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Its our final week of introducing our new Permanent Members, and with that we’d like to introduce visual artist, @ginkgofootprints aka Emily Bi!
Emily is based in Annan, Ontario and depicts the beauty of nature with expressive Chinese brushwork with ink on rice paper or silk, as well as with acrylic on canvas. Emily aims to capture her surroundings ranging from flowers, to birds, to landscapes in her artwork. An avid gardener and collector of peony and hosta species, these plants as well as species native to Grey Bruce are among her favorite painting subjects. 🌺🌸
Emily immigrated to Canada in 2002 with her family from a small city located in NorthEast China. The name Ginkgo comes from the celebrated tree of the city where she is from. Emily has a Bachelor of Science and has worked in the engineering field in both China and Canada for nearly thirty years, and also hosts an annual open house to the garden oasis, “Gingko Footprints”, that she and her husband have been cultivating for over ten years.
Emily first took private lessons in Chinese brushwork in 2009 and has explored this beautiful medium ever since. She works in the two primary styles of traditional brushwork, Freehand (Xieyi), which is loose and expressive and the Meticulous (Gongbi) style, which is highly detailed. While Chinese brush painting has been a mainstay in her life and is central to her aesthetic, she has recently been exploring acrylic painting under the guidance of noted local instructor (and SA Permanent Artist), Peter John Reid.
Emily is a member of the Owen Sound Artists Co-op and also exhibits in other venues in Grey Bruce, such as All Things T. She occasionally teaches brushwork workshops at Georgian Bay Centre for the Arts and also loves to share her passion for gardening with the community. Visit ginkgofootprints.com to see more of her work!
Southampton Arts will remain closed for the duration of the provincial lockdown. We are looking forward to welcoming you back to the gallery and school when it is safe to do so.
We are in the process of reaching out to artists, instructors and class participants as we navigate more changes to our planning.
As always, thank you for your support! Keep well and stay safe. 🎨🖌
Meet new Permanent Member, silversmith @lisepomeroy!
Growing up in Montreal, Lise began her career in the arts by studying Illustration and Design at Dawson College. This led to working as a technical illustrator in the corporate world, which detoured into a career in project management for nearly 30 years.
Lise has been living in Kincardine for 13 years now, which is also when she started jewellery making. Beading, stringing, and wirework quickly became a passion of hers, and led her down a path to bead weaving with a needle, and freeform beading with seed beads. Lise saw success at shows, her local gallery, and with friends. She attended beading retreats and had her work featured in a beading magazine. Lise is now able to fully dedicate herself to silversmithing. She shows at her local shop, participates in shows, and has started selling more in her online shop as well (lisepomeroy.com)
Lise has always had a strong desire to work in silver, but was reluctant to take the first step because she knew it would be a big commitment. She even started with annealing copper on her gas stove! It wasn’t long before she was totally obsessed and started building her own well-equipped silversmithing studio in her home.
“For me, metalsmithing isn’t something one can just dabble in - it is a commitment in time training, tools, and material. I have learned so much in the past years and I still feel excited everyday to have the opportunity to work in my little studio.”
“My work is still evolving and I continue to experiment with materials, styles, and composition, while trying to have a unique take on simple and modern designs. When someone wears one of my handcrafted, original pieces, I want them to feel like they are wearing a piece of art.”
Welcome, Lise!
Meet another new Permanent Member, Kim Gellatly Thestonehouselife.com
Kim is a painter who utilises acrylic, gouache and watercolour. She lives in an 1840s stone house on an orchard in Meaford with her husband and dog Dixi. 🐶
In Junior Kindergarten, Kim won third prize in sculpture at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. That same year, instead of making a paper plate clock that the teacher instructed, Kim presented a Grandfather clock made of three boxes with a swinging pendulum with the help of her sister. Kim was clearly a creative force from an early age. Fast forward a few years, she graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Illustration in 1993. She then made the switch to a career in social work, however art remained her passion and a form of self care. Now, Kim has reconnected with her creative self in a way she did earlier in life, and she has no intentions of turning away from it.
The Grey Bruce Peninsula provides an endless array of evolving skies, landscapes and emotions that act as inspiration for her work. She is excited by the variety of mediums available for interpreting what she sees. She enjoys working fluidly in chalk and pencil, watercolour, gouache and acrylic.
“Natural and rural living environments are often the subject matter in my works. From floral studies, to the farms dotted along the roadside reminiscent of my drives from Waterloo to Elora or Sauble Beach as a child. For me, it is about the landscapes and experiences captured in my camera lens during cruises with my husband in our classic cars heading to nowhere or everywhere, that represent a story or feeling to be interpreted and shared.”
Please meet new Permanent Member, book artist Jennifer Iserman! 📒📚
@iserwoman
Jennifer’s book art combines a wide range of artistic techniques and practical bookbinding skills. Like traditional books, these books have text and images printed on paper and enclosed in a cover, but the practice, the form and the process can develop in radical new directions from that foundation.
Her process usually starts with words: evocative phrases, or poetry that stimulates further thought and exploration. From there, images emerge. Decisions about the size and structure of the book are as important as the content and are made early in the process, because structure and content must marry, harmoniously.
‘My books attempt to capture those unsung, mundane moments that I believe the poet Mary Oliver was referring to when she wrote “To pay attention – this is our endless and proper work”. By observing the minutiae, by not only looking out over the landscape but also looking at the ground beneath our feet, we can find beauty in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.’
Jennifer is retired from the social services field, where throughout her career, her art practice provided necessary balance and creative balm. She has been exhibiting quilts, book art and mixed media work since 1981, and some of her work incorporates poetry written by her husband, Bruce Iserman.
Jennifer’s book art was recently included in the Art of the Book 2018, a juried travelling exhibition of work by members of the Canadian Book Binders and Book Artists Guild.
It’s been shown at Artscape, Toronto; Quest Art, Midland; Durham Art Gallery; Minto-Harriston Gallery; Orillia Museum of Art and History, and at the Southampton Arts Gallery, where she received awards both for book art and for printmaking. She is also a past recipient of an Ontario Arts Council craft creation and development grant.
Next, we have the pleasure of introducing new Permanent Member, @brianvaughanturnings
Brian Vaughan specializes in woodturning. Much of his work consists of hollow and open forms, lidded boxes, bowls and platters. The pieces are turned on the lathe, where he captures the natural beauty of the wood. He enhances the texture and appearance of the turning through carving, pyrography, colouring and choice of finish, while occasionally adding fine finials; accent rings or pedestals made from complementary woods. 🪵
“I have loved wood all my life. In 2015, after 40 years as a hobby woodworker making furniture and cabinets, I bought my first lathe and took some woodturning instruction. In learning the craft I’ve come to see that artistic opportunities abound in all the types of wood, the grain, the knots, the cracks and flaws and natural processes such as spalting. My turnings are one-of-a-kind and feature both domestic and exotic woods.”
The skills and techniques Brian possesses were acquired through many hours working with mentors in hands-on workshops with internationally known turners, and recently through many Remote Interactive Demos offered by a variety of woodturning artists (Thank you, Zoom!).
John has had work on display and for sale at Guelph Art in the Street, as a guest artist at Bev Morgan’s studio for the Autumn Leaves Studio Tour, the Golden Gallery in Tobermory, the Lighthouse Gallery in Southampton and most recently, at “Christmas in the Gallery” at Southampton Arts!
Now announcing new Permanent Member, Janice Danahy! 🌷
Janice is a visual artist who uses acrylic paint and mixed media to create abstract and ethereal paintings. She uses her surroundings to inspire and direct her landscapes, sunsets, skies, water scenes, and flowers.
“I paint what I feel. I paint what I see. Painting for me is both relaxing and stimulating. I pick colours that I am drawn to. My paintings are a visual representation of my moods and emotions. Art is my therapy.”
Janice is a long term resident of Kincardine and studied Fine Art at York University before switching her career path to nursing. Painting has always remained a passion of hers. Now, she paints in her spare time while working at VON. In addition to her artistry, Janice likes to garden and spend time with her family. Check out more of her work at www.noescapefromheaven.com
Welcome to The Gallery, Janice!
Meet new Permanent Member, @artisticaos_studio!! 💥
Located in Cargill, Ontario Artisticaos is the business name of ceramic artist Terri Del Signore. Her work displays a passion for fine detail through sculpting, carving, and hand painting miniature pieces of ceramic wearable art, used worldwide by jewelry designers. Each piece is a celebration of the inspirations of the natural world from plant life, to her favourite, the colour, pattern, and textures of all living creatures, be they furred, feathered or scaled.
Born and raised in the area, Terri returned home again in 2019, after many years adventuring across Canada. Terri has always had an entrepreneur's heart and completed several courses in business studies. Over her career, she has balanced the challenges of business while also prioritizing time with her children. Her attraction to clay began in 2005, when she was running her own gift shop and taking evening pottery classes at the local college. In 2014 she decided to focus solely on her art.
With a continuous stream of artistic inspirations, thoughts, and ideas constantly whirling through her mind in all directions, at all hours, Terri feels the best way to describe her creative mind is "artistic chaos”. Coincidentally, her studio also mirrors this state while in the thick of projects and deadlines! The name “artisticaos” for her studio and work identifies the vibrant, eclectic personal path from idea to work bench.
Terri’s ceramic studio is currently in her heritage century home where she lives with her husband, 3 kids, and multiple pets including her beloved “fair ladies” (white laying hens). 🐓 🐓 🐓
artisticaos.com
