EPL Art Gallery Archive > Milner Art Gallery - May 2003
Milner Art Gallery - May 2003
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Stanley A. Milner Theatre Foyer May 1 - June 15, 2003 Opening Sunday, May 4th, 2-4pm Come and meet the artist! Connection by Peggy Arnett |
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These works are inspired by my experience of (Northern Canada) most often through the windows of the nursing stations where I live during time spent there. As an art student, spending summers in the north, I felt the need to attempt to integrate these worlds of experiences--both very intense and both very different. As a painter I am interested in the relationship of the language of paint and image, the concept of painting as a means of contemplation, the colours, lines, brush marks, or gestures, or simply using the work to focus or soothe the mind. These paintings are about that sense of wonder when one is confronted by an environment which is profoundly different than anything previously experienced and is connected by a language which "transcends the murmur of sounds and syllables" to the people who inhabit this seemingly inhospitable land.
My first paintings were of children, often in hallways, or rooms, which can be identified as public buildings. The perspective of these pictures is from the eye level of a child. The image and the perspective of a child had resonance with me on a number of levels. From a small rebellion in producing images which might not be considered appropriate works for an academic environment to the possibilities of metaphor and symbol - "seeing the world through a child's eyes". Often when coming to a new place, the children make the first connection, free from the reserve that age often confers on us, they are curious about the new and the unknown. More recently I have begun painting images of the northern landscape. When I first went north over 10 years ago someone asked if I thought I could paint the land, and looking at the snow, water, and rock I knew I could not. The Inuit have a connection with the land - they travel where the untrained eye sees only a vast blanket of snow punctuated by a multitude of rocks. Whenever I visits "the Land" I am struck with wonder at how a people survived without even a tree and without light for weeks at a time. Now as I sit on the rocks with my sketchbook, I can appreciate the subtleties of light, contour and colours - the textures of the land - but always with a trail or buildings in sight. These paintings are for me a connection to the people and places - a moment shared or a few hours spent drawing. I hope that for the viewer they will be in some way of point of connection. Peggy Arnett earned her BFA with distinction from the University of Calgary in 1998, and a diploma in Art & Design from Red Deer College in 1995. She has travelled to London, England and in throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan to attend various workshops and courses. She currently lives in Viking, Alberta. |