Ottawa, ON (April 25, 2002)… “When times are difficult”, writes Sharon Thompson, the Kingston based abstract painter whose work will be on exhibition at the Ottawa School of Art Gallery, “we seek that which is elemental in our lives.”
Thompson puts her own twist on the meaning of the word elemental in her oil paintings, which vary in size from large to small and bear such titles as “Eating Honey” and “Breath”. The paintings carry large airy spaces created with vigorous brush strokes and knife work. The shifts from one colour to the next are soft and uninterrupted, creating a feeling of movement and space in the paintings. These open spaces are punctuated by shafts of brilliant colour that articulate the surface and further energize the movement. How then are these spacious, light filled paintings to be seen as elemental?
Thompson, in her artist’s statement that accompanies the exhibition, says that difficult times such as September 11 and its aftermath force us to become more inward, but when we do this, “we start to notice things we normally ignore – like our breath, the smell of autumn in the air, the touch of a loved one, the feel of grass underfoot. It feels good to be connected in this way”, she says. "We become aware of an elemental, live presence in these small parts of living”. Her paintings make real this “presence” with their sensuous textured surfaces, their subtly structured form and their feeling of open endedness. One of the best examples of this is “Dancing #3”. The eye travels from light green to red-pink to orange across a soft lined surface on top of which an ecstatic swirl of light yellow has been drawn.
These paintings look like an exploration of simplicity – not a banal simplicity, but a simplicity that has been arrived at from a distilled experience of living.
The exhibition runs from May 2 to May 25.
All are invited to attend the vernissage for Elemental, to be held Thursday, May 2 from 5:00-7:00 pm. The Ottawa School of Art Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday, 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, and Sunday, 12:30 to 4:30 pm.
Ottawa School of Art/École d'art d'Ottawa
35 rue George Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 8W5
Non-Profit Organization #12651028
Contact:
Anna Carlman, Gallery Coordinator
Ottawa School of Art: (613) 241-7471
e-mail: osagallery@hotmail.com
Ottawa School of Art/École d'art d'Ottawa
May 2nd - May 25th,
2002