Outport Bonavista, October 6 to 28, 2017   

In the fall of 2017, I had a solo show at Christina Parker Gallery showing fifteen Root Cellar Meditation paintings along with all five Encounters, Duntara and Keels. Both these series were inspired by trips to outports on the Bonavista Peninsula of Newfoundland.

 

When I first visited the town of Elliston I was impressed by the abundance of root cellars.  Their mystery and darkness attracted me and started me on a series of meditations that continues to this day. Root Cellar Meditations is my largest series with twenty-nine pieces to date and more in the works.

 

In the fall of 2016 I took part in the 2 Rooms Contemporary Arts Projects in Duntara as a resident artist. The few permanent residents of this small village were preparing for the upcoming winter. Boats were being hauled from the water, gardens harvested and firewood stacked in preparation for the long, cold season ahead. In my wanderings about the town, I came across remnants of old farming tools, fishing nets and tufts of dried grass which reminded me of the cycle of the seasons in this isolated Bonavista outport and the resiliency of the people who live there year-round. The images of these artifacts became parts of the Encounters, Duntara and Keels series of paintings.

 

Whenever I am in Duntara, I make it a point to visit nearby Keels Cove where I am routinely overwhelmed by the otherworldly purple and green colors of the rock formations which, along with the warm yellows of woodstove fires on brisk fall nights, were inspirations for the colors of this series.