Exhibitions

2022 Wind and Water

A year ago I moved form Shoe Cove, where I lived for 47 years, into the city of St John’s. This was a hard decision as I had lived on four and a half acres of boreal forest that ended in 300-foot-high cliffs on the Atlantic Ocean and was the primary inspiration for my work. The unceasing winds battered the coast, eroding and reshaping the rocky shore, and frequently have been a protagonist in my work. In many of these paintings you will experience these winds: they become visual, make a sound, you can feel them.

At the end of our forest path are the cliffs in “Hollow Cove”. The oil painting of these ice bedecked, precipitous heights was featured on the cover, with an article inside, in American Psychologist in October 2021 so I included it in the current show. This can be seen on my homepage.

“A Thin White Line” was inspired by a photograph by Gerald Vaandering of the small, waterfall in the same cove, frozen as a winter drawing on the rocks.

Waterfalls and rovers appear in some new egg tempera paintings. In August 2020 I visited the codroy valley and south-west corner of Newfoundland. The lushness of this verdant valley is a prolific agricultural area and is baackdropped by the Long Range Mountain chain that runs from the Appalachians to Gros Morne and onto the Pennines in England. Their profile is an awe-inspiring backdrop to these small, egg tempera works

and extends to create the cliffs in

Barraachois Waterfall

and the exposed, famous valley for

Wreckhouse Winds

where enormous transport trucks can be blown off the Trans Canada highway.

Two other paintings in the exhibition can be seen in the next post.

2021 International Juried Exhibition Society of Canadian Artists

I was delighted to have two recent works accepted into this exhibition.

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Can You See The Wind?

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With The Light Comes The Wind

2021 Beyond The Edge

Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour

With The Light Comes The Wind

2019 Edgelines

Since 1998, during an 18 month Artist –In-The-Community project in Hopedale, I became increasingly fascinated by the particular geology of Newfoundland and Labrador. My focus has narrowed to the coastal terrain where the weathered rocks and cliffs expose the patterns and forms of the eroding shore. The East Coast Trail runs along the cliff of my home in Shoe Cove and is a constant source of inspiration. I work from an initial, personal contact but develop the subject from there. Often the coastal view is obscured by the fringing boreal forest so I make the trees transparent to expose the cliffs and ocean vista and link the branches and twigs into the rhythms of the ocean currents.

In 2017 during  two periods spent exploring the north side of Conception Bay to Grates Cove, I discovered the elusive, foggy view across to Baccalieu Island which reinvigorated memories of sailing through Baccalieu Tickle many years before. Salmon Cove, Black Head Cove, The Mousehole and Flambro Head were discovered along this coast and appear in several paintings in the exhibition.

The Mousehole
Flambro Head
Skerwink Seastacks
Baccalieu Tickle
Salmon Cove
Stormfront over Fox Head
SouthEast Arm, Bonne Bay
Deer Island 1 Bonavista Bay
Deer Island 2, Bonavista Bay
Blackhead Cove 1, Conception Bay
Blackhead Cove 2, Conception Bay
Fall Textures

The following works are all painted in traditional egg tempra.

Jackson’s Arm, Main River, Evening light, White Bay, Sentinel Rock
Bellevue Beach, Rushing Water, Long Pond, Windy Trees

2016   0n the Edge  

Christina Parker Gallery, St John’s, Newfoundland

The paintings in this collection are about the strategic skills used by plants that are growing in challenging environments. The results of this interaction are often unexpected and fascinating to me. Many times I wonder if my progress in life would have been entirely different if Science had been taught at the girl’s school I attended in Zimbabwe. The excitement generated in observing and becoming educated about the plant kingdom has almost become an obsession. Through this challenge of self education, and the Newfoundland environment around me, I have been exploring the geological effects that change and enhance the accompanying verdure.

iceland waterfallb
Arctic Waterfall, Iceland 2015  acrylic
Death Valley View, California   2015   acrylic
lionsdenb
Lion’s Den, Fogo Island, Newfoundland  2016 acrylic

2015 My Appendix! (Online exhibition)

appendix1deta

In 2013 and 2014 I spent a lot of time experiencing the medical system in St John’s. It started August 13 with extreme pain which, after 24 hours, took me to hospital Emergency with life-threatening perforated appendix and toxic infection! I was there on serious antibiotics for 10 days and discharged, only to return a day later with a pulmonary effusion from a blood clot in the right lung and a further 21 days. I was ill for months with a return attack, warfarin and surgery until April 2014.

The whole experience left me with vivid images that were persistently in my mind, so I painted them out … and here they are!

appendix1a      Miasma 1    The Agony

appendix2a     Miasma 2   The rescuing daughter

appendix3a     Miasma 3     Spider in the lung

appendix4a    Miasma 4    Near to death

appendix5a     Miasma 5    Drowning

appendix6a     Miasma 6    Claiming the Moon

appendix7a     Miasma 7     The dwarf, the virgin and the wicked queen

Miasma

This word came into my head spontaneously as a title for these works, and then I looked it up in the dictionary ……
a noxious influence
a poisonous atmosphere rising from putrid matter and causing disease
noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
poisonous effluvia or germs
a dangerous foreboding or deathlike influence or atmosphere
mephitis, fetor
contagion or corruption

…. and it seemed to fit!


2014    Floral Fantasy

crevice garden2    Crevice Garden    2014    watercolour    10 x 29 in

pansy polka14    Pansy Polka    2014    watercolour    10 x 29 in

iris waltz    Iris Waltz        watercolour    10 x 29 in

Donna Clouston and I had a 2-person exhibition at the MUN Botanical Garden in St John’s. We both worked in watercolour from materials we collected on spring trips to the garden centres.

2012    Fractured Forms at Christina Parker Gallery

orchid shadow 10    Orchid Shadow  10   acrylic on canvas     12 x 24 in


2011    International Women Celebrate

AyrSpace, Ontario

saltfish-dianadabinett    Salt Fish   acrylic on canvas     12 x 12 in


2010    A Little Spring Fling

Fog Forest Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick

tulipfandango 11     Tulip Fandango     a silk book     10 x 6 x 30 in


2009    Shorelines at Christina Parker Gallery

15Middle Cove oil     Middle Cove    oil     32 x 60 in

02Banded Gneiss Hopedale oil     Banded Gneiss, Hopedale, Labrador    oil     24 x 48 in


2009    Migration     Devon House Craft Gallery (group show)

4emily2det e_edited-1     Emily’s New Home    fibre and transfer mobile     60 x 12 x 12 in


2009    Contours Devon House Craft Gallery (group show)

grandrivera     The Grand River Adventure    wallhanging     30 x 54 in


2009    Cupids 400

Devon House Craft Gallery group

cupids09     Cupids 400    wallhanging     54 x 30 in

2007    Ethereal     Christina Parker Gallery

icefog     Icefog     egg tempera     24 x 48 in

2006    Rocks-Capes   Christina Parker Gallery

02westernbrookpond     Western Brook Pond    egg tempera     24 x 48 in

2006    Internal Landscapes     Devon House Craft Gallery

This exhibition was about experiencing breast cancer in 1998 – 1999

How I celebrated the millennium 99   How I Celebrated the Millennium     dyes on silk     36 x 84 in

2005    Light-Stream

An exhibition with Carol BajenGahm    Christina Parker Gallery

down .. egg     Down the River     egg tempera 5 x 7 in each

2002     Groundcover

These were paintings made during or after an artist residency in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.

188gm alpincampion    Alpine Campion in the Gulch

194gm arethusawbpond     Arethusa Orchids at Western Brook Pond

192gm greenpoint     Green Point

2000    Trace   Devon House Craft Gallery   group show

celtic trace 2000     Celtic Trace     dyes on silk and papier mache mask     84 x 45 x 6 in

2000     Castles in the Sea — All About Icebergs

This was an exhibition following a collaboration to produce a children’s book about icebergs with Laura Jackson, written by her husband, Lawrence Jackson.

171 glaciercalving     Glacier Calving    dyes on silk

1997 — 1999     Pathways

This was a two person, installation exhibition with Tara Bryan inspired by the East Coast Trail between my home in Shoe Cove and her home in Flat Rock just north of St John’s. It travelled through Ontario and Eastern Canada.

103     Over the river and to Shoe Cove Island

116_edited-1     Looking through the trees at Small Point

107_edited-1     To Red Head

1997     Discovery

A small group show that toured the Maritime galleries.

88 bird islands...      Bird Islands in Witless Bay

1989 – 1992    Tropical Garden/Newfoundland Stream     Provincial Art Gallery

These works are from the Tropical Garden of my home in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe contrasted to the wildflowers of my present home in Newfoundland.

034d     Our pergola festooned with Golden Shower

034k    Newfoundland Stream

1985     Old Fields — New Paths

This exhibition of Canadian Crafts was exhibited in Japan and New Zealand.  My silk book,To Find A Pitcher Plant, commemorated a walk with my mother around Berry Hill Pond with my mother in 1982.

005ppbookcover     The cover

006ppbook1     title page

007ppbook2-3     page 3 to 4

1984     Silken Shorelines

001ff salmon dinner     Salmon Dinner     batik on cotton

010schoolofcaplin     School of Caplin   silk sculpture

012inshore...     Inshore Impact Assessment   silk sculpture

1983     Newfoundland Groceries

A series of tongue-in-cheek watercolours about the absurdness of advertising as a solo show in the NL Arts Council

273ga evap oil     Evaporated Oil

273gb cream     Cream of the West Flour

1982     Atlantic Visions

255 sobeysbagb     Sobey’s Grocery Bag     batik on cotton

1981     Fabric Fish

A solo show in the Provincial Art Gallery

245ffb seafloor2     Sea Floor

1972    Some Works

My first solo exhibition in the Branch Library galleries in London., Ontario!
Apologies for the poor image.

231a exhib