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SOLD |
"Curtsy" |
(unframed) |
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SOLD |
"Curtsy" |
(unframed) |
My watercolours celebrate gifts of the earth and spirit so abundant in the Niagara region. In my studio, surrounded with my regional photographs, pencil sketches and classical CDs, I synthesize and edit reality, inviting both restrained and expressive brush strokes to dance together.
I hope viewers can better treasure their time on earth. Since September 11, 2001, I consider each new work a memorial, approaching it with reverent thought for one of the unknown fellow humans whose time on earth was so tragically terminated.
Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario and after 45 years in the Toronto area, I now enjoy my Grimsby home and studio in the heart of the Niagara region.
I have been impassioned by visual art from an early age when exposed to cherished books brought from England by my grandfather. Painting in oils and with words 40 years ago led to meeting watercolour through calligraphy in 1985. Calligraphic shapes and Celtic imagery excited my affinity for detail inherited from my paternal grandfather.
Samuel John Ireland, 1854 - 1915, studied in England and Europe before teaching at King's College, University of London. He was chosen to emigrate in 1886 to be Principal of the Hamilton Art School. There, he taught technical drawing to J.E.H. MacDonald, then a lad of fourteen, himself newly here from Scotland. MacDonald was to become one of Canada's Group of Seven.
My development evolved through workshops with acclaimed watercolourists. Membership and executive functions in the Toronto Watercolour Society and a Master Class at Sheridan College, Oakville, led to elected membership in CSPWC (Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour) and other signature memberships in both Canada and the USA. The Federation of Canadian Artists, based in British Columbia, recently granted me Active Member status. Enjoyed as well, has been a long time membership in COAA and, more recently, ECOAA (Central and East Central Ontario Art Associations).
Solo and juried show have generated media attention and numerous awards, respectively. Collectors, private and corporate, national and international, enjoy my work as do clients through the services of three rental programs.
