Illumination is about light: finding the light, expressing the light, seeking our way into a brighter place following the past two years of rummaging around in the pandemic darkness. Many artists have been using art to tell their unique pandemic stories, but it is now time to move in a new direction – into the light. Art can play a role in directing life, and in preparation for this exhibition, we chose to let art lead. “Life imitates art”. If we paint it, it will happen. We are trying to shine the light, to illuminate the way forward.
The Artists featured in the show:
The “Just Do It!” Experimental Painters actively participate in the GAS Program and meet weekly at GAS and/or via ZOOM. The classes have been running for over ten years in Toronto. The class provides on-going experimental acrylic painting instruction for adults and is under the leadership of Grethe Jensen.
The artists featured in this exhibition have found unique ways to express illumination. As a group, and as a society, we are emerging into the light, and as artists we are finding ways to express illumination.
Scroll down for a sneak preview of Illumination.
Kay Compagnoni
Adventures in Babysitting
The last 2 years have been difficult for all of us and it’s been important to find joy and illumination where we could. As an artist I was fortunate to be able to continue to create art and explore new mediums and ideas. With the help of social media and platforms such as Zoom I was able to attend classes with artists from all over the world. This is reflected in the pieces I have in this show.
As the world is opening up, I am again able to travel and gather inspirations from other parts of the world and nature; continuing to use bold, bright colours and mixed media, experimenting with different mediums and subjects that I find intriguing.
We are now looking into the future with hope and resilience as the world lights up again.
Phillipa Frederiksen
Lighthouse Tasmania
“Covid 2020” is a new chapter in many of our lives! Rather than being a depressing time I have found it to be particularly illuminating time.
It has given me time to explore another side to my creative psyche. Moving on from photography to painting has been the new challenge for me. I have dabbled in most paint media but am now concentrating on Acrylic paint and Inks.
Grethe Jensen has been inspiring many over the years but now she can include an Australian in her classes!
In each of my paintings I have tried to illuminate areas of the subject. There is a whole new world out there!
Gay Cowbourne
New Day: New Hope
I had often read that a canvas will take on a mind of its own but I’m not sure I really believed that until recently.
I set out to paint a series of tree portraits but my trees soon evolved into a journey through the pandemic, reflecting our own hopes, fears, hesitations, separations and healing.
Each pandemic dawn brought us renewed hope. We hesitated before deciding whether to get together with friends and family. We found our support groups. Now we are starting to reconnect, regrow, and heal. I wonder where my canvases will take me next?
Nancy Kitto
Burst of Green
We wish for the next decade to provide us with clarity and better understanding of religious and race acceptance and more definition and control factors regarding climate change.
As an artist these factors play a significant role with the images we produce.
This abstract seemed to paint itself without any forethought. A pleasant experience.
Luana DiGiovanni-Sharma
Snow Angel
From the moment we are conceived we are in a process of seeking illumination. Illumination is our connection to the divine within us. I am new to painting. My paintings are a product of my inner journey this past year as a means for questing play, joyfulness and yes illumination after a long period of sorted confinements. Some of the pieces have emerged from my inner child reilluminating forgotten joyful experiences thought to be lost.
Glenis Steuart
Sunflower Leaves
I have based this series of paintings on plants. They are semi abstract as I am not aiming for pretty botanical perfection. Perhaps there is even a sinister look hidden within the large leaves. They are after all Taro and Sunflowers plants that produce food for humans in the roots and seeds of the respective plants and their environment is increasingly threatened as more and more farmland is paved over for housing and roads. Perhaps these plants also feel threatened by the diminishing numbers of pollinators so necessary for their survival, pollinators that are killed off by the human use of chemicals.
My medium is oil on canvas. Oil paint seems right for these subjects as it has a base of natural oil and the capacity to blend together to produce soft colours, edges, textures and atmospheres; all the elements we enjoy in nature.
Sharon Anderson
A Moment
The painting process for me is illuminating; it illuminates my inner experience while the direction and resolution of the painting is taking shape, willing me to see and create what is to emerge. I love the in-the-moment experience of the painting process, seeing a painting emerge, trying to take a piece closer to completion, and resolving the dilemmas and challenges that arise. I am inexplicably only inspired to paint non-objective, and primarily intuitive, abstract work. I love using pencil and graphite to create marks on the canvas which I often fully cover in acrylic paint.
Peg Graham
2 Meter Laugh
This series resulted from COVID restrictions. Social distancing and outside. Many laughs were had. Sanity was maintained.
Sonia Perrin
Light it up
We all go through times of emotional or spiritual darkness. They make us stop and wonder if we can face life again. But with courage and acceptance, doubt and fear will disappear, for hope and positivity will fill our days with light. In these paintings I explore the illumination which follows darkness, or the darkness that precedes light. There are so many ways of experiencing illumination. Is it an “aha” moment when there is sudden clarity to a feeling, an idea? I’ve depicted this in the painting of fireworks titled “Light it up”. Fireworks can be designed to burn with colored flames and sparks including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and silver. They light up the dark skies and bring joy and wonder to all. An “aha” moment indeed. There are also the quiet beautiful moments when the darkness can be illuminated by a gift of flowers, the emergence of vivid colors after a long, dark, cold winter, or a period of isolation. The color temperatures of light- its warmness or coolness, can also affect our moods, sometimes dramatically, sometimes subtly. Many respond to bright saturated hues and are aware of their response. May you be illumined by these paintings I present to you.
Denise Gracias
Interior Life
I like experimenting with a variety of media and subjects and have yet to find my “niche”. I tend to paint landscapes and Biblical scenes and use acrylic paint. However, recently I have been taking risks, and painting “intuitively, allowing a painting to “lead me”. I have also been including Scripture cut out from old church missals. Some words can be seen while some are buried under layers of paint and medium.
The lockdowns and restrictions made on our lives in the past two years were no doubt difficult for us all. The dark days stretched, and the end date seemed to move further and further as time went on. However, we can choose what goes into our heart, minds, bodies. If the body were a temple or church, mine would probably be as cluttered as the one in this painting, with dark dusty corners. But, the light shining through reminds me that there is always hope and joy in life. To me, illumination comes from within.
Jean Klooster
Finding the Light
I am an Artist: I create.
It’s not what I do–it’s what I am.
Everything…anywhere…I create:
colours, patterns, lines, textures, emotions, people, places, things.
I can create the world as I see it, or reflect it, or as I want it:
calm and crazy, light and dark, beautiful and ugly, exciting and soothing, loud and quiet, fantasy or reality.
I can create my world–
it’s up to me–
We are all artists–creating life as we go; creating life as we live it–
it’s up to us–
Bruce Charles
Passion is Red
Illumination: the definition is “the action of being illuminated or the state of being illuminated”.
As an artist I use illumination to draw the attention of the viewer to different areas of the painting. Take a look at “Red is Passion” the lighter shades of red draw you to different areas of the painting. This piece was painted during a very emotional time in my life, ask me the whole story and I will be happy to share. The small brush strokes of yellow and blue also draw you in to investigate those areas. The state of being illuminated, is spiritual or intellectual enlightenment. As an artist painting is a very spiritual process, and each painting is a part of my soul. Enjoy the show, I am looking forward to seeing you there.
Beverley Howell
Dance Time
It’s a wonderful surprise when I finish a new painting. These works are no exception.
I go on a journey with a canvas, paint and tools ….expressing a mystery I can’t explain in words. Layer by layer the shapes form and the painting comes alive.
I hope you enjoy my paintings as much as I loved creating them.
Marilyn Vasilkioti
To the Sun
I paint to create and experience the process of transformation. Some paintings are on a previously “used” canvas, where some former work peeks through the new creation. Other pieces are new and I approach the canvas, or other material and the colours I choose, as an experiment, something to “try out”, to “play with”.
In this show ILLUMINATION, there are examples of both, however the focus of the pieces presented is how I have worked to move from my experimenting with darker colours, darker moods, to one of light, illumination. As I tend to use the darker hues, this is a challenge for me, and experimentation and transformation from my previous style becomes evident.
Light has arrived! Illumination is here, at long last.
Gail Cooper
Path to Tranquility
My resurgence from COVID and a long winter hibernation encouraged me to select a radiant palette.
The structured background flows into loose brush strokes of abstraction.
This piece expresses my personal journey.
Dorothy DeClute
Red Sky At Night
Over the past two years I have loved doing Acrylic Painting Classes with Grethe Jensen via Zoom. It was truly a life saver during COVID! Grethe and everyone in our class inspired me to keep my brushes wet.
An abundance of fun and good cheer made the learning process special.
I am particularly drawn to beautiful sunsets. Always uniquely their own, they offer hope for the dawning of another glorious day.
Anna Keating
Ruminations
As Grethe has said throughout our sessions this year, “it’s time to move into the light,” so I felt that Ruminations had to be a part of this show: Illuminations.
This painting represents the turbulence of our swirling thoughts, fears and anxieties throughout the pandemic, where an underlying hope has been waiting to emerge. There is light in our resilience to stand strong and stand together.
My best days are when I see the sunrise. Watching the sun crack the horizon and bathe the sky in whatever colours she chooses is truly magical. These experiences continue to impact my artist’s palette. I find these quiet moments allow my creativity to flow and blossom, so know that every time my paintbrush, palette knife or my dad’s old drywall tools meet the canvas, what results truly comes from my heart and soul.
Dahlia Sawwan
Exhale
Illumination, when the light shines through the darkness, or when you finally come to an awareness that things have changed and you need to adapt.
For me travelling the roads of Ontario, and realising the beauty we live in, and expressing it through my art, has been my illumination. I learned to breath again..
see if you can feel the breath pattern in the art displayed ..
Kathy Loumankas
Poppies Up Close
Although I have said I don’t want to paint ‘flowers‘ continuously I’m drawn to their shapes and colours. I enjoy putting a different ‘spin’ on the settings instead of a traditional garden or vase.
In these troubling and thoughtful times these depictions are my ‘illuminations’.
Tamar Ishaky
My Luminescence
The last couple of years have challenged most of us to look beyond the darkness and find light. For me that light was found in small things, in people’s smiling eyes as I walked by, in small gatherings sharing food and laughter with friends, in hearing birds chattering about in the morning and in lots and lots of walking.
This painting started as a dark mess and as I played around, I found myself staring at what looked like a figure in light…she just appeared. She’s my luminescence.
