CONNECTIONS - an artistic community of friends
Anton Cetín - Toronto
COVID-19 12, 2020 — mixed techniques on canvas
35,5 x 40,5 cm
Born in Bojana, Croatia, Anton studied mural techniques at the School of Applied Arts and then printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Since immigrating to Canada in 1968, he has held 160 one-man exhibitions and participated in more than 200 group exhibitions worldwide. Throughout Anton’s career, his artistic compositions have centred on Eve, who represents femininity, the giver of life, and the spirit of peace and harmony. “My Eve was born in 1967 in Paris at a time of peace and hope for a better tomorrow, at a time when one could freely walk along Parisian streets feeling art in the air. And today, 50 years later…?”
Website: www.antoncetin.com
Henry Dunsmore - PEI
The Juggler's Wife — digital montage
Since the 1970's Henry, an accomplished watercolourist, has built stories through his art believing that "happenstance" plays an important role in the creative process - a combination of a state of mind, a place in time, talent and good luck. Since his early work in serigraphy, he has allowed fate to play a role in his art, composing images and letting the surprises and experiments of technology play a role. Recently, he has integrated writing with his work by taking a story or poem and creating a visual interpretation. His poem "Caught in Mid-Flight" inspired The Juggler's Wife.
Email: henry@studiogallery.ca
Website: www.studiogallery.ca/
Andrea Johnson – Halifax
Winter Blue Jays — watercolour
Andrea paints landscapes, portraits, and garden motifs in watercolour. Her work intensively explores light, colour, and beauty. Watercolour's transparency and luminosity best express her love of nature's seasonal colour changes and shifting light. In summer she paints en plein aire. Her visual and emotional reaction to the subject becomes an integral part of the painting process. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Andrea completed a BFA from NSCAD in 1985. From 2002 to 2017 she taught watercolour and drawing classes for Halifax Recreation. In 2015, Andrea and her students exhibited their work at the Chase Gallery in Halifax. Her work is in private collections.
Email: andreapj@bellaliant.net
Gertrude Kearns, CM – Toronto
CFC 2017 officer with LGen Leslie and LGen Lessard portraits 2012, 2014
Gertrude has worked both officially and unofficially as a Canadian War Artist for over two decades. An independent, she is not currently affiliated with a commercial gallery. ‘The ART of COMMAND: portraits + posters from Canada’s Afghan Mission’ 2006-2018 comprises sixty-seven large-format paintings, mixed media and multiple original text/image prints. 2018-2019 realized a U.S. military project. 2020 she developed works on Canada's NATO Mission Iraq Command under Major-General Jennie Carignan.
Kearns’ works are in private and institutional collections in Canada including The Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Collection; Department of National Defense; Royal Canadian Military Institute, Toronto; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery DC.
Contemporary art database: ccca.concordia.ca/Gertrude_Kearns
May 6, 2022 — Ottawa. A Member of the Order of Canada (CM). “Gertrude Kearns has gone to the front lines to understand and preserve our country’s war history. Embedding herself within the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces, the self-taught contemporary painter has created a thought-provoking body of work to engage and enlighten viewers on the difficult realities and consequences of war, as well as the enormous responsibility shouldered by Canada’s military. Her widely admired, poignant pieces can be found in private collections and public exhibits across the country, notably at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.” Congratulations!
Peggy Kochanoff - Nova Scotia
Book launched on October 31, 2019
Why do dogs hate thunder? Is every snowflake different? Where does wind come from? A naturalist and artist, Peggy answers these questions and more in this illustrated and entertaining tour of the most common weather patterns in Atlantic Canada and beyond. From the life cycle of hurricanes to explaining how to read a weather forecast properly, the book has detailed and vivid watercolour illustrations and precise answers to creative questions. Peggy graduated from Cornell University with a degree in vertebrate zoology and spent a summer working at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. She is the author and illustrator of several books for children, including the Be a Nature Detective series. She resides on a tree farm in Nova Scotia.
Email: pegkochanoff@hotmail.com
Alexandra McCurdy - Halifax
White stoneware with coloured underglaze
An accomplished ceramist/printmaker / independent curator who works in porcelain making highly decorative, one-of-a-kind, colourful pieces, informed by her long-standing interest in textiles. She was an Associate Curator of Ceramics at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for six years and has shown her work both nationally and internationally. Alexandra’s work is in the permanent collections in museums across Canada and in the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy. For the past few years, she has been obsessed with polka dots and has made a continuing series of pieces with polka dots, each one slightly different from the last. In 2019, Alex won Best Body of Work at the Craft Nova Scotia Xmas Market and was accepted to the International Academy of Ceramics.
Email: amccurdy2@aol.com
Website: amccurdyceramics.ca
Brian McDowell - Toronto
Northern Ontario
Brian is a retired high school art teacher.
Helga Mills
Bee Balm
After a lifetime spent in academia, social service and administration in Canada and abroad, Helga retired to Halifax. Always a lover of flowers and flower arranging but with no experience painting of any kind, Helga began taking lessons from a botanical artist. Little did she know that she was entering into a world of beauty which changed the passion of her retirement years. Helga is a founding member of BANSA (Botanical Artists of Nova Scotia).
Remembering:
25 December 1934 – 1 November 2019
Email: bbickle@ns.sympatico.ca
Michael Nearing - Toronto
"Chompy" 2019 — Charcoal and chalk pastel on found paper
A Toronto-based illustrator and graphic designer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2020, completing a major in Fine Art, with minors in Illustration, Art History and Drawing. Nearing has shown work in Halifax as well as Toronto.
"I found my start in drawing. Although I still feel deeply connected to traditional drawing, digital art has taken my work to a whole new level of depth, detail and application. My style has always been loud, a bit funny, a bit cute and somewhat off-beat. Since childhood, I’ve enjoyed creating characters. I love how illustration and design allow me to work with all different kinds of folk. It’s really fulfilling to collaborate with others; creating projects that everyone is invested in and proud of."
Nearing has transitioned from working entirely traditionally, to working almost entirely in digital mediums currently. Recently, he has been experimenting with 3D modelling and basic animation. He has been combining these mediums with digital illustration, creating vibrant and playful works.
Website: https://michaelnearing.net
Email: nearingmichael@gmail.com
Margaret Osmond - Halifax
Fibre Art
Margaret grew up in an industrious family in Ontario, sowing, hoeing and harvesting. Secretly she dreamed of being lazy and chasing fairies and kittens. She trained as a Eurythmist in London, England and then taught in a Waldorf School… where ‘imagination’ has a capital “I.” Since then she offers little creations to the seniors she works with in friendly Nova Scotia. They smile on a little table at passers-by!
Email: bbickle@ns.sympatico.ca
Bernice Purdy - Halifax
Heavenly Chorus — acrylic
Bernice was a fascinated observer of the human condition and life's emotional paradoxical situations, including the real and imagined. As the work matured, she used symbolism, allegory and myth to convey insightful visual narratives, giving the viewer open-ended questions to contemplate. These questions and reflections involved the precepts that govern and shape our society. A favourite theme was the conflicting messages of womanhood, especially "fat ladies." Bernice's depictions of voluptuous women were empathetic and satirical social statements. Also of interest were her childhood memories of growing up in a small coal-mining town in Nova Scotia. These charming vignettes from the 40s and 50s capture the intimate and lively characters of days gone by. Her paintings were in numerous Maritime exhibitions and a film, Bernice, was produced for Bravo in 2003 and presented at the Atlantic Film Festival.
Email: bbickle@ns.sympatico.ca
OBITUARY
20 August 1940 – 7 February 2021
The Art of Bernice Purdy
Lise Trottier - Montreal
R5 - A Dream Home
Lise received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University in 1985, a Bachelor of Architecture degree from l’Université de Montréal in 1988 and a Masters in Architecture from Sangath in Ahmedabad, India in 1991. Early in her career, Lise was commissioned to design and build an art installation, “Le Mur Qui Parle” in Kapuskasing, Ontario. In 1995, she founded, hosted and participated in organizing a Symposium on Art and Architecture with the Gallery Articule in Montreal. Art and architectural field trips have taken her to various locations worldwide: Europe, Canada, the USA, India, Hong Kong, Japan and the Caribbean. She taught theory courses on architecture and environmental design at l'Université du Québec à Montréal and at Concordia University. Lise has also been involved with the development of several new architectural prototypes and garden community projects that serve as contributions to the quality of life. Site-specific architectural works that live in harmony with their cultural contexts and with nature.
Email: lise001arch@yahoo.com