All things Bright & Beautiful

The members of the Colborne Art Gallery welcome one and all to our annual Christmas Show opening, ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL. It will take place in the gallery on Sat. November 14, from 12 - 4 pm. Gallery artists have been busy creating artworks, including smaller items and cards, for this seasonal exhibit. There will be hot cider and delicious treats to enjoy while gathering gifts for those special people on your Christmas list. The show will run until Sunday December 20.

Christine Benson, Bill Rowland, Janita Wiersma

Port Hope artist Christine Benson’s works reflect the tensions of living in a technology-oriented world, and the solace that can be found in nature and the rural landscape. Her prints show a fine attention to detail as well as an interest in combining high contrast designs with subtle inclusions of hand sewn elements, delicate embroidery, collage and distinctive papers.

Bill Rowland’s work uses functional forms in stoneware and porcelain clays. The stoneware clay gives darker earth-tone colour values, while porcelain clay gives brighter glazes against the white clay. All pieces are salt glaze fired which gives the work a textured and pebbled surface.

Janita Wiersma’s recent work explores the potential of lines to evoke the feeling of a space defined by its edges and how an emptiness can seem to be infinitely full. She is inspired by the sense of expanse that comes from standing at the edge of a precipice or an open field in the moonlight.

Rhythm & Form: Claus Heinecke

I've called this exhibition Rhythm and Form because those are the primary objects of my explorations – to find significant visual rhythms expressed in form. It is an aesthetic pursuit and the underlying meaning of my pieces – I compose line, shape, tone, texture and colour by means of contrast, harmony, balance, movement and repetition to arrive at a confluence of visual elements that constitute a rhythm. These visual rhythms imbue a piece with its own sensibility - a sensibility that will give the piece a life beyond me and hopefully find a discerning audience.

I am not devoted to a medium but will use what best expresses an idea. I am not devoted to a subject but will express the subject that moves me at the time. My dedication is to find in the three-dimensional object rhythms of form that make that form significant by its ability to engage and beguile. I employ a minimum of means to reveal the essential power of the form.

Claus Heinecke
July, 2009

Zed Woman and the City – Annie McDonald

My interest is presenting sculpture in a theatrical environment, so that viewers will participate in developing narrative while moving through the exhibit. I search the everyday to find the mythic.

Zed Woman and the City is an exploration of one mythic figure's transformative powers; the show resembles walking into a graphic novel. Several mediums are employed to make the work, from stone and ceramics to fabrics and wire. The city is a trope to depict relationships of humanity with environment.

Just who is Zed Woman? She is the great composite of qualities in people I admire: my very personal super hero. Zed Woman first appeared in a small stone sculpture of a very large woman that was completed in 2004. She is at once huge, elegant and powerful. A subsequent ceramic wall piece entitled "Flight" (2008) featured a woman who seemed to be the same figure. I came up with a myth about a feral child who could and did effect change. I have attempted to make her visible. She embodies the spirit of invention, resourcefulness, will and optimism. She is the very best of each of us, and provides an invitation for viewers to find these ideals… these absolutes.

She was born in isolation to a mess of a place and makes changes to the city, beginning with what she finds there! She looks for openings and follows her heart before following the rules. She is the Arts and she is the Sciences. She is a Healer and inspires Community. She is at the end of the alphabet, a last chance and our best bet for the future!

Who Zed Woman is not? She is not Batman!

Annie McDonald
June, 2009

in this moment - Barbara Buntin

“in this moment” follows Barbara's ongoing exploration of visual art as a form of communication and connection. These monotypes and collages are a collection of moments observed or experienced, a glance, a memory, a turning point, a pause. Each image contains the possibility for a response to be felt, a reflection to occur or a story to unfold, inviting the viewer to be engaged.

The title of the show, “in this moment”, reflects something of the monotype process as well. Barbara is exploring the unpredictable nature of monotype printing; allowing the unexpected effects to guide the next steps in the moment of art making. When the outcome of a monotype is not quite what Barbara had in mind, the resulting fragments of line, texture and colour often find their way into a collage.

The result is a collection of pieces that glow with layers of rich colour and texture and hum with the emotion of experience, from melancholy to joy.

San Murata violin, with Tony Quarrington on guitar & Beverly Taft on vocals, with special guests Rod Anderson on piano & Dave Field on upright bass.

Tickets $20, available at:

Downey Pharmacy, Colborne 905 355-2825
George’s Guitars, Cobourg 905 373-1991
The Colborne Art Gallery 905 355-1798

Jirina has been illustrating books for more than twenty years. They have been published in France, Switzerland, Spain, Japan, China, Korea, and Canada. The illustrations, shown for the first time at this exhibition, are from the book Marja’s Skis, text by Jean E. Pendziwol, Groundwood Books, Toronto. They have been described by critics as “ravishing,” as “having a softly focused, ethereal quality” and as “rich and beautiful. Her layered technique creates such subtlety and depth that there is a sculptural quality to the art work. She imbues her illustrations with light that seems to emanate from beyond the page.”

In this busy world, any object must get the viewer’s immediate attention. If not, it’s doomed. In spite of it Jirina’s work is serene. She asks you to stop. She asks you to take a deep breath, and observe quietly each illustration. Who knows, while contemplating it, you might find your childhood memories of happiness, safety, and love...

San's gouache paintings are lively, colourful, and whimsical yet display a mastery of what can be a very challenging medium.

San lives in our area now; his inimitable colour sense and style convey a truly magical spirit of place. His gouache paintings are lively, colourful, and whimsical yet display a mastery of what can be a very challenging medium. His paintings often have the feel of visual melodies which is not surprising because in addition to being a painter, San is also an accomplished musician, playing the jazz violin. He has played with many of Canada's foremost jazz and pop performers and has been nominated by the National Jazz Awards as Violinist of the Year four times.

San's interpretation of everyday life is there in his painting. 'I've learned that life needs balance. No rapid swings from high to low. No turning things upside down. No racing around without stopping to enjoy what is at hand. Relax. Breathe. Feel. Live. Love.'