“Underneath”
An on-line juried exhibition of fine arts featuring a diverse range of media and techniques from Ontario artists at all career stages
May 5 – 29, 2021
Guest curators Kelly O’Neill and Holly Edwards
Sponsored by Camp Ponacka
01 Henry Melissa Gordon’s “I am a Ghost (Family Portrait)”
Acrylic, spray paint on birch panel, 48″ x48″
Henry Melissa Gordon’s (she/her) current focus is painting portraits of the ones who have died. Her intent is to depict what lies beneath the physical form: the spirit essence of people, using colour and form to suggest layered relationships. Gordon has worked as an artist for 25 years, undertaken numerous private commissions and has an MFA from the University of Waterloo. henrymelissagordon.ca
02 Julie Withrow’s “Sky Above the Earth Below”
Mixed media, 13″ x 11”
Sky Above the Earth Below has chairs under a vast sky, suggesting that things continue as usual, oblivious to the excitement and mystery of the larger world. “Underneath” the threat of covid 19 we have come to realize that it is the “ordinary magic” of family, friends and everyday routine that is what really matters.
03 Colin W Davis’ “Closet”
Oil on Linen, 24” x 30″
Colin W Davis (he/him) is a painter living and working in North Bay. He uses realist painting to explore contemporary issues including masculinity, belonging, and self-worth. His work is largely autobiographical and often explores how the environment can affect self-identity. colinwdavis.com instagram.com/colinwdavis
04 Anne Hoover’s “Inside”,
Charcoal on acid free paper, 20″ x 30”
Anne Hoover (she/her) graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in 1985 with a diploma in Communication and Design and studied at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver. She has been drawing from life for over 45 years and has been teaching life drawing for more than thirteen years. “I am interested in the emotions that we portray, whether with our faces, or our bodies. What lies underneath… using strong and varied mark-making to express mood, relationship, thoughts and feelings.”
05 Lisa Clark, “Behind the Fog” and “What Lies Beneath”
Oil and cold wax on panel, 24″ x 24″
The work Lisa Clark (she/her) completed during and after a recent trip to Tofino, BC speaks about her response to a landscape that brings back memories, old stories, ambitions, and a relationship to the Pacific Northwest coast from early adulthood. It draws on an emotional connection to the tumultuous surf, damp air, dark forest, and the ever-changing skies of the wild Pacific coast. It reflects her experience as a young woman learning how to live and work in a place so very different from her home. laclarkart.com instagram.com/laclarkart
07 Francis Livingston’s “Abandoned” signed limited edition
Unmounted photographic print, 16″ x 24”
Francis Livingston (he/him) is an artist/photographer living in Toronto, Ontario. He received his formal photography education at Sheridan College, Oakville and at The New School of Social Research, New York City. He spent 7 years teaching photography for a nation-wide photography school in Toronto. Francis has had a number of successful careers to date, first as a long-distance trucker, then as a cabinet and furniture maker. He currently works in film and television. His photographic specialty is high resolution, multi-image panoramas of urban and natural environments. He is working on a series of photographic essays chronicling his many life experiences.
08 Molly Moldovan’s “Turbulent Heart VI”
Acrylic/board 24″ x 48”
Molly Moldovan (she/her) has worked from her home studio on Tallan Lake since graduating from OCA(D) (honours, drawing and painting) in 1991. Working in acrylic and mixed media on various substrates, her work has explored such diverse themes as democracy, the aids pandemic, cross-border politics, cancer, familial relationships and, always, the abstract nature of our universe. “Although the landscape in which I live provides an anchor for my abstract work, colour is always my starting point and arguably the most important element of my work. This work is underpinned by an idea of landscape mediated by imperfect memory, driven by emotion.” mollymoldovan.com instagram.com/mollymoldovanstudio
01 Henry Melissa Gordon’s “I am a Ghost (Lovers)”
Acrylic on birch panel, 20″ x 30″
Henry Melissa Gordon’s (she/her) current focus is painting portraits of the ones who have died. Her intent is to depict what lies beneath the physical form: the spirit essence of people, using colour and form to suggest layered relationships. Gordon has worked as an artist for 25 years, undertaken numerous private commissions and has an MFA from the University of Waterloo. henrymelissagordon.ca
10 Simone Collins’ “Synthesis Nestled in the Dead Leaves”
Mixed Medium on Wood Panel, 16″ x 20″
Simone Collins lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. She is a graduate of Queen’s University Fine Arts and has completed a residency at the Toronto School of Art. Simone’s work often features imagery of children in surreal scenarios and environments converging at a tenuous point between benignly reminiscent of home and the ominously unfamiliar. simonecollinsart.com instagram.com/simonecollins
11 Karena Crofts’ “The Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel”
Acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 20″
Karena Crofts (she/her) is an emerging artist who has studied with Carole Finn (Minden). She is a committee member of Art Squared Haliburton, and a Rail’s End Gallery member. Crofts is a nurse by profession. She enjoys colour, and seeing her visions come to life.
12 Clasina Weese’s, “The Dream Mask”
Oil and cold wax over acrylic under painting, 30″ x 30″
“The word mask conjures up images in the imagination of what is underneath, what truth, story or perhaps miracle. This image depicts the dream mask where you enter the mysterious and fascinating world of dreams. A place where the subconscious controls the mind with hidden messages and images, all remnants from your daytime reality. All under your waking reality!” clasinaweeseart.com
13 Cath Adele’s “Glyph Lines”
Stitching on mylar, 31″ x 25”
Cath Adele (she/her) works primarily with textiles and stitching, making work that re-purposes utility materials and garments. The embedded history and story of cloth links to the lineage of sewing circles and women’s handwork, fosters a connection with personal and community history. Ordinary stitching practices, mending, darning and patching become Adele’s vocabulary. cathadele.com
14 Arne Roosman’s “Underneath the Lantern, Lily Marlene”
Charcoal and pastel, 21″ x 28″
- Lithographer, Designer of Books, Stage and Murals, Illustrator & Painter
- Born in Tallinn, Estonia
- Studied art in Sweden. Came to Canada in 1957
- Has exhibited in Canada and abroad. Winner of many awards. Became a resident of Bancroft, Ontario in 1988 and now resides in Coe Hill, Ontario
15 Christianna Ferguson, “Inheritance”
merino wool, embroidery thread, 23cm (h) x 18cm (w) x18 cm (d)
Christianna Ferguson (she/her) is a textile artist and educator based in Lakefield Ontario. Her work is firmly rooted in the study and craft of felt making and incorporates, dying, hand-stitching and machine embroidery. She begins with the simplest of materials, wool, water and soap. Using her hands to agitate the fibres she creates textile. Ferguson’s art/craft practice involves a combination of creating functional felted objects, wearable pieces and conceptual textile art which explores narratives of what it is to be human and the connections between us. In all her work, she looks to experiment with colour, texture, surface design, and form. christiannaferguson.com
16 Ken Balmer (he/him), “Muse: Messing With My Mind”
Oil on birch panel, 16″ x 24″
Jung’s anima/animus and the oriental Yin Yang teach us to aspire to gender balance. Labelled with a binary gender at birth, trained into that psychological space from all sides, gradually becoming self-aware and tuning into the dissonance. When does one understand where he/she fits on the gender scale? When do we develop the courage to share our reality? When are we strong enough to remove the assigned gender mask and live an authentic life? When will the societal barriers that threaten us dissipate? “Art is therapeutic, supportive of change – for individuals and for the society that holds them back. My muse is feminine.”
17 Danielle Martin’s “Shadow of the Self”
New Media, 18″ x 24″
Shadow of the Self is a visual and written piece created by Danielle Martin. Inner explorations of her psychological space enable her to express how the darkest parts of one’s self can be seen in a form of light. By intertwining art and spirit, Danielle can fully reveal her self-journey. instagram.com/@theshapeshifter
18 Rob Niezen’s “Neon Quasar (Under the Puddle)”
Oil on canvas, 30″ x 30″
Rob Niezen’s (he/him) painting is influenced by European graphic novels and Dutch graphic tradition. His approach to layout and composition is significantly influenced by his experience in advertising and graphic design in Europe and Canada. Narrative and visual contrast are essential elements in his work. facebook.com/robniezenart instagram.com/robniezen/ robniezen.com
19 Sandra Clarke’s “Moment Before Super Nova”
Embroidery, 8.5″ x 8.5″
Maker + Teacher, Sandra Clarke (she/her), has been untangling stringy things for over 30 years. Born in Montreal and educated in New York, Winnipeg, Vancouver + Toronto, helped Sandra develop her eclectic style. Her contemporary textile art can be seen in galleries + online. Sandra lives with her husband + children dividing her time between Mississauga + off-grid cabin-in-the-woods in Highlands East. sandraclarke.ca
20 Wendy Milne’s “Hidden Horizons”
Fibre, 17″ x 31″
Wendy Milne believes art can tell stories about the social, cultural, economic, and environmental landscapes of our communities. The artwork she uses to tell these stories is best described as rug hooking. Building on the distinctly Canadian craft of pulling strips of mostly recycled wool fabric through burlap, linen or cotton backing she crafts an original one of a kind pieces that reflect her interests in social equality, rural communities and environmental sustainability.
This piece is a meditation on the literal and psychological challenges, and the constant faith required, to plant seeds underneath the surface into the soils, or lack thereof, of the Ontario Highlands.
21 Jessica Lin’s, “Forêt de Nympheas”
Photographic composite mounted on panel (edition of 10) 24″ x 60″
Jessica Lin’s (she/her) work is abstract landscape photography. She extracts elements from photographs that she’s taken while travelling, camping, etc., and recomposes them creating a finished image that is recognizably a landscape, but also includes layers of texture and colour in ways not found in reality. jessicalin.ca instagram.com/jessicalinphoto
22 Megan Cole’s “Veiled”
Mixed-media, 8.5″ x 10 x 5 “
Megan Cole is a mostly self-taught sculptor and painter who emigrated to Canada from South Africa with her husband and children in 1999. Most of Megan’s sculptures are ceramic, usually porcelain, and can incorporate other mediums, such as bronze, copper, wood and glass. She’s been a painter all her life, but began sculpting in 2014, and is excitedly exploring the possibilities that 3-dimensions offer. Her sculptures are figurative representations of fragmented bodies with a focus on the face. She lives in Lakefield with her husband and three children, and works out of her home studio. megancolefineart.com instagram.com/meganism333
23 Dye Devereux’ “The Breakfast Club”
Acrylic on hardboard, 20″ x 30″
What exactly is my artistic style? I found that hard to pin down.
Until someone said to me “Quirky Realism”
I immediately identified. Yes! That is what it is
It is Quirky Realism…Whatever that is.
There is something in my style even I cannot explain, that is a good thing.”
24 Christopher Bradd’s “Untitled (Hole)”
Digital print on archival paper, 18″ x 24″
Christopher Bradd (he/him) is a sculptor and a lens-based artist. His recent work explores the instability of time and spatial displacement in natural objects and the history of images. He lives and works in Toronto.
This image is the final step in a process of ephemeral sculpture that began with the act of digging a hole in the earth. It shows the positive cast of a negative-space sculpture (subsequently backfilled) in which the various speeds of mineral, vegetal and human time appear simultaneously. This image is the documentation of a strategy to involve material dimensions of the earth in a critical process of production and reproduction.