Ideas and Emotions: The Art of Judy Southerland
Red Dirt, Fast Cars, acrylic on canvas
Judy Southerland is an artist who works across disciplines, creating figurative and abstract works in two and three dimensions, expressing ideas and emotions from everyday life and translating them into higher experiences. The artist’s recent works combine saturated, monochromatic colour palettes with half-obscured text.
I really enjoy the way Judy uses colour to…
The Art of Self-Taught Painter Richard Ficker
The Compassionate Indifference
Richard Ficker is a self-taught painter whose work features imagery of beaches, oceans, and surreal figures blending into such landscapes. The artist’s works are detailed celebrations of colour and form, each one dreamlike in a way that invites the viewer in for a closer look.
River Sunset, oil and acrylic on canvas
I really appreciate the amount of colour and fine detail that goes into each of…
An Optimistic View: The Art of Claire Cepukas
Claire Cepukas is a Canadian painter whose works are inspired by the nation’s remote landscapes and the artist’s time spent living and working as a tree planter in Northern Alberta and BC. Claire’s works are saturated with brighter-than-life colours and present an optimistic view of the wilderness.
Snow Ghosts, acrylic and paper on canvas
I really appreciate Claire’s graphic style and the unique…
The Art Portfolio of Glass Artist Dan Cummings
Dan Cummings is an artist who produces delicately beautiful pieces in glass by sculpting, sand-blasting, staining, etching, and otherwise leaving his own mark on the material. The artist’s portfolio is packed with examples of everything from smooth realism to abstract mosaics.
I really like the way that Dan experiments with the glass medium. Many of his works seem to sit between disciplines, combining techniques of…
A Portfolio of Pop-Culture Figures by Greg Stone
Greg Stone is a painter and illustrator who works with pop-culture figures and characters from fiction. The artist, based in Eastern Iowa, specializes in portraits of comic book heroes, musical legends, and film icons.
I like the dramatic, bold style that Greg uses in his portraiture. The artist’s works seem to draw stylistic inspiration from their pop-culture contexts, with portraits of…
The Portfolio of Sculptor and Designer Shoko César
Kanyamashokoro (Shoko) César is a sculptor and designer. In his sculpture, Shoko takes a constructive, gestural approach, creating forms that suggest figuration and pose through large, confident movements and and cuts made through the clay.
I enjoy the way that Shoko leaves his figures partially unfinished, combining a capable expression of form with an apparent appreciation for the raw…
The Pen and Ink Portfolio of Lawrie Dignan
Dotting Between the Dots, pen and ink on paper
Lawrie Dignan is a Victoria, BC-based illustrator who works primarily in pen and ink. In his current artistic practice, Lawrie specializes in a finely detailed style of pointillism, creating complex and colourful images that take on a different appearance depending on how closely one is looking at them.
Summer, pen and ink remarque on screen print
I really like the smooth, almost…
The Oil Paint Portfolio of Angelo Mariano
Angelo Mariano is a New York-based artist who works primarily in oil paint. The artist’s paintings feature bombastic, saturated hues that are perfectly suited to subjects like tropical birds and fanciful architecture.
King of Central Park, oil on panel
I enjoy the mosaic-like, planar style in which Angelo renders many of his subjects. The artist showcases the bright pigments of his chosen medium by isolating…
Emotional and Exuberant: The Art Portfolio of Susan Harmon
Susan Harmon is an abstract expressionist painter who works with with accounts of trauma and hope, forming colourful, gestural compositions -- often on raw, unstretched canvas. The artist’s works are both emotional and exuberant, introspective and extroverted.
Throughout her practice, Susan takes an artistic approach that’s informed and inspired by both her own experiences and the…
A Portfolio of Reduction Woodcut Printmaking by Cathie Crawford
Homage to Hokusai, colour reduction woodcut print on Kitakata handmade Japanese paper
Cathie Crawford is an artist who works in various modes of printmaking, specializing in reduction woodcut printmaking. Through a painstaking process of applying pigment, printing, cutting away wood, and repeating, the artist uncovers images that take an abstracted, ethereal approach to the everyday.
Indoor and Outdoor: Painting by Melissa Kenyon McIntyre
Melissa Kenyon McIntyre is an artist based in New Mexico. In her practice, Melissa works in a range of mixed media, from traditional acrylic paint to more inventive applications of household construction materials. The artist’s works are often inspired by her surrounding environment, indoor and outdoor.
Melissa’s landscape paintings do a beautiful job of capturing the scale of outdoor…
Delicately Monumental: The Art Portfolio of Jayne Crawford
Trinity Cormorants, oil on canvas
Jayne Crawford is an artist who draws inspiration from nature and spirituality. In her practice, the artist creates delicately monumental landscape paintings, often focusing on a single plant or other natural focal point.
FLOWERS, oil pastel on archival paper
It’s interesting to browse through Jayne’s portfolio and see the differences in the artist’s landscape paintings and drawings versus her…
The Oil and Soft Pastel Portfolio of Kev Harris
Don't sweat the technique, oil on canvas
Kev Harris is an artist based in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his practice, Kev works primarily in oil and soft pastels, creating packed figurative and still-life scenes, based on contemporary life and the artist’s surroundings.
Playing with fire - I, oil on canvas
I love the texture that Kev injects into most of his works -- though oil and pastel are two media that lend themselves well to soft…
The Art Portfolio of Catherine Howard
Evening Stroll, acrylic on stretched canvas
Catherine Howard is a Canadian painter who favours acrylic pigment for producing her paintings of the Canadian landscape. Catherine’s paintings encompass a range of subjects including wildlife, domesticity, and sweeping, epic outdoor scenes.
Duck "Lacha", acrylic on cradled board
I like the slightly soft quality of Catherine’s painting style -- the artist does a beautiful job of…
A Portfolio of Dense Mixed-Media Abstraction by Mohab Elghaffar
Mohab Elghaffar creates paintings that are inspired by the mythology and culture of ancient Egypt. The artist disseminates this inspiration through a lense of layered, dense mixed media abstraction, producing paintings that suggest a multitude of possible interpretations.
We looked at Mohab’s intense abstract compositions and the way the artist uses saturated colours and mixed media elements to evoke a sense of…