanComing from away, I unpack my paint box to interpret the Canadian landscape from a different perspective. I tame the wilderness and make my gardens wild. With a bird’s eye view of the new, yet old earth around me, I challenge the Canadian Shield and honour the St. Lawrence Lowlands. It is an immigrant immersion. I learn the land and present its messages. The abstracted landscape lets me step into it gently, then build, with my brushstrokes, this new embrace to a release. I paint my way into a new space that does not contain me. It allows me to feel an unfamiliar freedom and, at the same time, to be myself.
My focus is on chromatic lyricism. My paintings, with their exuberance and wild colours, develop and evolve as an intuitive reaction to my beautiful surroundings, whether as close as the garden or farther throughout the region. The resulting work is an interplay of my memories and my present, as I bring together the ethereal and the physicality of the land around me. Perhaps this distillation of nostalgia helps me to understand the here and now.
What I wish to present is my journey. While ostensibly based on the dynamic visual forces of nature, landscape and surroundings, these lyrical works are as much a landscape of my inner emotions, memories and history. I want my paintings to pulse with life and reveal a marriage of my cultural connections and ideas of aesthetics. This work allows me to consider the space between seen and unseen, which takes root in one’s senses and memory. I aim for the beauty and drama of evocative abstract painting within an ongoing exploration of what can be achieved in paint. I try to push the relation between form and colour to create a visual sensation of energy, emotion, and reality: epiphany.
Yangyang’s ‘Ephiphany’ solo exhibition at the Elora Centre for the Arts recently included captured the energy flow and the senses, and the fusion of eastern and western traditions. She grew up in China, where she got her art education. While much of her influence comes from Chinese culture and arts, she is also influenced by western abstract expressionism painters like Willem De Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Philip Guston and Cy Twombly, among others. Her work reflects the blend of ideas between east and west, and is emblematic of the global nature of art.
We are currently featuring the work of Yangyang Pan at the Elora Mill Hotel & Spa. The pieces you see in her virtual gallery below are part of that exhibition, and are available for purchase.
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Barry McCarthy
Comments Off on Barry McCarthyRenowned for his luminous landscapes of Southern Ontario & coastal Maritime seascapes
“Lillian Smith once wrote “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” I believe she understands the importance of travelling to new places and not just looking but seeing. There is a difference. When you see a wonderful highlight with an equally beautiful accompanied shadow it should talk to your soul. When as artists, we are amazed at this so strongly, we just have to say something about it, whether it be in dance, music, song or paint. It’s all the same spontaneous, reflective action with copious amounts of light and shadow. This is the stuff that makes great art. When I teach painting to young or mature artists I tell them there is no point thinking about painting if you’re not going to deal with the light! Shape, space, composition are all inclusive as important ingredients but it’s the light that is going to drive the thing forward. And this thing is called power! Without power you have mediocrity. The Elora Gorge is a piece of this planet the drives me wild. No matter what time of day it is, one side is always bathed in light while the other is in warm to cool shadows. It’s a formula that makes perfect paintings. This is the Yin Yang in art. If you have perfect balance in your composition, and mix it with a little geometry, you will have the ingredients for a perfect painting.
The sea, is another backdrop that sets the stage for great landscape/seascape works. The sea, with its constant mirror-dance, still holds my eye in constant fascination and respect. The large abstract space is a never ending challenge, as is the use of texture, and techniques that get you there. The sea, with all of its austere foreboding and tension, informs me that I am but an apprentice in serving its greater glory. But to paint it you have to understand it. Picasso once said “I don’t paint what I see, I paint what I know.” One must also remember that technique is merely technique and a good painter must avoid a systematic approach. Great bodies of water constantly change in the light. Colours can morph from grey-blue to greens and purples. In my mind’s eye, I map out the composition. I often see these panoramas in larger formats. Oil on canvas is my chosen medium here; however I have completed very large watercolours as I love the transparent quality this medium provides me. Layering several transparent colours over one another is not a thing of the past. As a matter of fact it is a “must method” if you want your work to be luminous and shimmering. This of course takes great patience, a trait I constantly wrestle with. But in the end, the effort is worthwhile, as the key to the creative process is not about time but about capturing your vision… the thought or inspiration that brought you to the canvas. One must be passionate about one’s own work. The act of painting for me is serious business.”
Barry is one of the curated group of artists that are part of the annual Elora Fergus Studio Tour Show & Sale held in our main gallery every Fall. He is also one of our featured artists at the Elora Mill Hotel & Spa.
Prices are in Canadian dollars and do not include shipping costs. Prices are subject to an additional 13% HST.
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Vera Kisseleva
Comments Off on Vera KisselevaEarlier this year, this exhibition at the Elora Centre for the Arts featured Russian Canadian artist Vera Kisseleva, celebrating how the forest can harken our best memories
Have you ever experienced a moment when an unfamiliar or new place looks and feels so familiar? Artist Vera Kisseleva explores the essence of familiarity and its intangible and magical way of bringing us back to happy memories. “Sometimes I’m walking in nature and the way the light is filtering through the upper tree branches triggers a memory for me – usually it reminds me of camping with my family or that quiet peace that comes with the setting sun” says Kisseleva, a Russian-born Canadian artist now living and working in her studio in Fergus, Ontario.
Kisseleva’s bold and vibrant paintings focus on trees and the changing seasons. “I am fascinated with the drastic differences between the Canadian seasons” she says. “Each season brings something extraordinary to our lives and affects our feelings, emotions and wellbeing”. In Kisseleva’s new exhibition at the Elora Centre for the Arts, ‘Making the Unfamiliar Familiar’, the artist represents the seasons and hopes you will see glimpses from your own experiences and memories within her work. “Spring teaches us to hope, summer reminds us to be outside and feel alive, winter encourages us to slow down and reflect” says Kisseleva. “I believe that Autumn is the most spectacular time of year, the quiet whisper in the breeze, the rustle of dry leaves and the beautiful view of the reflection in an autumn lake – it evokes such nostalgia of our best and brightest memories, as summer comes to a close and a new chapter begins” she explains.
Vera Kisseleva is an established award-winning artist best known for her paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape. She is also a member of the annual Elora Fergus Studio Tour and Elora Plein Air Festival. Her pieces are in collections all across the globe.
For more information about the exhibition and the artist please visit our website at https://eloracentreforthearts.ca/exhibition-making-the-unfamiliar-familiar-by-vera-kisseleva/
Prices are in Canadian dollars and do not include shipping costs. Prices are subject to an additional 13% HST.
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Jennifer Elliotson
Comments Off on Jennifer ElliotsonHi! I’m Jennifer Elliotson. I work from my studio in Jordan Station, Ontario, beneath an old ginkgo tree.
I’ve always been an artist, but I haven’t always been a painter. For 20 years, I was a professional florist. When I gave up flowers, I fulfilled a life-long ambition of becoming a painter and immediately turned my flower studio into a painting studio. I haven’t looked back. I’m self-taught and have forged my own path, developing a recognizable style that dances between the tension of fine details and broad, loose brushstrokes. Focussing on the relationship between vibrant colour and light, my paintings are lively and expressive.
Story-telling is at the heart of my subjects and I paint from my own lifetime of experiences and memories. I’m inspired by our vast Canadian landscape, hiking in the Carolinian forest, majestic waterways … and flowers, of course! In each body of work I create, it’s my hope to not only bring a narrative to life with colour and imagination, but for you to be able to find yourself within it.
Jennifer’s new “North of Here” collection of originals and prints features northern Ontario’s iconic bent and rugged trees and rocks. “When we were out on northern Ontario lakes, kayaking past weather-worn trees and massive rocks, I could see that the landscape had something to teach me. Gracefully leaning in the direction of wind, it’s the trees’ flexibility that accounts for their endurance and resilience. Weather-worn roots embedded in cracks of prehistoric rock both stabilize and nourish. You can see the influence of prevailing wind against their branches. These trees are bent, but not broken. I aspire to be this resilient, to bend in wind”.
Prices are in Canadian dollars and do not include shipping costs. Prices are subject to an additional 13% HST.