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H2O For Good

April 4 - June 23, 2019 | OPENING RECEPTION Saturday April 6 from 2 - 4PM

H2O FOR GOOD: 3 ARTISTS | 3 WALLS | 1 PLANET

This exhibition features the work of 3 different artists who have been inspired by our oceans, lakes or rivers.  Water speaks to us in many ways.  And it has a lot to teach and remind us.  Rebecca Brianceau, Carolyn Sharp and Helen Utsal have each embraced the beauty of water in a way that will harken peaceful days at the beach, the power and might of the ocean, the restful calm of our rivers.  The exhibition will also remind us that our water is precious, and clean water is something worthy of protecting.

About the Artists

Rebecca Brianceau – currently based in Toronto Ontario.  Rebecca’s Ocean Soul art series was inspired by a journey she took to Brazil where she joined local marine biologists on a 2-week work trip along the coast of Sao Paulo.  She worked picking up garbage samples from the shoreline.  The amount of garbage pulled from a small radius was outrageous and was enough for her to see how damaging human behaviour has been to the ocean, sea animals and beaches.  They picked up shampoo bottles from Poland, Coca-Cola bottles from China and water bottles from around the world that had all washed up on the once-pristine shores of Brazil.  After realizing that the biologists communicate their different information in lengthy reports, Rebecca felt that she could contribute by communicating the information by telling this dark story through beautiful, scenic ocean pieces.  Spreading the message of loving and preserving our water from oceans, to lakes and to wells.  Rebecca is a self-trained artist and visual storyteller.

Carolyn Sharp – Elora Ontario. Carolyn’s work is about the Canadian landscape, meant to connect the viewer with a sense of human frailty in the face of the natural elements. Her paintings express a love for the land and waters surrounding her home and studio in Southern Ontario. Her current work seeks to convey the sense of freedom felt in wide open spaces – the raw physical elements, big skies and surging lakes and streams. She offers these painterly impressions for viewers to interpret as they wish, hoping they connect with the underlying energy, gentle calm, or raging elemental force that she is remembering in paint. As these recollections of Canadian lands and waters tumble onto her surfaces and the process ebbs and flows, her intent is to absorb the viewer with the powerful forces inherent in our natural world and ultimately, the importance of its preservation.

Helen Utsal – Vancouver Island BC.  Helen Utsal’s colourful paintings express nature’s exuberant and vital spirit.  Gesture, expression and emotion weave into colour, texture and light.  Helen spends a lot of time in nature, sometimes painting outside with acrylics to study and capture dynamic impressions.  In the studio she uses oil paint mixed with cold was medium to bring texture and depth to the painting.  Helen likes to work on a large scale, using big palette knives and lots of motion.  Born in Montreal, and now based on Vancouver Island, Helen runs Art Alchemy Studio, a shared artists studio space and gallery in Courtenay, BC.